October 23, 2013, Emily Nonko
With Halloween looming, thoughts naturally turn to New York’s ghost stories of yore. As you might guess in a city founded in 1624 — and one which has seen its fair share of violence and mayhem, at that — there is no shortage of hauntings reported in each of city’s five boroughs. Some ghosts date back as far as the Revolutionary War, while others are a product of more recent, grisly deaths. Travel with us as we roam New York City and reveal 13 spooky haunts where New Yorkers, dead and alive, still roam.
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| Algonquin Hotel, inset: Art Samuels, Charlie MacArthur, Harpo Marx, Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woollcott, aka, the Algonquin Round Table (Photos: The Algonquin, Thyra/Wikimedia Commons)
Algonquin HotelThis well-regarded Midtown Manhattan hotel is famous for the celebrated group of writers and actors, known as the “Algonquin Round Table,” who congregated there regularly for lunch in the 20s. It’s also famous for ghost stories with reports circulating that the Round Table members still haunt the hotel grounds today. Dorothy Parker, a founding member of the group, tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide in the hotel in 1932. She died in 1967, and some say her spirit has been hanging around since. 59 W. 44th St., 800-627-7468, algonquinhotel.com
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The Dakota Although the Dakota is famously known as the murder site of John Lennon, the historic co-op building in the Upper West Side also has a very long history of ghost stories and lore. Lennon himself saw the “Crying Lady Ghost” roaming the hallways of the building — a spectral figure of a woman who wailed down the building corridors. Residents and building workers also report reoccurring sightings of a little girl in turn-of-the-century clothing, as well as the ghost of a young boy. Reportedly Yoko Ono, along with other residents, have seen John Lennon’s spirit periodically in the building. W. 72nd St., 212-362-1448
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| A bedroom in the Morris-Jumel Mansion, inset: Madame Eliza Jumel (Photo: Elisa.rolle/Wikipedia CC) Morris-Jumel Mansion This Washington Heights mansion is Manhattan’s oldest house and was George Washington’s headquarters during the Revolutionary War. It’s also haunted by the actress and prostitute Madame Eliza Jumel. Jumel was driven into bankruptcy and divorced by her second husband (and third Vice President of the United States) Aaron Burr; eventually she lost her mind and died in the mansion at age 92. There are reports she roams the building and taps on the windows and doors. In 1962 a mysterious woman asked a group of visiting school children to quiet down, despite no living person living inside. That’s not the building’s only haunting — the ghosts of Aaron Burr, a maidservant, a Revolutionary War soldier, and Stephen Jumel, Eliza’s first husband who died a mysterious death, are also reported to roam the grounds. 65 Jumel Ter., 212-923-8008, morrisjumel.org  White Horse Tavern, Dylan Thomas circa 1950 (Photos: Wallyg/Flickr CC, Hulton Archive/Getty Images) White Horse TavernMost famous for being the bar where poet Dylan Thomas died in 1953 — collapsing outside the bar after a reported 18 whiskey shots — the historic White Horse Tavern also holds a nostalgic place in the West Village‘s low-key bar scene. Thomas’ haunts can’t hurt its popularity; patrons say they’ve seen him sitting at his favorite corner table in the bar, or wandering outside. It certainly helps that the wooden bar looks nearly unchanged since it opened in 1880 (today old porcelain horses and portraits of Thomas decorate it). In memoriam, the bar serves the poet’s purported last meal in the back room every year on the anniversary of his death, Nov. 9. 567 Hudson St., 212-989-3956, facebook.com/pages/White-Horse-Tavern/106004742836371 |
Kreischer Mansion
The Kreischer family, which made its fortune in brickmaking, built two mansions in Charleston, Staten Island, in the 1880s (one of which later burnt down). After the family’s brick factory burnt down, the family fortunes diminished and mansion owner Edward Kreischer committed suicide in 1894. Staten Island residents have spotted a spectral couple — possibly Edward and his wife — wandering the grounds. There are also reports of wailing coming from the home. Many years later in 2005, a mob-related murder took place here (it involved stabbing, strangling, drowning, and then chopping up the corpse and putting the pieces into a coal-burning furnace). Now the rundown property is a popular destination for Staten Island kids on Halloween. 4500 Arthur Kill Rd., Staten Island, no phone
The “House of Death” at 14 West 10th Street, Mark Twain (Photos: Beyond My Ken/Wikipedia CC, Library of Congress)
“House of Death”This 1856 Greenwich Village townhouse has been dubbed the “House of Death” thanks to a reported 22 former residents that have haunted the building over the years. A number of these tenants died mysteriously in the home. One of the reported ghosts is Mark Twain, who lived in the house in 1900 and appeared as a ghost in the ground-floor apartment in the 1930s. In 1987, the home made headlines after former New York criminal defense attorney Joel Steinberg beat his 6-year-old daughter to death in the second-floor apartment. 14 W. 10th St, no phone
McCarren Park Pool, pre pool (Photo: Chad Nicholson/Wikimedia CC)
McCarren Park Pool
After many years of disuse, McCarren Park Pool is a newly revamped and working public pool, but the massive crowds who have turn up for the past two summers likely don’t know this place’s dark history. The pool first opened in 1936, and during its golden age there were a series of tragic deaths. Those include a drowning, as well as shooting and stabbing incidents. When the pool was empty (it closed in 1984), passerby claimed to hear the cries of a young girl during the night — the story goes that the ghost of a girl circled the pool crying for help. The Paranormal Investigation of NYC visited the site back in 2004 and reported dramatic temperature drops at the site. They also claim to have taken photographs of mysterious orbs around the pool.
