NEW YORK's

most haunted locations

back to all haunted locations

NEW york LOCATIONS LINKS

new york city and long island locations

bannerman's castle, beacon

craig house hospital, beacon

rolling hills asylum, bethany

buffalo state hospital, buffalo

statler hotel, buffalo

hyde hall, cooperstown

bennet college, millbrook

the ackley house, nyack

hudson river state hospital, poughkeepsie

sylvan beach amusement park, sylvan beach

old letchworth village cemetery, stony point

letchworth village, thiells

utica state hospital, utica

mid-orange correctional facility, warwick

willard asylum for the chronic insane, willard

BEACON

CRAIG HOUSE HOSPITAL

(Zelda Fitzgerald’s Abandoned Sanatorium)(Tioranda)

Craig House Lane

Status: Former High End Psychiatric Hospital; Abandoned; No Access to Buildings or Grounds

Directions

History

This gothic house was first built in 1859 by the Civil War General Joseph Howland who called the house Tioranda. In 1915 Clarence Slocum, a Scottish doctor converted the house into the first privately licensed psychiatric hospital in the United States.

Dr Slocum created a treatment center more like a 5-star resort where the rich and famous could get therapy coupled with such pursuits as golfing, fine dining and art. Patient rooms were never locked and there were no bars on the windows.

Many famous people were treated here including Frances Seymour – the mother of Jane Fonda – who committed suicide there, Rosemary Kennedy – after her failed lobotomy, Marilyn Monroe and Zelda Fitzgerald for the whom the facility is most famous for treating.

Zelda suffered from schizophrenia – and possibly borderline personality disorder – and, unfortunately, could not be cured. Zelda was transferred to the Highland Hospital in North Carolina in a catatonic state where she burned to death in a fire being unable to escape from her locked room in 1948.

 Frances Seymour wasn’t the only person to end in life inside the walls of Craig House; although she was the most famous. That combined with some questionable fires and patients staying for days rather than months led to the closure of the hospital in 1999.

Most of the furniture and such has since been sold but according to people who have been inside the building it is immaculate and looks almost as someone just left and will be back any minute.

The current owner is working on transforming the house and grounds into a high-end hotel and resort.

There is an abandoned church/school and hat factory also on the grounds.

Paranormal Activity

Apparitions of former guests and staff. Hazy forms have been seen looking through the curtains to the outside world.

Feelings of being watched, not being alone and being followed. Intense empathic feelings of sadness, hopelessness and loneliness.

Disembodied voices and other unexplained noises including footsteps, crying and laughter.

Other activity: cold and warm spots, unexplained breezes, light anomalies and objects moving on their own such as doors opening and closing.

BUFFALO

BUFFALO STATE HOSPITAL

(Richardson Olmstead Complex)(Buffalo Psychiatric Center)(Hotel Henry Urban Resort)

444 Forest Avenue

Status: Former Insane Asylum; Former 3 Star Hotel; Closed

Directions

By Shinerunner at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

History

Built between 1872 and 1880 the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane was built in the Kirkbride – center administration building with 2 wings one for the male patients and one for the female patients with the most violent housed at the end of the wings – style and considered state of the art for it’s time.

Patients worked on the surrounding farm or at domestic tasks such as cooking or laundry and were encouraged to make use of the large landscaped surrounding grounds.

By the turn of the century the facility, designed for 600 patients, was averaging a population of 1,800 patients. Overcrowding was a constant problem for all asylums in North American and Europe at the time.

The name of institute was changed to Buffalo State Hospital early in the 20th century.

Previous to the invention of anti-psychotic drugs both insulin-shock and electro-shock therapies were frequently used on the mentally ill; especially those suffering from schizophrenia. These were  considered state of the art treatments at the time. Only a few pre-frontal lobotomies were done at this hospital.

 In 1965 the Nicholas J Strozzi building was opened with 520 beds and many of the patients were transferred out of the aging Kirkbride building to it. This building is still an active psychiatric center today working with both in and out patients - there are only 185 beds available now – this is where psychiatric patients from the general hospitals are transferred.

During the 1990’s the Kirkbride building was used less and less for treatment of the mentally ill and more and more as an administrative center. In 1997 the New York State Office of Mental Health released the building from it’s possessions.

In 2006 a society was formed to restore the old building which began with fencing it in and adding 24-hour security. In 2008 restoration and stabilization of the buildings began. In 2013 plans to convert the building into a hotel and museums were revealed.

