Historic Houston Haunted Spots

[KimberlySayWhat]

It comes out on the "Chiller" channel on DN and dish

That's what I heard, but I don't get Chiller. I'm not sure I'd watch Chiller even if I did get it. I remember about a year ago when Chiller first came out. They'd show promos for it on cable and they scared me. I don't like accidentally seeing things that scare me. They have a couple of good old shows on there, though.

[Retama]

Rice University Library is also haunted as is the old house that used to be the Pagan Church back in the 1970s.

[Montrose1100]

The Top 5

1.

The Spaghetti Warehouse

901 Commerce St, Houston, TX

This former warehouse's long-ago owner allegedly died after falling down an elevator shaft. Reported ghostly activity includes a lady in white and moving utensils.

2.

La Carafe

813 Congress St, Houston, TX

This pre-Civil War building's bar is believed to have a haunted second floor, including a shadowy female figure and mysterious footsteps.

3.

Battleship Texas State Historic Site

3527 Battleground Rd, La Porte, TX

Some visitors to this state park attraction claim to have seen the ghost of an unidentified sailor on the second deck.

4.

Esperson Building

808 Travis St, Houston, TX

Legend has it that Mellie Esperson's spirit still roams the building's halls and elevators (which are said to manifest cold spots).

5.

Treebeards

315 Travis St, Houston , TX

Located in the Travis building (the second oldest in Houston), some staff have reported ghost sightings and other unexplained activity.

Link

[JRH_1948]

My friend's mom used to work at Hamilton Junior High (intersection of Heights Blvd. and 20th or 19th) and always told us stories of that school being haunted, especially the auditorium. I've also always heard that Reagan High School on 13th is haunted. I've never seen this school, but the stories always related to the second or third story of the school being vacant and haunted. Anyone know if the top story of Reagan was left vacant for a long time and if so, why?

I went to school at both between 1960 and 1965 and don't recall any stories of either being haunted.

[Vertigo58]

All of Houston's bayous are haunted.

There is that old Spanish tale of the woman that had a child that died and she is heard calling out for the child along the bayous. Maybe its just the wind right?

They call her La llorrona (spelled right)?

This is hilarious, someone actually did a story via internet:

http://www.blueicehouse.com/chickenskin/llorrona.htm

[Fez1964]

All of Houston's bayous are haunted.

There is that old Spanish tale of the woman that had a child that died and she is heard calling out for the child along the bayous. Maybe its just the wind right?

They call her La llorrona (spelled right)?

This is hilarious, someone actually did a story via internet:

http://www.blueicehouse.com/chickenskin/llorrona.htm

Beside the alleged haunting on the Battleship Texas docked at the San Jacinto Monument, can anyone share cases of the San Jacinto battle grounds be haunted with the ghosts of little girls?

On the evening of November 26 of this year, two of my nephews, my son, and his friend were fishing on the west side of the Lynchburg Ferry along the banks of the Houston Ship Channel. In the wee hours of the night, they heard and one of them claims to have seen an apparition of a young girl dressed in a period attire watching them from the bushes when no one else was around them. Perhaps this ties into the La Llorona tale.

De Zavala Cemetery is located on the battlegrounds about a mile down from where they were fishing. In researching De Zavala Cemetery, I see that a few little girls were interred in this cemetery. And, of course, the grounds has a history of bloodshed with the Battle of San Jacinto.

With all of this in the mix, I am surprised that I have not heard of more hauntings on the grounds.

[carol802]

Beside the alleged haunting on the Battleship Texas docked at the San Jacinto Monument, can anyone share cases of the San Jacinto battle grounds be haunted with the ghosts of little girls?

On the evening of November 26 of this year, two of my nephews, my son, and his friend were fishing on the west side of the Lynchburg Ferry along the banks of the Houston Ship Channel. In the wee hours of the night, they heard and one of them claims to have seen an apparition of a young girl dressed in a period attire watching them from the bushes when no one else was around them. Perhaps this ties into the La Llorona tale.