After many years of disuse, McCarren Park Pool is a newly revamped and working public pool, but the massive crowds who have turn up for the past two summers likely don’t know this place’s dark history. The pool first opened in 1936, and during its golden age there were a series of tragic deaths. Those include a drowning, as well as shooting and stabbing incidents. When the pool was empty (it closed in 1984), passerby claimed to hear the cries of a young girl during the night — the story goes that the ghost of a girl circled the pool crying for help. The Paranormal Investigation of NYC visited the site back in 2004 and reported dramatic temperature drops at the site. They also claim to have taken photographs of mysterious orbs around the pool.
Interior of the abandoned Seaview Hospital (Photo: H.L.I.T./Flickr)
Seaview Hospital and New York Farm ColonyFirst a poor house, then a tuberculosis hospital, now a decrepit and abandoned New York City landmark, Staten Island‘s Seaview Hospital and New York Farm Colony has a history of haunting. The farm colony/poor house (designed as a means of rehabilitation for the mentally ill) was established in the 1830s and the hospital opened in 1913. The complex has sat in decay since 1975, but due to a landmark designation in 1985 nothing can be torn down. Workers of the hospital claim to have seen old patients wandering through the hall; now it’s a rotting asylum left to the elements. It’s also close to the former Willowbrook State School for mentally disabled children, which was exposed for shocking abuses by Geraldo Rivera in a 1972 expose. Brielle Avenue and Walcott Avenue, Staten Island, no phone
Brooklyn Public Library (Photo: Library of Congress)
Brooklyn Public LibraryIn 1977, 6-year-old Agatha Ann Cunningham visited the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza with her classmates, disappeared, and was never found. Both employees and patrons have heard mysterious noises, like a girl’s laughter or sobbing, coming from the library’s basement stacks. In 2011, a few interns looked a little further into the haunting, and published a convincing video (misc.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/mipmap/post/2011/11/03/The-True-Story-of-Agatha-Cunningham.aspx) 280 Cadman Plaza W., Brooklyn, 718-230-2100,bklynpubliclibrary.org
Belasco Theater, David Belasco between 1898 and 1916 (Photo: smichael/Flickr, Library of Congress)
Belasco TheaterThe Belasco Theater, in Midtown‘s famed Theater District, is said to be haunted by the theater’s namesake, David Belasco. He started writing plays in the 1880s and died in 1931 — with no scandalous or tragic stories attached to his death — after a celebrated career. Despite his sunny life, his ghost has been spotted by theater workers in the upstairs apartment and offices of the theater wearing a cassock and a clerical collar — they dubbed the ghost “The Monk.” He’s also been seen standing on the balcony, observing the shows that go on in his theater. 111 W 44th St., 212-239-6200, shubertorganization.com/theatres/belasco.asp
The Octagon’s original staircase from the Welfare Island Insane Asylum, exterior as it appears today (Photos: Courtesy of Historic American Buildings Survey—HABS, Jamescastle/Flickr CC)
The OctagonRoosevelt Island, once an island the city used as a location for corrective hospitals, is rife with ghost stores. The Octagon, a rental building located there, was previously the site of the former New York Lunatic Asylum, famously criticized as a place of suffering and horror. The only remaining architectural element of the asylum is the building’s octagon, which is now the centerpiece of the residential development. The residents report unexplainable incidents and paranormal activity; they also report that pets sometimes refuse to walk up the stairs of the building. The island is also home to ruins of a former smallpox building (declared a landmark in 1975), only adding to the eerie vibe of the place. 888 Main St., Roosevelt Island, 212-888-8692
Van Cortlandt House, inset: Adriaen van der Donck (Photos: Dmadeo/Wikimedia CC, PD-ART/Wikimedia CC)
Van Cortlandt ParkThe Van Cortlandt House is the oldest surviving home in the Bronx, located in a park that’s also said to be haunted. Visitors of Van Cortlandt Park, the site of the Stockbridge Indian Massacre, have heard whispers and seen spirits around Vault Hill, the park’s burial grounds. As for the house, built in 1748, it is the site of hauntings by Adriaen Van der Donck, a Dutch settler who laid claim to the area and later died in a Indian raid, and Jacobus Van Cortlandt, the original owner of the home. Sighting of George Washington have also been reported — he stayed at the home at least twice during the Revolutionary War. Van Cortlandt Park St. between Broadway and Jerome Avenue, no phone, nycgovparks.org/parks/X092/
Merchant’s House Museum parlor, inset: Gertrude Tredwell (Photos: Curiousexpeditions/Flickr CC, Merchant’s House Museum)
Merchant’s House MuseumThe New York Times dubbed this East Village house museum the “most haunted house in Manhattan” –there’s even a dedicated section of the Merchant’s House website for the resident ghosts (merchantshouse.com/ghosts/). The Tredwall family lived in the house for nearly 100 years, and the last living resident of the house, Gertrude Tredwell, is said to still watch over it. She died in the home in 1933, and it became a museum in 1936. Since then, the museum staff, visitors and volunteers have experienced strange happenings — sites of a woman in a brown dress roaming the house, mysterious piano music, and unexplainable flashing lights. Through Nov. 4, the museum hosts a series of “spirited” events in honor of its not-quite-dead residents. 29 E. Fourth St., 212-777-1089, merchantshouse.org
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