BALTIMORE
FELL FAMILY CEMETERY
1607 Shakespeare Street
Status: Historical Cemetery
History
In 1730 William Fell founded this area to begin his ship building business. At the time the area was heavily forested right up to the coast. The area would become known as Fells Point.
In the 1760’s William’s son began to build up the site with brothels, bars and houses. The area would keep the name Fells Point but eventually become part of the City of Baltimore.
When members of the Fell Family passed away, they were all buried in Bond Cemetery. Eventually the only grave marker left in the cemetery said Fell hence the changing of the name.
There are many who believe no one is even buried underneath the one marker; that the last Fell’s were exhumed long ago and buried elsewhere.
The cemetery now is very small, located between 2 row houses, and behind an iron wrought fence.
Paranormal Activity
The ghost of the cemetery is thought to be Wil Fell who behaved very badly – hanging around the town’s bars and brothels – and very much like a spoiled playboy. He was chastised by the elder family members repeatedly. Eventually, he was warned with severe consequences if he didn’t change his irresponsible ways.
He didn’t and was soon found dead at the age of 27. His death may have been the logical end of his carefree life; but many believe the Fell Family themselves had the family embarrassment removed from the picture.
As a ghost he is seen – usually around 2am – standing in the street looking at a place between the cemetery and the old Fell Family Mansion. He is said to be quite attractive and impeccably dressed but looks rather sad before he walks into the cemetery and fades away into nothing.
BALTIMORE
LORD BALTIMORE HOTEL
(Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore)(Hilton Baltimore & Towers)
20 West Baltimore Street
Status: Operational Historic Hotel
By Fred B. Shoken, photographer for the National Register of Historic Places - <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/baltimore/b22.htm">http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/baltimore/b22.htm</a>, National Park Service (US Department of the Interior), "Baltimore: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary", Public Domain, Link
History
This 22 story hotel was built in 1928. After the redevelopment of the city’s downtown core the hotel is very close to a number of tourist attractions.
The hotel was closed down in 1982 for major renovations. It then went through a bankruptcy and numerous owners before reopening in 2014 as an independent hotel.
Paranormal Activity
The most paranormally active areas are said to be the penthouse, the 19th floor and the basement. There are at least 20 documented suicides of people jumping off the hotel roof; the majority of them in the 1930’s
The most well known resident ghosts are a little girl and her parents which the hotel says date back to the 1930’s. It is said both the parents and the girl jumped from the top of the hotel.
The parents are often seen in the ballroom dancing but have been known to appear in people’s rooms as well.
The little girl – Molly - is most often seen on the 19th floor hallway playing with her red ball. There have been numerous calls to the front desk for someone to find the girl’s parents and stop her from playing the hall so guests can sleep.
Molly, as well, has a history of chasing both staff and guests. A number of staff have quit because of this.
Molly has also been seen crunched into a ball rocking back and forth and screaming.
There is said to be the hand print of a little girl in the penthouse that will not go away. This may be Molly’s as well.
People have been touched by unseen presences both in the lobby and on the elevators. One of the elevators goes to the 19th floor on its own and opens its doors.
Other Activity: objects moving on their own, objects disappearing, electrical disturbances including TVs turning on or off on their own, cold spots, feelings of being watched and not being alone.
COCKEYSVILLE
BALTIMORE COUNTY ALMSHOUSE
(Historical Society of Baltimore County)
9811 Van Buren Lane
Status: Former Almhouse (Poor House); Historical Society
By Adam Youssi - Historical Society of Baltimore County, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
History
Also known as the third and last almhouse in Baltimore County this facility opened in 1872.
It was built to take care of children and the elderly who no longer had anyone to take care of them. The sick and the insane were also sent here for the most part because no one could or wanted to take care of them. In the 19th century there was, quite simply, nowhere else for these people to go.
This facility replaced the old Upland Home which, in turn, had replaced the Calverton which was opened in 1819.
Residents were known as inmates – yup exactly like prison. And much like criminals they were considered the undesirables to society.
