12 Historical Haunts to Visit This Halloween
Have you been itching for a creepy and spine-chilling adventure? There are countless opportunities to have that hair-raising experience in the United States. The experience can be in eerie hotel rooms, …
Have you been itching for a creepy and spine-chilling adventure? There are countless opportunities to have that hair-raising experience in the United States. The experience can be in eerie hotel rooms, haunted nature trails, or graveyards. These historical haunts will satisfy your itch for the supernatural. Read on.
1. Bonaventure Cemetery
A trip to the cemetery is usually not ordinary or fun. Most times you’ve been to the cemetery, it was to attend the burial of a loved one. You can attend a pre arranged funeral service in the Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia. While there, visit the Little Gracie Watson grave, the site most visited.
Other interesting stops in this graveyard are the Pulitzer Prize winner Conrad Aiek, Johnny Mercer, and his great-grandfather Hugh Mercer. The cemetery is also home to some angel monuments. Look for a huge angel sculpture on the family grave site of George Johnson Baldwin, a businessperson.
Bonaventure Cemetery is among Savanna’s historical haunts. It continues to draw visitors enchanted by its oak trees and many haunting sculptures. A best-selling novel, ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,’ used a photo of the statue Bird Girl on its cover page. The book brought huge interest in the cemetery, with millions visiting the dead. This statue, which was within the cemetery, has since been removed for safekeeping at Telair Academy.
2. The Ohio State Reformatory
How about a visit to a prison to get a feel of the life inside? The Ohio State Reformatory was once home to General John H. Morgan, who escaped prison during the Civil War. Other well-known inmates at this prison are Bugs Moran, Chester Himes, and Sam Sheppard. It is Sam’s story that inspired the movie titled The Fugitive.
You will visit the West Attic, the ‘Jesus Room’ and the sub-basement. Your historical haunts will include stories on inmate punishment and probably ask for information about a criminal defense attorney representing a famous client. Ask about the most memorable legal representations that this attorney had and whether they succeeded.
This prison is unique because it aimed to reform the inmates while administering punishment. Its first inmates were in the West Cell Block, which held 750 men in total. Inmates would be grouped and housed according to their trade.
Make your trip chillingly memorable when you visit from late September to early November. This is when the criminally insane and the monsters attempt to get some new prisoners. Expect to interact with the ghosts of former inmates as you visit their rooms!
3. The Stanley Hotel
Get your imaginative side immersed in this tour in the dark. The history of the Stanley Hotel is best told during a one-hour walking tour. Expect to go through all the dark edges of this Colorado hotel. If you’re not planning to stay in the hotel for the night, event rentals in the locality can fix your needs beforehand.
You can ask your guide any questions and explore the ambiance of the Rocky Mountains night skies while on these historical haunts. The tour will introduce you to phenomena within the hotel that become active at night. The century-old hotel’s guide will enthrall you with folklore about spirits and may invite you to interact with them if you’re courageous enough.
You’ll be taught how to interact with the kind of activity many visitors claim to have encountered. You can bring your camera and try to snap away every memory of your historical haunts. While you’re looking forward to capturing every odd sight, there are no guarantees that you’ll capture spirits in a photo!
4. San Fernando Cathedral
One of your next historical haunts should be in the least likely place for a creepily extraordinary experience. The cathedral is open daily, and entry is free. Ensure to check whether there is a mass in progress so that you don’t interrupt worshipers.
Ensure to be at the cathedral in the evening when the light and sound show, known as the Saga, is staged. This is a spectacular 7,000 feet of color, light, and visual narration of the oldest cathedral in the United States. One way you’ll be sure to get here at the right time is to get a hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus, which will drop you off at the cathedral. If permitted, you can sit on the nearby benches or lie on the lawn. You might even give a helping hand to the lawn care service if you find them at work.
Plan on a walking ghost tour at night. You’ll hear stories of the sinister secrets that haunt San Antonio City. The stories of early inhabitants of the city who had sad endings and other outlaws will be told, and you’ll understand why these ghosts now haunt the streets of the city.
5. Winchester Mystery House
The next stop in your historical haunts is an eight-room farmhouse in San Jose, California. Owned by a wealthy woman, the house renovations began in 1886 and only stopped when she died in 1922. She lived alone as a widow after losing her husband to Tuberculosis.
The unusual mansion has 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 52 skylights, 47 stairways and fireplaces. It boasts 13 bathrooms and six kitchens with 17 chimneys, all on a 24,000-square-foot property space. On this visit, you’ll hear stories of this woman who chose to live as a hermit after her husband, the firearms magnate William Wirt Winchester, died. Here is your opportunity to learn the tricks of fixing guns from the local gunsmith.
6. Whaley House
Designed and built to perfection in the 1800s by its owner, Whaley House was supposed to be the best in San Diego. However, it’s said to have been destined to be a haunted house even before construction. This is because a horse thief called Jim Robinson was publicly executed there years earlier, making the site unpopular in the community.
Descendants of the Whaley family lived and died in this house over the years. The family registered many tragic deaths. The Whaley family lost their son within months of moving into the house, making this one of the chilling historic haunts.
