It is Halloween weekend, and that means we all like a few scares, right? Well, thanks to our friends at NYup.com, we've got a list of allegedly haunted places in the area that you might want to check ouit. For me, the one I always heard about as a child was Pinewoods Cemetary on Pawling Avenue in Brunswick. It's called Forest Park Cemetary now, but I still wouldn't go anywhere near there, especially at night. I remember all the stories from when I was a kid, and they still tell stories to this day. But that's not the only "haunted" place in the area. Check out the list below, and for a more comprehensive list of all of NYS, click here.
CAPITAL REGION
Batcheller Mansion Inn (Saratoga Springs)
Civil War veteran George S. Batcheller built the mansion in 1883. Visitors to the converted inn, including The Albany Paranormal Research Society (APRS), have long reported seeing ghosts and other paranormal activity. Curious? You can rent a room and stay overnight to conduct your own investigation.
Canfield Casino in Congress Park (Saratoga Springs)
Saratoga's resort hotel and popular wedding venue has long seen reports of mysterious figures in wedding photos, hostile energy, objects moving or cold spots. SyFy's "Ghost Hunters" investigated the former Congress Spring Bottling Plant and Congress Hall (which now holds the Saratoga Springs History Museum), experiencing hair pulling, touching and an electromagnetic field on the third floor; others claimed they were slapped by a female specter in a Victorian dress or smelled cigar smoke that isn't there.
Forest Park Cemetery (Brunswick)
USA Today recommends this abandoned 1800s cemetery, also known as Pinewoods, located outside of Troy and closed to the public -- though the gates and fencing have been removed. Shattered gravestones and a vandalized mausoleum may disturb you, but just think how disturbed the former residents must feel. Many report feeling cold spots or something that doesn't allow them to leave, as well as lighter phenomena like the sounds of children's laughter.
Loudon Cottage (Loudonville)
Supposedly you can see the ghost of Abraham Lincoln in thissummer home owned by Clara Harris, the woman who sat next to the president when he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Some of his blood stained her white satin dress and she kept it in the closet, only to one day see his spirit in a rocking chair, staring at it. The closet was bricked up, but reports later indicated sounds of gunshots and sightings of a young, blood-soaked woman with Lincoln. The cottage is not currently open to the public, but tours have been offered in the past.
NYS Capitol Building (Albany)
The Hauntings Tour takes visitors through the Capitol Building in October, telling tales of ghosts like a man who jumped to his death from the fifth floor in 1890, and Samuel Abbott, a nightwatchman who died in a 1911 fire (that mysteriously didn't burn any sacred Iroquois artifacts in the building).
The Knox Mansion (Johnstown)
The Haunted History Trail recommends this 42-room house built in 1889 by Charles Knox. Ghost tours and guided visits are offered, with experiences like flickering lights, mysterious footsteps, cold spots, spooky voices and visions of ghosts, like a late gardener who apparently only appears to children.
Vale Cemetery (Schenectady)
According tohauntedplaces.org, this 150-year-old cemetery allegedly has statutes that bleed from their eyes, ghostly figures that wander gravesites, and sounds of singing in an old church on the grounds. Themed public tours are offered on the first Sunday of the month from May through October, taking the morbidly curious through the victims of the Revolutionary War, the "Victorian Lady in Mourning" and others.
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