Massachusetts has many historic sites that can be part of a haunted New England tour. Of the many supposed haunted places in Massachusetts, here are our 7 haunted Massachusetts includes haunted hotels in Massachusetts and haunted houses in Massachusetts. We have gone beyond the well-known haunted places in Salem Massachusetts to more obscure haunted Massachusetts, like haunted places in Western Massachusetts. On your bucket list of Massachusetts tourist sites, one of these places is bound to show up even if you have no specific interest in paranormal activity!
Table of Contents
Haunted Places in Massachusetts
How do you choose the most haunted places in Massachusetts? We’ve got suggestions in several categories of haunted Massachusetts, such as a haunted mansion in Massachusetts, a haunted forest in Massachusetts and a haunted house in Massachusetts.
Of these haunted places in Massachusetts, Salem and Fall River are easy to visit on a day trip from Boston.
Haunted Places Massachusetts: Salem
Like most towns in the US, Salem had humble beginnings as a religious farming community on the Massachusetts North Shore. In the 1600s the town developed just north of Boston but its name has become synonymous with witchcraft and the occult.
Hundreds of people were accused of witchcraft by the end of the 1600s and the infamous Salem Witch Trials began. Twenty people were executed publicly and in the most violent and brutal ways. This tragedy has been examined in books and film in the intervening centuries.
Although many a movie has been made of haunted Massachusetts, in Hocus Pocus, a kid-friendly Halloween movie set in Salem Massachusetts, Bette Midler belts out a very camp song on the steps of the old Town Hall.
Today, haunted places in Salem Massachusetts like the Old Burying Point Cemetery, Salem Hospital, Salem Jail, and Saint Mary’s Cemetery are some of the places where curious visitors come to experience a glimpse into this dark past.
Haunted House Massachusetts: Lizzie Borden’s House
The tragic tale of Lizzie Borden has plagued America for well over a century and the mystery remains one of the most intriguing stories from New England.
Lizzie’s parents were brutally murdered with an ax and Lizzie was accused, and later acquitted, of the double homicide. Today the house is a B&B and you can spend the night in this haunted house in Massachusetts. The interior is just as it was at the end of the 1800s (without the corpses of course!) and visitors are transported back to that fateful August day in 1892.
Some of the experiences that people have had here, include an apparition of a woman in Victorian-era dress, as well as chilling footsteps when no one is around. Most people also claim to feel icy fingers tapping them on the shoulder too. So you don’t need to stay at haunted hotels, Massachusetts has haunted B&B’s too!
The Lizzie Borden house also does ghost tours. The Lizzie Borden House Tour takes you throughout the house, the Lizzie Borden Haunted Fall River Ghost Tour takes your around the town and Lizzie’s Ghost Hunt is a tour inside the house with ghost hunting equipment.
Haunted places to stay in Massachusetts include the Lizzie Borden house (but you’ll have to cope with nightly ghost hunting tours).
We have taken the Fall River Ghost Tour which is an interesting overview of the ups and downs of this Massachusetts mill town with a small amount of Lizzie Borden history thrown into the mix. We have also taken Lizzie’s Ghost Hunt which was amusing because you get to play with equipment you see in paranormal television and film shows. Sadly, we did not experience any paranormal activity.
Haunted Places in Western Massachusetts: Hoosac Tunnel
The Hoosac Tunnel, once known as the “bloody pit”, is a 4.75-mile railroad tunnel between North Adams and Florida, MA.
The tunnel cuts under the imposing Hoosac Mountain Range and is still an active railroad today. Its construction was a bloody affair and close to 200 miners died during construction due to explosions, fires, and fatal tunnel collapses.
The Hoosac Tunnel is one of the haunted places MA is famous for and seeing this exhibit on how the tunnel was made shows you how hard an endeavour it would have been.
Native Americans named it “Hoosac” which translates as “forbidden” which might have been some foreshadowing. Dozens of accounts of apparitions, ghostly winds, and voices, have been recorded and the haunting continues.
As the tunnel is still active with many freight trains traveling through here per day, one cannot enter the tunnel on foot. Local tours take you to the mouth of the tunnel and once in a while a special passenger train will allow access to the belly of the beast.
Haunted Mansion Massachusetts: The Houghton Mansion
New England mansions tend to look spooky and grand but few hold such a truly haunting past as the Houghton Mansion.
The mansion in North Adams is one of the most haunted places in Massachusetts and dozens of visitors have given accounts of paranormal activity.Footsteps and voices talking are the most common occurrences and ghost hunters believe that Charles Houghton haunts its halls.
The Houghton Mansion, a haunted house in Massachusetts, has a tragic back story.
Charles Houghton was the first mayor of North Adams and the president of the print works which now houses the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA). On a leisure drive to Vermont, Houghton was involved in a very serious car accident which killed his daughter immediately. He himself died inside the house from his injuries. Riddled with guilt by the accident, the chaffeur committed suicide inside the house.
The building was later a Masonic Temple but stands empty today. Apart from the roaming spirits that is…
Address: 172 Church St. North Adams, MA
Another haunted mansion in Massachusetts is The Mount, Edith Wharton’s home in the Berkshires. Unlike the Houghton Mansion, the Mount gets lots of visitors. Sadly, we saw nothing out of the ordinary at the Mount either!
