The Dakota, the House of Death, and 400 years of Manhattan's darkest history. 13 haunted stops. 3 free.
Twenty thousand bodies lie under Washington Square Park. The most haunted places in New York City hide mass graves, murder scenes, and ghosts that never checked out. Alexander Hamilton took a bullet from Aaron Burr on July 11, 1804, and his grave at Trinity Church still draws reports of a figure pressing a hand to his side. At the Merchant's House on East 4th Street, Gertrude Tredwell died in 1933 after 93 years in the same 19 rooms—staff still photograph her translucent figure at the second-floor window. The Hotel Chelsea became a crime scene on October 12, 1978, when Nancy Spungen was stabbed in Room 100. This free self-guided tour hits 13 stops across Manhattan—from candlelit taverns where Dylan Thomas drank his last to the Dakota, where John Lennon's ghost still walks the archway he never made it through.
Built in 1765 as Roger Morris's country estate, this mansion watched the Revolution unfold from Manhattan's highest point. George Washington made it h...
December 8, 1980. John Lennon walked through the Dakota's fortress archway, returning home from a recording session. Mark David Chapman stepped from t...
In 1672, Peter Stuyvesant—the peg-legged Dutch governor who ruled New Amsterdam with an iron fist—was buried in a vault beneath his family chapel on t...
On November 9, 1953, Welsh poet Dylan Thomas stumbled from this 1880 tavern claiming he'd drunk "eighteen straight whiskies" before collapsing at the ...
Established in 1854, McSorley's is older than the Civil War—and some of its dead patrons refuse to leave. The bar's most famous ghost is John McSorley...
Built in 1817 by African-American Revolutionary War veteran James Brown, this building has served as a tavern, speakeasy, and brothel. It's one of New...
Gertrude Tredwell was born in this house in 1840 and died here in 1933—never married, rarely leaving, slowly becoming a living ghost herself. She outl...
This elegant 1856 brownstone has earned its nickname: 22 documented deaths, including a murder-suicide and Mark Twain's death in 1910. But the horror ...
This romantic restaurant occupies Aaron Burr's 1767 carriage house—where he stabled horses before shooting Alexander Hamilton in 1804. But the hauntin...
Inside Grand Central Terminal, this opulent bar was once the office of 1920s tycoon John W. Campbell, who transformed it into a Florentine palace. Cam...
Room 100 of the Hotel Chelsea became a crime scene on October 12, 1978, when Nancy Spungen, girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, was found d...
The New York ghost tour includes 13 documented haunted locations.
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 New York tour is Morris-Jumel Mansion at 65 Jumel Terrace, Manhattan, dating back to 1765.
3 stops free in New York. No guide, no schedule — walk at your own pace after dark.
Last updated February 22, 2026. Researched by the History Nearby editorial team.