Haunted Williamsburg, VA: The 15 Most Haunted Places to Visit
A colonial capital where the houses are original, the jail held Blackbeard’s crew and the town’s first asylum still stands rebuilt on its foundations. These are Williamsburg’s most haunted places, with what is history, what is legend and how to visit.
Williamsburg was Virginia’s capital from 1699 to 1780, a Civil War battlefield in 1862 and, from 1926, the town John D. Rockefeller Jr. paid to restore. Few places in America have so many 18th-century buildings in one walk, and few have collected so many ghost stories: author L.B. Taylor spent decades gathering them, and Colonial Williamsburg runs its own candlelit ghost walk. We have checked every place below against current sources, and we say plainly where a story has no record behind it. Just up historic Route 5, Haunted Rooms runs its own after-dark ghost hunts at Berkeley Plantation.
Address 100 West Nicholson Street, Williamsburg, VA 23185
Where to look The stairs, the basement, the upstairs bedrooms and the windows facing Nicholson Street
Reported ghosts A man in knee breeches, an agitated old woman, pushes on the stairs, children's footsteps
Visiting Colonial Williamsburg exhibition site, guided tours with admission
Tours Tours every 15 minutes when the site is open; check the daily schedule
Ghost hunting No public ghost hunts; join an evening ghost walk instead
The oldest part of this rust-red frame house was built about 1715. Sir John Randolph bought it in 1724, and his son Peyton, Speaker of the House of Burgesses and first president of the Continental Congress, joined it to a second house. Twenty-seven enslaved people lived and worked here. The Peachy family owned it when it served as a hospital after the Battle of Williamsburg in 1862, and Colonial Williamsburg restored it from 1938 to 1940.
It is often called the most haunted house in Williamsburg. Author L.B. Taylor collected stories of a stranger in knee breeches in the basement, a nudge on the stairs and a wavering figure wringing its hands in a bedroom, and guides describe faces at the windows on night tours. A popular tale has Lafayette feeling a cold hand during his 1824 visit; we found no letter of his that says so, so treat it as legend.
Haunted Rooms tip: Tour it by day, then come back on Colonial Williamsburg’s candlelit Haunted Williamsburg walk, which goes inside some buildings.
Where to look The main staircase and the upstairs bedroom
Reported ghosts Lady Anne Skipwith and her one shoe, George Wythe himself
Visiting Colonial Williamsburg exhibition site with admission
Ghost hunting No public ghost hunts
Richard Taliaferro built this Georgian brick house on the Palace Green in the early 1750s and gave it to his daughter Elizabeth and her husband George Wythe, signer of the Declaration of Independence and mentor to Thomas Jefferson. George Washington used it as his headquarters in September 1781 before the Siege of Yorktown. Colonial Williamsburg restored it in 1939.
Its legend is one of Virginia’s oldest. Lady Anne Skipwith is said to have fled a ball at the Governor’s Palace after catching her husband with her sister, lost a shoe and run up these stairs. She died within the year, most accounts say in childbirth. Visitors still report one-shoed footsteps on the stairs, a whiff of lavender and a woman in colonial dress, and some say Wythe, poisoned by his grandnephew in 1806, walks here too.
Haunted Rooms tip: Stand at the foot of the stairs on the evening ghost walk, when guides tell the Skipwith story inside.
Visit on a tourGhost toursHaunted Rooms ghost hunts
Address 12602 Harrison Landing Road, Charles City, VA 23030
Where to look The mansion's main rooms, the gardens and the family cemetery
Reported ghosts Benjamin Harrison IV and his daughter Hannah, killed by lightning in 1745; a girl carrying a baby
Visiting Guided house tours daily; gardens and grounds self-guided
Hours and season Tours hourly from 10 AM to 4 PM
Ghost hunting Yes: Haunted Rooms ghost hunts
Benjamin Harrison IV built this Georgian brick mansion on the James River in 1726 from bricks fired on the plantation. It was the birthplace of Benjamin Harrison V, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and of President William Henry Harrison. Settlers landing here on December 4, 1619 held a service of thanksgiving, Union troops camped here in 1862 when “Taps” was first played, and the Jamieson family restored the ruined house from 1907.