De Zavala Cemetery is located on the battlegrounds about a mile down from where they were fishing. In researching De Zavala Cemetery, I see that a few little girls were interred in this cemetery. And, of course, the grounds has a history of bloodshed with the Battle of San Jacinto.

With all of this in the mix, I am surprised that I have not heard of more hauntings on the grounds.

[carol802]

My husband & I stopped by the Monument & Battlegrounds a few months ago. We were looking at the cemetery & I think I remember reading on one of the historical markers that the oldest graves had been moved there from "nearby". Maybe to move them inland from the encroaching water. I remember when the outer roads went all the way around the monument. The ship channel has taken in all the road on the back side. I love the sundial. I've got a picture somewhere of all us kids climbing on it in the late 50's. They have it roped off now. Love that place.

[texianjoe]

The haunted railroad crossing I have heard of is in San Antonio somewhere. If you park on the tracks and a train is coming your car will roll off the tracks. It is said if you sprinkle baby powder on your trunk, when you get out and look it will have childrens hand prints on it.

The poltergiest house is in the Baytown/Crosby area somewhere. I just read an article about it a couple of months ago but I couldn't find it again. It was built over and old slave cemetery. The house is still empty. Some of the families that have lived there moved out in the middle of the night and left all their belongings behind never to return.

I have also heard of a haunted house on Lakeview or Lakeside drive near Market out towards Channelview refered to as the Kenndall Mansion. It has been abandoned for a long time because of a probate dispute. A madam owned it and was murdered at the front gate back in the 50s I think. People say the see lights on in the house that has no electricity. All the rooms are shaped like diamonds and it is full of secret passageways.

joe

[bgiangmanman]

Um...................They say the Rice Hotel (now post rice lofts) is haunted that was where Kennedy spent his last night and that tommy dorsly can be seen dancing on the roof and also they saw at 12:00 am you see ghost dancing in the ballroom

[musicman]

Um...................They say the Rice Hotel (now post rice lofts) is haunted that was where Kennedy spent his last night

i believe he had already left houston for ft worth

[editor]

Um...................They say the Rice Hotel (now post rice lofts) is haunted that was where Kennedy spent his last night and that tommy dorsly can be seen dancing on the roof and also they saw at 12:00 am you see ghost dancing in the ballroom

Tommy Dorsey died in Connecticut. Why would he haunt the Rice Hotel?

As for Kennedy, search elsewhere on this forum. There have been several extensive threads covering that.

[capt. kirk]

Does anyone know of any other haunted spots in Houston that may not be as advertised as JDH, Spaghetti Warehouse et al?

THE OLD JEFF DAVIS HOSPITAL..........NOT SURE IF ITS STILL VACANT...........MAYBE LOFTS ARE SOMETHING BY NOW

[Dub]

As we are getting to that time of year again I'll throw in La Maison Rouge Galveston. Remains of the former home of Jean Lafitte.....

[nm5k]

Beside the alleged haunting on the Battleship Texas docked at the San Jacinto Monument,

Hummm. I haven't heard much about that. I spent the night on that ship

back in the middle 80's. Was part of a small group that set up a ham radio

special events station on it. We used the combat information center as our

"ham shack". As I recall it was about halfway up the bridge area, and you

had to go up some steps to get to the door. Most of the WW2 radar gear was

still intact, along with a lot of other stuff. They had them mounted in wood

boxes, with the screens pointing straight up. Quite interesting to see 1940's

radar technology. The actual radio room was down below, and was closed off at

that point in time. I spent lots of time wandering around and checking everything

out. Had the run of the ship, except I didn't try to enter chained off areas..

It was winter, and that Saturday night that we stayed on it, we almost froze to

death. Brrrr.. All that metal seems to suck and transmit the cold to the innerds

of the ship. We had to wear heavy coats to stay warm.

We had quite a station rigged up. All bands 160-10 meters, and we had an amp and

were running a kilowatt to the antennas, which we strung out along the structure

outside.

