Our Favorite Halloween Haunts

How Historic Sites Play Up the Holiday

By Magazine Staff | Online Only | Oct. 31, 2008

The Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas.

Parade in Austin

Tonight at the "haunted" Driskill Hotel in Austin, Tex., guests won't have time to be afraid--they'll be too busy! The hotel, built in 1886, is famous not only for its ghosts but for its celebrations of All Hallows' Eve. For the past few months, the Driskill has been offering its "After Dark" package. Those brave enough to stay at the hotel on Halloween night will receive discounted rates, complimentary upgrades, trick-or-treats at turndown, and a "R.I.P. pass," which will gain them access to a balcony for a "bat's-eye-view" of the popular Sixth Street parade. After "Grand Witches' Brew Tea," today at 3:00 is the much-anticipated Halloween Dinner at the Driskill, where costumed waiters will serve a five-course meal, both decadent and creepy. The hotel has also hired guides from Haunted Texas Tours, who will lead guests around and show them why the Driskill has been named "The Most Haunted Hotel in Texas." -Kate Nickel

New Orleans' Dark Side

In New Orleans, you can go on a haunted house tour every day of the year. Since 2007, Ghost Expeditions has hosted daily peeks of its Haunted Mortuary, a three-story building three blocks from the French Quarter. (The group says on its Web site that about a third of New Orleans tourists come to the city for a paranormal experience.) On Halloween night Anne Rice's Vampire Lestat Fan Club is throwing "The Queen of the Damned Ball." After Halloween is over, Ghost Expeditions continues to offer their new "Anne Rice's Vampires and Other Supernatural Beings Tour," written by the famed Rice herself. For more information, visit http://www.hauntedmortuary.com. -Margaret Foster

Ghost Sleepover

Participants in "Haunted Weekend" can expect to escape the Hotel Monteleone alive. Not all have been so lucky. Located in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the 1886 hotel has seen its share of tragedies. A child named Maurice Begere haunts room 1462, where he died of scarlet fever. The specters of Maurice and a ghostly playmate allegedly appear in photographs. When the International Society for Paranormal Research investigated in 2003, ghosthunters and physics identified 12 different entities.

Still, guests have nothing to fear. "All our ghosts are nice ghosts," says Andrea Thornton, director of sales and marketing, who sees spirits as the premiere attraction for some guests. "This is the first time we've done this 'Murder Mystery Weekend,' and we chose to do it on Halloween, in large part to build our reputation as a haunted hotel." The three-day, two-night mystery celebration will begin Friday Evening, and conclude Sunday afternoon, when the “murder mystery” is solved. Thornton hopes to expand Halloween celebrations next year and offer a variety of spooky hotel packages. -Kate Nickel

Ghost Pirates of the Outer Banks

The Outer Banks of North Carolina is known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic" because 2,000 ships capsized there. Ghosts of soldiers from the Civil War, patiently waiting for the Union soldiers to appear, and pirates from Blackbeard's crew are said to haunt historic Fort Macon, a fort surrounded on three sides by water.

Tonight is the Beaufort Ghost Walk, a guided walking tour through the Historic District of Beaufort, N.C. Founded in 1709, Beaufort is home to the Hammock House, which once served as Blackbeard's headquarters. –Laryssa Wirstiuk

Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, Massachusetts

Bewitched in Salem

If you see a ghost at the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, Mass., this Friday, don't assume it's a party guest in costume. Today the allegedly haunted hotel will open its doors for its wildly popular Annual Costume Ball. The 1925 hotel, whose current theme is "CarnEvil," expects about 1,000 people for drinks, hors d'oeuvres, contests, and perhaps even the eerie glows or ghostly figures reported by former visitors. Those of us without tickets (the hotel is already selling out for Halloween 2009) will have to settle for spotting the hotel in old episodes of "Bewitched," which filmed at the Hawthorne for several months in the 1970s. –Kate Nickel

Fireside Chat in Greensboro, N.C.

What's better than a ghost story by the fire? For the last four years in Greensboro, N.C., a local preservation group has opened its 1795 Victorian mansion at night so Halloween lovers and listen to ghost stories. Storyteller Cynthia Moore Brown will be at the hearth of Blandwood Mansion this Saturday night. "Ghosts and spirit stories do capture people's imagination. It's a logical connection," says Benjamin Briggs, executive director of Preservation Greensboro Inc. "It's all in fun, and we're looking not so much at the material building but at the local folklore. We're in the American South, so that's an important aspect of our culture." –Margaret Foster

Creepy in Cleveland

Visit Gray's Armory, a building from the mid-19th century that housed the "Cleveland Grays," a volunteer militia group. The Grays are best known for being the first to cease fighting in the Civil War, and visitors can still hear footsteps and see friendly apparitions. The five-story building is located in downtown Cleveland, near Erie Street Cemetery.

Designed in 1896 by Cleveland architect Levi Scofield, The Ohio State Reformatory, in Mansfield, is a Gothic, church-like stone building. The facility is notorious for its inhumane living conditions that deprived prisoners of light and fresh air. Though the reformatory closed in 1990, locals say the ghosts of dead inmates and guards still linger. –Laryssa Wirstiuk

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