Documented places and attributed folklore
Historical haunted places
Research-led guides to real American places associated with ghost lore. Each page identifies what is documented, what is reported, and what remains legend.
329 historic places
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Historic place
New Haven, CT
Laid out in 1638 as the central square of a nine-square plan, New Haven Green has served as market, meeting place, burial ground, parade ground, protest space, and the setting for an important ensemble of early nineteenth-century churches.
Legend
Historic place
New Orleans, LA
A preserved Chartres Street apothecary where the history of medicine, regulation, commerce, and unsettling folklore survives behind rows of old bottles and instruments.
Reported
Historic place
Albany, NY
Built over several decades and occupied by lawmakers from 1879, the monumental Capitol combines work by multiple architects with stone carving, grand staircases, political history, restoration, and the memory of the destructive 1911 fire.
Legend
Historic place
Bismarck, ND
The state museum and archives preserve archaeology, fossils, tribal histories, settlement records, objects, and exhibitions spanning North Dakota's deep past to the present. Its collections support research far beyond famous frontier personalities.
Reported
Historic place
Bismarck, ND
The Northern Pacific depot area became central to Bismarck's transformation from a railroad camp into a territorial and state capital. The surviving downtown building and rail corridor connect transportation, commerce, migration, labor, and the city's relationship with the Missouri River crossing.
Legend
Historic place
Mansfield, OH
A preserved former Ohio prison known for monumental architecture, correctional history, reported paranormal experiences, and its role in The Shawshank Redemption.
Reported
Historic place
Guthrie, OK
The Carnegie Library and museum preserve records, objects, and architecture connected to the 1889 opening of the Unassigned Lands, territorial government, statehood, and Guthrie's changing civic role.
Reported
Historic place
Montgomery, AL
Old Alabama Town preserves more than fifty nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century structures, including the Ordeman-Shaw House and relocated Lucas Tavern, to interpret architecture, labor, enslavement, travel, and everyday life.
Legend
Historic place
Pittsburgh, PA
H. H. Richardson designed the Allegheny County Courthouse and former jail complex, completed in the late 1880s and linked by the Bridge of Sighs; most of the old jail later became court space.
Legend
Historic place
Salem, MA
Salem's oldest European burial ground preserves early markers and funerary history, but it is not the burial place of the executed witch-trial victims.
Legend
Historic place
Vicksburg, MS
Completed in 1860 by skilled enslaved artisans, the Old Warren County Court House survived the siege, later served county government, and opened as a museum after a community preservation campaign.
Legend
Historic place
Charleston, SC
Completed in 1771, the Exchange served as a commercial exchange, custom house, prison, post office, city hall, and museum.
Legend