Anyway, I never saw any booger man when I was there. But you did get kind of

a spooky feeling just knowing all the years it was in operation, and the loads

of people that lived on it during the years.

It's kind of like being in an old famous house that saw a lot of history.

For me, one of the spookiest things to see was the operating room. Very stark

and simple back then. It was a wonder anyone lived with the low tech facilities

compared to today. The usual lower end health clinic you see today has much more to

work with than the surgeons had back then.

[Subdude]

The old Ale House on Alabama was said to have been haunted. If it were, the ghosts probably departed when it was torn down rather than hang around the bank that was built there.

[NenaE]

http://www.facebook....6229795&index=1

read about the man in the bowler hat, at the top of the stairs of the Isis Theater, in the Cinema Houston book.

here is also a link that talks about him.

[brian0123]

Supposedly the Brewery Tap in Downtown. My band was playing a show there one night and a bunch of ladies came in with "ghost detecting equipment" and took photos of "orbs". Needless to say, they looked pretty foolish. The only scary thing I encountered there was the urinal.

[kylejack]

Supposedly the Brewery Tap in Downtown. My band was playing a show there one night and a bunch of ladies came in with "ghost detecting equipment" and took photos of "orbs". Needless to say, they looked pretty foolish. The only scary thing I encountered there was the urinal.

Underneath Brewery Tap is the old Donellan Crypt, a place where people were buried along the Buffalo Bayou. The bodies got moved out in the early 1900s I think, but the crypt is still there. That might be the explanation for a haunted Brewery Tap.

If ghosts existed, that is.

[nm5k]

Orbs... Chortle.. I laugh every time I see/hear someone claim that

dust and other tiny particles captured by cameras are ghosts.

Gimme a break. I was born yesterday, but not last night..

But saying that, I'm not a total unbeliever when it comes to spirit type

stuff. I've never "seen" a ghost, but I've been in places where you

almost seem to "feel" their presence. I had one instance where I was

nearly scared to death, and walked out of a friends house without saying

anything to them. Heck, I nearly *ran* out of the place. Scared me to death.

I never saw anything with my eyes, but I felt something was there which was

very scary and felt like pure evil. And when this happened, ghosts were the

last thing on my mind. It really shook me up pretty bad at the time.

A few days later I finally worked up the nerve to tell him about it, and

found out that other things have happened there before, and had since he was

young and his parents owned the house.

But like I say, I spent the night on the battleship Texas and didn't notice

a thing.. :/

[capt bogus]

I TOOK THIS PIC @ THE DOLE SCHOOL IN SIXTH WARD THE  SCHOOL IS A HUNDRED & ONE YEARS OLD NOW THATS NO ORB !

[GEM]

Cedarhurst Cemetry in La Porte,TX.,Blue Faced Demon.............

[Hunter]

THE OLD JEFF DAVIS HOSPITAL..........NOT SURE IF ITS STILL VACANT...........MAYBE LOFTS ARE SOMETHING BY NOW

 

Quite a few folks like there now and a few have reported seeing, hearing and witnessing paranormal stuff on a regular basis. Nothing serious but a few things. 

 

Sens Road in la Porte is reported to be haunted, 

 

Also there is the Black hope neighborhood near Crosby, TX. 

 

This haunted neighborhood has been written about in the novel The Black Hope Horror. The neighborhood was constructed over an old slave cemetery. When the subdivision was built, many of the residents were terrorized by the angry spirits that dwelled below. No one had a clue as to what was causing it until a couple started digging a swimming pool and unearthed the remains of two people who had been buried in their backyard. It is a story that is very similar to the movie Poltergeist, but it is frighteningly real. Most of the activity is centered at the east end of Poppets Way and the side street that connects at the east end. According to the book, people would rent a house on the street and abruptly leave within a month, and this was a very regular occurrence.