Showcasing some of the strange happenings at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s home in Lenox, Massachusetts.
Haunted Cemetery Massachusetts: Kings Chapel Burying Ground
Always spooky, Kings Chapel Burying Ground in Boston is one of the most haunted places in Massachusetts.
The cemetery dates back to the 1600s and has quite a unique story. Early graves were scattered randomly around the grounds but during Victorian times, the headstones were moved to form a more structured layout. The remains were unmoved and headstones now stand at different graves, disregarding whose name is on each stone.
Legend has it that this disturbance has left many souls in a state of unrest, wandering around the graveyard at night.
If you are looking for a Haunted cemetery Massachusetts has plenty to choose from such as the King’s Chapel Burial Ground.
Accounts of paranormal activity on the grounds are plenty and most recount hearing voices, being pushed or pulled, and most commonly being overcome by chills. There have also been countless sightings of a headless woman walking in the western corner of the graveyard.
Having done a Kings Chapel Burying Ground evening walk as part of Boston Ghost Tours by Ghosts and Gravestones, we did not see any paranormal activity here either. We did have the fright of our life though when a giant rat scurried past our feet!
Haunted Hotel Massachusetts: Omni Parker Hotel
Near the Kings Chapel Burying Ground, the Omni Parker Hotel is one of the most iconic hotels in the country and not only for its famous residents. The Omni Parker Hotel restaurant is where the famous Parker Rolls originated as well as the Boston Creme Pie AND where JFK proposed to Jacqueline Onassis. It’s also considered the most haunted hotel in New England.
The table where JFK proposed to Jackie O in the historic Omni Parker Hotel in Boston.
With 515 rooms located in the heart of tourist Boston, this historic hotel is super popular and… super haunted. Would you consider staying at the Omni Parker Hotel?
There have been an endless number of paranormal encounters in this hotel ranging from strange smells and sounds, whispers in the hallway, apparitions at the foot of beds, or strangers walking by in the lobby.
Famed author Charles Dickens even stayed in the hotel. In his room he practiced the reading of A Christmas Carol that he would gave next door at the Tremont Temple in front of a mirror. That mirror now hangs on the mezzanine level next to the conference room bathrooms. There are stories that you can see Dickens himself practicing in the mirror if you look closely enough.
Charlotte Cushman was a legendary actress of her time and died on the 3rd floor. Ever since the elevator mysteriously stops on the 3rd floor without being summoned. Room 303 is also the topic of much speculation as guests often smell cigar smoke and whiskey hanging thick in the air, legend has it, from the spirit of a long-ago traveling salesman who committed suicide in the room.
Most frequently people recount seeing the ghost of the founder, Harvey Parker. Parker roams the 10th floor and is ever the gracious host, walking guests to their rooms and inspecting rooms. Clearly he had control issues which he could not let go of even after death.
We have stayed at the Omni Parker Hotel (but not the 3rd floor) and sadly, no paranormal activity befell us here either.
Haunted Forest Massachusetts: Freetown Fall River State Forest
This is seen as the most haunted forest in Massachusetts and many stories from the indigenous Wampanoag people seem to fuel the legends.
Around Halloween, visitors head to this Southeastern Massachusetts forest in the fall for a spooky walk. Those brave enough to enter the forest can embark on one of the five hiking trails in the state forest.
The Bridgewater Triangle is a 200 square mile area in Massachusetts most known for a host of paranormal and unexplained phenomena, like UFO sightings, Bigfoot appearances, and ghostly apparitions. The name comes from a 2007 book, Mysterious America, by a Portland Maine paranormal expert, Lauren Coleman. Freetown State Forest sits in this spooky triangle and has become the stuff of legends.
There have also been murders and suicides in this Massachusetts haunted forest giving it a very real and recent history of devastating events. Local law enforcement has also claimed that the area was used for Satanic rituals some time ago, adding to the dark past of the area.
Freetown Fall River is a famous haunted forest in Massachusetts.
Map of Haunted Places MA
Here’s a map of the 7 haunted places in Massachusetts we mention above. Perhaps you will have better luck than we had on our visits of haunted Massachusetts. Ghosts may not bother with us because they know at heart that we are non-believers.
Map of 7 Haunted Places in Massachusetts.
Pin This!
Love a Massachusetts fall? Take your Massachusetts travel beyond foliage viewing and get in the spooky Halloween aesthetic at these Massachusetts historical sites. Get your spine tingling with creepy Boston Massachusetts history and Salem Massachusetts history. Historic Massachusetts has ghost tours of Boston graveyards and some of the oldest haunted hotels in America. Visit a haunted house like the Lizzy Borden house or the setting for true crime stories like a Massachusetts forest.
SPREAD THE WORD! PIN THIS TO YOUR TRAVEL PINTEREST BOARDS FOR FUTURE REFERENCE!
We did not receive compensation of any form, monetary or otherwise, from any of the products, services, hotels etc mentioned in this article.
This site generates income via partnerships with carefully-curated travel and lifestyle brands and/or purchases made through links to them at no extra cost to you. More information may be found on our Disclosure Policy.
Leave a Reply