New York City has 8 million living residents \u2014 and countless dead. <\/p>\n
From Edgar Allan Poe\u2019s eerie Bronx cottage to streets where the dead are said to roam, the five boroughs are packed with ghost stories, restless spirits and things that go bump in the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city is haunted as hell,\u201d Andrea Janes, scholar, author<\/a>, and founder of macabre tour company Boroughs of the Dead<\/a>, told The Post.<\/p>\n Andrea Janes, the NYC spookhunter shared the most haunted places throughout all five boroughs.<\/p>\n Blame centuries of history, a shortage of space and a city built atop the literal and figurative bones of those who came before.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just reuse these spaces over and over again, even if those previous usages were for a burial site or a site of sickness or suffering; we will just build on top of them,\u201d she pointed out.<\/p>\n According to Janes, the combined weight of history, death, and repurposing \u201ccreates a psychic force field where we\u2019re surrounded by spirit energy<\/a>,\u201d which serves to explain why the city goes so hard for Halloween.<\/p>\n Experts blame centuries of history, a shortage of space and a city built atop the literal and figurative bones of those who came before as primary reasons NYC is \u201chaunted as hell.\u201d Getty Images<\/p>\n Janes helped The Post dig up the creepiest corners of all five boroughs \u2014 where the past is never really past, and some New Yorkers may not be the only ones walking the streets.<\/p>\n The Bronx<\/p>\n Edgar Allen Poe Cottage <\/p>\n Many Bronx residents \u2014 and more than a few hopeful goth teenagers \u2014 swear the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage at 2640 Grand Concourse is haunted by the ghost of its morbid, mustachioed former resident.<\/p>\n Poe moved into the white clapboard cottage in 1846 with his wife\/first cousin, Virginia, who succumbed to tuberculosis a year later.<\/p>\n Edgar Allen Poe moved into the white clapboard Bronx cottage in 1846 with his wife\/first cousin, Virginia, who succumbed to tuberculosis a year later. Getty Images<\/p>\n He wrote his magnum opus, \u201cAnnabel Lee,\u201d in the house, which tells a chilling story about the death of a beautiful woman.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a wide variety of opinions on whether the Poe cottage is actually haunted or not, but either way there\u2019s definitely a vibe,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n That vibe is only heightened by the presence of Poe\u2019s original furniture, including the bed in which his wife, Virginia, died.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a hundred percent worth visiting,\u201d she attests.<\/p>\n Manhattan <\/p>\n City Hall Park <\/p>\n While Janes said most of Manhattan is haunted, City Hall Park is her pick for peak spookiness.<\/p>\n \u201cThe history of City Hall Park is extremely layered,\u201d she explained, noting that the park has served as a prison, almshouses, burial grounds, and the former home of P.T. Barnum\u2019s American Museum. <\/p>\n The latter was destroyed by a massive fire in 1865, killing countless animals, including two beluga whales that were boiled alive in their basement tanks. <\/p>\n City Hall Park is peak spookiness. Michael Nagle for the NY Post<\/p>\n And that\u2019s not all.<\/p>\n A series of underground tunnels below the park link to an extant potter\u2019s field, where the bodies of poor and unidentified New Yorkers were unceremoniously emptied into mass graves.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve spoken to burly, skeptical security guards who work in City Hall Park who have seen and felt things,\u201d she explained, relaying the story of a guard who felt an invisible force grab a pen out of his pocket and throw it across the tunnel he was walking through. <\/p>\n Janes shared that City Hall Park also borders an African burial ground and a former sugar refinery that housed Revolutionary War prisoners.<\/p>\n \u201cYou just have this intense, tremendous amount of history. There were even executions on the commons, in the south part of City Hall Park in the 18th century.\u201d<\/p>\n She encourages both believers and doubters to stand in the park at dusk. \u201cBe quiet for a minute and see if you can feel it. There\u2019s something there.\u201d<\/p>\n Brooklyn <\/p>\n Hendrick I. Lott House<\/p>\n Janes says the intersection of Pacific and Smith streets in Coral Gardens is a source of a persistent, personal unease. <\/p>\n \u201cEvery time I walk by, I\u2019m overcome by the queasy feeling I get in haunted places. I don\u2019t know what happened there because I haven\u2019t come across any details in my research, but everyone I talk to thinks it\u2019s mob-related,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n For a better-known Brooklyn haunt, she points to the Hendrick I. Lott House at 1940 E. 36th St. in the Marine Park neighborhood.