State file · NH
Haunted places in New Hampshire
What are the most haunted places in New Hampshire? The best-known are Mount Washington Hotel and Ocean-Born Mary House.
New Hampshire’s ghost stories are New England stories: colonial farmhouses, old burying grounds, seaport taverns and the grand resort hotels that rose in the White Mountains when the railroads arrived. Its lore leans less on violent legend than on family history – sea captains, widows and the founders of old towns – and on the long winters that made storytelling a habit.
- 2 hauntings
- 8 recorded sightings
Haunted places in New Hampshire
Mount Washington Hotel
The White Mountains grand hotel where the world’s financial order was drawn up in 1944, and where “the Princess” is said to keep Room 314. Widely reportedOcean-Born Mary House
A real colonial woman born at sea and spared by pirates in 1720 – and a ghost-and-treasure story invented by a 20th-century owner of her son’s house. Hoax / debunkedThe ghost lore of New Hampshire
The state’s two best-known hauntings show both sides of the tradition. At the Mount Washington Hotel, staff and guests have long told of “the Princess,” the widow who ran the resort for decades after her husband’s death. In Henniker, the true story of Mary Wallace – born at sea in 1720 and spared by pirates – was dressed up in the 20th century with buried treasure and a ghost by an owner who sold tours, a reminder that some famous hauntings were simply invented.
Ghost hunters work the Seacoast, where Portsmouth’s historic streets support regular ghost walks, and the White Mountain notches, where real disasters such as the 1826 landslide that killed the Willey family in Crawford Notch feed mountain legends. Old cemeteries are best visited by day, with respect, and within posted hours.
Ghost-hunting hotspots
- Portsmouth
One of America’s oldest seaports, with Strawbery Banke, colonial taverns and lantern-lit ghost walks through its historic district.
- Crawford Notch
The site of the 1826 Willey Slide, a real tragedy that became a staple of White Mountains folklore and painting.
- Isles of Shoals
Offshore islands with a pirate-treasure tradition and the true 1873 Smuttynose murders, retold in books and on harbour tours.
- Pine Hill Cemetery, Hollis
An old burying ground known locally as “Blood Cemetery,” after the Blood family buried there, and the subject of persistent local ghost lore.
Timeline
- July 1720Born at sea, spared by pirates Ocean-Born Mary House
Mary Wilson was born on an emigrant ship that pirates boarded and then released. The captain’s gift of green silk became a treasured family heirloom.
- February 13, 1814Death of Mary Wallace Ocean-Born Mary House
Mary died aged 93 at her son William’s home and was buried in Henniker’s Center Burying Ground.
- July 28, 1902The hotel opens Mount Washington Hotel
Joseph Stickney’s resort opened beneath Mount Washington, the most ambitious hotel the White Mountains had seen.
- December 21, 1903Joseph Stickney dies Mount Washington Hotel
Stickney died in New York on December 21, little more than a year after opening the hotel, leaving his wife Carolyn to run and expand it.
- 1917Gus Roy buys the Robert Wallace house Ocean-Born Mary House
The new owner began telling of buried treasure and Mary’s ghost, charging for tours and renting shovels to treasure hunters.
- July 1–22, 1944The Bretton Woods Conference Mount Washington Hotel
Delegates from 44 nations met at the hotel and created the IMF and World Bank, making it one of the best-known hotels in the world.
- 2015The staff photograph Mount Washington Hotel
A group photo taken outside the hotel appeared to show a woman in Victorian dress at a window below Room 314, when the building had reportedly been cleared for the shoot.
- November 2019TV investigation, and a correction Ocean-Born Mary House
A Travel Channel paranormal program filmed at the house. A letter in the Concord Monitor reminded readers that the ghost stories were fabricated by a former owner.
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