No matter your mood, a haunted house can provide thrills or chills in equal measure. Feel the adrenaline pump through your veins as the excitement makes the experience all-the-more immersive – as if you’re part of the movie itself!
Many of these locations have become famous due to being featured on shows such as Ghost Hunters and Paranormal Investigations, here are just a few:
The Spy House
New Jersey’s historic houses are popular attractions during Halloween season for ghost tours and seances, but are also great to visit year-round for an up-close view of state history. Many properties also operate as museums or educational facilities during the daytime hours.
One such place is The Spy House in Leonardo, Monmouth County. According to legend, its name comes from an old tavern owner who would get British troops drunk during the Revolutionary War so they would spill military secrets there. Unfortunately, however, this home wasn’t turned into a tavern until 1910 and there’s little evidence to back this claim up; its real story involves Gertrude Neidlinger who began publicizing it to raise interest; she would lead ghost tours through it while providing ghost tour guides who would share stories about spies and ghostly figures who inhabit its walls!
The Physick Estate
The Physick Estate was constructed in Cape May in 1879 and once served as home to Dr. Emlen Physick and his widowed mother Frances Ralston; maiden aunt Emilie Parmentier lived here as well. Designed by Frank Furness originally, today this historic home serves as headquarters of Mid-Atlantic Center for Arts and Humanities (MAC), who saved it from demolition in 1970.
Physick Estate welcomes visitors year-round for tours that explore Victorian history and culture through its architecture, decorative arts, customs and customary practices. However, some visitors claim to experience paranormal activity such as hearing footsteps or sensing smoke; ghosts of Physick Estate have allegedly left in search of fresh living tenants; some claim hearing footsteps or sensing smoke themselves!
Ringwood Manor
At this popular haunted house, for the price of going to the movies you can experience two distinct scares! This volunteer-run house features both “Face Your Nightmares” and a Haunted Attic sections. They even offer discounted ID rates on select days for military members, college students, and law enforcement officers!
This historic house museum can be found in Ringwood, NJ as part of the state park system and boasts extensive collections that illustrate family life, community life, industry and culture in New Jersey.
Many visitors have reported spotting ghostly figures at the manor, such as an unsettled spirit standing over Robert Erskine’s gravestone and another carrying a blue lantern through the cemetery.
Psycho-sensitive people have reported feeling chills and cold, clammy sensations throughout the house. Additionally, staff have reported hearing two distinct sets of footsteps coming from various directions as well as doors being left wide open when nobody was around.
Proprietary House
Historic and haunted attractions alike will delight history enthusiasts, while thrill-seekers have reported hearing footsteps of soldiers as well as witnessing ghostly apparitions and hearing their cries for help. Visitors have even reported hearing footsteps as they wandered along its winding paths – and hearing what some have described as ghostly apparitions and screaming voices!
The Shippen family made headlines throughout the American Revolution for their involvement as British spies; one member became an agent for them. Later on, their manor was sold to another early American family known as Scrantons; it has since served as both private residence and retirement home for Presbyterian ministers.
Completed in 1764, The Proprietary House stands as one of thirteen original colonies’ only remaining royal governor’s mansions. Once home to William Franklin – New Jersey’s last Royal Governor and son of Benjamin Franklin. William ran lotteries to support farmers while also creating programs to aid them; his loyalist leanings caused friction with his father over time. Since then it has also served as private residence, stylish hotel, retirement home, boarding house or boarder house.
