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You couldn’t go a day last summer without hearing of some America 250 celebration or event. If we learned anything from all the patriotism and smiling government officials, it’s that Philadelphia doesn’t let go of its past easily. Stop by a cemetery or old building late at night, and you may find that neither do some of its former residents.
With nearly 350 years of history, the city has accumulated quite a few spooky stories.
There’s a reportedly cursed chair in Chestnut Hill, a mysterious woman wandering the Philadelphia Zoo and quite a few soldiers drifting through Fort Mifflin. Even Benjamin Franklin, who’s been dead for more than two centuries, supposedly hasn’t finished making trouble.
Whether you think these stories of twilight terror are true — or another way to bring tourists to historic sites — each offers a glimpse into the city’s history and the peculiar ways Philadelphians remember it.
Old City and Society Hill
1. Betsy Ross House: A founding mother who won’t rest
239 Arch St., Old City
If you were around Old City at all last summer, you probably heard something about Betsy Ross, the patriotic icon and Philadelphian who made the American flag in 1776. What you might’ve missed is the legend that she’s still hanging around the home associated with her work more than 200 years after her death.
Visitors and employees at the Betsy Ross House have reported hearing mysterious voices, feeling an unexplained presence and spotting a woman weeping near a bed. According to local lore, the crying figure is Ross herself, mourning the deaths of loved ones. During her lifetime, she lost two husbands to violence, two children during infancy and her mother, father and a sister to the Yellow Fever.
The house’s paranormal reputation extends beyond its famous former occupant. In 2009, investigators from Syfy’s “Ghost Hunters” visited after hearing reports of strange activity, including mysterious sounds in the basement and a former employee who claimed something unseen touched them.
The investigators recorded what they interpreted as unusual voices, though their findings remain disputed.
Fortunately, visitors don’t need supernatural permission to enter. The historic house operates as a museum, offering a look at the life of the woman traditionally credited with sewing the first American flag.
Learn more about the Betsy Ross House.
2. Powel House: A Revolutionary War reunion
244 S. Third St., Society Hill
Some of Philadelphia’s most prominent Revolutionary-era figures supposedly still attend parties at Powel House. What’s awkward is that they haven’t been invited in a few centuries.
Built in 1765, the Georgian mansion was home to Samuel Powel, Philadelphia’s last colonial mayor and first mayor after independence, and his wife, Elizabeth. The couple entertained the likes of George Washington, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin.
According to ghost stories associated with the house, the guests never entirely stopped coming.
One account describes a historian and his wife claiming to have witnessed apparitions of Revolutionary-era figures during the 1960s, including the Marquis de Lafayette.
Another legend identifies a more scandalous visitor: Peggy Shippen Arnold, the Philadelphia-born wife and co-conspirator of Benedict Arnold, whose betrayal of the American Revolution made his name synonymous with treason. Shippen, who moved in the same social circles as the Powels, supposedly appears in the downstairs drawing room in a lavender-and-beige gown.
3. Hill-Physick House: The doctor’s unhappy former wife
321 S. Fourth St., Society Hill
A tale more poetic than spooky, a doctor, a bitter separation and a beloved tree make up Society Hill’s ghost story.
The Hill-Physick House was home to Dr. Philip Syng Physick, sometimes called the father of American surgery.
He also separated from his wife, Elizabeth Emlen Physick, during an era when divorce and marital separation were practically unheard of and carried considerable social stigma.
According to a legend repeated by Philadelphia ghost tour operators, Elizabeth remained deeply attached to a tree on the property, even after her relationship with the doctor deteriorated.
The tree was removed but Elizabeth’s spirit and love for that tree was not. Visitors have reported encountering a sorrowful female apparition in the yard.
The mansion, built in 1786, is now a historic house museum, so curious visitors can explore the building without needing a medical appointment.
4. Washington Square: A ghost protecting the dead
Between Sixth, Seventh, Walnut and Locust streets, Society Hill
On a sunny afternoon, Washington Square offers Philadelphians a quiet place to eat lunch, walk their dogs or escape the bustle of Center City.
One of William Penn’s original five public squares, the park once served as a burial ground for the poor, Revolutionary War soldiers and victims of yellow fever. Thousands of people were buried there before the space became the park visitors recognize today.
According to local legend, a Quaker woman named Leah took it upon herself to protect the graves from robbers who sought corpses for medical study.
