Rob Lammle
The Hidden Haunted History of 7 American Landmarks
by Rob Lammle - October 28, 2011 - 1:34 PM

The stories of presidential ghosts in the White House are pretty well known. But plenty of other landmarks have their own ghost stories.

1. The Ghostly Curators of the Smithsonian Institution

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With so many items and artifacts – let alone mummies and skeletons – it should come as no surprise that many consider the Smithsonian Institution to be haunted. Aside from the typical ghostly footsteps and shadowy figures, many night watchmen in the early part of the 20th century claimed to have seen members of the Institute long after their demise. Some of these ghostly curators and researchers include Emil Bessels, an arctic explorer; Fielding Meek, a paleontologist who lived and worked at the Institute; Joseph Henry, the Institute’s first Secretary; Spencer Baird, the first curator; and even founder James Smithson, who died long before the museum was even built.

If phantoms really existed, Smithson would be the most likely candidate. His remains have been kept at the museum since 1904. In fact, his body was disinterred in 1973 because of what James Goode, former curator of Castle Collections, called ghost sightings. Officially, though, the Institute just did a complete study of the contents of Smithson’s casket, including his skeleton, which was still inside, not out wandering the halls scaring people.

2. The Haunted Hollywood Sign

Peg Entwhistle was an up-and-coming actress on Broadway in the mid-1920s. However, when she tried to make the transition to Hollywood in 1932, she found that she was just another pretty face. After a single film role, her prospects dried up and she was out of work.

Around September 16, 1932, Entwhistle told her family she was going for a walk; it would be the last time anyone saw her alive. She traveled to the Hollywood Hills landmark, the Hollywoodland sign, where she took off her purse, coat, and shoes, before climbing a maintenance ladder to the top of the H (other reports say it was the last letter, “D”). There, she plummeted some 50 feet to the ground below. Her body and belongings – including a suicide note – were discovered two days later.

Since then, “LAND” has been removed from the sign, but the spirit of Peg Entwhistle still lingers. Park ranger John Arbogast claimed to have seen her ghost many times, usually in the middle of very foggy nights. He also claimed to smell gardenias in the area, Entwhistle’s favorite scent, even during winter when there are no flowers in bloom.

In 1990, a man and his girlfriend were hiking near the sign when their dog suddenly began whining and backing away from the trail ahead. The couple soon saw a blond woman in a white 1930s-style dress walking towards them. She looked confused and disoriented, so the couple tried to steer clear of her, but then she suddenly vanished before their eyes. They claim to have been unaware of Entwhistle’s suicide at the time of the sighting.

3. The Demon Pirate of Liberty Island

Since 1886, Liberty Island has been the home of the Statue of Liberty. But earlier in its history it was known as Bedloe’s Island, and was reportedly a favorite spot for notorious pirate Captain Kidd to bury his ill-gotten treasure.

As reported by the New York Times in 1892, two soldiers named Gibbs and Carpenter were stationed at Fort Wood, the military installation on Bedloe’s Island that would later form the pedestal for Lady Liberty. Hoping to get rich quick, the duo sneaked out of their bunks to dig for the treasure at a location that had been foretold to them by a psychic. Then, sometime after midnight, the entire fort was woken up by a blood-curdling scream. As guards headed in the direction of the noise, they encountered a hysteric Carpenter, who led them to the dig site, where Gibbs was found unconscious.

The men said they had only dug a few feet down when they found a wooden box. But just as they were about to claim their fortune, an otherworldly creature appeared. Gibbs described it as a typical depiction of a demon – black skin, horns on its head, giant wings, and a barbed tail. Carpenter, though, said it was red, didn’t have wings, and moved about without any visible form of locomotion. Carpenter ran, but Gibbs stood frozen in terror. He claimed that it was the spirit of Captain Kidd, who breathed sulfur in his face before throwing him into the bay. The guards saw no wooden box or demon pirate, so apparently Kidd took his treasure with him when he disappeared into the ether.

4. The Ghosts of the Rock

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Thousands of inmates passed through Alcatraz in its 100-year history, first as a Civil War-era military stockade and later a federal prison that housed some of America’s most dangerous criminals. Thanks to the isolation of the island, as well as the sometimes brutal treatment of prisoners, many men committed suicide, while others were killed by inmates who’d been driven insane. With so much blood staining the Rock, it should come as no surprise that ghosts are said to roam the halls today.