At the time it opened it was a place of hope and designed to keep these people off the street where they either become criminals, die or just get in the way. As with most similar facilities of the time that dream died quickly.
The inmates were strictly segregated by race and gender and the sick – infectious – which were sent to the Pest (short for pestilence) House on the grounds.
Today these people go to nursing homes, psychiatric wards and hospitals, homeless shelters, orphanages or simply the street.
The first floor was reserved for the superintendent, his family and any on site doctors who lived in luxury in direct opposition to the squalor enjoyed by the inmates above.
By the 1890’s some groups began to decide that those deemed insane should be treated better or differently giving rise to the era of the massive inane asylums that ended in the 1980’s – 90’s.
In 1958 the facility was closed by the County saying it was growing to expensive and 1959 the Baltimore County Historical was opened in the building.
The closing of the almshouses and asylums – although far from a perfect system – is one of the major factors leading to the problems of homeless and drug addiction we face today.
Paranormal Activity
The pale ghost faces of the building’s former residents – especially children – are seen forlornly looking out of the windows.
The phantom sounds of children playing on the upper floors is commonly reported. It is also reported that if you quickly get to where these sounds are heard you might catch a glimpse of the apparitions of the children.
The sounds of objects being thrown around are also reported.
On the third floor the disembodied voices of women having conversations can be heard. The apparitions of these women are also seen; albeit much more rarely.
The most famous ghost in the building is that of Anthony Rose; a 75-year-old man who fell down an empty elevator shaft to his death.
Other Reported Activity: faint misty apparitions; shadow figures; electrical disturbances; phantom laughter and crying; light anomalies and feelings of being watched.
GLENN DALE
GLENN DALE HOSPITAL
5201 Glenn Dale Road
Status: Former Tuberculosis Sanatorium; Abandoned; Private Property; Being Redeveloped
By <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Rosa_Pineda" title="User:Rosa Pineda">Rosa Pineda</a> - <span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
History
Contrary to urban legends this site was never used as an insane asylum.
In the early 1930’s a virulent pandemic of tuberculosis – also called consumption and the white plague – swept through Washington DC quickly overwhelming the hospitals. Patients had to be sent to hospitals in Virginia and Maryland.
The solution was to build one massive facility to house everyone afflicted with this terrible disease as it was communicable and often a death sentence at the time. Glenn Dale Hospital was built to fulfill this need – originally it contained 23 buildings over its 216 acres.
Before the discovery of antibiotics, them main treatment for tuberculosis was fresh air and lots of it. So, the campus was created with large open-air patios, roof top gardens and many acres of manicured lawns.
It is unclear just how many died at Glenn Dale but based on the number of patients the campus could hold and the fatality rate of the disease it would be quite a large number.
Antibiotics were discovered in the 1940’s and become widely available in the 1950’s and 60’s the hospital population began to decrease dramatically. In 1960 the sanatorium was repurposed as a nursing home.
In 1981 the upkeep became too much – including 20 million needed to remediate all the asbestos in the buildings – and the facility closed in 1982.
For many years the site could only be sold if the buyers would redevelop the site into a continuing care facility which kept it abandoned and falling apart for decades. Currently the core of the site is in the process of being redeveloped into a residential neighborhood with great effort being made to save the historical buildings.
This site is owned by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission who patrol the site with their own police force. The buildings cannot be entered without their permission.
Paranormal Activity
Apparently, there is a video on the internet claiming to have disembodied voices on its audio track. We were unable to find it but we did find a review that said most of the voices cannot be heard but there is a whisper and breath that can be clearly heard.
Another story says a bystander near the park heard a gun shot and called 911. When the sound was tracked down it an officer was found frozen in fright. He was unable to remember what happened and why he fired his weapon.
Other Activity: apparitions of former patients both inside the buildings and on the ground; shadow figures watching from the empty windows; touches, pokes and prods by unseen entities; light anomalies; electrical disturbances including equipment failure and batteries being drained; disembodied voices; phantom laughter, whispers, crying and breathing; unexplained noises including bangs; cold and hot spots; mysterious mists and breezes and feelings of unease, being watched and not being alone.
