haunted places in New York City

The Most Haunted Places in New York City

28 October 2019

Don't take our word for it, though: The best way to find ghosts in NYC is to walk around at night and keep your eyes open.

New York City has a rich history, and according to some folklorists and superstitious folks, there are as many ghosts walking is streets as living people. (Or if you're Simon and Garfunkel, you might feel like the only living human in New York).

Of course, there are some who believe that the city isn't haunted at all. "I'm sorry to say that although I have made a whole career on spirits and demons, I have never met a single demon, goblin or hobgoblin in New York," said the writer Isaac Singer to The New York Times in 1985. "I'd be a big liar if I were to say I met such creatures, but I still believe they exist." Perhaps, the article continued, New York "may not be a hospitable city for ghosts" due to all its chaos and noise. Knowing New Yorkers, if a bloodstained ghost appeared on the subway, we'd all just let it mind our own business and get on with our commutes.

Still, some ghosts are more notable than others. Whether you're looking for a spooky adventure or are interested in ghosts all year around, here are some of New York's most fascinating haunted landmarks.

Washington Square Park is the scene of many dramatic movie scene reunions and fanciful NYC-inspired musical numbers, but did you know that over 20,000 people are buried underneath it?
It's almost universally acknowledged that Greenwich Village is really freaking haunted, and Washington Square Park may be the Times Square of ghostly New York. It's got plenty of macabre landmarks—standing in the northwest corner is the famous Hanging Tree, an English elm that apparently saw many a hanging during its heyday.
But most of the dead bodies buried underneath the park come from the 1700s, when New York City was hit by an outbreak of yellow fever and the park was used as a potter's field for over 20,000 bodies, buried in a mass grave.
Over the years, many park visitors have reported strange sightings such as carriages, very tall and thin men, and the ghosts of various artists, among other things.
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The Lower West Side might be the most haunted part of Manhattan, but the East Side still has its fair share of eerie lore. St. Mark's Church in the Bowery has hosted many famous readings and events, but it's also well-known for its possibly undead congregation. It's apparently haunted by its original founder, Peter Stuyvesant, among other beings.
The church's current foreman has reported several strange sightings, including random chills, and banging, and has even seen several ghosts himself, according to one interview.
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If you're seeking out famous ghosts, look no further than the Hotel Chelsea. The iconic bohemian haunt is currently undergoing renovations, but in its heyday, it hosted numerous artists, from Patti Smith to Arthur Miller. It also saw several notorious deaths. It was in a Hotel Chelsea room that Sid Vicious stabbed Nancy Spungen in room 100 and that Dylan Thomas died in room 206. Also, apparently, the ghost of a Titanic survivor named Mary still haunts the fifth floor. Another legend says that the hotel hosts the spirit of a young artist named Nadia, who really committed suicide in the 1920s. She married a young songwriter as a teenager, but he quickly fell into alcoholism after they had two children. She asked her father if she could move back home to the Chelsea Hotel, and he acquiesced—on the condition that she do all housework and bring in funds through sewing. Unable to work on her art and ruining her hands with her work, Nadia committed suicide after cutting off her right hand—and can still be seen floating around the premises today.
Fun fact: This writer could've been included on this list, had fate had a different plan in mind. When I first moved to New York at 17, I (a Patti Smith devotee) visited the Chelsea Hotel with some friends. When we arrived, I started running across the street—and possibly would've been hit by a car if my friend hadn't grabbed me. (Still, in terms of ghostly social scenes, I don't think the Chelsea would be the worst place to wind up).
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This bridge's name alone makes it notably eerie, and it has more than enough eerie history and urban legends to live up to its name. Hell Gate got its moniker from the tales of early Dutch explorers and traders, who had to pass through the mile-long strait of water to get to the Long Island Sound. Due to the dangerous nature of this passage, which was riddled with whirlpools and sharp glacial rocks, the strait became known as Hell Gate. During the 1850s, an average of 1,000 ships sunk in it each year. Legend has it that some of these sailors continue to haunt the bridge, and if you hear a creaky train thundering over it in the wee hours of the morning, it's said to hold the ghosts of some of these lost souls.
Also, out of all NYC's bridges, Hell Gate would apparently be the last bridge to collapse in an apocalyptic scenario, taking at least a thousand years to fall—and the image of that ghost train sailing across the bridge as the rest of the city decays is so atmospheric, some NYU film student should get on making a film with that as the final frame if it hasn't been done already.
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This may be New York City's most haunted museum. Astoria's Museum of the Moving Image is said to be haunted by loud voices and a woman in a flowing white dress who can often be seen there after hours.
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This Queens mansion is NYC's oldest house, at 360 years. Today, it's owned by Marion Duckworth Smith, who painstakingly restored the premises that her husband had bought for $65,000. (On their second date, he took Smith to the house's cemetery; she instantly fell in love).
Smith filled the house with old artifacts like vintage dolls, skulls, and stone angels, and restored its one-acre garden to verdant glory. She says that its spookiest place is its library, where she is sure that something terrible happened—and she also says that she plans on remaining onsite after she dies.
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When this pool was first opened, it was the site of several tragic deaths due to drowning and also saw some shooting and stabbing incidents. Locals began reporting hearing the sounds of a crying girl emanating from the pool in the winter and at night, and in 2004, some Paranormal Investigation of NYC investigators captured photographs of dozens of orbs onsite, which indicate spirit presences or dust particles depending on your opinion.
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This bridge is haunted for obvious reasons, but there are some notorious ghosts. Apparently, some visitors have seen a headless ghost following them on quiet nights. He's said to be the ghost of a construction worker who was killed when a cable snapped and decapitated him. A total of 27 people died while the bridge was under construction, but that was only the beginning. In fact, the Brooklyn Bridge is so haunted that it has its own ghost tour. There have also been reports of UFO abductions from on top of the bridge, and the structure is also said to contain dozens of hidden rooms, ranging from wine cellars to bomb shelters to who knows what else.
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Located on the outskirts of Prospect Park, this mansion is apparently home to several demons. According to L. V. Salazar's The Ghosts of Brooklyn, the widow of the house's original owner arranged a séance to communicate with a son killed in the Civil War. Days after the disconcerting seance, demons that looked like gargoyles began to appear on top of the house. That same year, four of the five people who participated in the seance had died.
According to some, you can still see the green-eyed, red-tongued demons peering out of some windows today.
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Bronx: Hart Island

theghostdiaries.com

Hart Island, located east of the Bronx in the Long Island Sound, is definitely the most haunted of all these places if you're judging purely by the concentration of ghosts. More than a million dead bodies are buried on this island, and if you're able to book a visit, you can see the ruins of an abandoned psychiatric hospital. Over the years, the island has hosted a tuberculosis sanatorium, a potter's field, a boys' reformatory, a jail, a drug rehab center, and much more. Today, around 1,500 corpses are still buried there each year.

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