Haunted hotel guide · Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

The Haunted Tillie Pierce House Inn, Gettysburg: The Blue Room, Phantom Children and a Girl Who Saw the Battle

Fifteen-year-old Tillie Pierce lived in this brick house on Baltimore Street when the battle came to Gettysburg. Today it is a six-room inn, and guests say the halls are not always as empty as they look.

By The Haunted Rooms Team · Updated November 2026 · How we rate hotels

3.5/5Haunted Rooms Score
1829House built
Blue RoomMost talked-about room

Check availabilityMeet the ghosts

The Tillie Pierce House Inn stands at 301 Baltimore Street, in the stretch of town that sat between the armies in July 1863. It was the home of the Pierce family, and their daughter Matilda, known as Tillie, went on to write one of the most-read civilian accounts of the Battle of Gettysburg. After the fighting, wounded soldiers were cared for in the house.

Restored to its 1860s look between 2005 and 2007, it is now a small bed and breakfast with six guest rooms, a Victorian garden and a parlor. The inn’s own website tells Tillie’s story rather than ghost stories, but guests, ghost tour companies and paranormal groups have been describing footsteps, children’s laughter and a cloaked figure on the stairs for years. It is one of the more intimate haunted hotels in Gettysburg.

Tillie Pierce House at a glance

3.5/5
Haunted Rooms Score
Haunted reputation3
History5
Ghost hunter access3
$$ · $150 to $300Ghost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghostsNo pets
  • Address 301 Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325, a few minutes’ walk south of Lincoln Square
  • Built 1829, home of the Pierce family during the battle
  • Most haunted spots The Blue Room, the staircases, the upstairs halls and sitting room, and the attic above the guest rooms
  • Best-known ghosts Wounded soldiers, a silent man in a long coat or cape on the stairs, unseen children and a crying woman
  • Booking the haunted room The inn does not sell a named haunted room online; ask for the Blue Room when you book and it will be given if available.
  • Good to know Six guest rooms, a 24-hour hospitality room, Wi-Fi and a Victorian garden. No pets. Tillie’s book is sold at the inn.

Check availability

The ghosts of The Tillie Pierce House Inn

The Blue Room

The room with the strongest reputation is the Blue Room. Guests have described feeling someone sit down on the edge of the bed and the sense of being watched while they lie awake. Others say they have heard a soldier come down the stairs, walk into the room and go back up again.

These stories are guest reports, gathered over the years by ghost tour companies and paranormal websites, and the inn itself does not promote them. If you want the Blue Room, ask for it by name.

Children in the halls

The most common report is the sound of children: running footsteps, laughter and the clatter of toys dropping on the stairs and in the halls, usually late at night or early in the morning, when no children are staying. One guest who visited with a paranormal group said she captured video of a small girl’s shadow in the upstairs hallway, and another described a little girl in period dress at the foot of the stairs.

Nobody knows who the children might be. Some guests connect them to the Pierce family or the neighborhood, and others suggest young drummer boys or teenage soldiers who died in the house.

The man on the stairs

Guests describe a dark male figure in a long coat or cape standing on the staircase. He never speaks or turns around, and he disappears before anyone can get close. Ghost tour guides link him to the wounded soldiers brought here after the battle, though nobody has put a name to him.

The crying woman

Several people have heard a woman crying in an upstairs bedroom, sometimes softly and sometimes loudly, and found nobody there. Some think it is linked to the trauma of the battle, others to the mother of a soldier who died in the house.

Footsteps in the attic and voices on recorders

The attic sits above the guest rooms, yet people below report heavy footsteps overhead. Paranormal groups who have rented the house say their meters spiked in the attic and upstairs hall, and investigators have played back recordings they say include the words “I’m here”, “Help him” and “Don’t leave me”. A Ghost City Tours guide says he recorded a voice saying “Mama”. The inn also featured in a 2016 episode of the series Ghost Detectives. These are investigators’ claims, not proven evidence, but they are a big part of why the house is on Gettysburg’s ghost tours.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

  • The Blue Room: The most talked-about room, where guests report a presence sitting on the bed and footsteps coming in from the stairs.
  • The staircases: Where the cloaked man is seen and where children’s footsteps and dropped toys are heard.
  • The upstairs hall and second-floor sitting room: Investigators’ favorite spots for recordings and meter readings, and where a child’s shadow was reported on video.
  • The attic: Above the guest rooms, and the source of the footsteps people hear overhead. It is not a guest space.
  • The downstairs living room: Where some guests have reported the smell of horses and the sense of a wounded soldier.

