Haunted Places in Houston, TX: Hospitals, a Battleship and a Haunted Bank
A hospital built over a city cemetery, a library caretaker who still makes his rounds and a bank tower turned hotel. Here is what is true about Houston’s ghosts, and where you can still go.
Houston grows and rebuilds fast, and that shows in its ghost stories: several places on older lists, ours included, are private homes, apartment complexes or businesses that have moved on. We checked every one against current sources. The places below are the ones with a real history behind the story and a way for you to visit, stay or at least see them. The rest are explained further down, so you know the facts before you go looking.
Where to look The 1840 cemetery ground beneath and around the building
Reported ghosts Pale figures, crying and screams; a woman in the old probation building
Visiting Private apartments: view from the street only
Ghost hunting No. It is a residential building
From 1840 this block in Houston’s old Sixth Ward was the city cemetery, and thousands of people were buried here, among them Confederate soldiers, formerly enslaved people and victims of yellow fever and cholera. In 1924 the city built a charity hospital on the site, designed by W.A. Dowdy; only a few hundred graves are thought to have been moved. It closed as a hospital in 1939 and later held county offices until 1989.
Empty for the next 16 years, it gathered stories of pale figures, wailing and screams, and it still turns up on every list of haunted Houston. Rumors that it was a mental asylum are false. Since 2005 it has been the Elder Street Artist Lofts, 34 homes for artists, so admire it from the street and do not trespass.
Haunted Rooms tip: It is people’s homes now. Look from Elder Street and leave the residents in peace.
Where to look The third floor, the marble halls and the old basement quarters
Reported ghosts Caretaker Jacob Frank Cramer, his violin and his dog Petey
Visiting Public library archive, open during library hours
Tickets Free
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts
Houston’s old central library opened on October 17, 1926. Boston architect Ralph Adams Cram designed it in a Spanish Renaissance style, working with William Ward Watkin and Louis A. Glover, and in 1951 the city named it for Julia Ideson, Houston’s first librarian. It was the central library until 1976. A major restoration and a long-planned archival wing followed in the early 2010s, and today it houses the Houston Metropolitan Research Center and the library’s special collections.
Its ghost story is a gentle one. Jacob Frank Cramer, a caretaker who lived in the building and played the violin in the evenings, was found dead there in November 1936. Staff and visitors have since told of violin music after hours and the click of his dog Petey’s claws on the marble floors, a legend the Houston Chronicle helped make famous. It is a working archive, so visit during reading room hours or at a public event.
Haunted Rooms tip: Visit the Special Collections reading room during opening hours and ask staff about Cramer.
Address Gulf Copper shipyard, Galveston harbor (best seen from Pier 21)
Where to look The engine room, the second deck and the ladders
Reported ghosts A smiling red-haired sailor; voices and white vapors
Visiting Closed for restoration: see it from Pier 21 or a harbor boat tour
Tours Regular tours closed; occasional specialty tours are announced by the foundation
Hours and season Reopening at Pier 15 targeted for 2027
Ghost hunting Not while it is under restoration. Overnight ghost hunts ran on board in 2019, before it closed
Commissioned in 1914, the Texas is the last surviving dreadnought to have served in both world wars. She fired on Pointe du Hoc on D-Day and was hit off Cherbourg on June 25, 1944, killing helmsman Christen Christensen. In 1948 she became the first battleship museum in the US, moored for 74 years at San Jacinto near Houston.
Visitors told of voices with an urgent wartime ring, white vapors drifting through compartments, noises in the engine room and a smiling red-haired sailor by the ladders. The ship has been under restoration in Galveston since 2022 and is not open for tours; reopening at Pier 15 is targeted for 2027.
Haunted Rooms tip: Walk out on Galveston’s Pier 21 for the best public view of the ship in the shipyard.
Where to look Room 415, the 10th floor and the lobby vault
Reported ghosts A man in a 1920s suit at a window; a banker in Room 415
Visiting A working hotel; the lobby and restaurant are open to the public
Ghost hunting No organized ghost hunts; book a room and stay the night instead
The 12-story Union National Bank on Main Street, designed by the St. Louis firm Mauran, Russell and Crowell, was finished in 1911 and was one of the country’s early steel and concrete skyscrapers. It has been Hotel ICON since 2004, now part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, and it still keeps the old bank vault. Its ghost stories go back to the 1929 crash: bankers, the legend says, lost everything and took their own lives in the tower, and guests talk of a late-night gunshot followed by a heavy thud.