In 2017 the Hotel Henry opened in the center of the Kirkbride Building with a conference center and 88 rooms. This was the beginning of a new life for the building and campus; that is until the Covid-19 Pandemic hit. In February of 2021 the hotel was forced to close down due to falling revenues because of the Pandemic.

According to the Hilton Hotels website – Hilton helped manage the Henry Hotel – the hotel will re-open in 2030.

Ghost Tours have been offered at this location but it is unclear whether they are being offered now that the hotel was closed.

Paranormal Activity

The former institution is said to be haunted by it’s former patients and staff.

I have been on the site personally and will list my experiences at the end of this section.

Reported Activity

The tunnels between the buildings are said to be the most haunted area of the complex.

Apparitions of former patients and staff; pale faces watching the windows; shadow figures; objects moving on their own; electrical issues; disembodied voices including hearing your name called; touches, tugs and pulls by unseen presences; unexplained sounds; cold spots; empathic sensations of unease, fear, sadness, anger and confusion; time slips; unexplained mists and feelings of being followed and watched.

My Experiences

The hotel section seems to have been cleared out quite well leaving only a feeling of residual energy that hangs in the ether and it probably unnoticeable by most people.

The far eastern wing – the women’s most violent section – has energy so violent and disturbing my wife could not approach it. I was, even, unable to completely shield myself from it and developed a slight headache and nausea. The end of the other wing – the male section – was slightly disturbing but there was no comparison with the female wing.

Shadow figures moving in the buildings – usually peeking out of the window or moving very quickly and not visible for more than a second or two.

Disembodied voices and whispers including hearing my own name multiple times.

Pale misty faces briefly seen in a couple of windows.

One brief touch on the right hand by something unseen.

Empathic feelings of unease and feelings of being watched and not wanted.

COOPERSTOWN

HYDE HALL

267 Glimmerglass State Park

(607) 547-5098 Ext: 1

Status: Former Residence; Heritage Property; State Park; Open Seasonally

Website

Directions

By <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Lorryh&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1" class="new" title="User:Lorryh (page does not exist)">Lorryh</a> - <span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

History

This home is one of the few surviving examples of Phillip Hooker’s work – a 19th century American architect – and was built for George Clarke between 1817 and 1834. It was named after the ancestral home of the Hooker family Hyde in Cheshire, England.

The house is considered historically significant because it was built using both English and American architectural methods.

Clarke purchased the land in 1817 as they were adjacent to his wife’s lands. The house took so long to build due to financial issues and Clarke’s battles for his inheritances in New York Courts. In 1824 he received his final inheritance from his father allowing him to complete the house.

When ownership of the house was passed to New York State there were funds available to restore the mansion. It had fallen into a state of disrepair and was very nearly demolished.

In 1964 a group called The Friends of Hyde Hall was formed to save the house and restore it’s grandeur back for the specific purpose of having the public enjoy it. In 1988 they were granted a 30 year lease on the property which was extended in 2018 to another 30 years.

The house is open seasonally and sponsors several events; it can also be booked for private events through the website above.

Paranormal Activity

Paranormal investigations can be booked during October – for groups of 10 or more – and Orange County Paranormal runs 1 or 2 investigations a year as well. They also have a ghost tour in the mansion in October where you can hear the stories of the hauntings.

The most famous ghost at Hyde Hall is that of Jenny Worthington who passed away young and was immortalized in an 8 foot tall 400 pound portrait commissioned by her husband; John Worthington. Even after John got remarried, he still left the portrait hung in the house.

Eventually, the new wife took the portrait down – can you blame her – and immediately paranormal activity started in the house.

Years later the portrait was donated to Hyde Hall. One night after it had been taken down for renovations the shutters swung open in the dining room – where the painting usually hangs – tripping the motion alarm.

Jenny hangs in the dining room to this day. When the house is open or closed the staff doing it always says “good morning” or “good night” to Jenny. Disrespect her at your peril.

The apparition of George Clarke is seen through the house in his gold, green and red bathrobe. Even ghosts need to be comfortable; and it was said to be his favorite.

Edward Steers is still seen on the dock after he ‘accidentally’ shot himself there after having his marriage proposal rejected a second time by a lady working at Hyde Hall.

A woman in a long braid down her back dressed in a Victorian dress is often seen in the house especially on the stairs. She is most often seen by children and usually is somewhat transparent. No one could identify her until a staff member found an old photo that matched her exactly.

