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Haunted places in Delaware
What are the most haunted places in Delaware? The best-known are Fort Delaware and Woodburn (Delaware Governor’s Mansion).
Small as it is, Delaware packs three centuries of history into its ghost stories. Colonial Dover and New Castle preserve brick houses and courthouses from the 1700s; the Delaware River carried the commerce of Philadelphia past forts built to guard it; and the state sat on the uneasy border between slavery and freedom, where the Underground Railroad ran north and kidnappers such as Patty Cannon preyed on free Black people and fugitives.
- 2 hauntings
- 9 recorded sightings
Haunted places in Delaware
Fort Delaware
A granite fort on a Delaware River island that held tens of thousands of Confederate prisoners in the Civil War; some 2,500 died there. Regional legend
Woodburn (Delaware Governor’s Mansion)
Delaware’s 1790s governor’s residence in Dover, where a wigged gentleman on the stairs has been reported since a preacher’s visit around 1815. Local legendThe ghost lore of Delaware
The two best-known ghost stories reflect that history. On Pea Patch Island, Fort Delaware held tens of thousands of Confederate prisoners during the Civil War, and around 2,500 of them died there of disease – a toll that gives its ghost tours a sombre weight. In Dover, the governor’s residence, Woodburn, has one of the oldest ghost anecdotes in the region: a gentleman in a powdered wig met on the stairs by a travelling preacher around 1815.
Ghost hunters head for Fort Delaware State Park, reached by seasonal ferry from Delaware City; the colonial streets of New Castle and Dover; and the beach towns of Lewes and Rehoboth, with their maritime lore. Many historic houses are private or official residences, so check for public events before visiting.
Ghost-hunting hotspots
- Pea Patch Island and Delaware City
Fort Delaware’s Civil War prison and the river town that serves as its ferry landing.
- Historic New Castle
Delaware’s colonial capital, with its 1730s courthouse, old Green and riverside streets full of eighteenth-century houses.
- Dover’s Green and King’s Highway
The state capital’s colonial core, including the Old State House and the governor’s residence, Woodburn.
- Lewes
One of the oldest towns in the state, on Delaware Bay, with shipwreck and maritime legends.
Timeline
- c. 1798Charles Hillyard builds Woodburn Woodburn (Delaware Governor’s Mansion)
Hillyard III, from an old Kent County landowning family, built the Georgian brick house that later passed to his daughter Mary and Dr. Martin Bates.
- c. 1815Lorenzo Dow meets a stranger on the stairs Woodburn (Delaware Governor’s Mansion)
The visiting preacher described a gentleman in old-fashioned dress whom no one else had seen; Mrs. Bates recognised the description as her late father.
- April 1862The first prisoners arrive Fort Delaware
According to the National Cemetery Administration, 358 Confederate soldiers captured at the Battle of Kernstown were the fort’s first prisoners of war.
- 1863Smallpox epidemic Fort Delaware
With more than 11,000 prisoners crowded onto the island after Gettysburg, smallpox swept the camp; about half of all the deaths at Fort Delaware occurred during this outbreak.
- 3 October 1875Finn’s Point becomes a national cemetery Fort Delaware
Prompted by complaints about neglected Confederate graves, the burial ground opposite the fort was declared a national cemetery, and remains were brought together there.
- 1884The Entailed Hat Woodburn (Delaware Governor’s Mansion)
George Alfred Townsend’s novel placed a Patty Cannon kidnapping raid at a house resembling Woodburn, seeding its Underground Railroad legends.
- 1965Woodburn becomes the governor’s house Woodburn (Delaware Governor’s Mansion)
Governor Charles L. Terry Jr. and Jessica Irby-Terry secured the house for the state; it opened for public tours after renovation in February 1966.
- 1970sWine for the ghost Woodburn (Delaware Governor’s Mansion)
Jeanne Tribbitt, whose family moved into Woodburn in January 1973, kept watch on the stairway and left out wine for Hillyard’s ghost, according to the state’s Woodburn history.
- 31 October 2008Live Halloween investigation Fort Delaware
Syfy’s Ghost Hunters broadcast a live Halloween investigation from the fort, its second visit, bringing the island national attention as a haunted site.
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