One allegedly haunted area is Cell 14D, one of the solitary confinement cells known as a “hole.” There, prisoners were stripped naked, thrown into a small, dark room, and were kept completely isolated for up to 19 days. By the time they came out, many suffered permanent psychological damage. In the 1940s, an inmate confined to Cell 14D screamed throughout the night that something with glowing red eyes was in there with him. The next morning, the cell was finally quiet, so the guards unlocked 14D to check on the prisoner. Inside, they found his body, strangled to death. An autopsy later revealed that his wounds could not have been self-inflicted.

It’s been said that one of The Rock’s most famous guests – Al “Scarface” Capone – never really left. Driven insane by syphilis, Capone feared that other inmates might kill him during the prisoners’ weekly recreation period in the prison yard. So Capone asked for and received special permission to practice playing his banjo in the prison’s shower room instead. Since the island became a national park in 1972, many park rangers have reported hearing the distinct sound of a banjo coming from the room, often near the end of the workday after all the tourists have gone.

5. The Widow at the Empire State Building

As one of the tallest buildings in the world, the Empire State Building has been the scene of over two dozen suicides in its 80-year history. There are many stories of people who have seen ghostly figures recreating their fateful plunge from the skyscraper’s 86th floor observation deck, but one story stands above the rest.

The story was first told in 1985, when a tourist went to the observation deck to get a bird’s-eye view of the Big Apple. While there she met a woman dressed in 1940s-style clothes, crying into her handkerchief. When asked what was wrong, the woman said that her husband died in the war in Germany. Obviously distraught, she said she couldn’t live without her beau, so she walked through the suicide prevention fence that surrounds the deck, and disappeared over the edge.

Shaken by what she’d seen, the tourist went into the bathroom to splash water on her face. Suddenly, the same woman appeared next to her at the sink, touching up her makeup in the mirror, before heading to the observation deck to replay her final moments again…and again…and again.

6. The Haunted Confines of Wrigley Field

According to Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon, authors of Haunted Baseball and Field of Screams, the most haunted ballpark in the country is Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs.

One of the most well-known ghost stories is retold by security guards who have heard the telephone in the bullpen ring in the middle of the night. But it’s not a wrong number, because the phone is a direct line to the dugout, which they say is haunted by the spirit of Charlie Grimm, a Cubs manager in the 1930s and 40s. Some guards have even claimed they’ve seen Grimm in the hallways, but as soon as they speak to him he disappears. But why would Grimm still be haunting Wrigley after all these years? Perhaps it’s because his ashes are said to be buried in left field. Or because Grimm was the last manager to take the team to the World Series in 1945. We can only assume he won’t rest until the Cubs are in the Series again.

Fans say they’ve spotted famed WGN broadcaster Harry Caray in the press box and in the outfield bleachers ever since his death in 1998. Others have even seen Steve Goodman, writer of the Cubs’ anthem, “Go, Cubs, Go!,” sitting behind the batter’s box, despite his death in 1984. Goodman’s ghostly box seat would be appropriate since its rumored his ashes are buried under home plate.

7. The Phantom Ship of the Golden Gate

Although over 1,000 people have committed suicide by jumping from San Francisco’s most famous landmark, the Bay’s ghostly past goes back well before the bridge was constructed in 1937. In 1853, the steamer ship, S.S. Tennessee, ran aground at a spot that has since been named Tennessee Cove in its honor. Thankfully, 550 passengers and 14 chests of gold all made it safely ashore before the waters of the Pacific tore the ship apart.

Since then, there have been many reports of a ghostly, antique ship passing under the Golden Gate Bridge before disappearing into the fog. Perhaps the most famous sighting occurred in November 1942, when the crew of the USS Kennison claimed to have floated right past the phantom Tennessee; so close the Kennison crew could tell that the steamer ship’s decks were unmanned. The Tennessee was said to leave no wake as it passed, nor did it show up on the Kennison’s radar.
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Do you know any other tales of haunted historic landmarks? Did you quickly debunk all these stories? Tell us all the ghostly details in the comments below.

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Comments (33)

  1. San Antonio is said to be the most haunted city in Texas. The ghost of a little boy who was evacuated before the famous battle can be seen looking out of one of the upper windows of the Alamo during the first few weeks of February. The nearby historic Menger hotel, where Teddy Roosevelt once recruited for his Rough Riders, has plenty of ghost stories of it’s own. The ghost of a hotel maid Sallie White who was shot by her husband in 1876 can be seen wandering the 4th floor. Some claim that the King Ranch room, where Richard King died in 1885, is haunted as well. The hotel claims that they get complaints about paranormal activity once every two or three days, but that all the spirits there are benevolent.

    posted by Kara on 10-28-2011 at 2:15 pm

  2. Al Capone played the banjo?!!

    posted by Tim on 10-28-2011 at 2:31 pm

  3. I stayed at the Menger a couple of years ago – beautiful and historic hotel- never saw a ghost but did encounter many ‘spirits’!