Her commitment to the job was supposedly so strong that death couldn’t stop her.
Stories describe Leah’s ghost patrolling the square, watching over the buried and frightening away anyone who might disturb them.
Read more about Washington Square’s ghostly guardian.
5. Christ Church Burial Ground: Benjamin Franklin’s unfinished business
Fifth and Arch streets, Old City
It’s hard to go anywhere in Philadelphia without seeing or hearing something about Benjamin Franklin. A founding father, inventor, diplomat and printer — according to Philadelphia folklore, he may also have been a rather mischievous ghost.
Franklin died in 1790 and was buried at Christ Church Burial Ground alongside his wife, Deborah. The cemetery, established in 1719, also contains the graves of several other signers of the Declaration of Independence.
For generations, visitors have tossed pennies onto his grave in a nod to the famous saying associated with him: “A penny saved is a penny earned.”
Some ghost stories claim Franklin’s spirit throws coins back at unsuspecting visitors or makes pennies mysteriously disappear. Of course, no reliable evidence shows Franklin is responsible for any paranormal activity. However, there is evidence that those coins have caused real damage.
According to Christ Church, the practice contributed to the deterioration of Franklin’s marble grave marker, prompting restoration work completed in 2017.
So, should you visit, perhaps leave the pennies in your pocket. Franklin would probably appreciate the savings.
Explore Christ Church Burial Ground.
6. Elfreth’s Alley: The soldier who never left
Elfreth’s Alley, between Front and Second streets, Old City
Dating to 1703, Elfreth’s Alley is lined with historic homes that once housed craftspeople, merchants and working-class families. Today, it’s a residential street, with tourists routinely wandering its cobblestones.
According to local folklore, a soldier accused of spying during the Revolutionary War was hanged along the alley.
His ghost supposedly remains there, occasionally appearing in photographs or manifesting as a mysterious figure between the historic houses.
And yet, there are no confirmed historical records establishing that the execution actually happened in the alley.
That hasn’t stopped the legend from circulating among ghost tour operators and paranormal enthusiasts, some of whom claim the street’s long history makes it a natural home for restless spirits.
7. St. Peter’s Episcopal Church: Something lurking among the graves
313 Pine St., Society Hill
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church has been welcoming worshippers since 1761. The historic churchyard is associated with several paranormal legends, including reports of shadowy figures wandering among the headstones after dark.
One particularly specific story describes an apparition appearing around 9 p.m. near five supposedly unmarked graves that some versions identify as belonging to Native American chiefs. However, that claim lacks established historical documentation.
Another legend tells of a ghostly horse and carriage crossing the churchyard.
Visitors can explore the churchyard during posted daytime hours, and the congregation offers a self-guided audio tour explaining the grounds’ history.
Learn about St. Peter’s historic churchyard.
Germantown and Chestnut Hill
8. Baleroy Mansion: The chair of death
111 W. Mermaid Lane, Chestnut Hill
It’s easy to rattle off spots you would want to avoid sitting in. Next to a baby on an airplane. In the front row of a movie theatre.
If there were ever a seat worth avoiding, it might be the infamous blue chair once kept inside Baleroy Mansion, dubbed “the chair of death.” How dramatic.
The Chestnut Hill estate gained a reputation as one of Philadelphia’s most haunted homes under former owner George Gordon Meade Easby, a descendant of Civil War Gen. George Meade.
Easby was an avid collector of antiques and ghost stories, and he believed his home was inhabited by numerous spirits.
But none was more feared than a blue chair reportedly kept in the mansion’s Blue Room.
According to the legend, at least three people died shortly after sitting in the chair, leading Easby to rope the chair off and prohibit guests from using it. Some accounts associate the chair with a sinister spirit named Amanda, described as appearing as a red mist. According to a medium who investigated the chair, Amanda lures people into sitting in the chair.
In line with horror movie clichés, Easby refused to throw away the chair because he believed it was valuable and had belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte.
Rumor has it that an evil warlock cursed the chair in the 18th or 19th century. Rumor also has it that the Philadelphia Eagles received a less-fatal but similarly potent curse this year.
Other paranormal tales from Baleroy include objects moving on their own, unexplained noises and alarm systems supposedly triggered by ghostly activity.
