Haunted Places in Bangor, Maine: 9 Ghost Stories to Visit
Stephen King’s hometown has ghost stories of its own: a theater where two firefighters died, a mayor who still smells of cigars, a water tower full of children’s voices and the grave of Public Enemy Number One.
Bangor grew rich on lumber in the 1800s, and the money built grand hotels, theaters and mansions along Main and Union streets. Fires, an unsolved murder and a gangster’s last stand left their marks too, and the Bangor Historical Society tells the stories every October on its Ghostly Bangor walking tour and its nighttime Darker Mount Hope cemetery walk. We have checked each place below against news reports and the society’s own accounts, and we say where a story has no record behind it. Within an easy drive you also have Maine’s most haunted fort, Colonel Buck’s cursed memorial and a haunted inn on Phillips Lake.
Visit on a tourGhost toursParanormal investigations allowedOvernight investigations
Address 740 Fort Knox Road, Prospect, ME 04981
Where to look Two Step Alley, the officers' quarters, the dark casemate passages and the entryway
Reported ghosts A silent shadow figure, unseen hands that tug hair and touch shoulders, and soldiers said to include Sgt. Leopold Hegyi
Visiting Open daily May 1 to October 31; grounds open 9 am to sunset in the off-season
Tours Ghosts of Fort Knox guided tours on set dates, a summer Ghost Camp overnight and Halloween events, all run by the Friends of Fort Knox
Tickets Fort and park $8 for non-resident adults in 2026; sold at the gate only
Ghost hunting Only on the Friends’ own ghost tours and Ghost Camp nights
Fort Knox is a huge granite fort on the west bank of the Penobscot River, built from 1844 to 1869 to Colonel Joseph Totten’s design after the Aroostook War scare with Britain. It was the first fort in Maine built entirely of granite, it cost about a million dollars, and it never fired a shot in anger. The state bought it for $2,121 in 1923, and the Friends of Fort Knox have run it since 2012, next to the Penobscot Narrows Observatory.
It is Maine’s best-known haunted fort. Friends of Fort Knox director Dean Martin told the Boston Globe in 2024 that visitors describe cold spots, hair pulling, shoulder tapping and voices. A gate attendant told the Bangor Daily News in 2008 that he watched a silent “solid shadow” walk Two Step Alley and vanish. Ghost Hunters filmed here in 2011, and Destination Fear followed in 2021.
What investigators report
Investigators report the most activity in the long, dark granite passages: the Destination Fear crew said they caught an EVP in Two-Step Alley, and the Ghost Hunters team reported breathing sounds and a laser grid being broken in Long Alley.
Where to look The Civil War monuments, the Garden Lot and the paths near Al Brady's grave
Reported ghosts Shadow figures, dying soldiers, and the gangster Al Brady
Visiting An active cemetery open to visitors by day
Tours Bangor Historical Society walking tours, including the nighttime Darker Mount Hope in October
Ghost hunting No investigations; please respect active burials
Mount Hope was laid out in 1834 by the Bangor Horticultural Society to a design by Charles G. Bryant, and it is the second-oldest garden cemetery in the country after Mount Auburn near Boston. Its hills hold Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, early Civil War monuments and Bangor’s lumber barons. Stephen King fans know it from the 1989 film Pet Sematary, which was shot here.
It is also where Al Brady, the bank robber the FBI called Public Enemy Number One, was buried after agents shot him on Bangor’s Central Street in October 1937. Local storytellers say his ghost wanders among the stones, and visitors describe shadowy figures and the sense of dying soldiers. The Bangor Historical Society keeps the darker history alive with its nighttime Darker Mount Hope tours each October.
Haunted Rooms tip: Join the Bangor Historical Society’s Darker Mount Hope walk in October, or go by day and find Brady’s simple marker.
Where to look The upstairs dressing rooms, the balcony, the second-floor costume shop and the box office
Reported ghosts A gruff man thought to be one of two firefighters killed in 1914, a playful girl called Sammy and a theater girl called Heidi
Visiting A working theater; buy a ticket to go inside
Ghost hunting No public investigations
The first Bangor Opera House came through the Great Fire of 1911, but not the fire of January 15, 1914. That night a brick wall of the scenery loft collapsed on firefighters spraying the back of the building, killing Lt. Walter Morrill and John Leonard of Hose 3. A new opera house opened on the same Main Street site about six years later, and Penobscot Theatre Company has owned it since 1997.
The company talks openly about its ghosts. Artistic director Jen Shepard has described “the Man” in the upstairs dressing rooms, perhaps one of the firefighters, who “is not the most friendly of ghosts”; Sammy, a playful child said to have taken a bite of an actor’s cookie in the box office; and Heidi, a costume girl from its burlesque days. Staff also mention voices on switched-off radios and a hand dryer that runs by itself.
Haunted Rooms tip: See a Penobscot Theatre show, and look up at the balcony during the quiet moments.
Where to look The upstairs bedroom where the Dales died, and the parlors
Reported ghosts Mayor Samuel Dale, smelled as cigar smoke, and his wife Matilda in a Victorian dress
Visiting Bangor Historical Society offices and museum, open weekdays
Tours The Ghostly Bangor walking tour leaves from here each October (by request)
Ghost hunting No public investigations
The Thomas A. Hill House is a Greek Revival mansion designed by Richard Upjohn and built around 1836 for a Bangor businessman who lost it in the Panic of 1837. Samuel and Matilda Dale bought it, and Samuel served several terms as mayor. The Bangor Historical Society has owned it since 1974 and uses it as its home, museum and the starting point for its walking tours.
