State file · MD
Haunted places in Maryland
What are the most haunted places in Maryland? The best-known are Exorcism of Roland Doe, Point Lookout Lighthouse and USS Constellation.
Maryland gave the world the most famous exorcism story of all: the 1949 case of a Cottage City boy, known only as “Roland Doe,” whose ordeal – completed in St. Louis – inspired The Exorcist. The state’s ghost lore also runs deep along the Chesapeake, from the lighthouse at Point Lookout, beside a Civil War prison camp, to the decks of a nineteenth-century warship in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
- 3 hauntings
- 12 recorded sightings
Haunted places in Maryland
Exorcism of Roland Doe
In 1949 Jesuit priests performed an exorcism on a Maryland teenager in St. Louis. The case inspired The Exorcist; researchers suspect a troubled boy. Widely reported
Point Lookout Lighthouse
An 1830 lighthouse on the Potomac beside a Civil War prison camp where nearly 4,000 Confederate captives died. It is often called Maryland’s most haunted. Regional legend
USS Constellation
The Navy’s last all-sail warship, in Baltimore since 1955, has long had ghost stories – many of them about an older, different ship of the same name. Regional legendThe ghost lore of Maryland
The history that feeds the stories is that of a border state. Maryland was a slave state that stayed in the Union, and the Civil War tore through it: Antietam, near Sharpsburg, remains the bloodiest single day in American history, and thousands of Confederate prisoners died at Point Lookout. Colonial towns such as Annapolis and St. Mary’s City, Baltimore’s old waterfront and the long Chesapeake shoreline add centuries of maritime and colonial lore.
Ghost hunters head to Point Lookout State Park, to Baltimore’s historic ships and Fell’s Point, to Annapolis ghost walks and to the battlefields of western Maryland. Many sites are museums with seasonal hours; homes connected with famous cases are private and should be left alone.
Ghost-hunting hotspots
- Fell’s Point, Baltimore
A historic waterfront district of old taverns and rowhouses with popular ghost tours.
- Annapolis
The colonial capital, with eighteenth-century houses, the State House and the Naval Academy, and lantern-lit ghost walks.
- Antietam and Sharpsburg
The battlefield of 17 September 1862 and the town around it, where many buildings served as field hospitals.
- Frederick
A Civil War crossroads town with a historic downtown and long-running ghost tours.
- Point Lookout
The tip of the western shore, with the lighthouse, the site of the prison camp and the Confederate cemetery.
Timeline
- 1863Camp Hoffman opens Point Lookout Lighthouse
After Gettysburg, the Union opens its largest prison camp at the point. By 1865 about 50,000 men have been held there and nearly 4,000 have died.
- 15 January 1949First disturbances Exorcism of Roland Doe
According to the priests’ diary, the boy and his grandmother hear dripping and scratching sounds, and a picture on the wall shakes.
- 26 January 1949Death of the boy’s aunt Exorcism of Roland Doe
The aunt who had introduced him to the Ouija board dies; the family links her death to the escalating events.
- 16 March 1949Exorcism authorised in St. Louis Exorcism of Roland Doe
Archbishop Joseph E. Ritter gives Father William Bowdern permission to begin the formal rite, assisted by Father Raymond Bishop and a young Jesuit, Walter Halloran.
- 18 April 1949The rite ends Exorcism of Roland Doe
At the Alexian Brothers Hospital, the priests record a final dramatic night after which the boy is declared free; the diary closes the next day.
- 20 August 1949The Washington Post story Exorcism of Roland Doe
Reporter Bill Brinkley’s article on the exorcism of a “Mt. Rainier boy” is read by student William Peter Blatty, planting the seed for The Exorcist.
- 1955Arrival in Baltimore USS Constellation
The ship is brought to Baltimore to be preserved as a museum, then believed to be the 1797 frigate; ghost stories accumulate in the decades that follow.
- 14 January 1980Hans Holzer’s investigation Point Lookout Lighthouse
The parapsychologist and a team of psychics visit the lighthouse after residents report footsteps and odours; a second group holds a séance there in February.
- 1991Navy study settles the identity question USS Constellation
A Navy research report concludes the ship is the 1854 sloop, not the 1797 frigate, and identifies forged documents behind the rebuild claim.
- 1999Opsasnick’s investigation Exorcism of Roland Doe
Mark Opsasnick’s research relocates the case to Cottage City, challenges the Georgetown episode and portrays the boy as a troubled teenager rather than a victim of possession.
- February 2006Maryland acquires the lighthouse Point Lookout Lighthouse
A land swap brings the lighthouse into state hands, and a preservation society forms to restore it.
- 15 May 2025Museum opens Point Lookout Lighthouse
The restored lighthouse opens to the public as a seasonal museum, five days a week through September.
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