State file · PA
Haunted places in Pennsylvania
What are the most haunted places in Pennsylvania? The best-known are Eastern State Penitentiary, Gettysburg Battlefield, Fort Mifflin and Old Jail Museum (Carbon County Jail).
Few states carry as much history per square mile as Pennsylvania, and its ghost lore follows that history closely. Philadelphia was the revolutionary capital, besieged and occupied in 1777; Gettysburg saw the bloodiest three days of the Civil War; and the anthracite fields of the northeast were the scene of the violent labour struggles that sent the Molly Maguires to the gallows. Almost every famous Pennsylvania ghost story is rooted in one of those chapters.
- 4 hauntings
- 12 recorded sightings
- 1 news story
Haunted places in Pennsylvania
Eastern State Penitentiary
Philadelphia’s Gothic prison pioneered solitary confinement in 1829. Staff, guards and visitors tell of faces, footsteps and whispers in its cellblocks. Widely reported
Gettysburg Battlefield
The Civil War’s bloodiest battle left over 50,000 casualties. Visitors tell of phantom gunfire, marching men and a ragged soldier at Devil’s Den. Widely reported
Fort Mifflin
A Revolutionary War fort on the Delaware that survived a brutal 1777 siege. Its best-known ghost is a “screaming lady” heard from the officers’ quarters. Regional legend
Old Jail Museum (Carbon County Jail)
In the 1870 jail where accused Molly Maguires awaited the gallows, a handprint on the wall of Cell 17 is said to return however often it is painted over. Regional legendThe ghost lore of Pennsylvania
Its best-known haunted places are institutions as much as houses. Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, the prison that pioneered solitary confinement, is now a museum that tells its inmates’ stories while hosting one of the country’s biggest Halloween events. Fort Mifflin on the Delaware, pounded by British guns in 1777 and later a Civil War prison, runs overnight ghost hunts to pay for its restoration, and the old Carbon County Jail in Jim Thorpe still shows the handprint said to prove a condemned man’s innocence.
Gettysburg remains the state’s great ghost destination, with candlelit walking tours through the old town every night of the season – though the National Military Park itself closes at dusk and treats the battlefield as a memorial. The best Pennsylvania ghost hunting, as the historic sites themselves often say, begins with the real people who lived and died there.
Ghost-hunting hotspots
- Gettysburg (town)
Some 200 Civil War–era buildings, many used as field hospitals, give the town a ghost story on almost every block and a dozen or so tour companies.
- Old City and Society Hill, Philadelphia
Colonial taverns, churchyards and Independence-era streets are the core of Philadelphia’s nightly ghost walks.
- Jim Thorpe
The Victorian coal-baron town has the Molly Maguires’ jail, the Packer mansions and a lively tradition of ghost tours.
- New Hope
The Delaware River arts town, with its old inns and canal, has long marketed itself on its ghost stories and lantern-lit walks.
Timeline
- June 21, 1877The “Day of the Rope” Old Jail Museum (Carbon County Jail)
Four accused Molly Maguires, including Alexander Campbell, are hanged inside the Carbon County Jail. Legend holds that one condemned man left his handprint on the wall of Cell 17 as a sign of his innocence.
- 1929–1930Al Capone’s stay Eastern State Penitentiary
Al Capone serves about nine months on a weapons charge, leaving in March 1930. Later ghost lore claims he was tormented in his cell by the spirit of a gangland victim, a story with no contemporary record behind it.
- 1979A posthumous pardon Old Jail Museum (Carbon County Jail)
Governor Milton Shapp pardons John “Black Jack” Kehoe after a review by the state Board of Pardons, reinforcing doubts about the Molly Maguire trials.
- Early 1990sThe locksmith’s encounter in Cellblock 4 Eastern State Penitentiary
Locksmith Gary Johnson says that after opening an old cell lock he was held fast by an unseen force and saw tormented faces on the walls. It remains the prison’s most retold ghost account.
- October 1991Ghosts of Gettysburg is published Gettysburg Battlefield
Former park ranger Mark Nesbitt publishes the first of his collections of local ghost accounts. In 1994 he leads the town’s first ghost walking tour, founding an industry.
- June 1994Unsolved Mysteries tests the print Old Jail Museum (Carbon County Jail)
Police chemist Jeff Kercheval and Professor James Starrs of George Washington University sample the paint and photograph the mark under infrared and ultraviolet light. Kercheval predicts the legend will be hard to prove or disprove.
- January 1995The jail closes and becomes a museum Old Jail Museum (Carbon County Jail)
The last prisoners are moved to a new county facility. The McBride family buys the building and opens it to the public as the Old Jail Museum.
- August 2006Casemate 11 is reopened Fort Mifflin
Caretaker Wayne Irby and a team of volunteers uncover a sealed magazine with Civil War graffiti and artefacts. The rediscovered room soon becomes a focus for paranormal investigators.
- June 2007Most Haunted Live broadcasts overnight Eastern State Penitentiary
The British series Most Haunted Live spends seven hours investigating the prison on air. It joins Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures and MTV’s Fear among the programmes filmed here.
- 2008The borough reins in the tours Gettysburg Battlefield
After complaints from residents about crowded sidewalks, the borough council limits ghost tours to 26 people per group, as the Philadelphia Inquirer later reported.
- March 5, 2008Ghost Hunters investigates Fort Mifflin
The Sci Fi Channel (now Syfy) series opens its fourth season at the fort, investigating the officers’ quarters, Casemate 5 and the newly opened Casemate 11. The team reports a voice on a recording and a shadow in a doorway and concludes the fort has a residual haunting.
- October 2013NPR asks whether it is really haunted Eastern State Penitentiary
An NPR feature collects the prison’s recurring ghost stories, while a tour guide explains that the museum does not claim the building is haunted and stresses that the inmates were real people.
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Videos
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Haunting Histories at Eastern State Penitentiary, Part 1
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Eastern State Penitentiary in 1929
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Blue and Gray at 75th Anniversary of Great Battle (1938)
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