Robert the Doll, the hanging tree, and island ghosts. Key West's 13 haunted stops. 3 free, self-guided.
Key West's cemetery holds nearly 100,000 dead — outnumbering the living three to one. The most haunted places on this island start with Robert the Doll, a handmade figure given to four-year-old Robert Eugene Otto in 1904, now locked in a glass case at the East Martello Museum after seven decades of documented disturbances. Captain Tony's Saloon at 428 Greene Street was built as a morgue in 1852 and still has a gravestone embedded in its floor. Barbara Mabrity kept the Key West Lighthouse burning for nearly 30 years after her husband Michael died in 1832, becoming one of America's first female lighthouse keepers. Fort Zachary Taylor was built with slave labor starting in 1845 — over 400 enslaved people worked these grounds. Walk 13 free, self-guided stops through the island's darkest history.
In 1904, Robert Eugene Otto received an unusual birthday gift from his grandfather—a handmade doll from the Steiff Company in Germany. The young artis...
Built in 1852 as an ice house and morgue, 428 Greene Street has absorbed death into its very bones. During the Spanish-American War in 1898, the wirel...
Before tourists sipped margaritas here, this site served as Key West's morgue in the 1890s. Bodies washed ashore from shipwrecks lined the tables—sail...
Established in 1847 after an 1846 hurricane scattered corpses from the old cemetery across the island, this 19-acre graveyard holds more dead than liv...
Construction began in 1845 using slave labor leased from local owners—over 400 enslaved people worked these grounds. On January 13, 1861, Captain John...
Before Robert the Doll became the star attraction at the East Martello Museum, he lived here — in the turret room of this Queen Anne Victorian at 534 ...
Captain John Geiger built this elegant home in the 1840s with profits from wrecking — the lucrative and legally sanctioned practice of salvaging cargo...
William Curry arrived in Key West from the Bahamas as a penniless teenager and became Florida's first self-made millionaire through wrecking, hardware...
At seven stories, La Concha has been Key West's tallest building since it opened in 1926. Ernest Hemingway reportedly wrote portions of "To Have and H...
The parish of St. Paul's was established in 1831, making it Key West's oldest church congregation. The current structure, built in 1919 of reinforced ...
Francisco Marrero built this ornate Victorian mansion in 1889 as a wedding gift for his wife Enriquetta. Marrero had made his fortune in Key West's bo...
The Key West Lighthouse has guided ships through treacherous waters since 1848, but its most enduring presence may be the woman who kept its flame bur...
Fort West Martello was built during the Civil War to defend Key West's southern shore, but its cannons never fired a single shot in anger. The fort's ...
The Key West ghost tour includes 13 documented haunted locations covering 157 years of documented history.
The first 3 stops are completely free — no account required. To unlock all 13 stops, a History Nearby premium subscription is $4.99/month or $49.99/year.
No. This is a self-guided walking tour. Each stop includes the address, a map pin, and the full haunting story. Walk at your own pace, start anytime, and take any route you like.
Plan for approximately 2.5 hours. This accounts for walking between stops and reading each haunting story. You can also split it across multiple evenings.
The most visited stop on our Key West tour is East Martello Museum (Robert the Doll) at 3501 S Roosevelt Blvd, Key West, FL 33040.
3 stops free in Key West. No guide, no schedule — walk at your own pace after dark.
Last updated February 22, 2026. Researched by the History Nearby editorial team.