Kind of place · 22 hauntings

Haunted Theaters, Schools & Public Buildings

Theaters, schools, museums, courthouses and capitols with a ghost in the house.

22 places
16 in the USA
20 you can visit

Theaters, schools, museums, libraries, courthouses and capitols all collect ghosts, often because they are old, busy buildings with long institutional memories. Theaters are especially rich in lore: London’s Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, has its Man in Grey, said to be a good omen for a production; Tombstone’s Bird Cage Theatre preserves the Wild West; and many theaters keep a single “ghost light” burning on an empty stage overnight – a safety tradition that has gathered its own legends.

Public buildings are full of people who pass stories on: actors, students, custodians, night guards and tour guides. They are also large and complex, with heating and ventilation systems, old wiring, echoing halls and empty spaces at night – ideal conditions for unexplained sounds and movement glimpsed out of the corner of the eye.

Our entries give each building’s real history and the people associated with it, and tell you when you can visit – on a tour, at a show or during opening hours.

Haunted Theaters, Schools & Public Buildings in the USA

Robert the Doll

Key West, Florida A sailor-suited Key West doll that artist Gene Otto blamed for his childhood mischief – now in a museum case, surrounded by letters of apology. Widely reported

Demonic case · 1980s

Bobby Mackey’s Music World

Wilder, Kentucky A Kentucky honky-tonk billed as a “gateway to hell,” linked by legend to the 1896 murder of Pearl Bryan. Historians found no link. It was razed in 2024. Widely reported

Sloss Furnaces

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham’s preserved blast furnaces, where workers’ ghosts are said to walk – though the site itself says its most famous ghost was invented. Regional legend

Pickens County Courthouse (The Face in the Window)

Carrollton, Alabama A face said to be fixed in a courthouse attic window since 1878 – a legend that grew out of the real, violent death of a freedman named Henry Wells. Regional legend

Residual haunting

Bird Cage Theatre

Tombstone, Arizona Tombstone’s rowdy 1881 variety theatre and bordello, now a museum where visitors report music, voices and figures from its boom-town heyday. Widely reported

Folklore spirit · 1898 (in print)

Demon Cat of the Capitol

Washington, D.C. A black cat said to swell to monstrous size in the U.S. Capitol before national tragedies. The legend began in an 1898 newspaper; the paw prints are real. Folklore

Apparition · 20th century

Dock Street Theatre

Charleston, South Carolina A WPA-era playhouse built inside Charleston’s old Planter’s Hotel, said to be haunted by “Nettie” in a red dress and by the actor Junius Brutus Booth. Local legend

Apparition · 20th century

Rio Grande Depot and the Purple Lady

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City’s grand 1910 railroad depot, long home to Utah’s state historians, is said to be haunted by the Purple Lady, a woman struck by a train. Local legend

Apparition · 1970s–1980s

KiMo Theatre

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque’s 1927 Pueblo Deco movie palace, where a boy killed in a 1951 lobby explosion is said to linger – and where casts still hang doughnuts for him. Regional legend

Apparition · 1937

Willard Library

Evansville, Indiana Evansville’s Victorian Gothic library is said to be haunted by the Grey Lady, a veiled woman first reported by a custodian in 1937 – and watched by webcam. Widely reported

Pike Place Market

Seattle, Washington Seattle’s 1907 public market has its own ghost tour, with stories of a playful stable boy, a market founder and Chief Seattle’s daughter, Angeline. Regional legend

Apparition · Late 20th century

The Washoe Club

Virginia City, Nevada A Comstock Lode gentlemen’s club turned saloon on Virginia City’s C Street, with a famous spiral staircase and a starring role on Ghost Adventures. Widely reported

Apparition · 1963

The Ghost of Clara Mills, Nebraska Wesleyan University

Lincoln, Nebraska In 1963 a Nebraska Wesleyan secretary said she saw a long-dead music teacher – and the campus as it looked decades earlier – in an empty office. Regional legend

Residual haunting · 20th century

Wabasha Street Caves

St. Paul, Minnesota Sandstone caves in St. Paul that became a 1930s nightclub, where legend says gangsters were gunned down in 1934 and still haunt the dance floor. Regional legend

Apparition · Late 20th century

Red Onion Saloon

Skagway, Alaska A Klondike gold-rush saloon and upstairs brothel in Skagway, where staff say the perfume and footsteps of a woman called Lydia linger. Local legend

Apparition · 20th century

Orpheum Theatre, Memphis

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis’s 1928 movie palace at Main and Beale is said to have a resident ghost: “Mary,” a girl in a white dress who watches shows from a mezzanine box. Regional legend

Around the world

Apparition · 1990s

Edinburgh Vaults

Old Town, Edinburgh, Scotland Dark chambers sealed inside the arches of Edinburgh’s South Bridge — once workshops, then a slum — now one of Europe’s most famous ghost-tour stops. Widely reported

Lawang Sewu

Semarang, Central Java Semarang’s old railway headquarters, “the thousand doors,” whose wartime basement and years of neglect made it Indonesia’s most famous haunted building. Widely reported

Apparition · 1970s

Edifício Joelma

Centro, São Paulo A São Paulo tower where a 1974 fire killed nearly 190 people; Brazil’s most famous haunted building, and home of the legend of the “thirteen souls.” Regional legend

Apparition · 19th century

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

Covent Garden, London, England London’s oldest theater site, where a gentleman in gray is said to cross the upper circle by day — a ghost actors treat as a sign their show will be a hit. Widely reported

Apparition · Late 19th century

Princess Theatre, Melbourne

Spring Street, Melbourne, Victoria In 1888 the baritone Federici died after sinking through a trapdoor as Mephistopheles. Melbourne’s Princess Theatre still keeps a seat for his ghost. Widely reported

Apparition · Late 20th century

Adelaide Arcade

Rundle Mall, Adelaide, South Australia Adelaide’s grand 1885 shopping arcade, where caretaker Francis Cluney died in the engine room in 1887 – and where traders say he still walks at night. Regional legend

Other kinds of haunted place

Haunted Hotels & Inns34 places Haunted Houses & Mansions53 places Haunted Prisons & Jails23 places Haunted Hospitals & Asylums13 places Haunted Battlefields & Forts12 places Haunted Castles & Palaces27 places Haunted Ships & Lighthouses8 places Haunted Cemeteries & Churches20 places Haunted Roads, Bridges & Woods29 places Haunted Towns & Ghost Towns7 places Legends Without a Single Address13 places