Haunted Hotels in Boston: 6 Places to Stay With Ghost Stories
Boston’s oldest hotel, its grandest and one built inside a 19th-century jail all have ghost stories, and three of New England’s most haunted inns are within an hour of downtown.
Boston has been taking in travelers since the 1600s, and its hotels carry a lot of that history: the Omni Parker House has been open since 1855, the Fairmont Copley Plaza since 1912, and the Liberty Hotel was the Charles Street Jail for 140 years. All three have ghost stories told by staff, guests and the city’s ghost tour guides. For a haunted night out of town, Concord’s Colonial Inn, Longfellow’s Wayside Inn in Sudbury and Salem’s Hawthorne Hotel are all an easy drive or train ride away. We checked each against current sources and tell the stories as stories, noting where the records disagree. For the rest of the city’s ghost spots, see our guide to haunted places in Boston.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghostsPet friendly
Address 48 Monument Square, Concord, MA 01742
Where to look Room 24, the Liberty Room, the sitting room and front desk
Reported ghosts A gray figure at the bedside in Room 24, wounded soldiers, a nurse called Rosemary, a girl in a bonnet
Booking the haunted room Call the inn and ask for Room 24 in the 1716 Main Inn; it is popular around Halloween.
Concord’s Colonial Inn faces Monument Square, half a mile from the North Bridge where the Revolution’s first shots were fired in 1775. The oldest part was built in 1716, part of the building stored the minutemen’s arms that spring, and Henry David Thoreau lived here with his aunts while at Harvard. It became a small hotel in 1889 and has carried the Colonial Inn name since 1900.
The haunted reputation centers on Room 24, said to have been Dr. Timothy Minot’s operating room during the war. In 1966 a newlywed wrote to the innkeeper about a gray figure that drifted to the foot of her bed. Guests since have reported lights switching on, whispers and the feeling of being tucked in. Historic Hotels of America lists it among its most haunted hotels.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a Main Inn room and ask for Room 24; the Prescott Wing rooms are newer (1960s).
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 18 Washington Square West, Salem, MA 01970
Where to look Room 325, Room 612 and the sixth-floor hallway, the restaurant
Reported ghosts A woman in the sixth-floor hallway, a crying child in Room 325, the old sea captains of the Salem Marine Society
Booking the haunted room Ask for Room 612 or Room 325 in the booking notes or by phone; requests are not guaranteed.
The Hawthorne opened on July 23, 1925, on Washington Square, built by Salem residents who bought stock to give their city a modern hotel. It stands on the site of the Salem Marine Society’s old headquarters, and the society kept meeting rooms on top of the new hotel. The cast of Bewitched stayed here when the show filmed in Salem in 1970, and the hotel marked its 100th birthday in 2025.
It is the most famous haunted hotel in Salem. Guests in Room 612 describe a restless presence and a woman who lingers in the sixth-floor hallway; Room 325 has stories of a crying child, taps turning on and a hand touching the sleeper’s. Local legend links the scent of apples to Bridget Bishop, the first woman hanged in 1692, though that link is folklore. Ghost Hunters filmed here in 2007.
Haunted Rooms tip: Request Room 612 or Room 325 when you book; both can be asked for but are not guaranteed.
Reported ghosts Jerusha Howe, the innkeeper's sister
Booking the haunted room Request Room 9 or 10 through the inn's front desk or inquiry form; rates include breakfast in the Old Tap Room.
A two-room Howe family home licensed as a tavern in 1716, the Wayside Inn is one of the oldest inns in the country still taking guests. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow made it famous in Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863), and Henry Ford bought and restored it in 1923, adding a grist mill, schoolhouse and chapel. Today it has ten guest rooms and a restaurant.
Its ghost is Jerusha Howe, sister of the last Howe innkeeper, a piano-playing belle whose English fiance, the story goes, sailed home and never came back. She died in 1842. Guests in Rooms 9 and 10 describe a citrus perfume, a touch, or a figure at the foot of the bed, and the stories say she pays most attention to men sleeping alone.
Haunted Rooms tip: Rooms 9 and 10 are the late 18th-century rooms; call the front desk early, they book fast.
$$$ · Over $300Hotel embraces its ghostsPet friendly
Address 60 School Street, Boston, MA 02108
Where to look The tenth floor, the third-floor elevator, the former Room 303, the Dickens mirror on the mezzanine
Reported ghosts Founder Harvey Parker, actress Charlotte Cushman, a lost guest of Room 303
The Parker House opened on October 8, 1855, and has been taking guests ever since; the current building replaced the original building in 1927. Boston cream pie and the Parker House roll were created in its kitchen, Malcolm X worked here as a busboy, and the Saturday Club of Emerson and Hawthorne met in its dining room.
