Readers Respond: What's the spookiest building you've ever seen?

Responses: 32

By Jackie Craven, About.com Guide

See More About:

This isn't a building it's a city - Savannah, Ga. My husband and I took a carriage tour and the stories of hauntings were wonderful. My favorite was the ghost who took the phone off the hook if it kept ringing and no one answered it. Wish she lived here! The Pirate's House, an old restaurant there where pirates drank and shanghaied people in a tunnel to the docks is also very interesting. It's like a maze.
—catlady3

On Jekyll Island, Georgia, there is the shell of a tabby-walled house, Horton House. I believe it was once attacked by the Spanish during the Battle of Bloody Marsh near there. Even though it is roofless and the sun shines in and makes shadows of the beams, it is scary. I always feel as if something bad happened there. My niece, who visited it separately and didn't know my reaction, felt the same.
—catlady3

When I was 18, in mid October of 1989 in Hillsboro, OH, I rented a room in the second story of a private home of a middle aged oriental couple. The couple rented out the only two rooms/shared bath of the second floor. The room was empty when I looked at it...even the closet. There was only a single radiator that heat radiated from. After I went downstairs and paid the woman, I went back upstairs to find it had contents in the closet....OLD ONES! There was a book of homes where people would put you up over night when traveling in 1904! There was a suitcase of various articles of OLD clothing, including a corset for a rather large woman. I left them there, but was rather intrigued. A couple of nights later, suddenly the artificial flowers on the mantle of the unused fireplace started blowing around, the curtains blew away from the windows, and the pages of the calendar started flipping up one by one. I laid there horrified in the bed for a few moments until it just stopped. SPOOKY!
—judypruitt

The Driskill Hotel in Austin, TX. Even the band Concrete Blonde wrote a song about their stay there while on tour with Madonna. I think it might be called "The Ghost Of A Texas Ladies Man". Stayed there several years ago. I love spooky, but this one is weird.
—Guest marlobailey

Just outside Ofsenca, Missouri is a mystic light that appears in the east on a dirt road. It is called the spook light. Old tales are that an Indian lost his head to a knife and now walks every night looking for his head. This is real and has been researched by thousands and cannot be disclaimed. You need to go there - It is spooky. I have been there many times.
—Guest ERVIN CLAYTON

When you walk into what was the war room in World War 2, the tension is still there. Security staff would not enter A block on Friday nights because they could hear someone moving around in the war room.I usually do not believe in ghosts but I have heard those footsteps. They may be the footsteps of a general. ~ John Collins
—Guest cmagpie563

There is a red Victorian house in the desert near 29 Palms, Ca. There isn't another structure for many miles - creepy!
—Guest Jenifer

You are right.. it's spooky but absolutely gorgeous! We live here and it's taken for granted. Maybe we need Ghost Hunters to investigate! Come and visit, but not in the winter.. too much snow!
—Guest Lin

C'mon! Scotland saw some of the nastiest times, in prisons, executions and plain ol' treachery. Walking through the prison/dungeon at Edinburgh Castle was not a little icky.
—animatedtv

Glamis Castle, Scotland. I was always a sceptic when it came to the paranormal. Abnormal, I thought.This place changed my mind!! There was a spooky atmosphere as soon as I entered the grounds. A distinct chill entered bones and it was one of the hottest days of that year! The tour of the castle was very entertaining but I was ill at ease the whole time at Glamis. It is certainly not a place to be after dark. Scotland has a long and dark history, but this place frightened me and I don't frighten easily.
—algolz

My sister was looking for a house to buy in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. One house we went into sent ice cold chills up and down my back. It was like someone was pushing me out the door and I felt rather than heard a voice saying, "Don't ever come back here." Something evil happened in that place.
—Guest Michelle Langshaw

The way that stairs end at a door with nothing behind it, creeps me out. Poor Sarah!
—Guest Angel

It is an eight-sided house where a lot of Civil War soldiers died. I didn't feel anything while I was there, but if you go, ask to hear the recordings.
—dahlia66

Could my house qualify for inclusion? I go to sleep quite wealthy and wake up broke. My wife denies all liability for this phenomenon, so I guess it must be a ghostly activity.
—Guest Weggie

The Tower of London? Windsor Castle? Drury Lane Theatre? The Theatre Royal Haymarket? Chillingham Castle? But Graceland is number 1? Please...
—Guest montimsjf

There is an old castle on Shawnee road in the Rosedale area of Kansas City, Ks that was originally built by Anton Saur in the 1800's. It has a 3 story hand carved stair case and catacombs and all kinds of neat stuff. It is now abandoned, but is on the National Historic Register. There are all kinds of neat stories about its hauntings. A couple wanted to get married in the library, during a restoration. When they were doing some scraping on the ceiling, a news paper clipping fell out from the late 1800's or early 1900's. The bride in the clipping was wearing the exact same wedding dress as the new bride had chosen, right down to the inset lace in the bodice that met in a V just above her waist, with a fabric rose at the point. It has twin stone lions at the door step, to guard it from trespassers.
—MAGGIELANDIS

Three times I've tried to go in the catwalk room where the propellers are visible in the water and three times I've been so spooked out that I've had to leave the area. They say the ship is haunted and I am a STRONG believer that it is. It sends chills down my spine just thinking about going in that area again. And I don't know why.....weird!
—deboerzoo

Previous16-32 of 32

Jackie Craven
Architecture Guide