The most specific sighting is a man in a brown 1920s suit on the 10th floor, sometimes seen at a window, and local ghost tours name Room 415 as the most haunted room. No record of a banker’s death in the building has turned up, so treat the crash suicides as legend. Our hotel guide has the full story.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for Room 415 or a 10th-floor room when you book; it can be requested but not guaranteed.
Where to look The old elevator shaft, the restroom and the second floor
Reported ghosts A pharmacist who fell down the elevator shaft, and his grieving wife
Visiting The Spaghetti Warehouse closed in 2017; the building is now a privately run bar venue, visible from Commerce Street
Tours Houston ghost walking tours include the building as a stop
Ghost hunting Not available: it is a private business, not a ghost hunt venue
This two-story brick warehouse on Commerce Street was built in 1912 for the Desel-Boettcher produce company, back when the port of Houston sat at nearby Allen’s Landing. In 1973 it became the Houston branch of the Spaghetti Warehouse chain, with a trolley car in the dining room. Hurricane Harvey flooded it in 2017 and the restaurant never came back.
Its ghost story is one of Houston’s best known. A young pharmacist is said to have stepped into an open elevator shaft while working late, and his grieving wife died within a year. For decades staff and diners told of floating baskets, moved tables, names called from empty rooms and a tap on the shoulder. None of it is on record, so treat it as local legend.
Haunted Rooms tip: The building reopened in 2021 as the McIntyre’s Downtown bar, but McIntyre’s own website no longer lists it, so check before you go. You can always see the facade from Commerce Street.
Visiting a haunted place by day is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through a historic building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and vigils, and gives you time to explore on your own. These are the nearest ones we run.
These places appear in older lists of haunted spots. We keep them here so you know the facts before you go, but you cannot (or should not) visit them.
2309 Wichita Street
The turreted, onion-domed house built over decades by its late owner is one of Houston’s most photographed oddities, and older guides added ghost stories to it. It is a private home. Look from the street, or better, leave the residents alone.
Kingsgate Village apartments
The story of a young woman who killed her cheating boyfriend and still walks the complex has no record behind it, and the property is private apartments. We have removed it as a place to visit.
Martha Chapel Cemetery
Older lists describe possessions and attacks on the road to this small cemetery. These are internet legends without a source, and cemeteries are not places to provoke anyone, living or dead. If you visit, go in daylight and treat it as a burial ground.
Cinemark Tinseltown
Our older guide said a cinema was built on the site of a trailer park where people died in a 1971 fire. We could not find any record of that fire, so we have removed it.
Changed from our older guide: we moved 2309 Wichita Street, Kingsgate Village, Martha Chapel Cemetery and the Cinemark Tinseltown story out of the main list because they are private or could not be confirmed. We removed the National Museum of Funeral History, a fine museum with no ghost story we could find, and the Sam Houston Memorial Museum in Huntsville, about 70 miles north, until we can check its stories properly.
About our Texas ghost hunts: Haunted Rooms has run ghost hunts at many of the places in this guide. See our Texas ghost hunts page for dates.
Visited one of these places? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from visitors and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your visit. We read every story before it’s published.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most haunted place in Houston?
The old Jefferson Davis Hospital, built in 1924 on the site of an old city cemetery, has the strongest reputation. It is now artists’ lofts, so see our full guide before you go.
Is the Julia Ideson Building haunted?
That is the local legend. The Houston Chronicle has described stories that caretaker Jacob Frank Cramer and his dog Petey still make their rounds in the 1926 library, which now holds the Houston Public Library’s special collections.
Is Hotel ICON haunted?
Guests talk of a man in a 1920s suit on the 10th floor and of Room 415. The legend of bankers killing themselves after the 1929 crash is not backed by history; Houston’s banks came through the Depression without a failure.
Is the Spaghetti Warehouse in Houston still open?
See our full Spaghetti Warehouse guide for the building’s current status.
Where can I go ghost hunting near Houston?
Haunted Rooms has run ghost hunts at the Old Town Coldspring and San Jacinto Jail, north of Houston. See our Texas ghost hunts page for dates.
Sources and how we research
Every place in this guide is checked against its official website, historic register listings and news coverage, and we confirm whether it is open, closed, private or gone before we list it. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and local historians tell them; we say so where records contradict a story.
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every place in our guides using official sites, historic registers, local archives and news coverage, and we report ghost stories as the stories they are. We review each guide regularly so you are not sent to a place that has closed, changed hands or banned visitors. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