A worker alone in the house heard a mayday call come through on the radio. This may be related to George and Susan Clarke who lived here and were killed together in a plane crash.

Other Reported Activity: disembodied voices; phantom sounds of a party like ice clinking in glasses and laughter; objects moving on their own; touches by unseen presences; light anomalies; empathic feelings of unease and feelings of being watched.

NYACK

THE ACKLEY HOUSE

1 Laveta Place

Status: America’s Only Legally Haunted House; Residence

Directions

A Reminder this Property is not only Private but also Someone’s Residence. Do Not Approach the Property or Bother the Owners.

History and Paranormal Activity

This 3 story Victorian house was built in 1890. It stands at the end of a cul de sac and commands truly breath-taking views of the Hudson River from almost every window.

Based on the latest real estate listing the interior is just as stunning as the views provided.

It was last sold in March of 2021 for nearly 1.8 million USD and is currently valued at just over 2 million for the tax rolls.

Just like living in paradise, right? Hmmm. . .

Just one little issue, this perfect little piece of paradise is the only legally declared haunted house in the United States. But the ghosts are friendly so that’s ok; apparently not.

Prior to the 1970’s there are no reports of any ghosts or paranormal activity in the house or on the property. The house was left abandoned for part of the 1960’s and this may have provided the living impaired to move in.

No history of a murder or premature deaths; it’s possible no one has ever even breathed their last inside this house.

After the period of abandonment, the Ackley family – hence the house’s name - bought the house and moved in. They had some paranormal experiences including the husband – George - seeing a set of disembodied moccasin wearing feet walk by him in the hallway above the staircase, the wife – Helen – saw an apparition wearing either a Colonial or Revolutionary war uniform while she was painting the entryway; even their daughter – Cynthia – ,who was a teenager at the time, had her bed shake until she politely asked them to stop so she could sleep.

The house was also known as the neighborhood “haunted house” by the kids living in the area.

On a side note, I lived in one of these neighborhood haunted houses for a while as a kid but we, also, learned to live with the doors slamming on their own, the bathroom door locking itself – this is why I can pick a bathroom door lock to this day lol – so I completely understand where this family is coming from.

Hell, my bed shakes almost every night now I just ignore it or tell ‘them’ to stop it.

This is not the Amityville Horror house or the Conjuring House.

Helen Ackley even wrote an article for Reader’s Digest in the 70’s entitled “Our Haunted House on the Hudson” thus passing the story into a forever written format.

In 1989 it became time for the Ackleys to downsize and sell the house. Jeffery and Patricia Stambovsky put an offer in on the house and it was accepted and the down payment was put down.

Now the Ackleys say they mentioned the haunting multiple times during all of this but the Stambovskys say it was never mentioned and when they found out they wanted their down payment back. Yah, no, legally if you change the mind after the down payment the seller keeps the money.

So off to court it went saying the Ackleys didn’t represent the house properly and that said ghosts would decrease the value of the house. The State of New York said “caveat emptor” or “buyer beware” buying a house is hard enough without adding ghosts into the mix.

So off it went to the New York Supreme Court – yah, can you say tenacious – where it was ruled because the issue was reputational and not physical caveat emptor didn’t apply. The haunting had been reported in a National publication and could not be reversed.

In other words, according to the Supreme Court of the State of New York, this house is legally haunted.

The down payment was returned to the couple who had proved incredibly stubborn; and the house was eventually sold to someone else. The house has gone through numerous owners since then – which has been called unusual – many of them creative people like a screenwriter and a musician but no one has said anything about ghosts or paranormal activity since the Ackleys.

The Ackleys have never retracted their claims.

This case is still taught in many law school classrooms in the United States and other Countries.

Let this be a lesson for everyone selling a haunted house – especially in New York State – that disclosure is your best friend apparently.

Did my family disclose the house we lived in was haunted when we sold it? Hmmmm. . .

STONY POINT

OLD LETCHWORTH VILLAGE CEMETERY

East Side of Call Hollow Road Between Camp Winaki Road and Anthony J Morina Drive

Rockland County

Status: Historical Cemetery

Directions

By <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:GeekOnTheWing" class="mw-redirect" title="User:GeekOnTheWing">GeekOnTheWing</a> - <span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

History

Every patient who died while under the “care” of the Letchworth Village Rehabilitation Center whose family did not claim their remains between 1914 and 1967 is buried here. They number over 900 and they are stories claiming there are many more buried in unmarked graves.