On July 12, 1745 lightning struck the house and killed Benjamin Harrison IV and his daughter Hannah, and the plantation’s ghost stories grow from that day: a father and daughter glimpsed near an upstairs window, a girl carrying her infant brother, footsteps and voices in the old rooms. Berkeley runs its own twilight ghost tours in October, and Haunted Rooms runs after-hours ghost hunts here.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book our Berkeley ghost hunt for after dark, and come early to tour the house and walk down to the river by day.
Address Nicholson Street, Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, VA 23185
Where to look The upstairs rooms of the jailer's quarters and the cells
Reported ghosts Two women talking upstairs, footsteps, a heavy sadness
Visiting Colonial Williamsburg exhibition site, self-guided visit with admission
Ghost hunting No public ghost hunts
Virginia’s colonial jail held debtors, thieves, runaway enslaved people and political prisoners while they waited for trial or punishment. Its most famous inmates were men from Blackbeard’s crew, captured with him in 1718. Conditions were grim, and outbreaks of “gaol fever,” probably typhus, swept the cells. The building you visit today was reconstructed on its original site by Colonial Williamsburg.
The best-known story, from Dennis Hauck’s Haunted Places, is of two women’s voices heard in lively conversation on the second floor of the jailer’s quarters. Visitors also describe heavy footsteps and a wave of sadness in the cells, and an EMF reader on one late tour reportedly lit up outside. None of it is documented; it is the kind of story the evening ghost walks love to tell.
Haunted Rooms tip: Most evening ghost walks stop here, so you can hear the stories outside the walls after dark.
Address 14501 John Tyler Memorial Highway, Charles City, VA 23030
Where to look The Gray Room, the hidden back stairway and the old nursery
Reported ghosts The Gray Lady, said to be a nurse who rocked a dying child
Visiting Grounds open daily for self-guided visits; house tours by appointment
Hours and season Grounds 9 AM to 5 PM
Ghost hunting A private family home: no ghost hunting
President John Tyler bought this James River house in 1842, renamed it Sherwood Forest after the Whigs threw him out of the party, and stretched it with wings and passages to about 300 feet, perhaps the longest historic house in Virginia. Tyler died in 1862, Union troops damaged the house in the war, and it has stayed in the Tyler family ever since.
Its ghost is the Gray Lady, said to be a nurse or governess who rocked a sick child in the nursery. Payne Tyler told Virginia Living she woke to a figure standing over her bed, and that her skeptical husband Harrison came down ashen after seeing it himself. Kay Tyler told the Virginian-Pilot of lights switched on in an empty house and footsteps in her bedroom. The family still hears rocking in the Gray Room, they say.
Haunted Rooms tip: Walk the grounds on a self-guided visit, and call ahead if you want a tour of the house.
Where to look The upstairs rooms and the fields toward the old Lawne's Creek church ruins
Reported ghosts A red fireball, footsteps, doors that open by themselves
Visiting House museum with guided tours, March to December
Hours and season Friday and Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM, Sunday noon to 5 PM
Tickets $15 adults
Ghost hunting No public ghost hunts
Arthur Allen built this brick house around 1665; tree-ring dating in 1999 confirmed that date, making it one of the oldest brick houses in Virginia. Followers of Nathaniel Bacon seized and fortified it in 1676 during Bacon’s Rebellion and held it for more than three months, which is how “Allen’s Brick House” became Bacon’s Castle, though Bacon himself never came here. Preservation Virginia owns it and runs tours.
The best-known ghost here is a fireball said to rise from the house, drift across the fields to the ruins of the old Lawne’s Creek church and vanish, a story the Surry County Historical Society traces through local legend and a 1950 novel. Mrs. Charles Walker Warren, the last private owner, spoke of doors opening on their own and footsteps upstairs, and later visitors describe a pale-faced figure.
