America is packed with places that don’t stay silent. From iconic hotels with decades of ghost stories to banned towns cloaked in fear and mystery, the hunt for the most haunted spot in the country never really ends. Some are tied to documented tragedies, others to whispered legends, but all continue to draw curious visitors.
In this list, we explore 13 places where those eerie stories feel impossible to ignore. Expect historic mansions, abandoned hospitals, unsettling towns, and legendary landmarks, each sparking debate over what’s real and what’s imagined.
13. Dock Street Theater (Charleston, South Carolina)
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Dock Street Theater holds a rare spot in American theater history. First opened in 1736 as a performance venue, it later operated as the Planters Hotel before returning to its theatrical roots.
Charleston Stage reports that the building has endured fires, renovations, and centuries of change, all while staying active in Charleston’s historic district.
For a glimpse inside, a TikTok video from @the_traveling_drifter shows the interior today. The creator shares claims from actors who say they often sense someone behind them onstage or in the wings, only to turn and find no one there.
The theater’s haunted reputation stems from its complex history. Ghost City Tours details reports of voices with no source, unexplained changes in lighting, and ghostly figures in period dress. Stories tied to past performers and residents remain a regular part of the theater’s lore.
12. Myrtles Plantation (St. Francisville, Louisiana)
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The Myrtles Plantation stands at the crossroads of tragedy, memory, and legend, earning a lasting reputation as one of the South’s most haunted estates.
A TikTok video shared by @witchvoid lingers in the mansion’s shadowed hallways, portraying a place weighed down by history.
Today, it operates as a bed-and-breakfast and offers mystery tours that attract curious guests.
The plantation’s official site says the property was founded in 1796 and became a working plantation sustained through enslaved labor. It saw multiple deaths, illness outbreaks, and wartime use as a hospital during the Civil War, creating the grim backdrop for many ghost stories linked to the house.
As noted by National Geographic, the estate’s haunted reputation comes not from a single moment but from centuries of trauma involving slavery, violence, and loss. One of its most enduring legends centers on an enslaved girl named Chloe, whose story still echoes through visitor accounts.
11. Winchester Mystery House (San Jose, California)
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A recent post from the official @winchestermysteryhouse Instagram account shows staff covering mirrors and decorating rooms with Victorian mourning customs. These traditions reflect the influence of Sarah Winchester, the mansion’s original owner and the visionary behind its design.
The video also highlights how the house has become a carefully maintained tourist destination while honoring its eerie past.
According to the house’s official site, Sarah Winchester began expanding the property in the late 1800s, guiding nonstop construction that produced staircases to nowhere, doors that open into walls, and oddly shaped rooms with no clear function.
These unusual architectural choices reinforced the belief that she was building to appease or confuse spirits.
San Francisco Travel explains the home’s legend has sparked several movie and TV adaptations, including the 2018 horror film Winchester.
Today, seasonal tours and immersive events help preserve its legacy, blending unsettling design with a deeper historical mystique.
10. The Stanley Hotel (Estes Park, Colorado)
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Overlooking Estes Park with sweeping views of the Rockies, the Stanley Hotel is known for more than its scenery. Built in 1909 by F.O. Stanley, the elegant property was originally a luxury mountain retreat.
Visit Estes Park confirms that author Stephen King’s stay during a winter storm inspired The Shining, securing the hotel’s status as a pop-culture icon rooted in fear.
That eerie legacy thrives online. In a TikTok post, @honeybunches.of.oat shares nighttime footage capturing strange static and low sounds. These brief moments continue to draw visitors curious about the hotel’s supernatural reputation.
On-site accounts add to that mystery. Guests often report unexplained noises, flickering lights, or a heavy feeling in certain rooms.
The Stanley Hotel’s official site notes that guided nighttime experiences invite visitors to explore these claims through hands-on investigations and historical storytelling.
9. Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (Weston, West Virginia)
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Towering over Weston with its grand Kirkbride-style design, the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum has become a lasting symbol of America’s psychiatric past.