Staff stories say founder Harvey Parker, who died in 1884, still checks on the tenth floor, and a bearded figure has been reported at the foot of a bed. Elevator Number One is said to open on the third floor by itself, where actress Charlotte Cushman died in 1876. Room 303 drew so many complaints of laughter and the smell of whisky and cigars that it was turned into a storage closet.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a high floor in the main building and take a look at the Charles Dickens mirror on the mezzanine.
$$$ · Over $300Hotel embraces its ghostsPet friendly
Address 215 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114
Where to look The kitchen, the old catwalks, upper-floor windows
Reported ghosts Former inmates and guards of the Charles Street Jail
The Liberty is the old Charles Street Jail, a granite cross-shaped building designed by Gridley J. F. Bryant and finished in 1851. Over 140 years it held Sacco and Vanzetti, Malcolm X and Boston mayor James Michael Curley, until a federal court ruling over crowding led to its closure in 1990. It reopened in 2007 as a hotel of about 300 rooms, keeping the soaring central rotunda, catwalks and some of the old cells.
The hotel itself says its jail past gives it a reputation as one of Boston’s most haunted hotels. The stories, mostly told by Boston ghost tour companies and guests, are of figures seen looking in through upstairs windows, heavy boots and slamming doors on the old catwalks, and pots clanging and voices in the kitchen.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a room in the original granite jail building if you want the history, and look up from the lobby at the old catwalks.
Reported ghosts Unseen noisy neighbors on the sixth floor, a woman in Victorian dress, piano music in locked ballrooms
The Fairmont Copley Plaza opened on Copley Square in 1912, on the site of the old Museum of Fine Arts, designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, the architect of New York’s Plaza Hotel. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor stayed here in 1964, John Singer Sargent used one of its elevator operators as a model, and a black Labrador still greets guests in the lobby as the hotel’s Canine Ambassador.
Historic Hotels of America lists it among its haunted hotels: guests on the sixth floor complain of whispers, bangs and noise from rooms that turn out to be empty, at all hours of the night. Boston ghost tour guides add a woman in Victorian clothes on the upper floors and piano music heard by security staff in ballrooms where every piano was locked.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a sixth-floor room when you book, and look for the pieces of the old Merry-Go-Round Bar kept in the hotel’s Oak bar.
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.
About this guide: This is a new page for Boston. The Liberty Hotel and the Fairmont Copley Plaza are new to our guides; their ghost stories come mainly from guests and Boston ghost tour companies rather than from the hotels’ own records, and we have framed them that way.
Stayed in one of these hotels? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from guests and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your stay. We read every story before it’s published.
The Omni Parker House on School Street is the one most often named. Staff stories say founder Harvey Parker still checks on the tenth floor, an elevator stops on the third floor by itself, and Room 303 drew so many complaints that it became a storage closet.
Is the Fairmont Copley Plaza haunted?
Historic Hotels of America lists it among its haunted hotels. Guests on the sixth floor report whispers, bangs and noise from empty rooms late at night, and tour guides add a woman in Victorian dress and piano music in locked ballrooms.
Can you stay in the old Charles Street Jail?
Yes. The 1851 jail closed in 1990 and reopened in 2007 as the Liberty Hotel. The rotunda, catwalks and some cells were kept, and the hotel says its past has given it a reputation as one of Boston’s most haunted hotels.
Which haunted rooms can you request near Boston?
Room 24 at Concord’s Colonial Inn, Rooms 9 and 10 at the Wayside Inn in Sudbury, and Rooms 612 and 325 at the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem. In the city hotels, ask for a high floor at the Omni Parker House or the sixth floor at the Fairmont Copley Plaza. Requests are never guaranteed.
Is Room 303 at the Omni Parker House the inspiration for Stephen King's 1408?
That claim is widely repeated online, but Stephen King’s office has denied it. The Room 303 stories themselves come from hotel staff.
What haunted hotels are near Boston?
Concord’s Colonial Inn is about 20 miles west, Longfellow’s Wayside Inn in Sudbury about 25 miles west, and Salem’s Hawthorne Hotel about 16 miles north. Salem has its own guide with four haunted places to stay.
Are there ghost hunts near Boston?
Haunted Rooms does not run events in Massachusetts at the moment. The nearest are overnight ghost hunts at Captain Grant’s, 1754 in Preston, Connecticut and the General Stanton Inn in Charlestown, Rhode Island, both under two hours away.
Sources and how we research
Every hotel in this guide is checked against the hotel’s own website, historic register listings and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as the hotels, guests and local historians tell them; we note where a story can’t be confirmed. 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.
Booking links on this page are affiliate links. If you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It never affects which hotels we include or how we score them.
