Haunted Philadelphia (Chester, Washington, Brookhaven: houses, high school, college)

[Wolfess]

Anyone have any ghost stories to tell, unexplained paranormal experiences in Philly?

I've heard that the Eastern State Penitentiary is haunted, and I'm eager to see the episode of Ghost Adventures (a show I discovered on the travel channel) where they go explore it. It's supposed to air on the 10th.

So anyway, besides that, are there any other known haunted locations in philly?

Tell all, I'm curious and would love to hear stories.

[bambiying]

You've never taken the ghost tour? It goes all around center city at dusk and tells you all about the spooky stuff. Nice little tour...I recommend it.

[juniperbleu]

There's tons. Actually, there's a book by Charles J. Adams III ("Philadelphia Ghost Stories"), among others. Eastern State Penitentiary is one, Independence Hall is supposedly haunted, as are a few squares in Old City. There's also some near Chestnut Hill where the Battle of Germantown took place. Take the ghost tour, it's a lot of fun and will answer your question. You might also be interested in checking out New Hope, PA and Cape May, NJ. Both are supposed to have a lot of hauntings.

As far as personal stories, I just know that I had a friend in high school who claimed her house was haunted, and then my parents lived in a haunted house somewhere around here when they were first married. My mother also thinks that there was a ghost in the house she lived in during college in Kutztown. There's a lot of old houses in the area with significant events, not to mention battles and parts of the Underground Railroad, so it's not surprising.

[docindigo76]

I had a strange personal experience at Independence Hall. I was out there taking some night photos and had passed by the Barry statue in the back. I situated myself so that I could take a nice photo of the building, when my camera freaked out--I have no other way to describe what happened--all the focus points in my viewfinder blinked red and the camera beeped like crazy as it does when it is focusing. I cannot rule out that I pressed a strange combination of buttons to make it do such, but some of my photos that I took that night, using flash, had some...interesting shapes in them. I ain't saying said shapes were one thing or another, and they could very well have been dust particles in the air that bounced off my flash, but it's still neat to think I may have been in the company of spirits in the area.

[Sassygirl18]

TAPS (the guys from the SciFi Channel show, Ghost Hunters), did an investigation at Eastern State Penitentiary and captured footage of a ghost that was really creepy.

ESP is the creepiest place I have ever set foot into.

[Boeing]

I'm a skeptic myself, but Philly has its nice aesthetically creepy areas and gory history. The big ghost tour company in town does a good job, it's more gory history than lame ghost stories, which as a history buff is all the more better in my book.

Eastern State is definitely creepy, nice peeling paint and echoes. Independence Halls' second floor was used as a hospital for wounded soldiers at one point. Washington Square was a potter's field, bodies are a foot below the ground, and are routinely found by dogs and maintainable workers alike. Whenever they dig there they cordon off the area so no one gets into the graves. They find bodies of dead Irishmen under trolley tracks and the rail lines, they were the ones who built the railroads, and when they dropped dead they buried them in mass graves and kept on building. Also the trolleys, during the Spanish Flu, were used to transport corpses. You'd leave grandma in her coffin outside the house and the next morning the corpse trolley would come along and take it down to the cemetery. Laurel Hill Cemetery is amazing, I know the guy who gives the tours there, there has been at least 3 suicides there in recent years, and like Copp's Hill in Boston there are a lot of creepy monuments. Also almost every father of the city was buried there, on all the markers there are just names and names you recognize since they all had streets named after them.

[MoorestownResident]

South Jersey Ghost Research

I stumbled upon this website that has studies from the various haunted houses, prisons, etc., including the Burlington County jail in Mount Holly which is said to be haunted. I did tour that jail several years ago and it is a bit creepy. I have no interest in exploring hauntings but I suspect the vast majority can be explained in some way.

The 'evidence' these research bodies collect are orbs or what look like light circles in pictures - could be anything. The sound recordings they collect are pretty cool in some cases.

[Sassygirl18]

Ghost Hunters also did an investigation on the Burlington County jail in Mt. Holly and found some evidence of paranormal activity there.

[Mr. Opinion]

I used to work at Pep Boys in Brookhaven, PA.


Me and this guy (Keeping his name anonymous) would meet up at 22nd and Egdemont to walk to work.

Well one day we walked past Chester Park and we noticed a Red Ball.

The guy I was walking with picked the ball up and told me he had a ball like this as a kid. He said he had an imaginary friend named Timmy and they would play kick ball in his basement.

After busting his chops he kicked the ball into the street and a car ran over the ball and we heard a pop.

God's my witness!!

The very next day we arrived at work and that ball we thought was destroyed was at our job!

That guy was so freak out, he never came back to work!

[Wolfess]

Last night I watched my recorded episode of Ghost Adventures spending a night at the Eastern State Penitentiary, and it seemed to be pretty haunted! It was really interesting to hear some about the history and what kinds of spirits might be lurking. Even when they toured it first in the daytime, it looked really creepy! I'm really interested to check it out now (but only in the day!), though I'd be afraid to go alone!