CNN Travel reports the asylum operated from the mid-1800s to the late 20th century and became known for extreme overcrowding, decaying infrastructure, and patient isolation, conditions that still haunt its legacy.
Now open year-round, the Asylum’s official site states that the building offers daily tours and overnight investigations.
Visitors, staff, and ghost hunters have described shadowy figures, strange voices, and moments of unexplained cold. These recurring reports underpin the site’s paranormal programming.
One story that resurfaces often is that of Lilly, said to be the spirit of a nine-year-old girl.
In a TikTok video by @doshialeann, the creator records a moment where a ball appears to change direction and roll back toward her after she asks Lilly to move it.
8. Waverly Hills Sanatorium (Louisville, Kentucky)
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Before paranormal TV shows made it famous, Waverly Hills Sanatorium had already earned its reputation as a hotspot for unexplained phenomena.
Over the years, staff, volunteers, and investigators have reported hearing voices, footsteps, and sudden screams in otherwise empty halls.
In an interview with Kentucky Edition, firsthand witnesses describe eerie sensations and strange sightings that continue to lure ghost hunters from across the country.
The sanatorium’s official site explains how decades of abandonment fueled its reputation as haunted. Shadow figures, slamming doors, and recurring appearances of a spirit known as “the man in white” helped shape its legend, alongside a playful ghost child nicknamed Timmy.
Even volunteers restoring the property have reported unexplained activity.
Today, the building offers public tours, after-hours ghost hunts, and seasonal events.
That visibility extends to social media as well. A recent Instagram post by @the_waverly_hills_sanatorium features footage of distant screams echoing in silence, reigniting online curiosity.
7. Villisca Axe Murder House (Villisca, Iowa)
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This small white house in Iowa is tied to one of the country’s most chilling unsolved murders. In 1912, eight people, including six children, were killed with an axe while they slept. Over a century later, the killer remains unidentified.
People call it one of America’s most haunting cold cases, one that continues to stir speculation and fear.
Now open as a dark-tourism site, the house lets guests explore the murder scene and even spend the night. That rare access keeps it listed among the scariest places on earth.
The house’s official site notes that since it opened to the public in the 1990s, visitors have reported overwhelming dread, strange sounds, rolling fog, and electronic voice phenomena captured during investigations.
That reputation lives online as well. In a TikTok video, @hollywillig shares her experience staying overnight despite never having encountered anything paranormal before.
She describes the house as feeling “distinctly evil.” The Villisca Axe Murder House remains a site where fear feels disturbingly close to fact.
6. LaLaurie Mansion (New Orleans, Louisiana)
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A TikTok video from creator @ghoulplease_ shows the LaLaurie Mansion’s quiet exterior along Royal Street in the French Quarter. Its plain appearance contrasts with the sinister legacy still tied to its name, a reputation rooted in cruelty rather than design.
Historical records cited by New Orleans Historical and summarized by Business Insider recount how a fire in 1834 uncovered the abuse of enslaved people by socialite Delphine LaLaurie.
Public outrage followed, and a mob destroyed much of the building while LaLaurie fled the city. Though rebuilt and repurposed over the years, the mansion’s horrific past remains inseparable from its identity.
Valued at $10.25 million, the property is privately owned and closed to interior tours, but it remains a staple on French Quarter ghost tours. Visitors have reported uneasy sensations near the site, and renewed interest from real estate buzz and pop culture keeps its eerie reputation alive.
5. RMS Queen Mary (Long Beach, California)
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Once a British ocean liner, the RMS Queen Mary now serves as a floating hotel and museum, and one of California’s most infamous haunted spots.
In a TikTok video, @moniqueyy11 shares a guide’s story of visitors feeling overwhelmed or ill in a specific area tied to tragic deaths on the ship’s lower decks.
World of Cruising reports claims of disembodied voices, cold spots, and figures spotted in empty corridors. These recurring phenomena are most often associated with the engine room, swimming pools, and certain staterooms.