Easby spoke publicly about his experiences, helping establish the property’s spooky reputation. A 2011 Chestnut Hill Patch article revisited the home’s stories and the alleged deaths associated with the chair.
Of course, there is no evidence that sitting in the chair caused anyone’s death.
Baleroy was once open for tours, but its collections were sold after Easby’s death. The mansion is now a private residence. Visitors can view the exterior from the public street, but there are no public tours. That also means there’s no need to worry about accidentally sitting in the chair.
9. Grumblethorpe: Blood on the floor and a general who won’t leave
5267 Germantown Ave., Germantown
Outside of a name ripped straight from a fairytale, Grumblethorpe has something most supposedly haunted houses cannot offer: a centuries-old stain identified as the blood of a dying Revolutionary War general. It’s maybe the most unsanitary-sounding ghost story on this list.
The Wister family built the property in 1744 as a country home and during the British occupation of Philadelphia, Brigadier Gen. James Agnew used the house as headquarters. On Oct. 4, 1777, during the Battle of Germantown, Agnew was mortally wounded and brought back to the building, where he later died.
According to the site’s history, a dark stain on the floorboards marks the spot where Agnew bled to death. The stain has remained central to the house’s historical interpretation; local lore suggests the general left behind more than a mark on the wood.
Visitors and paranormal enthusiasts have claimed to encounter his ghost wandering the property, while other stories describe mysterious figures and unexplained activity inside the house.
Today, Grumblethorpe operates as a historic site and community resource, complete with a garden and educational programming.
Learn more about Grumblethorpe.
10. Cliveden: Ghosts of the Battle of Germantown
6401 Germantown Ave., Germantown
Built for attorney Benjamin Chew and completed in 1767, Cliveden became the center of some of the fiercest fighting during the Battle of Germantown.
On Oct. 4, 1777, British soldiers barricaded themselves inside the building as George Washington’s Continental Army advanced through the neighborhood.
With such a violent history, it isn’t surprising that Cliveden became a host to ghost stories. Some paranormal accounts describe Revolutionary War soldiers’ spirits wandering the grounds. A particularly gruesome legend involves a headless elderly woman searching for her head, supposedly severed during the fighting.
No verified historical evidence supports the story of a beheaded woman, but the battle and its consequences are well documented — roughly 1,500 total casualties.
After the Revolutionary War, seven generations of the Chew family occupied the property, and the site is now open to visitors to explore the lives of enslaved people whose labor supported the family’s wealth.
11. Cruiser Olympia: A sailor still on duty
211 S. Columbus Blvd., Penn’s Landing
The Cruiser Olympia was commissioned in 1895 and served as Commodore George Dewey’s flagship during the Spanish-American War’s Battle of Manila Bay.
The vessel later served during World War I and transported the remains of the Unknown Soldier from France to the United States in 1921.
Today, it is preserved as a museum ship at Penn’s Landing.
In a 2010 Philadelphia Inquirer report, volunteers and paranormal investigators described mysterious voices, unexplained physical sensations and shadowy figures aboard the ship.
One volunteer’s son reported seeing a dark figure move across a doorway in the engine room. Another investigator said she watched an apparition wearing a sailor’s clothing walk down a corridor before disappearing.
Not everyone involved with the ship agrees that anything supernatural is happening. The same report included a longtime volunteer who said the ship’s strange noises could be explained by its age and construction.
12. Fort Mifflin: A screaming woman and a faceless soldier
Fort Mifflin and Hog Island roads, Southwest Philadelphia
Located near Philadelphia International Airport, Fort Mifflin played an important role in the Revolutionary War and later served as a military installation during the Civil War and beyond.
The site endured a devastating British bombardment in 1777 that left the area soaked with violence and death.
Hundreds of years later, visitors have described encountering a screaming woman, a mysterious lamplighter and a shadowy figure known as the Faceless Man.
One legend identifies the screaming woman as Elizabeth Pratt, the wife of a soldier who supposedly lost two children to yellow fever. According to legend, her grief still echoes around the fort.
Another spirit is believed to be William H. Howe, a Union soldier executed at the fort during the Civil War after being convicted of desertion and murder. According to the legend, Howe continues to wander the grounds without a visible face.
The fort offers opportunities for private paranormal investigations, allowing curious visitors to search for unusual activity on the grounds.
