Haunted New York Buildings
The old hotels, apartment buildings and theatres in New York have enough accumulated history to be full of ghosts. Here are some buildings that might spook you.
The White Horse Tavern
This is the bar that the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas liked to frequent when in New York City, where he would sit at his corner table and pound down shots of whiskey. He expired after a particularly wild night at the White Horse, and legend has it that his ghost still visits, rotating the table to announce his return.
Brittany Hall
This is the former Brittany Hotel, now a dorm for NYU students. Occupants have reported disembodied voices and ghostly shadows moving up and down the hallways. The ghost investigation agency Paranormal NYC has responded to calls but found nothing conclusive.
The 47th Street Theater
This former firehouse is now home to a Puerto Rican theater troupe. Construction crews have heard the distant sounds of pounding hooves around the building, perhaps the ghosts of horses carrying men to a blaze.
The Algonquin Hotel
This Midtown hotel was the daily lunch spot of the "Vicious Circle," a group of playwrights, poets, actors and editors in 1920s New York. Dorothy Parker, Harpo Marx, and Robert Benchley were charter members. Though they've passed on, their work endures in print and celluloid, and their phantoms may still be around as well in the hotel's dining room.
The Dakota Building
The beautiful Dakota Apartment Building was the site of John Lennon's tragic murder at the hands of Mark David Chapman. It was also the location where Roman Polanski's terrifying film "Rosemary's Baby" was shot. With this kind of sinister pedigree, there's bound to be some evil energies floating around.
The Chelsea Hotel
The Chelsea Hotel has long been a magnet for hard-partying artists, writers, and musicians. Like the White Horse Tavern, it was a favorite spot of Dylan Thomas and has logged appearances of his ghost. More troublingly, Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious allegedly stabbed his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, to death at the Chelsea in 1978. After his own death from a heroin overdose, he is rumored to have returned to the Chelsea and sometimes rides the elevator late at night, regretting his past misdeeds.
Churchyard of St. Paul's Chapel
In this churchyard, actor George Frederick Cooke was buried, headless, in 1812. His skull was reportedly used in productions of Hamlet, and he now indignantly wanders the grounds, wanting his head back.