The house is still filled with many paranormal and spiritual encounters. The little baby’s footsteps and cries can still be heard today when you visit the house. Visitors report seeing mists, lights switching on or off by themselves, and crystals in the parlor room lamp swinging without prompt. Check the local cafes for a quick snack after your chilling visit.
7. RMS Queen Mary
The Queen Mary ocean liner is nearly 100 years old. Its final and permanent resting place is at Long Beach, California. It holds the world record for carrying 16,683, the most passengers, in one vessel.
It’s nicknamed The Ship of the Woods due to the many types of wood sourced worldwide to make the ship. It’s also nicknamed Grey Ghost, a name it got during World War II. It also featured in a 1966 film, Assault on a Queen, starring Frank Sinatra.
Your historical haunts will include meeting the lady in white, children, and an engineer who died in the ship’s engine room. If you’re brave enough, investigate during the Haunted Encounters tour, which has spooky walks to locations known to be haunted.
Listen to your guide’s narration about legends of the paranormal residents who still patronize the ship. The haunted tour is offered during daytime hours, though you can explore more with luxury yacht charters with twilight tours that explore the paranormal activity that Queen Mary is famous for.
Your night tour can include dining with the spirits, investigating the paranormal, and taking the paranormal ship walk. The ship has unique dining options, offering culinary experiences to all hotel guests and visitors. The sophisticated Sir Winston’s Restaurant and Lounge offers a fine dining experience with panoramic and picturesque views of the Pacific Ocean.
8. St. Augustine Lighthouse
The St.Augustine Lighthouse is found in the oldest city in Florida. It is said to have superhuman visitors who are actors in the city’s oldest ghost stories. Your historical haunts will lead you to ‘Dark of the Moon’ tours throughout the year.
Among paranormal activity seen by the visitors is windows opening and shutting at will. You’re likely to meet with a shadowy form, which is said to be a former lighthouse keeper. Another paranormal activity was when a guide was once locked inside the lighthouse.
Visitors have experienced being unable to climb to the top of the lighthouse. They would then feel a hand on their backs, guiding them up to the top. This unseen guiding hand, probably decorated with jewelry, is said to be of Maria Andreu, the lighthouse keeper’s wife who fell to his death.
9. Wood County Museum
Back at Ohio’s Wood County Museum, your historical haunts should take you to the former Wood County former county home. Built in 1868, it was the quarters for the superintendent and matron of the infirmary. It was demolished and rebuilt in 1898, and a front porch was added to the West Wing in 1903.
You can visit the Bowling Green Manor nursing home, haunted by many spirits. Nurse aids have reported the feeling of being watched. Nurses report hearing strange sounds and seeing children in front of a television.
Other paranormal experiences include the murder-suicide in Potter House in the 1970s. The blood stains were still splattered on the walls and could be seen until the mid-2000s. Legend has it that the man killed his wife and children, then killed himself. No local building contractor has visited the house, and it remains abandoned to the present time.
10. Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
This remains North America’s largest hand-cut stone building. It was built from 1858 to 1881 to house 250 mentally ill patients. In the 1950s, it held more than 2,400 patients, leading to overcrowding and poor conditions.
Through the efforts of Dorothea Dix, the plight of the insane was highlighted more in the 1800s. This led the government to set aside funds for more humane care of the insane. This is how the asylum came to be.
Due to advances in mental illness treatment and physical deterioration of the facility, it had to be closed in 1994. The towing off of the facility’s usefulness negatively affected the area’s local economy, which has never recovered 30 years on.
Your historical haunts in this museum include walking through the historic wards and treatment rooms. You are likely to hear unexplainable voices and sounds and spot apparition sightings. You will step back in time and experience how the mentally ill lived and died there.
The paranormal tours last, on average, two hours. They’re done in the night from 10.30 PM to midnight. This is a guided tour and consists of exposing visitors to the four hottest spots in the facility.
You’ll be required to register and assign a group. Each group must have a guide and should keep together throughout the tour. No visitor who enters the museum while under the influence will be allowed to take the tour.
11. Kehoe House
This trip in downtown Savannah will lead you to an inn. This 13-room motel is a must-see on your historical haunts. The tour guides tell tales of noises and apparitions inside the house. This is because the inn was once a mortuary. Yes, you read it right! You can book an overnight bed-and-breakfast stay at this former morgue and investigate whether these stories are true.
12. Jean Bonnet Tavern
Your historical haunts will get your senses sharper once you visit this facility. As soon as you walk in, you’ll be enchanted by the exposed chestnut beams, the stone walls, and the fireplace. The tavern has been around since the 1760s and is said to host a friendly ghost. The staff and guests occasionally report feeling an unexplained touch while in the bar. They have also seen patrons wearing pioneer-era clothing. You’ll enjoy seeing this, too.
The list you’ve just read is not exhaustive. But before you finish these tours, you’ll return home with enthralling stories about the spirit life. The good news is that some of these tours are free, such as the cathedral visit; hence, you have no reason to postpone your visit. Other trips are expensive and high-end experiences like the RMS Queen Mary adventure. Budget beforehand for your travel, tickets to the places of interest, snacks, and where you’ll stay. Choose the place you want to go and start planning early for an unforgettable, bone-chilling treat.