This is a true story that is similar to the movie Poltergeist. Residents reported self-flushing toilets, flickering lights, family pets that literally go mad, household items that seem to have a life of their own, friends and relatives who are stricken with fatal diseases, freakish storms that hover over the house, flocks of crows that attack, and many more Hollywood-type phenomena, except it's too frighteningly real. According to the book that was written about the case, many people moved into this lovely neighborhood, but left suddenly within a month. Later it was learned the neighborhood was built over an old slave cemetery, but the bodies had not been moved, so the residents were being haunted by spirits who were angry at having their final resting place desecrated.

An entire neighborhood experienced extremely frightening activity on this old Negro Cemetery known as the Black Hope Cemetery. No solutions have been found. The Williams house is a private residence on Hilltop Drive in the Newport area of Lake Houston.

Built on top of a "potter's field" type cemetery, residents of this subdivision have reported apparitions, poltergeist activity, and a general impression that whatever was there was evil. The phenomena was the subject of the book The Black Hope Horror and the movie Grave Secrets.

The fine line between documentary and dream is almost eradicated in this true haunted-house tale set in the Deep South. Ben and Jean Williams have uneasy feelings about their new Texas home the moment they discover ants invading their dishwasher. Soon, their toilets self-flush, knickknacks dance, freakish storms' hover over them, flocks of crows attack, pet cats and gerbils go mad, and friends and relatives are stricken with fatal diseases.

When Jean and Ken Williams moved into their new house in 1983, they were curious about strange markings on the oak tree in their front yard. Soon, they started hearing unexplainable footsteps and voices in the house. Moving shadows roamed the house and a black substance oozed from the walls of the master bedroom. They discovered that their house was built on top of an old Negro graveyard called the Black Hope Cemetery. Neighbors confirmed the sightings of ghosts and some experienced phenomena in their own homes. Before the Williams family moved out in 1987, five members had died under mysterious circumstances. The Williamses sued the developer and wrote a book about their experiences, called The Black Hope Horror.

The horrible ordeal the Williams family faced was well documented in 1987 with articles in the Houston Chronicle newspaper and in other U.S. newspapers as well. I remember this because I lived in Houston for many years. "Shag" and Jean Williams moved into their pristine, new dream home when they were in their fifties. Ben was a rank-and-file worker at a local industrial plant. They sank a lot of their savings into the home thinking they would retire there. Shortly after settling in, the toilets began flushing themselves, ants overflowed from the dishwasher, pets began to die mysteriously, and freakish storms brewed up, centered only over their home and a few others near them. Snakes began appearing out of nowhere, and at night they would hear barely audible voices and see shadows. These and many other disturbances culminated in the unexpected deaths of several people close to them. The Williamses were not the only ones to experience these horrifying phenomena. Neighbors living around them also suffered similar fates. The reason became clear when a contractor began breaking ground for a neighbor's new pool and dug up two bodies. What ensues is truly a nightmare for this unsuspecting couple and their neighbors as all try to hold onto their sanity long enough to recoup their money from the title company. Prospective buyers were nonexistent due to publicity and a law that required the owners to divulge that the houses were built over a cemetery. This story was made into a TV movie in 1992 titled Grave Secrets: The Legacy of Hilltop Drive, starring Patty Duke and David Selby. The Newport hauntings have also been included in several documentaries on the supernatural. Some seem to question the veracity of this story. What can't be dismissed is the fact that something caused many residents to abandon their new homes, allowing the banks to foreclose on their entire investment, that many people on the street suffered emotional and familial breakdowns, that several unexplained illnesses and deaths occurred, etc.

Read more: http://hauntedtavern.proboards.com/thread/1081#ixzz2aeHyyE00

[brian0123]

Ah, so the Williams family made money by writing a book (which turned into a movie) and gained fame by spinning ghost stories about their poorly constructed house with plumbing and electrical problems in a place w/ ants and snakes? Got it.

 

I love how all ghost stories involve either slaves or Indians that are ticked off that someone is living on top of them. I'd think they'd be more scared of our modern technology and would be clueless on how to operate tv's and clocks (even flushing toilets).