Learn about Fort Mifflin’s paranormal programs.
Prisons, cemeteries and one unexpectedly spooky zoo
13. Eastern State Penitentiary: The prison where inmates supposedly never left
2027 Fairmount Ave., Fairmount
Opened in 1829, Eastern State Penitentiary quickly became one of the world’s most influential correctional institutions, known for its imposing architecture and controversial system of solitary confinement. The penitentiary housed thousands of prisoners over its history, including notorious gangster Al Capone.
It closed in 1971 and now operates as a historic site, with its deteriorating cellblocks and cavernous corridors attracting visitors from around the world.
According to Eastern State’s website, accounts of mysterious visions and unsettling encounters date to at least the 1940s.
Cellblock 12 is associated with mysterious voices and laughter. Cellblock 6 has reportedly produced sightings of shadowy figures, while visitors to Cellblock 4 have described ghostly faces. One former employee reported feeling an invisible force seize him while working on a lock.
These accounts have attracted numerous paranormal investigators, including the crews of “Ghost Hunters,” “Ghost Adventures” and other television programs.
The prison has also embraced its spooky reputation through Halloween entertainment, while continuing to emphasize its educational mission and the history of incarceration.
Eastern State’s official FAQ discusses its paranormal reputation.
14. Philadelphia Zoo: Ghosts among the animals
3400 W. Girard Ave., West Philadelphia
Lions, tigers, bears — and ghosts?
America’s first zoo has been home to countless animals since opening in 1874, but some employees claim there are inhabitants that don’t appear on the exhibits map.
At the center of the zoo’s paranormal reputation is Solitude House, an 18th-century mansion built by John Penn, a grandson of William Penn. According to local accounts, a woman wearing a long dress has been seen near the top of the building’s staircase. Other reports describe unexplained footsteps, mysterious music and apparitions appearing inside the historic structure.
The allegations aren’t limited to Solitude House. Employees have also described strange activity in other buildings on the zoo’s property, including the former Penrose research building.
The stories gained enough attention that Syfy’s “Ghost Hunters” visited the zoo in 2010.
At the time, a zoo marketing employee told The Philadelphia Inquirer that staff believed some kind of haunting might be occurring.
Learn more about the Philadelphia Zoo.
15. Laurel Hill Cemetery: A city of the dead that isn’t always quiet
3822 Ridge Ave., East Falls
Maybe the most obvious spot for a haunting on this list, Laurel Hill Cemetery was established in 1836 and became one of the country’s earliest major rural cemeteries. Its elaborate mausoleums, ornate gravestones and winding paths have made it both a historic landmark and a popular destination for curious visitors.
Paranormal enthusiasts have described the typical haunting experience: shadowy figures moving between graves, mysterious whispers and unexplained sounds.
Whether those experiences indicate anything supernatural is impossible to establish, but the cemetery’s Gothic atmosphere makes it an appealing, if not obvious, destination for ghost hunters.
The cemetery hosts historical walking tours, theatrical storytelling events and organized paranormal investigations.
Its annual Halloween-season activities have included performances in which actors portray the cemetery’s long-dead residents, bringing their biographies and sometimes scandalous histories back to life.
For those who want something beyond a traditional ghost story, Laurel Hill offers a different kind of connection to the dead — one grounded in the lives of people who actually shaped Philadelphia.
And if you hear footsteps behind you while wandering among the monuments, there is at least a reasonable chance they belong to another visitor.
Find Laurel Hill tours and paranormal events.
16. The Green Lady: Philly’s child-snatching ghost
Boxers’ Trail, East Fairmount Park
For generations of Philadelphia children, getting lost in Fairmount Park meant risking an encounter with the Green Lady.
According to local legend, a mysterious woman with green skin and hair, glowing red eyes and long, pointed fingernails lurks in the woods, waiting to snatch children who wander too far from safety. Some versions of the story go a step further, claiming she eats her victims.
The legend became particularly popular among Philadelphia children during the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, when concerns about crime and dangerous conditions kept many families away from city parks.
In a 2015 Grid Magazine article, children hiking along Boxers’ Trail pointed out a dilapidated hut across a stream they identified as the Green Lady’s home.
Whether the story was invented to keep children out of dangerous woods or simply passed down to frighten younger generations, the Green Lady has remained one of Philadelphia’s most enduring urban legends.