HAGERSVILLE
JOHNATHAN HAGER HOUSE
(Hager House)
110 Key Street
Status: Former Residence; Museum
By <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Acroterion" title="User:Acroterion">Acroterion</a> - <span class="int-own-work" lang="">Own work by the original uploader</span>, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
History
On June 5, 1739 Jonathan Hager – a German immigrant - purchased 200 acres of land in the Great Appalachian Valley. He not only built a house there but also founded the city that today still bears his name.
He named the house Hager’s Fancy and moved in with his new bride. The house would become part residence, part trading post and part frontier fort; in that day western Maryland was edge of the great wild frontier.
The house had – and still has – a very unique feature in that it was built over two spring fed pools giving it a constant source of fresh water as well as a regulated temperature. The water stays at 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 degrees Celsius) so the basement acts as a natural refrigerator.
Hager sold the house to Jacob Rohrer and it remained in that family – as well as the Hammond family who they married into - until 1944.
After the Civil War they rented it out to people and by the first half of the 20th century it had become a bit of a hovel and the only tenants being people hitting rock bottom with no plans on going back up.
In 1944 it was passed to the Washington County Historical Society who did a major restoration and gave it to the city of Hagerstown a decade later in 1954.
It was opened up in 1962 as a historic museum that depicts life as it was when Maryland was a British Colony.
Paranormal Activity
There are seasonal outside ghost tours and the telling of the house’s ghost stories by those who “lived” them.
The house is said to be home to at least 13 ghosts.
Since the museum opened both curators and tour guides have been telling stories of pranks being played on them and the tourists by the ghosts in the house.
Phantom footsteps and the sound of chains and heavy objects being dragged are heard in the basement.
There’s a corn cob doll in the house that is moved from room to room by the hands of the ghost children.
The apparition of a woman is seen looking out of the windows.
The nursery is said to especially active with a cradle and a rocking chair that move on their own; well, at least without any aid from the living.
Other Reported Activity: movement out of the corner of your eye; disembodied voices and whispers; light anomalies and a feeling of being watched.
LAUREL
FOREST HAVEN ASYLUM
3201 Oak Hill Drive
Status: Abandoned Psychiatric Hospital; Some Buildings have been Repurposed
The address given above is for the Capital Guardian Youth Challenge Academy; a military based institution for troubled youth to learn discipline. That facility, as well as a raptor center, are located on the parts of the property once occupied by the asylum.
Neither of these facilities or the still abandoned parts of the asylum should be entered without an invitation.
History
Forest Haven opened in 1925 as a state-of-the-art facility for developmentally challenged patients in order to relieve the burden of their care from their families. In the beginning it did just that; allowing these challenged patients live together in a natural environment and no longer be viewed as broken and the dregs of society.
The main administration building was built between 1938 – 40 and its dedication ceremony was attended by no less than Eleanor Roosevelt; the first lady. This greatly increased space for helping the less fortunate and it really was a haven for those with special needs and those needing round the clock attention and care.
The patients were given ample time outside in the fresh air and even worked on the facility farm tending livestock and crops.
In the 1950’s things began to change as the funds available decreased and the population was on the increase.
By the 1960’s the asylum began to be a place where the unwanted and misdiagnosed were being locked up. The state-of-the-art facility was now outdated and there was no money to bring it up to date. Qualified staff began to be replaced with just warm bodies who knew nothing of caring for the disabled.
By the 1970’s abuse became the norm. The deaths on site were being counted in the hundreds and quickly buried in unmarked graves on the grounds. Patients were no longer treated – and barely controlled – and often left to wander the halls on their own.
In 1976 a class action law suit was brought against the hospital by the parents of some of the patients. In 1978 the lawsuit was won and treatment was to improve and, most importantly, Forest Haven was to close.
