With New Jersey being so rich in history, legends and lore, it seems only natural that more than a few spirited spooks have chosen to make their presence known in the Garden State. They haunt our homes and historic sites, our hotels, cemeteries and even our roads.
And what better time of year to plan a paranormal day trip than the Halloween season in New Jersey? Here are just a few of the places throughout the state with a notorious reputation for supernatural activity. If it’s ghosts you want, the Garden State’s got ’em.
Do Time at a Haunted Prison
Courtesy of Weird NJ
When it was built in 1811 Burlington County Prison in Mount Holly was considered state of the art. Designed by architect Robert Mills, who would go on to design the Washington Monument, the dark grey stone building was in constant operation until closing in 1965.
During its 154 years in use, public hangings took place in the prison’s yard, where some of the bodies of the executed were later buried, and where the stockades are still on display today. This is believed to be the principal reason for the hauntings at the jail.
The prison is now a museum that you can tour. Visit the “dungeon,” a solitary confinement cell in the basement which is reportedly haunted by a tall male in a uniform—perhaps one of the two former guards who were killed during attempted jailbreaks. See Death Cell, complete with its metal chains and shackles. And read the graffiti of former prisoners, which is preserved on the cell walls.
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Take a Ride Down a Haunted Road
A section of Clinton Road in West Milford that’s known as Dead Man’s CurveCourtesy of Weird NJ
Perhaps the most legendary lane in all of New Jersey, Clinton Road winds its way through ten miles of dark forest in West Milford and is home to myriad stories of otherworldly activity. One of the ghosts is that of a young boy who hangs out under a bridge at a section of the road known as “Dead Man’s Curve.” It’s said that if you stop there late at night and toss a coin over the bridge wall into the stream beneath, the ghost boy will toss it back to you. Apparently, he doesn’t always comply though, as the bottom of the stream below is littered with shiny coins.
Another spirited street is Shades of Death Road in Great Meadows (yes, that its actual name!). These days nobody’s really sure how it earned its grim moniker, but folks blame it on the roving gangs of bandits or the malaria epidemics that once plagued the area. Its foreboding name helps make for a journey steeped in local lore. As you wind your way along to road, take notice of the scenic body of water as you pass along the route. That’s Ghost Lake, where it is said you will sometimes see wispy figures of mist rising from the water’s surface and moving across the road. These are said to be the spirits of the original Native American tribespeople who once inhabited the area before being violently massacred by early European settlers.
Spend a Night at a Haunted Hotel
Courtesy of Weird NJ
The boardwalk of Ocean City is a family-friendly resort that you might think would be the last place you’d find a haunting. But think again. The landmark Flanders Hotel, built in 1923, has its own resident ghost. She’s known as the Lady in White, but her name in life was Emily.
The landmark hotel was named for Flanders Fields in Belgium, where poppies grow over the rows of graves of American soldiers who died there during World War I. Emily is said to the spirit of a young woman who was the girlfriend of a soldier who was killed in the trenches.
Despite that, she’s reportedly a pretty cheerful apparition with long brown hair who appears and disappears into walls, and wanders the hallways of the massive hotel in her bare feet. For years guests and staff have reported the sound of a girl singing in its hallways, and seeing the train of a white gown disappearing around the corners of corridors. She has also been seen wandering the hotel’s Hall of Mirrors, in the hotel lobby, merrily singing and laughing.
There is a framed portrait of Emily on the second floor of the hotel, where she’s seen standing barefoot beside a piano wearing a long white dress. The Flanders even named the hotel restaurant after her.
Go on a Jersey Devil Hunt
As legend goes, in 1735, the 13th child of a woman known as Mother Leeds was cursed by his mother and born with the head of a horse, the wings of a bat, a serpentine tail and the antlers of a deer. This frightful creature has roamed the New Jersey Pine Barrens terrorizing people ever since. In 1909 it went on such a widespread rampage that schools and churches had to be temporarily shut down for fear and local men formed armed posses to track the marauding beast down.
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If you dare go on your own Jersey Devil hunt, here are a couple of good places to start your search; his birthplace at Leeds Point in Galloway, and the Blue Hole in Winslow, where he is said to make frequent visits. It’s said that you can still find the ruins of the house the Devil was born in hidden in the woods along Moss Mill Road in Galloway, where shortly after birth it killed its own mother and flew up the chimney into the night.
The Blue Hole is a small round body of water with an eerie blue tint located deep in the Pine Barrens. It’s believed by some to be bottomless, and locals warn not swim there, as it has been known to suck hapless swimmers down to their death. That doesn’t dissuade the Jersey Devil though, who is rumored to regularly splash in the icy blue bath.
Wander a Ghostly Graveyard
Courtesy of Weird NJ
Old Tennent Church in Manalapan was founded in 1692 by a group of Presbyterian Scottish Dissenters who had fled their homeland to escape persecution for their beliefs. The congregation has occupied the current building since 1751, and the structure has undergone little change. The church once served as a hospital during the Revolutionary War as Battle of Monmouth raged around it on June 28, 1778.
On that fateful day, as a young soldier sat on a gravestone and watched the battle, a stray cannon ball struck him, severing his leg and breaking off the top of the tombstone. The unfortunate soldier was carried into the church and laid out on one of the pews where he succumbed to his wounds.
To this day the bloodstains can still be seen on the pew, and the ghost of deceased soldier still wanders the graveyard and haunts the church. He’s usually witnessed walking among the old 18th century red sandstone markers, still wearing his uniform, and will pause and solemnly bow his head at the stone he was sitting upon when he was struck down. The top half of the stone is missing, having been sheered off by the blow of the cannonball.
Other times the spirit is witnessed inside the church itself, sitting on the very pew which still bears his blood, head in hands and weeping.
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