History of The Tillie Pierce House Inn

The house at 301 Baltimore Street was built in 1829. By the 1860s it belonged to James Pierce, a butcher who ran his business from the property, and his family. Their daughter Matilda Jane Pierce, born in 1848, was 15 in the summer of 1863 and a pupil at Rebecca Eyster’s Young Ladies Seminary in the old Gettysburg Academy building.

On July 1, 1863, as fighting reached the edge of town, Tillie’s family sent her south with neighbors to the Jacob Weikert farm at the foot of Little Round Top, thinking she would be safer there. Instead the farm was overrun with wounded men. Tillie carried water and food to soldiers and helped surgeons and nurses, and she saw some of the worst of the battle’s aftermath.

She returned home on July 7 to find the town transformed. “The whole landscape had been changed and I felt as though we were in a strange and blighted land,” she later wrote. Her own house had been used to care for wounded soldiers, and she went on helping the wounded in the weeks that followed.

About 25 years later, as Tillie Pierce Alleman, she published At Gettysburg, or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle. It is still in print and is one of the most quoted civilian accounts of Gettysburg. The house was refurbished between 2005 and 2007 and restored to its 1860s appearance, and today it runs as the Tillie Pierce House Inn, with six guest rooms, a 24-hour hospitality room, a micro-gallery of artwork, a parlor and a Victorian garden.

Tips for a haunted stay

  • Ask for the Blue Room when you book, and book well ahead for summer weekends and the July 1 to 3 battle anniversary.
  • Buy a copy of Tillie’s book at the inn and read her chapter on returning home; it describes the street outside your window.
  • Baltimore Street is the heart of Gettysburg’s ghost tour scene: the Jennie Wade House, the Farnsworth House and the old orphanage are all a short walk away.
  • The inn does not take pets, and its six rooms fill quickly, so have a backup such as the Farnsworth House or the Gettysburg Hotel.
  • If you want to investigate rather than just listen for footsteps, book a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt at the Gettysburg Academy, where Tillie went to school.

Want to investigate, not just sleep?

Sleeping in a haunted hotel is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through the building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and lets you explore on your own during free roam.

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Frequently asked questions

Is the Tillie Pierce House Inn haunted?

Guests and paranormal investigators say so. The most common reports are children’s footsteps and laughter in the halls, a silent man in a long coat on the stairs, a woman crying upstairs and footsteps in the attic. These are reported experiences rather than proven events, and the inn itself focuses on its history.

Which room is haunted at the Tillie Pierce House?

The Blue Room has the strongest reputation. Guests describe someone sitting on the bed and footsteps that come in from the stairs.

Who was Tillie Pierce?

Matilda “Tillie” Pierce was a 15-year-old Gettysburg girl who helped care for wounded soldiers at the Jacob Weikert farm during the battle in July 1863. She later wrote At Gettysburg, or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle.

Was the Tillie Pierce House used as a hospital?

Yes. When Tillie returned home on July 7, 1863, the house had been used to care for wounded soldiers, and she continued nursing the wounded afterward.

How many rooms does the Tillie Pierce House Inn have?

Six guest rooms, plus a parlor, a 24-hour hospitality room and a Victorian garden.

Was the Tillie Pierce House on TV?

Yes. It was the subject of a 2016 episode of the series Ghost Detectives.

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

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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 hotel in our guides using hotel histories, local archives, news coverage and the accounts of guests and staff, and we review each guide regularly so you are not booking a hotel that has closed or changed its name. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.

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