<\/p>\n The Hendrick I. Lott House, a historic Dutch-American farmhouse dating to 1720, seen in the Marine Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n One of Brooklyn\u2019s oldest residences, the house was built by Hendrick I. Lott in 1800 and incorporates an earlier structure built by his grandfather, Colonel Johannes H. Lott, in 1720.<\/p>\n New York City purchased the house in 2002 from the estate of Ella Suydam, a direct descendant of the original owner.<\/p>\n While no historical horror or tragedy is connected to the house, Janes suspects that the home remaining in a single family line for three hundred years has contributed to its creepiness. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Lotts lived there for centuries, and the house is imbued with the psychic residue of them,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n For the curious, while regular access is restricted, the Friends of the Lott House<\/a> occasionally hosts special events and seasonal programming.<\/p>\n Staten Island<\/p>\n \u201cStaten Island is just wall to wall ghosts,\u201d emphasized Janes. \u201cIt\u2019s haunted as hell. It has haunted mansions, asylums, an old fort. There\u2019s a convergence of psychic activity right over Staten Island that I cannot explain.\u201d<\/p>\n Janes said she feels an overwhelming sensation of past spirits when in Staten Island. <\/p>\n For specific haunted spots, she calls out the Kreischer Mansion on Arthur Kill Road.<\/p>\n German brick magnate Balthasar Kreischer built the gabled mansion in 1885 for his son, Edward.<\/p>\n In 1894, Edward was found shot dead behind his father\u2019s brick factory across the street.<\/p>\n German brick magnate Balthasar Kreischer built the gabled mansion in 1885 for his son, Edward. Jim Henderson\/Wiki<\/p>\n Unsure whether Edward\u2019s death was a murder or a suicide, his grieving family members sought the help of spiritualists, holding seances in the home, which some say opened up portals that would have been better left closed.<\/p>\n In 2005, the Kreischer Mansion played host to the grisly mobland killing<\/a> of Bonanno crime family associate Robert McKelvey.<\/p>\n Along with three other mob members, Young stabbed and strangled McKelvey before dismembering his body and burning his remains in the mansion\u2019s furnace.<\/p>\n Queens <\/p>\n 44th Street between Broadway and 34th<\/p>\n Residents along this stretch of Astoria street have reported seeing the same apparition: a woman in a high-collared dress, her white hair pulled back in a bun<\/p>\n Sometimes the figure appears by a sick child; other times she is seen walking in the backyards of the brick row houses lining the east side of 44th Street.<\/p>\n She is known to leave the scent of lavender in her wake. <\/p>\n According to Janes, the \u201cWhite Lady of Astoria\u201d is the ghost of Elizabeth Hallett, who was massacred along with her family in the early 1700s.<\/p>\n Janes shared that two enslaved people belonging to the household murdered Elizabeth, her husband William, and their five children.<\/p>\n The spooky Astoria street. Kim Max<\/p>\n Elizabeth was pregnant at the time of her death. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the most arresting ghost story,\u201d said Janes. <\/p>\n While the Hallet farmhouse is long gone, Elizabeth is said to haunt the row houses built on a 44th Street block in the early 20th century\u2014though she\u2019s seen as a benevolent spirit.<\/p>\n \u201cOne friend, who described [the ghost] sitting with her and her brother when they were ill, described it as a comforting experience,\u201d said Mitch Waxman<\/a>, who runs the history website the Newtown Pentacle and lives a block away from the homes.<\/p>\n Janes honors the dead by telling their stories on her guided tours and explaining that guests don\u2019t have to believe in the paranormal to participate.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of our tours are history-based, and some don\u2019t have anything to do with ghosts at all,\u201c she underscored. <\/p>\n Boroughs of the Dead celebrates its 13th anniversary this October; curious visitors can book a tour here <\/a>and catch Jane on October 27th at the Center for Brooklyn, where she appears on the panel discussion, HistoryHaunted Brooklyn: Ghosts, Folklore, and the Stories We Tell<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City has 8 million living residents \u2014 and countless dead. 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