These former prisons and historic hotels rank among the most haunted homes and buildings in every US state

Haunted places draw visitors

Haunted houses are a seasonal draw, especially around Halloween. American Haunts, an industry trade group, estimates that ticket sales from haunted homes generate between $300 million and $500 million each year.

Some properties are open to the public, while others have become private residences. Their reputations often combine reports of paranormal activity with histories that make the sites difficult to treat as ordinary attractions.

Alabama and Alaska histories

A plantation home on Sweetwater Avenue in Florence, Alabama, was built in 1835 by Gen. John Brahan and first occupied by his son-in-law, Robert Patton, who later became Alabama’s governor. Reported activity includes children’s laughter heard from a distance and a woman in old-fashioned clothing said to wander the halls, Forbes reported.

A bungalow’s violent past

In 1931, Winnie Ruth Judd, a 26-year-old medical secretary, fatally shot two friends in a bungalow. A jury found her legally insane, and she was held at a mental health facility.

Judd escaped in 1962 and disappeared for almost seven years before being found in California, The New York Times reported. Her sentence was commuted in 1971, and she was paroled.

Mansions and reported spirits

Local businessman Joe Lee Allen built an eye-catching home in 1906 that is said to have several spirits. Ghost tours and haunted mazes once operated there, but in 2024 the company behind them said it would stop because the property was a private residence.

Sarah Winchester built her home after her husband, the creator of the Winchester rifle, died in 1881. She built it to escape angry spirits, and its unusual features include a staircase that goes nowhere, cabinets opening into walls, and a door leading to a 12-foot drop, Business Insider previously reported.

Buildings with difficult pasts

An 1885 building also known as Pioneer Park has a darker history than its quaint appearance suggests. The story of reported haunting centers on Harriet Webber, the wife of Webber, who died under what The Aspen Times described as “mysterious circumstances.” The former Seaside Sanatorium opened in the 1930s to treat children with tuberculosis. Now abandoned, it draws paranormal researchers who say they have seen ghostly orbs and other unusual phenomena, The New York Times reported.