9 Haunted Places to Visit in Greenwich Village 

Washington Square Park 

This plot was once a burial ground for the Lenape tribe; later, just after the Revolutionary War, it served as a potter’s field. A number of the 20,000 or so bodies buried there were victims of a yellow fever outbreak that lasted nearly a decade, from 1795 to 1803.

NYU Brown Building

Formerly home to the Triangle Waist Company, the top floors of this building caught fire on March 25, 1911, killing 146 female garment industry workers. (The women were locked in the building by supervisors.) People claim the building is haunted today, including by the ghosts of 50 people who jumped to their death.

The House of Death (14 W. 10th St.) 

West 10th Street is rife with haunting legends. The inhabitants of this townhouse, for example, have been disturbed by denizens of the other side, including onetime resident Mark Twain. More than 20 people have died here, and rumor has it that their spirits have never left.

Emma Lazarus House (18 W. 10th St.) 

This brownstone was where writer Emma Lazarus once lived with her family. Lazarus is best known for her sonnet “The New Colossus,” lines of which are featured on the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal. Both she and her father died in this home, and her funeral was held here. Her spirit is said to linger still.

Jefferson Market Library

This Victorian Gothic library served as the City’s first night court and as a women’s court. The adjacent garden was the site of a prison for women—some of whose ghosts are reported to lurk around the building.

12 Gay Street 

This beautiful brick townhouse, once owned by Mayor Jimmy Walker and home to a Prohibition-era speakeasy, is allegedly inhabited by a spirit. Some locals say a well-dressed man in a cloak and top hat can be seen in the windows late at night.

Chumley’s  

Once a haunt of famous writers, this speakeasy was owned by Leland Chumley and passed on to his flapper wife, Henrietta, who also served as a bartender. After her death it was said that Henrietta could be found sitting by the fireplace where she used to drink, or throwing bottles off their shelves.

Cherry Lane Theatre

Several spirits haunt NYC’s oldest theater (probably disgruntled actors, let’s be honest). Founded by local resident Edna St. Vincent Millay in 1924, the theater has long been home to experimental productions—and it’s said that the ghosts participate.

Literary Salon of Anne Charlotte Lynch (116 Waverly Pl.) 

During the mid-1800s, poet Anne Charlotte Lynch hosted many literary types in her Village townhouse, including Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Edgar Allan Poe. This is where Poe reputedly first read “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” (The current house, which dates to 1891, replaced Lynch’s.)

Conduct your own paranormal investigations in the downtown Manhattan neighborhood.

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Haunted Greenwich Village

Seek the paranormal in this NYC neighborhood.