The United States’ spookiest cities pulse with an otherworldly energy, haunted not just by history, but by something far less explainable. Shaped by hard labor and toil, bloody history, and generations of unrest, these cities aren’t just rich in heritage. They’re alive with ghost stories, local legends, and unexplained encounters that continue to draw thrill seekers and history lovers alike.
Here are the most haunted cities in the US.
New Orleans
The LaLaurie Mansion – Copyright US Ghost Adventures
There’s just something about New Orleans that’s hard to put your finger on. On the one hand, it’s a hip and magical city, full of artists and musicians. The historical French Quarter is just a magical place to walk through, and the ornate French-style balconies most definitely have stories to tell.
On the other hand, New Orleans has a certain darkness to it, a sinister side that you just can’t seem to escape. That should come as no surprise, though, when you learn of the true history of New Orleans.
Many think that it’s due to the numerous shamans, voodoo masters, and satanists who called New Orleans home. Others think it’s due to the old age of the houses in the French Quarter – in old houses, it’s likely that many people died inside, leading to the presence of ghosts and spirits.
Both are correct, but there is more to the story, of course. The area where the French Quarter was founded had a long history before the French came to the American shores. It was a center of trade, where numerous tribes came together; the Choctaw named it Bulbancha, or The Land of Many Tongues.
In the first half of the 19th century, New Orleans served as the center of the domestic slave trade, where enslaved people were moved from the Upper South to the Deep South.
Thus you can see that New Orleans, despite its upbeat vibes and cheerful festivals, has a dark and sordid past. It was also home to some unique characters, such as Marie Laveau, a voodoo practitioner, herbalist, rootwork and conjure practitioner, saloonist, midwife, and Roman Catholic. She was born a free woman of color in 1801, and her grave is visited by wish seekers to this day.
Another Marie who called New Orleans home was Marie Delphine LaLaurie. Unlike Marie Laveau, Marie LaLaurie was a serial killer and sadist, a truly evil human being. For years, she brutally tortured her slaves, subjecting them to extreme cruelty and violence. It was only during a house fire when the slaves were discovered by the fire department. From a hole in one’s head to bloody gashes in another to others who were found bound in contorted positions with their limbs hanging from their sockets, the brutality and sadism shocked the town.
Many of the slaves had died over the years, as it was later discovered. Others appeared to have been subjected to cruel medical experiments (LaLaurie had married a doctor, her third husband).
As a mob gathered around the LaLaurie’s house, the LaLauries fled, making their way to the dock and eventually to France, where they lived out the remainder of their lives. After her death, though, strange things started occurring at the LaLaurie Mansion. It was later turned into a girl’s school, and the girls showed up regularly with bruises and other injuries, which they claimed to have come from a mysterious redheaded woman, who was never to be found.
Over the years, the LaLaurie Mansion changed hands frequently. Many owners fell on hard times and were forced to sell it. Today, it’s owned as a private residence by one fearless businessman.
Baltimore
The House You Came In On Saloon – Copyright Baltimore Ghosts
Baltimore, Maryland, has been haunted by the death of famed poet Edgar Allan Poe ever since his mysterious and unusual death in 1849.
Poe was found in front of The Horse You Came In On Saloon, one of Baltimore’s most haunted bars, befuddled and in a clearly confused mental state. He was wearing ill-fitting clothes that were clearly not his own, yet he couldn’t explain how or why. He was rushed to the hospital, where he incoherently mumbled and called out the name Reynolds before passing the next morning.
According to the attending physician, the poet’s last words were “Lord help my poor soul.” Poe’s death certificate and other relevant medical records were, unfortunately, lost, but newspapers at the time reported his cause of death to be congestion and inflammation of the brain. At the time, such terms were commonly used as a polite way to refer to alcoholic overdoses.
While Poe was known to enjoy a drink or two, numerous other theories have been floated as to his true cause of death, including heart disease, carbon monoxide poisoning, undetected rabies, and even syphilis.
One interesting theory is that his death resulted from a form of election fraud that was common at that time, called cooping. Hired gangs working for corrupt politicians would kidnap unsuspecting individuals – they would often target people drinking at bars who were already somewhat intoxicated.
They would ply the victim with more alcohol and beat him under threats of death until they achieved compliance. They would then use a variety of disguises to dress the poor guy up as different people – wigs, fake beards, and different costumes would assist with the deception. They would then march him off to the polling booth again and again, voting as many times as possible while fooling the officials into thinking it was someone else.
Of course, no photo ID was required at that time.
By doing this with enough people, they would be able to garner enough votes in favor of the candidate who hired them and change the outcome of the election. It would certainly explain why Poe was wearing unusual clothes, although there’s no hard evidence that this theory is the correct one.
In either case, the bar in which Poe was last seen drinking – called The Horse by locals – is said to be haunted by Poe’s ghost. The owner has set aside a seat for Poe, and nobody dares sit there unless they want Poe’s ghost to snatch the chair out from under them!
Bartenders also put out a glass of cognac, Poe’s favorite drink, every night. Mysteriously, it empties, seemingly out of nowhere.
Annapolis
Source: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Just south of Baltimore lies Annapolis, another of America’s most haunted cities. In fact, the entire region is haunted.
In Crownsville, an area with a population of 1,700 just in between Baltimore and Annapolis and eight miles from Annapolis lies the abandoned Crownsville Hospital Center.
It was first opened in 1911 as the Hospital for the Negro Insane of Maryland and is truly one of the darkest, most horrid places in Maryland. Understaffed and overpopulated, with only a handful staff members available to help hundreds of patients at any given time, patients languished in poor conditions similar to the worst prisons, lying on the floor naked all day and barely getting any food or drink.
It had a considerably high death rate compared to other hospitals, and not everyone who was there was truly mentally challenged. For example, one man was sent there for speaking with a British accent – it was considered highly unusual for a black man to be speaking in such an accent, although the man hailed from London.
Tuberculosis, scarlet fever, and smallpox killed many of its residents. Treatment included forced labor (so-called industrial therapy), electroshocks, and malaria therapy, in which patients were injected with malaria pathogens to induce fever and cure psychosis.
The last patients were transferred out in the early 2000s, but the campus is still haunted by the troubles of its past.
Of course, there is no shortage of haunted places in Annapolis itself, either, such as the spooky Maryland Inn and the Rams Head Tavern. To explore Annapolis’s most haunted places, I recommend taking an Annapolis ghost tour or haunted pub crawl.