Many of them are children, yet all they were given to remember them was a metal T with a number printed on it.

In 2007 a plaque was erected at the site which gives a name of everyone buried here. This exists only because volunteers painstakingly went over years of hospital records matching names to numbers.

The inscription on the memorial is both simple and thought provoking “Those Who Shall Not Be Forgotten”.

The cemetery is owned and cared for by the City of Stony Point. Relatives can erect head stones at their expense over their loved ones remains but as of 2021 most of the graves are still marked only by their number. The volunteers who care for the cemetery leave many mementos on the graves – including toys for the lost souls of the children.

One question stands out from all the others. Why did the institution with access to a massive campus bury their patients over a mile away in dense woods? What were they hiding? I fear the answer is both obvious and terrible.

Paranormal Activity

The apparitions of children – and a few adults – have been seen; usually in the surrounding woods and less often in the cemetery itself. They are said to be very solemn and just watch the visitors to the cemetery. Many of the children are just as shy as they were in life and hide their faces when their gazes are met.

Contrary – frankly completely opposite – to the Letchworth Village site the energy here is almost calming. Almost as if, despite being buried like some dirty secret, the souls here finally found some peace they never found while alive.

Or maybe it’s the love given to the lost souls that they never received from their families and caregivers.

Other Activity: electrical disturbances; disembodied whispers; light anomalies and feelings of not being alone.

THIELLS

LETCHWORTH VILLAGE

Letchworth Village Road

Rockland County

Status: Former Residential Institution for the Developmentally Disabled; Abandoned; Partially Demolished; Public Access to the Grounds

Directions

By <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/7327243@N05">Doug Kerr</a> from Albany, NY, United States - <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dougtone/6580769155/">Letchworth Village - Rockland County, New York</a>, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

Warning this article contains stories of harm being done to children and other innocents. Reader Discretion is Advised.

History

Opened in 1911 – with only the first phase of construction completed – this 2,362-acre (nearly 4 square miles) facility was designed to be the answer to the giant overbearing gothic asylum system. It was the dream of William Pryor Letchworth who died before the facility was finished.

The facility was designed for all ages but throughout it’s history those 16 and under were majority of the population.

There were separate living and training facilities for all ages with able body adults expected to work on communal farms ensuring the feeding of every patient. No structure was to exceed 2 storeys or 70 patients. All patient housing was required to be 200 feet from one another and a playground was built for every dormitory.

The grounds dividing the buildings were designed to provide leisure areas for the patients and get as far from institutionalization as possible. No more over crowded under staffed asylums and poor houses.

There was also a hospital, dining halls and staff housing on site.

In 1921 the developmentally disabled had been put into three categories by the hospital administration: the morons, the imbeciles and the idiots. The last category was considered untrainable and unsuitable for work – males were subjected to intense labor including farm work and shoveling coal – and, therefore, of no use to the State and should be excluded from the facility.

No mention was made of what should be done with such patients although the doctor who wrote the report was probably thinking tossing them in the Hudson River was suitable. As you can see the dreams of Letchworth were dying rapidly.

In 1921 there were 1,200 patients and the facility was already becoming overcrowded but attempts were still being made to follow the policies it was created under. By 1935 the facility had reached the maximum recommended population.

By the 1950’s the population was over 4,000 and no attempts were being made to follow any plan at all.

Families were just as guilty as the staff and administrators; records indicate they just abandoned their relative at the facility and never returned. Letchworth had become a dumping ground for the unwanted just like the asylums and poor houses it was supposed to replace.

The 1950’s was also the beginning of highly illegal experiments on humans – mostly children. The polio vaccine was tested on one 8-year-old boy – for whom giving consent was an impossibility due to his mental condition – and when no side effects appeared 19 other children were injected.

The brains of the deceased were also kept preserved on site for “study”.

In 1972 Geraldo Rivera did an in-depth investigation of 3 facilities for the developmentally disabled including Letchworth and – for the first time – brought in cameras and showed people the truth. Patients – mostly children – lived in absolute squalor and without going into details the conditions were called “the worst conditions I’ve seen in my life” and “well below the minimum to support human life”.

There are also numerous stories of staff-on-staff violence including physical and sexual assault.

By the end of the 1970’s efforts were made to move the population into group homes or more modern facilities in the State. The population began to decrease – obscenely, patient mortality was used to best effect in showing how well the facility was doing in decreasing the population – and the remaining patients finally got some semblance of privacy.

