From Pub Crawls to Dead Thespians: Finding Ghosts That Aren’t in Salem

Have you ever wanted to find a ghost? But not one of those uppity, mainstream famous ghosts that you find in places like Salem, Massachusetts? (No offense.) These are those. Ghosts of local fame. They haunt like the best of them, but, like Captain Isaac Higgintoot of CBS’s Ghosts, they rarely get the kind of national press they aspire to achieve. These are sad, tragic stories, like horrible accidents conveniently happening at a cemetery, or tales of scorned advances and hotel guests plummeting to their deaths.

Below are five places to find hauntings that are dying for your attention. Sorry. Couldn’t resist. 

Capitol Theater in Madison is a classic theater. Complete with pipe organ, a ghost light on stage, and a slew of ghosts that are said to appear when you’re least expecting it. During my tour, we walked the stage and were shown where trap doors used to be before they were covered. At one time, a magician named Timothy Hergor, who was also a booking agent, fell in love with a dancer. He booked her repeatedly to get her attention, but she turned away his advances, so he hatched a plan. Open the trap door when she was dancing. When she fell through, he would rush to help and be the hero. Instead, she was wounded and he was turned in by a stage hand who witnessed his sabotage. He was later found dead and hanging from the rafters. 

His ghost is said to have walked around under the stage, opening trap doors. Those doors are no longer used, so presumably, he’s now just a bored ghost with nothing to occupy his afterlife except to scare cleaning staff at night. 

Madison is full of ghost stories. Join a ghost tour and stay at The Edgewater Hotel while you’re there for the serene views of the city’s incredible lakes.

Spokane, Washington was home to the Zombie series Z Nation, but its real spookiness comes alive, so to speak, in its infamous Greenwood Cemetery. Greenwood has a reputation for ghost stories, like a haunted staircase (dubbed “1,000 Steps”) that is guarded by the dead. And in 1890, during the construction of a train tunnel that would pass through the Memorial Terrace of the cemetery, a blasting powder accident killed 24 workers. Of those, 15 had no family and they were buried in an unmarked grave. Stories of a serial poisoner with an unmarked grave and other ghosts have haunted guests taking a stroll.

To check out the cemetery, get a room at the newly remodeled The Louie or across the street at its sister property, The Historic Davenport. The Spokesman says the Historic Davenport “has more spirits than a state liquor store,” including the former owner, Louis Davenport who walks the halls in his robe and Ellen McNamara, a guest who fell through the skylight.

In the Ohio neighborhood of Cleveland is the Franklin Castle, a remnant of days past when the wealthy tried to transplant European architecture in America to mark their status. The castle was built by German immigrant, Hannes Tiedemann. The Tiedmanns first owned a wooden house on the property, but tore it down after their daughter Emma died in 1881. Three other siblings died in infancy. The castle replaced the home, but Tiedemann’s mother Wiebke and his spouse, Louise, also died on the property. Rumors of hauntings followed for decades after the family no longer lived there. It was home to bootlegged liquor and even Judy Garland’s last husband. 

Today, you can get a room at the Franklin Castle. People visit to look for ghosts and join haunted tours. If you’re in the area, check out the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft or shop for the grotesque and obscure at Cleveland Curiosities and pick up that creepy skull or old doll from your nightmares.

St. Louis is more than the Gateway to the West, it’s also a gateway to the afterlife. Built in 1922, The Royal Sonesta Chase Park Plaza hotel is one of those otherworldly hotspots. We all know that love is sometimes complicated at best, but the ghost story of the red-haired woman in the white wedding dress stands out for its tragedy. She was said to be happy when she checked into the hotel on her wedding night decades ago, but by midnight she had jumped from her third floor window and died on the terrace below. Guests have claimed to see her staring back at them in bathroom mirrors and sitting on the end of a bed weeping, leaving some to run out without their luggage. Problematic guests are sometimes given a room on the third floor, so she can straighten them out.

Savannah has a history with the dead. There are famous people, but also the unknown victims of war. But what better way to see the dead than with a haunted pub crawl attached? Alcohol is, of course, notorious for mental clarity, so seeing ghosts should be easy. Viator will show you the way through haunted Savannah with their Conjuring Cocktails Pub Crawl, where a guide will introduce you to the spirits that haunt bars over cocktail spirits that will haunt your sobriety. They also offer a 90 Minute Historic Savannah Walking Haunted Bar Pub Craw, which walks through the historic district with ghost stories fueled by the Civil War, cemetery walks, and duels to the death. Remember to drink safely and don’t drive; you don’t want to be a future ghost story.