    posted by Da'Guy on 10-28-2011 at 2:36 pm

  4. My husband & I both saw a “ghost man” seated @ the Menger bar years ago. We had just walked in from the outside entrance–sat down @ the end of the bar by the door. The man was @ the opposite end (by door into hotel). He glared @ us, then dissolved into thin air. Only other person in bar was the bartender, & he didn’t see him. We’ve had other experiences there, & all around the Alamo plaza.

    posted by Border Bonnie on 10-28-2011 at 2:39 pm

  5. There’s a hotel in Tampa/St Pete, where the visiting baseball teams stay when they play the Rays that is supposed to be haunted.

    posted by H on 10-28-2011 at 2:56 pm

  6. There are many ghosts that allegedly haunt Lower Fort Garry, an old fur trade fort (and national historic site) in Manitoba, Canada. One of these is said to be the ghost of an 8 or 9 year old boy who died in an explosion caused by careless storage of gunpowder. In the BLACKSMITH’s shop.

    However, being an employee there for four summers and spending more than a few nights camped out in a tipi, I can attest to never seeing anything spooky.

    posted by Bert on 10-28-2011 at 5:18 pm

  7. Wow, Bert, I’ll bet you’re the guy who hands out toothbrushes and copies of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species when kids come up to your door for Trick-or-Treat, aren’t you? Have some fun, man. It’s Halloween!

    posted by HalloweenGuy52 on 10-28-2011 at 5:36 pm

  8. I wonder if Al Capone does a time share? There is a place called the Morse Mill Hotel in the tiny town of Morse Mill, MO that was once a favorite stop for many, just outside of St Louis. Capone was one of several famous visitors, as well as Charles Lindbergh.

    It’s main claim to fame, however, was the first recorded serial killer, Bertha Gifford, who was responsible for several deaths by arsenic poisoning, from her husband to sickly children, who she believed was “helping”.

    There are several spirits in the hotel, including a couple young children as well as a menacing older male, who keeps at least one girl spirit confined in the top floor. There was also, allegedly, a slave killed in the basement, in a small room just off from the kitchen area.

    I spent a very interesting night there once, investigating. We were getting hits on every floor in various locations. Whispers some heard and others next to them didn’t; hard wood shoes on the basement ceiling (NO ONE was wearing any that night, we double-checked); an hour long session with the girl upstairs via speed gun, during which the room became even darker for a minute and one guy passed out; motion sensor tripping when no one was near/moving; and a couple instances of seeing “something” moving when no one was in the area. I chased after one friend who charged after something, only to find an empty hall next to the ‘hanging bed’ room. He asked if I ‘felt that’ as some energy passed through my outer left arm I was holding up, reaching for him. (think a loose drape brushing across your arm, but you couldn’t feel anything but the static electricity from it.)

    Some of the people I was with had just completed a documentary about the place, available on Amazon, “The Morse Mill Project”.

    posted by Brainlock on 10-28-2011 at 6:51 pm

  9. A lot of Civil War battle sites are said to be haunted, particularly Gettysburg. Many of these sites are also national parks. What I’d like to know is why so many Civil War battles took place at national parks.

    posted by Jake A on 10-28-2011 at 7:00 pm

  10. The battlefield at Gettysburgh, PA is crawling with ghosts, because the battle was the bloodiest in American history. An extra from the movie, which was shot on location, told this story: All the extras were driven in costume from the battlefield set to hotels in town, long after dark. One night, this extra remember sitting in the back of a pickup with three other extras. Except sometime during the trip, they picked up another soldier.

    They traveled into town with a silent, original Civil War soldier for miles, who just seemed content to be sitting with other guys who looked like he did. By they time the truck approached town, the soldier disappeared.

    posted by Ethel on 10-28-2011 at 7:09 pm

  11. @ Jake A. I was wondering the same thing. LOL

    posted by Ken C on 10-28-2011 at 7:48 pm

  12. Ken C, I read that question as regularly put to park rangers in “A Confederate in the Attic” and thought it was hilarious.

    posted by Jake A on 10-28-2011 at 8:12 pm

  13. Winchester Mystery House, anybody?

    posted by Cyberjar88 on 10-28-2011 at 8:16 pm

  14. @ Jake A, Yellowstone was the first National Park in 1872, thus Gettysburg was made into a National Park after the Civil War.

    posted by Mira on 10-29-2011 at 7:07 am

  15. Interesting comments. Makes me think more about the living than the dead. Amazing what people will believe I guess reality is too intimidating for some so a fantasy world where the laws of physics do not apply is comfort for some.

