{"id":378954,"date":"2026-10-21T22:40:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T22:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/378954\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T22:40:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T22:40:20","slug":"staten-island-is-nycs-most-haunted-borough-expert-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/378954\/","title":{"rendered":"Staten Island Is NYC\u2019s Most Haunted Borough, Expert Says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New York\u2019s toughest housing competition might be among people who no longer need an apartment. And apparently, a substantial portion of the dearly departed have settled on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/things-to-do\/the-best-things-to-do-in-staten-island\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Staten Island<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Andrea Janes, founder of macabre walking tour company <a href=\"https:\/\/boroughsofthedead.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Boroughs of the Dead<\/a>, has declared the borough NYC\u2019s prime paranormal territory. Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/10\/20\/lifestyle\/this-nyc-borough-is-the-most-haunted\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/10\/20\/lifestyle\/this-nyc-borough-is-the-most-haunted\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">New York Post<\/a>, she described an island packed with haunted mansions, former institutions and military grounds.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s wall-to-wall ghosts,\u201d she told the paper.<\/p>\n<p>This is one expert\u2019s assessment, not the result of a citywide spirit census. But Staten Island has plenty of history to fuel the stories.<\/p>\n<p>RECOMMENDED:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/restaurants\/the-most-haunted-restaurants-and-bars-in-nyc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The most haunted restaurants and bars in NYC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Start with its long association with quarantine: the New York Marine Hospital opened there in 1799 to isolate people with infectious diseases, including yellow fever. Known as \u201cThe Quarantine,\u201d the complex was burned down in 1858 amid fierce local opposition. Decades later, Sea View Hospital opened in 1913 to treat tuberculosis patients.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you ask me what is the most haunted place in Staten Island, I would say the entire island,\u201d Janes told the Post.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"a8e60180-3faa-b0ef-bd65-51e05e4f7dac\" class=\"photo lazy inline\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"lazy-embed\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792622420_350_image.webp\" alt=\"Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island\" data-caption=\"Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island\" data-credit=\"Photograph: Shutterstock\" data-width-class=\"\" data-image-id=\"106459834\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\nPhotograph: ShutterstockFort Wadsworth in Staten Island&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Among her standout spooky addresses is Kreischer Mansion on Arthur Kill Road. Built in the 1880s for brick manufacturer Edward Kreischer, the Victorian house has a grim backstory: Kreischer died from a gunshot wound in 1894 and the property was the site of Robert McKelvey\u2019s murder in 2005.\u00a0The ghost lore includes figures appearing in windows, furniture allegedly moving by itself and mysterious kitchen clatter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At Conference House, where British and American representatives held unsuccessful peace talks in 1776, stories circulate about a murdered servant and spectral soldiers. (The alleged killing hasn\u2019t been substantiated by historical evidence, though.)<\/p>\n<p>Fort Wadsworth has its own reported supernatural soundtrack: footsteps, gunfire and cannon blasts, along with supposed soldier sightings.<\/p>\n<p>Janes also draws a line between spooky entertainment and suffering. She told the Post she excludes the former Willowbrook State School site, now partly occupied by the College of Staten Island, from her tours because its history of institutional abuse is too sad.<\/p>\n<p>For anyone plotting a seasonal outing, the appeal is the borough\u2019s unusually dense collection of unsettling stories and historic settings. Whether you believe in ghosts or simply appreciate an atmospheric old building, Staten Island makes a compelling case for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/attractions\/staten-island-ferry\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">taking the ferry<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s toughest housing competition might be among people who no longer need an apartment. And apparently, a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1739,9,24,3953,63,134,136,135,904],"class_list":["post-378954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-categories-things-to-do","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news-weird-wonderful","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}