With Halloween right around the corner, there is a spike in interest of all things spooky. Paranormal places become all the rage this time of year, so here is a list of the best haunted locations from around the United States.
1. Moon River Brewing Company (Savannah, Georgia)
If you are a fan of Bunny Meyer, aka grav3yardgirl on youtube, or you watch Ghost Adventures, you might have heard of this place. It was built in 1821 by Elazer Early as a hotel and post office. As the hotel gained popularity, customers from the north would come to stay. That didn't go over well with its southern guest, and violence inside the hotel increased rapidly. One of the major violent incidences, between a local and a doctor, resulted in a death and a bullet hole that is still in the wall. In 1999, the building was converted into the restaurant it is today. While you are there, you can ask your server to accompany you around the building while seeking paranormal experiences. There are prominent figures of a child, Toby, and a woman who was pushed down the stairs. To hear more about the history, as well as a personal experience, here is Bunny Meyer's video.
2. The Marshall Hotel (Savannah, Georgia)
The Marshall hotel was open for business in 1851 with its owner, Mary L. Marshall. During the Civil War, the hotel had to be converted into a hospital for the union soldiers. After that, it was used as a hospital two more times, after the yellow fever broke out. During modern renovations, it was said that the workers found decayed body parts under the floorboards. Despite how disturbing the body part findings sound, the hotel assures guests that they ghosts who haunt the halls are nice. They are the union soldiers and the yellow fever patients that just enjoy jiggling doorknobs, running around the halls at night, and turning on the faucets. The Marshall House has been featured many times by the travel channel, and mentioned by the Today show as one of the best paranormal places.
3. Alcatraz (San Francisco, California)
It goes without saying that Alcatraz is one of the most famous prisons in the world. The prison was opened in 1934 and closed in 1963. During its run it housed the famous gangster, Al Capone. Many of its former prisoners where deemed mentally insane after their time in Alcatraz. They claimed to hear noises in unoccupied part of the prison, voices in the night, floating orbs, and figures walking the halls. In one of the cell blocks, an inmate screamed for hours on end that there was a demon with glowing, red eyes. In the morning the guards found him dead with unidentifiable strangle marks. Workers have even claimed to hear moaning, banjo music, and locked cell doors opening. The hauntings of Alcatraz have been denied for years, and it is still no considered a haunted sight, but paranormal investigators agree that something weird is happening there. There are night tours of the prison offered for anyone who would like to experience the happenings for themselves.
4. Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (Weston, West Virginia)
The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum opened its doors in 1864. It was originally built, by prison laborers, to house 250 people, but at its max the asylum was home to 2,400 of the clinically insane. What is truly eerie about the asylum is that the total grounds at one point equaled to 666 acres. The asylum saw its fair share of violence over the years, the main reason being that the patient to staff ratio was very off. One of the more brutal killings that happened was when two patients tried to hang another patient, and when that didn't work they bashed his head in with the metal bed frame. The patients of the facility didn't only attack each other, they attacked the staff as well; one night a nurse went missing and her body was found over two months later at the bottom of an unoccupied stairwell.
The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum is known as one of the most haunted places in America. It is said that while it was open, unused areas of the asylum would emit sounds of wailing and screams. Doctors that worked there have even admitted to having spirits follow them home, off asylum grounds, and live with them. The lunatic asylum closed in 1994, but since then it has been featured on a number of shows including Ghost Adventures, Paranormal Lockdown, and Ghost Hunters. The new owners of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum offer guided ghost tours by guides dressed as nurses.
5. Holy Family Orphanage (Marqeutte, Michigan)
The Holy Family Orphanage, also called the Old City Orphanage, was the very first of its kind in Michigan's upper peninsula. It was built in 1914 and opened a year later. The orphanage was quickly overcrowded when it became popular to take Native American babies away from their mothers. Those Native American children were said to have been abused and forced to convert to Catholicism. It is said that one of the little girls living there went outside to play in the snow without permission, and she died days later of pneumonia; the nuns put her body on display in the lobby so that it would teach the other children a lesson. The orphanage was abandoned in the 1960's, and locals say that you can hear the wailing of children that died there. There are not tours offered, so if you would like a closer look you will have to go alone, but beware of trespassing laws.
6. Baker Hotel (Mineral Wells, Texas)
The Baker Hotel was open for business in 1929. It was the first hotel in Texas to have a swimming pool, and an Olympic sized one at that. It was originally a spa destination that brought in big bucks through the 1930's and 1940's. The hotel closed in 1972, but during its run guests claimed that it was haunted. One ghost is of a naked and bloody woman who committed suicide in the hotel after an affair got to be too much for her. Another ghost is of a man who died in a tragic elevator accident. The Baker Hotel has been featured on Ghost Adventures, where they have footage of a little girl speaking (http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/ghost-adventure...), and since then there are plans to restore and reopen the hotel to its former glory.
7. Butterworth Building (Seattle, Washington)
E.R. Butterworth started off as a furniture maker in the late 1800's to early 1900's. in 1903 he found that there was a bigger business in the mortuary industry. He opened Butterworth and Son's that year and business was booming. He then decided that the high death tole was not enough and went into business with Dr. Linda Hazzard, who used radical 'treatments' on patients which was really just her way of killing them. Their business boomed for twenty years, and then it was closed. That's when Kells Irish Pub started its renovations.
During the renovation, one of the workers was taking pictures when he noticed a white figure of a man with his mouth sewn shut. Another figure noticed is that of a girl without legs. Many other unidentifiable ghosts have been seen walking around with surgical masks on; it is assumed that those ghosts were victims of the Spanish Influenza. Besides the spirits spotted, many bar glasses fly off the counter with no explanation. Large mirrors have also fallen off the walls, and hand prints appear after windows are cleaned. The pub has been featured on Ghost Adventures.
8. Waverly Hills Sanatorium (Lousiville, Kentucky)
Waverly Hills Sanatorium has been considered the most haunted place in America. It has been featured on a number of shows including Ghost Adventures, Most Haunted, Paranormal Challenge, Ghost Hunters, etc. The land that the sanatorium sits on was originally a school house, named Waverely School, but was then bought out and turned into a hospital of the same name. It is not sure when the spelling changed, though the years after opening it was spelled with and without the extra 'e'.
The land was purchased in 1883 by Thomas H. Hays. In the early 1900's, the tuberculosis outbreak started to skyrocket and the school house was converted into a hospital. The hospital's treatments were the worst thing about the facility; the majority of the patients left out of the 'body chute'. The only known capacity was 130, but that was really just how many beds there were after the children's wing was built. The expansions did continue until they had room for 400 patients, but it wasn't really used as there was an antibiotic that put the hospital out of business in 1961.
In 1962, Woodhaven Geriatric Center opened in its place. It closed only twenty years later as it was known for abuse of the elderly. A year after the geriatric center closed, the state made plans to turn it into a prison. When those plans fell though the state wanted to turn it into apartment buildings, but that didn't work out either.
Around 9,000 people died in the Sanatorium while it was open. One death was that of a nurse who had found out she was pregnant out of wedlock, it is unsure of if her death was a suicide or if she was murdered. That nurse died in room 502, that is the most popular room in the whole sanatorium. It is said that room 502 saw the most death and is now the room with the most paranormal experiences. Next to which is the kitchen where visitors can hear doors shutting and get the occasional whiff of fresh bread.
The list of 'haunted places' is never ending, sort of like the episode list of Ghost Adventures. If you're a fan of haunted houses and want to amp up the experience, many of the real haunted buildings offer tours for around $50, that's not a bad price to possibly be attacked by an otherworldly creature.