    posted by Sarge Vassi on 10-29-2011 at 10:11 am

  16. Jake thanks for the great laugh.

    posted by tommieg on 10-29-2011 at 12:24 pm

  17. The DPRK is still accepting applications for a world with man only without the concept of spirituality or superstitions, so is Cuba last time I heard. Im sure people are just dying to get into both scientific Utopia’s.

    posted by Schaffer on 10-29-2011 at 4:23 pm

  18. Ghosts? Wow, we really need to invest in some science education in this country.

    posted by Ronbo on 10-29-2011 at 5:59 pm

  19. It’s almost Halloween, amigos. Ghost stories are fun even if I don’t believe them for a second.

    It’s like when you think you hear your phone ring or buzz… but NO ONE CALLED. Ahhh!

    posted by anna on 10-29-2011 at 8:35 pm

  20. A few days after Entwhistle’s suicide, her family received word that she had been offered a movie roll, playing the character of an actress that commits suicide.

    posted by Bethany on 10-29-2011 at 8:36 pm

  21. Ghost people claim to see, are just demons screwing with you. (Think of it as an other worldly version of punk’d)

    posted by suprmn06 on 10-29-2011 at 9:43 pm

  22. That was interesting. And “interesting”.

    posted by Muppy on 10-29-2011 at 11:24 pm

  23. Fun stories. Nonsense, of course, and I would be concerned about the mental health of anyone who actually believed them, but still… fun stories.

    posted by KP on 10-30-2011 at 2:52 am

  24. As far as ghost stories go, I don’t know what to relate except maybe to mention the fact that I’ve been DEAD since 1979….

    Mwa-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa!

    posted by Tdave on 10-30-2011 at 12:57 pm

  25. kp dont be so naive, there is nothing that says we dont leave an imprint in time here, Im worried about the mental health of people like you who dont have their minds open, It only takes one ghost story out of the millions of fake ones to be true to prove that there is something strange out there people are seeing

    posted by theory on 10-30-2011 at 1:35 pm

  26. KP, whatever helps you sleep at night. I used to be a non-believer to. However when no less then 6 individuals witnessed what I saw with my very own eyes, 5 other complete strangers,denial is no longer an option. You learn to shut up and accept that what you witnessed must never be discussed unless with those who were present. You just don’t talk about it. I hope you never have to experience that misfortune. I keep telling myself that we all were hallucinating, but how can six random people do so at the same time from different walks of life. I still dont know.

    posted by Dimitri on 10-30-2011 at 5:13 pm

  27. http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/sports/Lakers-Staying-In-Haunted-Hotel-91839319.html

    Several NBA players blamed ghosts at the Skirvin Hotel in OKC for their losses to the Thunder. This is funny to me as OKC is probably one of the quietest cities they visit.

    posted by elizabutt on 10-30-2011 at 10:15 pm

  28. If you ever make it to Texas,go to Austin and take a tour of their Capital complex,the tour guide told us about ghosts that walk the hallways and me not a beliver saw something or someone there ,later that night.

    posted by Dale K on 10-30-2011 at 10:56 pm

  29. I didn’t know that Al and I had musical talents alike:)

    posted by dad on 10-30-2011 at 11:03 pm

  30. @ HalloweenGuy52 – and I bet you’re the kind of guy that makes snap judgments about people based on a few lines of text on a blog comment.

    All I said was that I personally never saw anything. Take your overreactions elsewhere.

    posted by Bert on 10-31-2011 at 10:20 am

  31. Not surprisingly, the Field Museum in Chicago is supposedly haunted too. I was there for a college event after hours once, and was walking around the Egyptian pyramid exhibit in the basement by myself some time around 10:30 p.m., since I love natural history museums and was more interested in seeing the exhibits than partying with the others. I didn’t actually see anything, and there was no one else there, but I kept feeling an ominous presence that felt like a warning. I turned around and left, and it wasn’t until over a year later when I heard on the radio that that particular exhibit is supposed to be haunted.

    I don’t know if it was just nerves or what that gave me that feeling, but all I can say is that I’ve been to other supposedly haunted areas since then (such as the Stanley Hotel in Colorado), and I’ve never felt it since.

    posted by Jina on 10-31-2011 at 10:47 am

  32. Of course, a few years ago, the entire field at Wrigley was dug up and replaced, so Goodman’s ashes (and Grimm’s and anyone elses) would no longer be there to anchor any ghosts to the stadium.

    posted by Steven on 10-31-2011 at 10:55 am

  33. Hmmmm…I know some of the rangers on Alcatraz including several who have worked there about 20 years. None have ever seen or heard ghosts!

    posted by Marcus on 12-8-2011 at 10:02 am

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