[Hunter]

Ah, so the Williams family made money by writing a book (which turned into a movie) and gained fame by spinning ghost stories about their poorly constructed house with plumbing and electrical problems in a place w/ ants and snakes? Got it.

 

I love how all ghost stories involve either slaves or Indians that are ticked off that someone is living on top of them. I'd think they'd be more scared of our modern technology and would be clueless on how to operate tv's and clocks (even flushing toilets).

 

I have often thought the same thing.

 

Where i do believe in ghosts and have seen many strange things in my years it never ceases to amaze me how many of the stories have the same thread to them. And how come we do not see ghosts from the 1600's or even from the 1200's do they lose strength, fade away or what ever. So many questions and no real answers. 

[brian0123]

I have often thought the same thing.

 

Where i do believe in ghosts and have seen many strange things in my years it never ceases to amaze me how many of the stories have the same thread to them. And how come we do not see ghosts from the 1600's or even from the 1200's do they lose strength, fade away or what ever. So many questions and no real answers. 

 

The thing is that people come up with ghost stories to explain the things they don't understand or are afraid of. Pretty much everything has some sort of logical/scientific explanation. It sounds like you've realized another thing that is just silly about all of these stories. People die every second in a multitude of good and bad ways, and the sheer volume alone would suggest that we should have ghosts floating around everywhere (especially on the freeways). The stories have the same thread because those that believe in them only further build them up in their heads, read other ghost stories, buy the books, etc. It's just like alien abduction stories and how they all have the same thread.

[Hunter]

And also in many cities you will find the same stories repeated, detail for detail just a new location, names and time periods. Now some stories seem to have some valid truths and personally I have experienced things I cannot explain but the vast majority of stories can be explained away to natural things, and seeing things where there is not due to either wanting to believe, an over active imagination or what ever.

 

No I do not believe them all not even a 1/3 probably less than that but...............  

[Montrose1100]

I for one have never had a ghost encounter. Now, I have had some freakish unexplainable things happen, but I'm sure there is a reason for them. The first, at my grandma's in good ole Louisiana, I stayed at her house one night. The family graveyard is a few yards from the window, and I woke up in the middle of the night to a constant "tap tap tap" on the window. There were no trees or bushes on that side of the house, but in my drunken state I was freaked out (Probably a lose tree stick on the roof).

 

Another would be the Anson Lights, north of Abilene, TX. I've seen them a couple times, and I cannot explain them, but there has to be a reason for it. Anyways, I don't believe in them one bit.

[Urban Commando]

Orbs... Chortle.. I laugh every time I see/hear someone claim that

dust and other tiny particles captured by cameras are ghosts.

Gimme a break. I was born yesterday, but not last night..

But saying that, I'm not a total unbeliever when it comes to spirit type

stuff. I've never "seen" a ghost, but I've been in places where you

almost seem to "feel" their presence. I had one instance where I was

nearly scared to death, and walked out of a friends house without saying

anything to them. Heck, I nearly *ran* out of the place. Scared me to death.

I never saw anything with my eyes, but I felt something was there which was

very scary and felt like pure evil. And when this happened, ghosts were the

last thing on my mind. It really shook me up pretty bad at the time.

A few days later I finally worked up the nerve to tell him about it, and

found out that other things have happened there before, and had since he was

young and his parents owned the house.

But like I say, I spent the night on the battleship Texas and didn't notice

a thing.. :/

 

I used to not believe in them, either...until I had a few encounters which I will keep private.

Suffice to say, they are out there.

I honestly wished I still had your skepticism on them. I found the situations involved to be very sad, indeed.  

[fatesdisastr]

Another would be the Anson Lights, north of Abilene, TX. I've seen them a couple times, and I cannot explain them, but there has to be a reason for it. Anyways, I don't believe in them one bit.

 

Yeah Anson Lights debunked

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2011/oct/20/acu-group-sheds-light-on-mysterious-anson-ghost/