In 1996 the institution finally closed leaving numerous buildings at the mercy of nature. Most people who were workers at Letchworth refuse to speak about what they saw and did.

The site remains mostly intact and the sports facilities – mostly playing fields – are used by the public. In fact, that is the biggest reason why the site hasn’t been repurposed is that the locals don’t want to lose their free sports fields.

There are still many who deny anything untoward – much less abusive – ever happened at the facility and in this world of cancel culture and alternative facts only makes the truth of tragedies like this more horrible and easily repeatable.

Paranormal Activity

Anyone can walk the grounds of the former facility but entrance into any building is strictly forbidden.

The most common supernatural occurrence at this site is a powerful and almost life draining energy that hangs over it. People have described the energy here as despair, torture, horror, insane, terrifying, despondent, draining, dark and yes, pure evil.

There are numerous reports of dark entities – what some call demons – and intelligent dark energy at this site. Many people have been attacked by things unseen here or seen forms of complete darkness in the buildings and on the grounds. Some stories tell of tentacles of pure blackness reaching out of the buildings seemingly looking for more victims.

Paranormal Activity Reported Here: apparitions of former patients and staff (anything from full bodied to misty forms); shadow figures; crawling patches of darkness; time slips; possession; dimensional slips; cold and warm spots; unexplained winds; objects moving on their own; doors and windows opening closing on their own; touches, tugs and pulls by unseen entities; scratches and bruises by unseen entities; disembodied voices and whispers; phantom screams, whispers, crying, laughter and breathing; empathic sensations of hysteria and feeling trapped; physical symptoms of nausea, vomiting, blurred vision and headaches; electrical disturbances including batteries draining in minutes or seconds; unexplained mists; unexplained thoughts of doing harm to yourself and others; light anomalies; unexplained sounds from knocks to loud bangs; phantom footsteps; being pinned to the ground or walls and unable to move; feelings of not being alone, not being wanted, being actively hated and being watched and the list goes on and on.

Please be respectful should you enter this site; the souls trapped here have been through a Hell we could never imagine.

WARWICK

MID-ORANGE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY

122 State School Road

Status: Former Residence; Former Reform School; Former Prison; Formerly Abandoned; Being Repurposed

Directions

History

The original building on this site was a manor house which is now well over 160 years old.

The property was acquired shortly after World War I with the idea of converting it to a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center by the City of New York. This dream was never realized; and the property sat uninhabited until it the City traded the land to the Dept of Social Welfare (now Social Services) for Randall Island so the City could build the Tri-Boroughs Bridge.

Randall Island had been one of the first attempts to get juvenile offenders out of the adult prison system. It succeeded in this aspect but basically created just a prison for young offenders with no attempts to meet their special needs – even on something as basic as nutrition – or at rehabilitation.

The State Training School for Boys removed the older boys and focused on training boys aged 10 – 15 so they could become valuable members of society as adults. With some ups and downs the system worked much better than the old one.

In the early 1970’s – as part of the movement of deinstitutionalization moving through the Country – the reform schools were moved away from Social Services and given to the Division of Youth. Three Reform Schools were soon closed down completely including Warwick.

In 1977 the facility was re-opened as the Mid-Orange Correctional Facility and quickly reached its target population of 400. By the mid-1980’s under the “war on drugs” policies the population blew up to over 1000. By the end of the 80’s the opening of many small prisons got the population down to 750 where it stayed.

The prison had many great programs including carpentry, a program where inmates training seeing eye and guide dogs and even a guard who brought all the stray cats in the area for the inmates to take care of. In the State’s infinite wisdom, the guard was fired for bringing in the cats but reinstated when the union – successfully – fought the decision.

The prison was closed down in 2011 and remained mostly abandoned until 2022 when plans to convert the area to a park and light industrial area went into effect.

Paranormal Activity

The facility was open for overnight supervised “ghost hunts” in the past but it is unclear if these events will continue into the future.

Activity Reported: a powerful dark energy hovering both outside of the facility and inside the buildings; apparitions of former inmates both from its time as a prison and as a reform school; shadow figures; cold and hot spots; touches, pulls and pushes by unseen presences; mysterious mists; disembodied voices; phantom screams, laughter and crying; unexplained noises; objects moving on their own including doors opening and closing on their own; electrical disturbances; light anomalies and feelings of unease, nausea, not feeling alone, being watched and not being wanted.