Haunted Rooms tip: Tours run Friday to Sunday from March through December (plus Thursdays in summer); pair it with the Jamestown-Scotland ferry.
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.
Address 201 Duke of Gloucester Street, Williamsburg, VA 23185
Where to look The churchyard by the Jones graves and the pews inside
Reported ghosts A grieving first wife, organ music after dark
Visiting Working church; open to visitors most afternoons, churchyard walkable
Hours and season Visiting hours vary by day and season; check the parish website
Ghost hunting An active church: no ghost hunting
Bruton Parish was formed in 1674, and the present brick church went up between 1711 and 1715. It is still a busy Episcopal parish with nearly 2,000 members. Rector W.A.R. Goodwin restored it from 1905 to 1907 and went on to persuade John D. Rockefeller Jr. to fund the restoration of the whole town. Signers and statesmen lie in the churchyard, among graves from the 1600s on.
The ghost story here grows from a real stone. Rev. Scervant Jones, a 19th-century Baptist preacher known for his rhymes, buried his first wife Ann in the churchyard and, the record says, brought her headstone to town on the same stagecoach that carried his second wife. Legend adds that Ann’s spirit weeps among the graves and sits in the pews, and that the organ plays late at night. Those parts are folklore.
Haunted Rooms tip: Find the Jones stones in the churchyard, then step inside during the afternoon visiting hours.
Address Francis Street, Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, VA 23185
Where to look The reconstructed cells and the grounds of the old superintendent's house
Reported ghosts Dr. John Minson Galt II, a bloodstain that would not scrub out
Visiting Colonial Williamsburg site open on limited days only; check the schedule
Ghost hunting No public ghost hunts
America’s first hospital built only for people with mental illness admitted its first patient on October 12, 1773. In 1841 Dr. John Minson Galt II, just 22, became superintendent and brought in moral therapy, a library and craft rooms. Union troops took the hospital in May 1862, Galt was barred from his patients and died of a laudanum overdose on May 18. The original building burned in 1885, and Colonial Williamsburg rebuilt it on its foundations in 1985.
The legend says the family who moved into Galt’s house found a bloodstain on the floor where he died that came back after every scrubbing and even after new boards went down, and that their children saw a man in that room. When the house came down, the story goes, Galt moved to his hospital. It is told on local ghost walks; there is no record behind the bloodstain.
Haunted Rooms tip: The reconstructed hospital opens only on limited days (Thursday afternoons when it is open), so check the Colonial Williamsburg schedule before you go.
Address 111 Jamestown Road, Williamsburg, VA 23185
Where to look The upper corridors and the chapel with its crypt
Reported ghosts Soldiers in uniform, footsteps upstairs during lectures
Visiting Working college building; the campus is open to walk
Ghost hunting No ghost hunting on campus
Begun in 1695, the Wren Building is the oldest college building still standing in the United States. It burned in 1705, 1859 and 1862, the last time at the hands of Union soldiers, and was restored to its early 18th-century look between 1928 and 1931. Peyton Randolph is among those buried in the chapel vault. It still holds classes and chapel services, and a renovation began in 2025.
Students tell of uniformed figures in the corridors, which they link to the building’s use for wounded French soldiers in the Revolution and in the Civil War, and of footsteps from the empty floor above. Daniel Barefoot’s Haunted Halls of Ivy records a professor who stopped a lecture to hunt for noises upstairs and found nothing. These are campus stories, not records.
Haunted Rooms tip: Walk through the campus gate at the west end of Duke of Gloucester Street; check whether renovation work limits access.
