State file · FL
Haunted places in Florida
What are the most haunted places in Florida? The best-known are St. Augustine Lighthouse, Robert the Doll and The Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables.
Florida’s ghost stories begin with the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the United States. St. Augustine, founded by the Spanish in 1565, layers Spanish, British and American history – a coquina fortress, colonial burial grounds, a lighthouse built over an older watchtower – and markets itself enthusiastically as one of the most haunted cities in America. At the other end of the state, Key West mixes Caribbean folklore with the tale of a sailor-suited doll named Robert who sits in a museum surrounded by letters of apology.
- 3 hauntings
- 12 recorded sightings
Haunted places in Florida
St. Augustine Lighthouse
The striped 1874 lighthouse on Anastasia Island, where staff and visitors tell of girls’ laughter – echoes, the museum says, of a drowning in 1873. Widely reported
Robert the Doll
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
The Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables
Coral Gables’ 1926 Jazz Age resort – later a military hospital, then empty for years – where a gangster’s 1929 murder seeded its ghost lore. Regional legendThe ghost lore of Florida
In between lie the boom-and-bust stories of the twentieth century: the 1920s land boom that built Mediterranean Revival resorts such as the Biltmore in Coral Gables, the hurricanes that ended it, Prohibition-era gangsters, wartime hospitals and abandoned grand hotels. Many of Florida’s best-known ghosts are attached to real tragedies – children drowned during a lighthouse’s construction, a gangster shot at a party – which local museums now tell carefully alongside the legends.
Ghost tourism is a serious business here, especially in St. Augustine and Key West, where nightly walking, trolley and lantern tours compete for visitors. Florida is also home to Cassadaga, a spiritualist community founded in the 1890s that remains a living religious tradition rather than a haunted attraction.
Ghost-hunting hotspots
- St. Augustine
America’s oldest city, with the Castillo de San Marcos, colonial cemeteries, the lighthouse and dozens of nightly ghost tours.
- Key West
Old Town’s conch houses, Fort East Martello and the Key West Cemetery fill the island’s lantern-lit ghost walks.
- Coral Gables and Miami
Land-boom landmarks such as the Biltmore and the Art Deco hotels of Miami Beach carry Jazz Age legends.
- Ybor City, Tampa
The historic Cuban, Spanish and Italian cigar-making district, with old social clubs and factories on local ghost tours.
- Pensacola
A city of Spanish, British and American forts and a lighthouse with its own long-standing ghost stories.
Timeline
- January 1926The Biltmore opens The Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables
Special trains brought guests from northern cities to the opening of Merrick and Bowman’s Mediterranean Revival resort.
- 1929Fatty Walsh is killed The Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables
The gangster was shot dead during a party on the hotel’s thirteenth floor – the event that local historians say started the ghost stories.
- November 1942Hotel becomes a hospital The Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables
The War Department converted the Biltmore into a 1,200-bed military hospital; it remained a veterans’ hospital until 1968.
- 1950sKeepers report a haunted house St. Augustine Lighthouse
A relief keeper heard footsteps in the empty house, and head keeper James Pippin, in post 1953–1955, reportedly moved out of the main keepers’ house, calling it haunted.
- 1974Death of Gene Otto Robert the Doll
After the artist’s death, and his wife’s two years later, later occupants of the Eaton Street house began telling stories about the doll left behind.
- 1980Restoration begins St. Augustine Lighthouse
Women of the Junior Service League took a 99-year lease on the fire-damaged keepers’ house and began restoring it; workers and volunteers reported unexplained incidents.
- 31 December 1987Reopened as a hotel The Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables
After years of abandonment and a city-led restoration, the Biltmore reopened as a luxury hotel and resort.
- 1994Robert goes to the museum Robert the Doll
Myrtle Reuter donated the doll to the Key West Art & Historical Society, saying it moved by itself. He has been displayed at Fort East Martello ever since.
- 1994Thursday-night ghost stories The Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables
Storyteller Linda Spitzer began a weekly ghost-story evening in the lobby that ran for about a decade, cementing the hotel’s haunted reputation.
- 2006Ghost Hunters films the lighthouse St. Augustine Lighthouse
The TAPS team’s investigation made the lighthouse one of America’s best-known haunted sites; they returned in 2008, and a new episode aired on A&E on 4 September 2019.
- May 2008First trip off the island Robert the Doll
Robert was exhibited at TAPSCon, a paranormal convention run by The Atlantic Paranormal Society – reportedly the first time he had left Key West.
- October 2015Robert in Las Vegas Robert the Doll
The doll was taken to Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum for a Travel Channel programme, first broadcast in April 2016 on Deadly Possessions.
From other news sites
Latest from Florida
No recent paranormal headlines from Florida. See all the latest paranormal news.
