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
Choose a pin to open its guide, or continue to the visual directory below.
Skip to the list ↓Loading the interactive map…
Historic place
Newport, RI
Richard Morris Hunt designed The Breakers for Cornelius Vanderbilt II and his family; built from 1893 to 1895, it became an emblem of Newport's Gilded Age summer colony.
Legend
Historic place
New Orleans, LA
The Cabildo was rebuilt under Spanish rule after the 1788 fire and later served as a civic building associated with the Louisiana Purchase transfer, courts, government, and museum collections.
Legend
Historic place
Galveston, TX
Built in 1894 and opened in 1895, the opera house survived the 1900 storm, underwent repeated restoration, and continues as a performing arts venue.
Legend
Historic place
Savannah, GA
The Marshall House opened on Savannah’s Broughton Street in 1851 and is one of the city’s oldest operating hotels. It served as a hospital during periods of war and epidemic, later spent decades in other uses, and returned to hotel service after restoration. Stories of footsteps, children, faucets, and Civil War figures now support its haunted reputation.
Venue marketing
Historic place
St. Francisville, LA
An antebellum property where popular ghost lore must be read against the history of slavery and the people who lived there.
Legend
Historic place
Washington, DC
William Thornton designed the Octagon for the Tayloe family; it temporarily housed President James Madison after the White House burned during the War of 1812.
Legend
Historic place
Savannah, GA
The Olde Pink House is a historic Savannah mansion and restaurant facing Reynolds Square. James Habersham Jr. began the residence in 1771, while architectural scholarship dates the surviving completed house to the late eighteenth century. It later served as Planters Bank, a tea room, and other businesses before becoming a restaurant.
Reported
Historic place
Milwaukee, WI
The Pfister opened in 1893 and is known for its Romanesque Revival architecture, art collection, hospitality, and role in Milwaukee civic life.
Legend
Historic place
Savannah, GA
A surviving tavern complex near the Savannah River where colonial trade, maritime legend, preservation, and modern dining occupy the same historic rooms.
Legend
Historic place
Chattanooga, TN
The Read House traces its hotel lineage to 1872, while the present Georgian-style building opened in 1926 and reflects Chattanooga's railroad, convention, travel, preservation, and downtown history.
Venue marketing
Historic place
Estes Park, CO
A grand 1909 mountain hotel whose architecture, folklore, and literary afterlife became inseparable.
Venue marketing
Historic place
Detroit, MI
Completed in 1894 for lumber businessman David Whitney Jr., the stone mansion reflects the wealth, design, domestic work, and urban growth of Gilded Age Detroit.
Legend