Address 4800 John Tyler Memorial Highway, Charles City, VA 23030
Where to look Lizzie's upstairs window, the third-floor lookout and the old outbuildings
Reported ghosts Lizzie Rowland waiting at her window, a Civil War soldier who talks with guests
Visiting A working bed and breakfast: book a room to stay the night
Ghost hunting No public ghost hunts; stay the night instead
Edgewood is a storybook Gothic Revival house on historic Route 5, built around 1850 for Richard Rowland, a New Jersey miller who ran the 18th-century Harrison’s Mill behind it. Its land was once part of Berkeley Hundred. In June 1862 J.E.B. Stuart stopped here for coffee on his ride around McClellan’s army, and Confederate officers used the third floor as a lookout. Today it is a bed and breakfast.
The ghost everyone asks about is Elizabeth “Lizzie” Rowland. Local legend says she waited at her upstairs window for a sweetheart who never came home, scratched her name into the glass and died of a broken heart. Guests say they have seen a figure at that window, and one couple described talking through the night with a polite Civil War soldier who was gone by morning. It was featured on Ghost Hunters.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a night and ask about Lizzie’s window; Berkeley Plantation, where we run ghost hunts, is a few minutes down Route 5.
Where to look The ruined front steps and the brick walls above the York River
Reported ghosts A woman in red on stairs that no longer exist, music and voices
Visiting Ruins and visitor center open seasonally
Hours and season April to November: Friday and Saturday 10 AM to 4 PM, Sunday noon to 4 PM
Tickets Free in 2026
Ghost hunting No public ghost hunts
Mann Page I began Rosewell in 1725 on a bluff above the York River, and it became one of the largest houses in the British colonies, built by free and enslaved workers. The Page family held it for generations. Fire gutted it in 1916, but much of the towering brickwork still stands, and the Fairfield Foundation now runs the ruins and a visitor center, with stabilization work under way.
The ruin’s best-known legend is of a woman in red, or in some tellings a lady descending a staircase that burned more than a century ago. Others describe music and voices, as if a party were still going on, and the sound of singing that storytellers link to the people once enslaved here. These are local legends collected by ghost writers.
Haunted Rooms tip: Admission is free in 2026; open Friday to Sunday from April to early November, so time a visit for late afternoon light on the walls.
Address 207 East Duke of Gloucester Street, Williamsburg, VA 23185
Where to look The second floor, where bathwater is heard running
Reported ghosts Lucy Ludwell Paradise, still taking her baths
Visiting Not open to the public; see it from Duke of Gloucester Street
Ghost hunting Private: no visits inside
Philip Ludwell III built this brick townhouse in the mid-1750s. His daughter Lucy married the scholar John Paradise in London in 1769, lived there for decades and came home to Williamsburg in 1805, by then known for odd behavior. She was placed in the Public Hospital and died there on April 24, 1814. In 1926 the house became the first property John D. Rockefeller Jr. bought for the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg.
Lucy was said to bathe several times a day. Author L.B. Taylor recorded that a former Colonial Williamsburg vice president and his wife, who lived here, heard a tub running upstairs when no one was there, and found nothing when they checked. The house is not open to the public; you hear the story from the street on most ghost walks.
Haunted Rooms tip: It sits on the main street of the Historic Area, so look for it on any evening ghost walk.
Address 6945 Pocahontas Trail, Williamsburg, VA 23185
Where to look The lobby, the guest rooms and the preserved redoubt in the courtyard
Reported ghosts Civil War soldiers in guest rooms, a red-haired officer, a woman in a white gown
Visiting A working hotel: book a room to stay the night
Ghost hunting No public ghost hunts; stay the night instead
This hotel on Pocahontas Trail stands on ground fought over in the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5, 1862, when about 73,000 men clashed along a line of redoubts anchored by Fort Magruder and some 3,800 fell. A preserved Civil War redoubt sits in the hotel courtyard, and the lobby shows relics found on the site. It now trades as Fort Magruder Historic Williamsburg, part of Wyndham’s Trademark Collection.
Guests have told of waking to a Civil War soldier standing in the room or sitting on the bed, and a night clerk said he saw a soldier cross the lobby and walk through a window. Ghost tour writers add a red-haired Confederate officer and a woman in a white gown. The stories are guest and staff reports gathered by tour companies; the battle is real history.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a room overlooking the courtyard so you can see the old earthwork; confirm current status when you book.