Unfortunately, that never happened. By the mid-1980’s the hospital was still open and now a large number of patients were dying from aspiration pneumonia; a condition caused by feeding patients while they are lying down allowing food to go into their lungs.
In 1989 police were called to the site to investigate the presence of a dead body on site. Another victim of abuse that was dressed only in a hospital gown and lying in the fetal position. An investigation concluded the patient died of aspiration pneumonia.
After the police incident the Justice Department finally starting counting the deaths of patients at Forest Haven – 10 more would die before it was mercifully closed in 1991. Right before the closure, some of the families of the many deceased bought a granite headstone which now marks the mass grave on site.
Paranormal Activity
This hospital became a madhouse and torture chamber before finally closing. We can only hope that the tortured souls trapped here can find rest.
Apparitions of former patients and staff. Shadow figures. Feelings of being watched, not being wanted and not being alone. Empathic feelings of anger, fear, intense sadness, loneliness and a pervading sense of terror that has left some people nauseated and unable to approach the site.
Other activity: Light anomalies, unexplained mists, cold and warm spots, electrical disturbances, phantom noises and voices including bangs, heavy things being moved, laughter, crying, speaking and screams, poltergeist activity and touches of unseen presences.
SCOTLAND
POINT LOOK OUT STATE PARK
11175 Point Lookout Road
Status: Former Civil War Prison; Natural Wonder; State Park
By Patriotick, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
By Robert and Pat Rodgers - <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/kasilof/8954027153/sizes/z/in/photostream/">https://secure.flickr.com/photos/kasilof/8954027153/sizes/z/in/photostream/</a>, CC BY 2.0, Link
History
The first European to land at this location was Captain John Smith who was surveying the area for the English Crown in 1608. He reported it as the perfect place to build an English colony because of the abundant game, natural beauty and strategic value.
The first settlement in what in now the State of Maryland was built nearby – St Mary’s City – and the lands now in the State Park were part of the Estate of Leonard Calvert the colony’s leader.
British forces attacked the point during the American Revolution.
The point got it’s name in the War of 1812 when it was used to look out for British ships coming up from their base on Tangier’s Island in Virginia to raid towns in Chesapeake Bay. A relay system was set up on the roads between the point and Washington DC.
In 1813 the British took the point ending the spying on their fleets movements in the bay. This is thought to have a large contributing factor toward their ability to attack and burn Washington DC in 1814.
In 1862 during the American Civil War the point was converted into Union Army base including a fort and garrison, a hospital and a POW camp for Confederate prisoners.
After the Battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863 Union forces suddenly found themselves with hundreds of Confederate POWs and the 40 acre prison camp was quickly built with 15 foot fences guarded by Union soldiers.
Most of the prisoners were common soldiers; the officers were generally jailed in Fort Delaware which is also haunted.
The camp became overcrowded quickly – 20,000 soldiers when it meant to hold 12,000 – creating terrible conditions. It was the largest POW camp in the Union and quickly became the worst.
The camp also held Maryland citizens who were Confederate sympathizers or had been caught helping the Confederacy.
The official count is just under 4,000 Confederate prisoners who died in the camp – some websites claim as many as 8,000 – which, while undeniably terrible, was a death rate lower than the Confederate soldiers faced in their own army camps.
Today almost half of the original camp has been washed away by the rising water levels in the bay.
Beside the former camp there is a 3 acre mass grave for the Confederate POWs who died. It is privately funded and has a Confederate flag flying over it as well as US flag.
The park also includes a lighthouse first built in 1830 where people lived until the 1980’s.
Paranormal Activity
Hans Holzer himself investigated the lighthouse recording 24 separate voices in it saying things like “my home” – thought to be Anne wife of the first keeper - and “fire if they get too close to you” – thought to be a Union prison guard.
The apparition of Ann Davis – wife of the first keeper – has been seen in a white shirt and a blue skirt in the lighthouse.
The apparitions of several men have been reported moving through the lighthouse. Two ghosts have been seen in the basement, but they are always so faint no one has ever identified even their gender.