Rather than downplaying the ship’s eerie lore, the Queen Mary’s official site promotes it, offering ghost tours and nighttime experiences such as the Haunted Encounters Tour, which explores the vessel’s darkest legends.
4. Eastern State Penitentiary (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
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Opened in 1829, Eastern State Penitentiary was once praised as a progressive experiment in prison reform. Over time, its harsh isolation practices and crumbling structure created a darker legacy.
Smithsonian Magazine notes that its radial layout and solitary confinement model shaped other facilities, while critics pointed to psychological harm and inhumane conditions.
After closing in 1971, the site deteriorated. Today, it operates as a museum by day and a haunted destination by night. Its official ghost tour site invites guests to explore after dark with options from historical tours to immersive ghost hunts. Visitors have reported cold spots, whispers, and slamming cell doors.
That haunting presence lives on in social media. In a TikTok video shared by @theparanormalfiles, the creators capture faint voices and knocks during a walkthrough, clips that keep Eastern State high on the list for ghost hunters.
3. North Brother Island (New York City, New York)
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A TikTok clip from explorer @shadesofbiack captures the forbidden decay of North Brother Island. In the video, the creator canoes ashore and films crumbling hospital buildings now overtaken by vegetation, describing an overnight stay on an island closed to the public.
This closure is enforced due to hazardous structures and the island’s protected status as a nesting ground, according to NYC Parks. The island once housed Riverside Hospital, which operated from the 19th century through World War II, treating smallpox, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases.
It also held Mary Mallon, known as “Typhoid Mary,” in forced quarantine until her death.
As Secret NYC reports, the site’s abandonment and its link to tragedies such as the 1904 General Slocum disaster have intensified its haunted reputation.
Its inaccessibility only deepens the mystery, making North Brother Island one of America’s most unsettling forbidden destinations.
2. Dudleytown (Cornwall, Connecticut)
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People often describe the area as one of the creepiest town sites in America, while online adventurers frame it as Connecticut’s most cursed town.
In a recent TikTok video, @lakersadventures focuses less on sightseeing and more on absence: no cell service, no legal entry, and strict private-property boundaries that have turned the area into one of the most forbidden locations associated with paranormal activity.
According to US Ghost Adventures, Dudleytown was settled in 1747 and later abandoned after a long series of misfortunes, including suicides, unexplained deaths, mental breakdowns, and recurring claims of shadowy figures and strange presences tied to the surrounding Dark Entry Forest.
These events form the backbone of the town’s haunted legacy and continue to fuel speculation that the land itself is cursed.
At the same time, the Cornwall Historical Society disputes the supernatural claims entirely. Their research suggests many of the so-called curse narratives are exaggerated or fictionalized accounts of ordinary hardships faced by early settlers.
That tension between local legend and documented history, combined with the site’s current inaccessibility, keeps Dudleytown alive in modern folklore.
1. The Conjuring House (Harrisville, Rhode Island)
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The 1736 farmhouse became infamous after the Perron family reported a series of disturbing, unexplained encounters in the 1970s.
According to the New York Post, Andrea Perron described experiences that included levitating furniture, violent scenes, and encounters serious enough to bring Ed and Lorraine Warren to the property for a paranormal investigation.
In recent years, the house has remained in the spotlight for reasons that blur reality and legend.
A TikTok video widely shared by @madison.heinzen207 revealed that the Conjuring House was headed for auction on October 31, describing the moment as deeply emotional rather than sensational.
She reflects on the pain and uncertainty of watching the house change hands after her family sold it in 2022, calling it a place that permanently shaped her life and identity.
People reported that the property was headed for a Halloween foreclosure auction after town officials declined to renew the owner’s entertainment license for the site, amid controversy and growing friction with locals.
Now closed to the public, the house’s uncertain future has only intensified its reputation. Even without access, it remains the most haunted place in America.
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