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
The surviving Five Mile Point Light dates to 1847 and stands at Lighthouse Point Park, where it reflects New Haven Harbor navigation, keeper labor, changing federal lighthouse technology, recreation, and municipal park history.
Legend
Historic place
Burlington, VT
The Flynn began as a downtown movie and vaudeville house and evolved into a regional performing-arts center through changing entertainment technology, closure, restoration, and community support.
Reported
Historic place
Milwaukee, WI
Operating since 1850, Forest Home developed as a garden cemetery and arboretum containing monuments, architecture, Indigenous landscape history, and burials representing many parts of Milwaukee society.
Legend
Historic place
Bismarck, ND
Built in 1884 as a private residence, the Victorian house served as North Dakota's executive mansion from 1893 to 1960 and later as a pioneering outpatient mental-health clinic before preservation as a state historic site.
Legend
Historic place
Newport, RI
Fort Adams preserves layers of American coastal defense, including a major masonry fort begun in the 1820s to guard Narragansett Bay and Newport Harbor.
Legend
Historic place
Pensacola, FL
Completed in 1844, Fort Barrancas incorporates a strategic site with earlier Spanish, French, and British military layers overlooking the entrance to Pensacola Bay.
Legend
Historic place
Salt Lake City, UT
Established during the Civil War era, Fort Douglas became a lasting federal military presence overlooking the city. Surviving buildings, the cemetery, museum collections, and later university use connect territorial conflict, soldiers, families, national policy, and urban expansion.
Legend
Historic place
Key West, FL
Construction began in 1862 on the brick coastal fort, which remained unfinished, later deteriorated, and was restored by the Key West Art and Historical Society as a museum of Civil War and island history.
Venue marketing
Historic place
Baltimore, MD
Fort McHenry defended Baltimore during the British bombardment of September 1814, inspiring Francis Scott Key's words that became the national anthem.
Legend
Historic place
Philadelphia, PA
Fort Mifflin preserves a Delaware River defense site best known for the 1777 siege that delayed British supply operations.
Legend
Historic place
Pittsburgh, PA
Constructed in 1764 as a defensive redoubt, the Block House is the only surviving structure of Fort Pitt and later served as a trading post, residence, and tenement before preservation.
Legend
Historic place
Fort Smith, AR
The national historic site preserves layers of two military forts and the federal court for the Western District of Arkansas. Its interpretation addresses Native removal, deputy marshals, incarceration, executions, and the reach of federal authority into Indian Territory.
Legend