Address Crawford Road under Tour Road, York County, VA
Where to look The concrete overpass where Tour Road crosses Crawford Road
Reported ghosts A bride said to have hanged herself, a figure in white, footsteps around parked cars
Visiting Public road; no parking, and the sheriff’s office discourages night visits
Ghost hunting Not a safe place to investigate: dark, narrow and patrolled
Crawford Road winds through the woods between Newport News Park and the Yorktown Battlefield, and its legend centers on a 1930s concrete bridge that carries the battlefield Tour Road overhead. There is no parking, no lighting and no shoulder. The road’s dark reputation is partly real: several people have been found murdered on or near it since 1990, and those cases were solved or prosecuted as ordinary crimes.
The ghost stories are another matter. The best known has a runaway bride hanging herself from the overpass, and drivers say they see a white figure on the bridge or hear a thud on the roof as they pass under. Investigators from Virginia Paranormal Investigations heard footsteps rush their parked car one night. The York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office told WTKR it has never had evidence of a haunting, and no record of the bride has been found.
Haunted Rooms tip: Do not park or stop on the road at night. Drive through, or see it on a daytime drive of the Yorktown battlefield tour roads.
Address Duke of Gloucester and Henry Streets, Williamsburg, VA 23185
Where to look The shops near Henry Street after closing time
Reported ghosts Thomas Moore, a pale man in black with a dark mustache
Visiting Public streets with shops and restaurants
Ghost hunting Public streets; no organized investigations
Merchants Square is the shopping and dining street at the west end of the Historic Area. John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Rev. W.A.R. Goodwin conceived it in 1927 as a Colonial Revival village, designed by William G. Perry, so the town’s modern businesses would sit just outside the restored blocks.
Ghost tours tell of Thomas Moore, a ladies’ man murdered in a little white house on Henry Street after the Civil War by the husband of his lover, Constance Hall. Staff in a bookstore and a jewelry shop are said to have seen a pale man in black who faded away after hours. The tour companies themselves call it legend, and no court record or newspaper has been found to back it up.
Haunted Rooms tip: Grab dinner here before an evening ghost walk; several tours start nearby.
Changes in this update: We kept every place from the old list and added nine more. The Public Gaol is on Nicholson Street, not at the Visitor Center as an older version said. Blackbeard’s men were held there in 1718. Lucy Ludwell Paradise died at the Public Hospital in 1814; we found no record that she took her own life. The long Lafayette quote about the Peyton Randolph House has no source, so we treat it as legend.
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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 Williamsburg?
The Peyton Randolph House is usually named first, followed by the George Wythe House and the Public Gaol. All three are Colonial Williamsburg exhibition sites you can visit.
Is the Peyton Randolph House really haunted?
It has more reported encounters than any house in town, from a man in knee breeches in the basement to pushes on the stairs. The popular quote from Lafayette about a ghostly hand has no source we could find, so treat it as legend.
Does Colonial Williamsburg do ghost tours?
Yes. Its candlelit Haunted Williamsburg walk lasts about an hour, starts at the Courthouse, goes inside some buildings and is suitable for ages 8 and up. Private companies run nightly ghost walks too.
Can you go ghost hunting near Williamsburg?
Yes. Haunted Rooms runs after-dark ghost hunts at Berkeley Plantation in Charles City, about 30 minutes from the Historic Area. Colonial Williamsburg’s buildings do not allow ghost hunting.
Is Crawford Road haunted?
It is Yorktown’s best-known legend, centered on a 1930s bridge. Several real murders have happened nearby, but the sheriff’s office says it has never had evidence of a haunting, and no record of the hanged bride exists. Do not stop there at night.
Is Merchants Square haunted?
Ghost tours tell of Thomas Moore, murdered by a jealous husband after the Civil War, haunting the shops near Henry Street. The tour companies themselves call it legend.
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.
