Book a night at these real haunted houses – if you dare
Haunted houses staffed by locals donning Jason masks are good for a thrill, but for the hardcore scare enthusiasts, nothing beats authenticity.
Those who delight in true-crime and apparitions can travel to scenes of real grisly murders and heinous atrocities that are well-known for their paranormal activity.
Haunting can be bad for business, but not for these places. The bravest can even stay an entire night, spending anywhere from $100 to almost $500 testing their wills. And when something out of the ordinary happens during your stay, don’t say you weren’t warned.
Northeast
Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast and Museum in Fall River, Massachusetts
Nearly 130 years later, Lizzie Borden’s crime lives on in rhyme:
Lizzie Borden took an ax,
And gave her mother forty whacks;
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.
On Aug. 4, 1892, the bodies of Lizzie’s father and stepmother, Andrew and Abby Borden, were found bludgeoned beyond recognition in their home. Investigators pointed to Lizzie, the couple’s youngest daughter – then 32 – as the prime suspect, citing her financial motivation to collect on her hefty inheritance.
Wary of the legitimacy of fingerprint evidence at the time, the jury ultimately acquitted Lizzie and no one was ever charged with the double murder.
Now a museum and bed and breakfast, the Borden’s home has been preserved for posterity and looks practically identical to its 1892 state, complete with original crime scene photos from the murder case.
Those brave enough to stay the night may meet the home’s other guests. Lizzie reportedly still laughs late at night about getting away with murder. The ghosts of her parents and the housekeeper, who was spared from the murder, also wander the home, according to lore.
Rates: $480 per night with a two-night minimum to rent the entire home that sleeps 19 guests in six bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms.
Southeast
Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana
Built in 1796, the Myrtles Plantation changed hands several times until 1820 when William Winter and his family called it home. When Winter’s three-year-old daughter fell ill, he tapped Chloe, a slave from a neighboring plantation who toiled in voodoo to save her.
According to lore, Winter’s daughter died and he killed Chloe out of retaliation. Years later, Winter was murdered in his home and the property has been the scene of eight other murders since then.
An apparition of a young girl dressed in Victorian-era clothing has been captured in photographs on the plantation. Visitors also have reported cold drafts and objects that inexplicably move between rooms.
The home was purchased by the current owners in 1992 and they maintain that, while the home does have its share of supernatural residents, there’s nothing evil or sinister about their presence. But you can be the judge of that when you stay in one of the 19 bedrooms.
Rates: From $175 to $400 per bedroom, including breakfast and a mystery tour
Midwest
Villisca Ax Murder House in Villisca, Iowa
It’s been 107 years since eight people were brutally murdered in Villisca, Iowa, but the murderer’s identity remains a mystery.
In 1912, Josiah B. Moore, his wife Sarah, their four children, and two of their childrens’ friends were killed with an ax while sleeping at night. No one was convicted of the murders nor did a prime suspect emerge.
The home’s bone-chilling history has fascinated paranormal experts who have recorded disembodied footsteps, voices and screams, flying objects, and apparitions inside it.
Not only do you have to be fearless to stay in the Moore home, but you also have to be comfortable roughing it. The owners are so committed to authenticity that the home has not been outfitted with modern amenities like running water and electricity.
Rates: $428 for overnight tours for groups of 10
Great Plains
The Skirvin Hilton Hotel in Oklahoma City
The Skirvin Hilton Hotel even makes NBA players shudder. While staying in the haunted hotel, players have reported hearing creaks and noises in the middle of the night, doors opening and slamming shut, bathtubs inexplicably filled with water, and a woman’s voice propositioning them or her figure appearing before them in the shower.
Effie, the ghost in residence, is believed to be a former hotel housekeeper and the culprit of the paranormal behavior. According to legend, Effie was the mistress of the hotel’s widowed owner, William Skirvin. When she became pregnant, Skirvin banished her to a locked room in the hotel, even after she had their baby. The solitude and shame were too much for Effie and she jumped to her death with their baby in her arms.
The hotel denies the property is haunted or that a housekeeper named Effie ever existed. Instead, the 108-year-old luxury hotel bills itself as one of the finest stays money can buy in Oklahoma City.
Rates: Rooms start at $143 per night
Rocky Mountains
The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado
For something to scare Stephen King, you know it has to be categorically and indisputably terrifying.
After spending one night at the isolated Colorado mountain hotel, King was inspired to write “The Shining” based on the lore of the hotel’s proprietors, F.O. and Flora Stanley. The pair opened the resort in 1909 and are rumored to still wander the grounds, play piano and occasionally appear in photographs.
One of the property’s other notorious ghostly residents is Elizabeth Wilson, a deceased housekeeper whose rounds included room 217. A traditionalist even in death, Elizabeth doesn’t approve when unmarried guests stay together in room 217, and couples report feeling a chill between them in bed at night.
Guests also describe supernatural phenomena like luggage being packed or unpacked, moving furniture, doors opening and shutting, lights flickering, and disembodied voices speaking in the hallways.
The hotel embraces its poltergeists and accommodates guests who want to ghost-hunt in the Stephen King Suite 217 as well as the other famously spirited rooms: 401, 407 and 428.
Rates: Rooms start at $389 per night
Pacific Northwest
Heceta Head Lighthouse Bed & Breakfast in Yachats, Oregon
The Heceta Head Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast carries the reputation as one of the most haunted spots on the West Coast.
Situated on Oregon’s stunning and rustic coastline, the building’s lighthouse is 125 years old and haunted by a spirit named Rue, who is occasionally seen by the inn’s staff and guests as a gray-haired woman wearing Victorian-era clothes.
The wife of a former lighthouse keeper and the mother of a daughter who is believed to be buried on the grounds after she died in an accident, Rue remains very territorial of her former home, even in death. Reports circulate of items being moved or rearranged, noises from the empty attic, sounds of breaking glass, and an invisible presence that leaves a depression on freshly made beds.
The innkeepers don’t go so far as to call Rue a friendly ghost, but they maintain she’s not a threatening presence and is accepted as a part of the house and its history.
Rates: Rooms for $245 to $365 per night. The entire six-bedroom, five-bathroom home can be rented for $1,803 per night.
Southwest
Hotel Monte Vista, Flagstaff, Arizona
It must be the arid desert air that makes Hotel Monte Vista guests stay for an eternity.
The hotel’s storied past includes a grisly tale of two prostitutes who were thrown from a third-floor window in the 1940s and continue to make their presence known to male guests. There’s also another long-term, now deceased guest who had a peculiar habit of hanging raw meat from the chandelier in room 210 when he was alive. Now as a ghost, he reportedly likes to place his cold hands on the backs of guests.
Staff and guests report an all-around eerie feeling that they’re not alone. Among the oft-reported strangeness is a ghostly woman in a rocking chair, a piercing cry from an infant that’s heard but never seen, a translucent couple waltzing in the hotel’s cocktail lounge, and a phantom bellhop who often knocks on doors, announces “room service” and disappears.
Rates: Rooms range from $100 through $160 per night
Stephanie is a writer for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @SJAsymkos.
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