Many people hear their name being called both in and around the lighthouse.
Cold spots and rotten smells are also reported in the lighthouse. Phantom footsteps are also heard here.
Phantom snoring is heard in the lighthouse kitchen. Loud disembodied voices have been heard on the front lawn. Phantom knocking is often heard; numerous tenants of the lighthouse have opened the front door to find no one there.
During a séance conducted in the 1970’s a photo was taken of a resident at the time holding a candle; a misty soldier leaning against the wall with one leg crossed over the other is seen right beside her.
The apparition of an older lady has been seen near the possible location of the Taylor family cemetery – no one knows exactly where it was only that it existed – she seems to be searching for something and has interacted with the living generally inquiring as to where the graveyard is.
The apparition of a Confederate soldier has been seen crossing a road into the forest which would take him out of the park. The location is near where the Confederate hospital was where the prisoners were treated for smallpox. The prisoners would often try to trick the Union guards by saying they were going to the hospital and then attempt to escape.
This ghost may be eternally making his escape. He is most often seen in the rear-view mirror of vehicles after they pass the spot.
Many people have reported voices calling out for help in the water, but no one is ever there. This phenomenon is also reported by people fishing off the coast.
Dogs and other animals are known for watching things that cannot be seen by the human eye; especially on what was used as a road during the Civil War.
The ghost of Joseph Haney is seen wandering the beach where his body was found. Attempting to row to shore where his ship – the Empress – sank off shore he was lost to the sea.
Many campers and other visitors have seen the apparitions of Confederate soldiers wandering the grounds both in the day and after dark.
There are numerous EVP’s – including Class A – and photos taken in the lighthouse and the rest of the park that can be found on the internet.
SILVER SPRING
NATIONAL PARK SEMINARY
2703 Hume Drive
Status: Former Resort; Former Girl’s Private School; Former Military Hospital; Residential Properties, Historical Property; Grounds Accessible to the Public
By <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Jack_Boucher" class="extiw" title="w:en:Jack Boucher"><span title="American photographer">Jack Boucher</span></a> - This image is available from the United States <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Congress" title="Library of Congress">Library of Congress</a>'s <a rel="nofollow" class="external text"
History
This location was first developed as Ye Forest Inne in 1887 as a summer resort for Washington DC residents. The resort failed financially and was sold. It reopened in 1894 as finishing school for elegant young ladies.
Every young lady had to become a member of a competing set of sororities. These sororities each designed a special building for their members which how such an eclectic assortment of styles ended up on campus. There is a Japanese pagoda – the only one in Maryland – a Dutch windmill, an Italian villa and an English castle. It was considered one of the finest schools in the US.
In 1936 the school changed its name to the National Park College giving the young ladies more choices for their education.
When World War II broke out the US Army closed the school and took over the property for the Walter Reed Hospital. The facility was to provide seriously injured soldiers a place to rest and recuperate. After World War II and the Korean War, the Army began to lose funding but did its best to keep up the property with Officers living in the unique sorority houses and enlisted men keeping up the former school buildings.
By the 1970’s the Army could no longer keep the property up and it was declared surplus.
The property began to degrade with time and vandalism – the theater was burned down by an arson in 1993. The Army did some work to try to restore the property and volunteers worked to complete the restoration.
In 2003 a development company took over and refurbished some of the buildings into townhouses and condominiums. This company is also responsible for maintaining the historically important buildings left on the property.
Paranormal Activity
Seances and readings by mediums have confirmed there are a number of ghosts on the property – the majority of which are not happy about being deceased or the way they died. These are thought to be the soldiers who didn’t recover from their war time injuries.
Stones have been thrown at people passing by; especially near the castle.
Disembodied voices usually described as being muffled. Areas of the property that are somehow shielded psychically to such a degree the surrounding energy cannot be read. Empathic feelings of intense anger.
Feelings of not being alone, being watched, not being wanted and being followed.
Light anomalies and unexplainable twisting mists are often reported.