Haunted Places in New York State

It's the month of October, and soon to be HALLOWEEN!!! Welcome, friends, to the Haunted Places of New York. Hold onto your seat, hold onto your candy, we're going for a ride!

State University of New York at Albany Education Building:

In the basement, there's an elevator that goes down another four floors to the sub-basement. This place is appropriately nicknamed, "The dungeon". When they were pouring the concrete floor, a worker mysteriously disappeared. They think he's now permanently embedded in the concrete. People who work in the building have nicknamed him "Jason", and he will travel with you up the old steel elevator to the basement level; you will have chills running up and down your back all the way. When you turn the lights out and turn your back, he will turn the lights back on again. Haunted New York State at its eeriest!

Annandale-on-the-Hudson Blithewood Mansion

Captain Andrew C. Zabriskie built this New York mansion in the late 1800's. It's haunted by the ghost of his daughter, who jumped or fell (or was pushed) out of the window of a luxurious apartment in a Manhattan, New York City, high-rise building; she haunts their summer home because she never liked Manhattan. The Captain commissioned four statues of his daughter for garden decorations. All four were complete and erected in the garden, but after the daughter's death, there are only three statues now, and the fourth is an empty pedestal. Rumour is that the fourth statue "walks".

Brooklyn-Most Holy Trinity Church was built between 1882 and 1885. There are many mysterious passageways, sub-basements, bricked-up doorways, and false closets leading to tunnels throughout the church and adjacent convent, for this was a stop on the Underground Railroad, where slaves from the South escaped to freedom in Canada. Brooklyn, a prosaic and peaceful suburb of New York City, is one of the last places we'd think of in haunted New York State, but the ghosts remain.

George Stelz, parish bell-ringer and sexton, died 1897, in the vestibule of the church. His murder was never solved. Bloody hand prints of both George and his murderer appear on the stairwell to the bell tower, and re-appear as soon as they are removed. The church bells ring inexplicably, and it's said they'll do so until the murder is solved.

Buffalo-School # 61

A young boy went swimming in the school pool and drowned, in 1975. The pool is on the second floor of the building. Every year, ceiling tiles fall on the floor of the classroom immediately below the pool. They spell the word, "HELP". Gives us chills!! Most New York State schools are haunted, it seems, by at least one tragic youth.

Clinton Corners--Fiddler's Bridge

The legend has it that way back in 1910, a fiddler lost his way in the mist, coming home from a Halloween party. He fell and was killed beneath the bridge. Now, on Halloween, if you happen to cross the bridge at midnight, you can hear the faint strains of the fiddler playing, whiling away his time to eternity.

Dewittville--Poor House Cemetery

The earliest dates on the tombstones in Poorhouse Cemetery in Dewittville, New York, date from 1869. Grave markers were not used until then; there are many graves, records going back to 1833, of poor souls laid in the soil, unmarked and unmourned, from the time of the Almshouse. The barn (which is still standing) is haunted by glowing orbs of light, and there are strange noises in the surrounding woods at night.

Dunkirk--the site of the former Holy Cross Seminary

This property has been abandoned, though the wreckage of the seminary and church remain; there is also a neglected cemetery, overgrown with weeds. The property is situated along the Lake Erie waterfront beach, and many beach goers have seen, just for a second or two, an unidentified priest, walking deep in thought or prayer, with his rosary in his hands, through the weeds. The impression is very brief but vivid, and sightings have been verified by many people.

Fort Covington--The Dupree House

This old Victorian house, once owned by occult writer Gerina Dunwich, is haunted by a mentally disturbed woman who was locked away there in a small attic room. She died under mysterious circumstances in the early 1900s, leaving bloody hand prints on the walls, ceiling and floor.

The room contains a cold spot. The bloody handprints proved to be impossible to eradicate.

The cellar is haunted by glowing lights.

The carriage house to this home may also have been at one time a way-station on the Underground Railroad to freedom in Canada, and it is also reputed to be haunted--but by different ghosts!

Geneva--Belhurst Castle

The Ghost of Belhurst Castle was a beautiful Italian opera singer, who fled from Spain with her lover. They fled to the New World, and were guests at Belhurst Castle, in Geneva, N.Y. The lady's husband tracked them down, and followed them to the castle. The lovers, disturbed from blissful slumber, fled to the wine cellar and tunnels connecting the wine cellar to the carriage house, (for the winter convenience of the servants). They had intended to flee once again, but alas! the irate husband saw vengeance done as the tunnel collapsed on the guilty pair as soon as they entered it.

Dozens of guests have reported seeing a woman standing silently on the front lawn in the middle of the night--a woman who disappears with a sighing moan if you approach her.

Lansingburgh-The Old High School

The legend has it that early in the 1900s a teacher went insane and slaughtered as many of his students as couldn't escape with an axe in Room 243. This room is haunted at night by the ghost of the teacher, ranting and raving and waving his bloody axe, and by the students, running and screaming in panic.

Latham--Revelatory Hero's Cemetery

Behind the Woodlands apartment complex there's a Revolutionary War graveyard, in a decent state of preservation. On a hot summer night you can hear the voices of men and the sounds of drums, calling up the dead to arms in service of their country.

Loundonville--Loundon Cottage.

A woman who was sitting next to Abraham Lincoln when he was assassinated once owned this cottage. It's said that the ghost of Abraham Lincoln has been seen here, several times.

Marcellus, NY

There's a windy, twisting road through a heavy woods around this area. It's called "Thirteen Curves". A honeymoon couple got into a bad car accident on one misty night, fifty years ago, and it killed them both. You can still see the bride, walking down the road, late on a misty night, looking for the life with home, husband and family of her own that she never got to live.

Montebello, NY Old Spook Rock Road

There are so many stories about this area. It's a real "hot" spot--the site of an early witch burning; many sightings of ghosts. If you go to the bottom of the road and put your car in neutral, a ghostly figure will pull your car up the hill.

Haunted New York City--The Dakota Apartment Building

Former Beatle John Lennon has been spotted outside this building, the place of his assassination and his residence for the last years of his life.

Haunted New York City--Greenwich Village--One if By Land, Two if By Sea Restaurant

This was once a carriage house owned and operated by Aaron Burr. It's haunted by his daughter, Theodosia Burr Alston, who disappeared when she was on the way to visit. Several woman sitting at the restaurant's bar have had their earrings popped off by Theodosia,

Haunted New York City--New Amsterdam Theatre

This fine old theatre is haunted by a former Ziegfeld Follie chorus girl, named Olive Thomas. Olive killed herself. Now she visits the stage and the dressing rooms, holding a blue glass bottle that contained the poison which killed her, in her hand.

New York City--Ground Zero

Now it's one of THE MOST HAUNTED PLACES IN AMERICA.

People see workers and rescuers, ghosts calling for help, and apparitions of the buildings still standing.

The site itself has an undying resonance of memory, for all who died there, workers and brave rescuers alike.

I hope you enjoyed these spooky tales of Haunted New York State. They're all true, as far as I know. I believe them; that's what makes them so eerie and scary.