Its ghosts are the Dales. Samuel died in an upstairs bedroom in 1871, and Matilda died in the same room in 1894. Staff and visitors say the smell of cigar smoke means Samuel is about, and Matilda is said to appear in a Victorian dress. A darker version passed around locally says Dale was holding money raised for Chicago fire relief in 1871 that went missing before he died; we found no record to back that up.
What investigators report
Staff say activity, including the scent of cigar smoke and sightings of a woman in Victorian dress, tends to happen while they are changing exhibits, cleaning or decorating for the holidays; the bedroom where Samuel Dale died is the room most linked to the stories.
Address Buck Cemetery, U.S. Route 1 at Hinks Street, Bucksport, ME 04416
Where to look The leg-shaped stain below Buck's name on the granite obelisk
Reported ghosts A witch said to have cursed the town's founder
Visiting Seen from the sidewalk by the cemetery fence on Route 1, across from Hannaford
Ghost hunting None; it is a cemetery
Colonel Jonathan Buck founded Bucksport, built its first sawmill and store, and died in the 1790s. Decades later his descendants put up a tall Blue Hill granite obelisk to him in the town cemetery on Main Street. Before long a dark mark showed on the stone below his name, and it looks remarkably like a woman’s lower leg and foot.
The legend says Buck had a woman executed as a witch, and that she cursed him so her mark would sit on his tomb forever. The town’s own sign and the local historical marker are blunt: no witchcraft execution is recorded in Maine, Buck had no power to sentence anyone to death, the stone is not his gravestone, and the mark is a natural iron stain in the granite. It is still one of Maine’s best-loved legends.
Haunted Rooms tip: Park on Hinks Street and read both signs by the fence: one tells the legend, the other explains the stain.
Where to look Room 8, Room 5, the piano in the public rooms
Reported ghosts A wife and her lover said to have been killed in Room 8, and the husband in Room 5
Visiting A working inn: stay the night or come for a meal
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
The Lucerne Inn is a long white colonial inn on a hillside above Phillips Lake, on the old road between Bangor and Ellsworth. It has been taking travelers for more than 200 years and today has guest rooms with lake views and seasonal fireplaces, a fine dining restaurant, Rian’s Pub and a popular Sunday brunch.
Local legend says that in the 1800s a jealous husband found his wife with another man in Room 8, killed them both, then took his own life in Room 5. Guests and staff report doors opening on their own, faint voices, shadows in the halls, a piano playing with nobody near it and televisions switching themselves on. No record of the killings has been found, so treat the story as lore.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book dinner overlooking Phillips Lake, then ask staff about Room 8 and the piano.
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 Thomas Hill, off Jackson Street, Bangor, ME
Where to look The winding staircase and the promenade deck
Reported ghosts Children's voices and laughter, and footsteps beside you on the stairs
Visiting Seen from outside; the Bangor Water District opens it only on occasional open-house days, and tours are paused for repairs
Ghost hunting None
The Thomas Hill Standpipe is a 1.5-million-gallon riveted iron water tank wrapped in a shingled wooden tower 110 feet high, built in 1897 on Bangor’s highest hill and still in use. A winding staircase leads to a promenade deck with views to Mount Katahdin. It was open to anyone for decades, but it closed after a 12-year-old boy fell into the gap between the tank and the wooden shell in 1940 and died, and it stayed closed for more than 50 years.
Bangor Historical Society curator Matt Bishop told WABI in 2020 that people climbing the stairs hear footsteps right beside them and children talking and laughing when no children are there, especially at night: “Don’t go alone, and definitely listen.” The Bangor Water District has hosted a few open houses a year, but it has cancelled tour dates while repairs are planned.
Haunted Rooms tip: Admire it from the park on Thomas Hill, and check the Bangor Water District for the next open house.
Where to look The third floor, the halls and the guest room doors
Reported ghosts A Union soldier, a woman in white, and voices and knocks at night
Visiting A working inn: book a room to stay
Ghost hunting No organized investigations
The Phenix Inn fills a four-story brick block on West Market Square, built in 1873 as a warehouse for grocer T.R. Savage. It was Viner Music’s store from 1952 to 1981, became a hotel in 1983, and spent about 20 years as the Charles Inn before new owners renovated it and brought back its original name in 2023. Its 37 rooms are now let as a mix of hotel and short-term rental.
A Bangor Historical Society guide has called it possibly the most haunted spot downtown. Former owner Leanne Hewey told NewsCenter Maine that wine glasses moved across a room on their own and a tiny voice babbled beside her, and guest Amy Crossman described her door handle rattling with no one outside. Ghost walk guides add a Union soldier and a woman in white said to keep some rooms cold.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a third-floor room, then walk round the corner to the Bangor Opera House.
Where to look The second and third floors (seen from Main Street)
Reported ghosts Effie MacDonald, the chambermaid murdered there in 1965
Visiting Private apartments; see the building from the street
Ghost hunting None; residents’ homes
The Bangor House opened in 1834 at the corner of Main and Union streets, a luxury hotel for lumber-boom Bangor modeled on Boston’s Tremont House; the National Register credits Isaiah Rogers as architect, though some sources name Bangor’s Charles Bryant. Four presidents stayed here. It was enlarged again and again, had grown rundown by the 1960s, and was later converted into apartments for older and disabled residents, which it remains.
Its ghost story comes from a crime that was never solved. On March 18, 1965, chambermaid Effie MacDonald, 54, was found strangled with her own stockings in an unrented third-floor room. Papers at first linked it to the Boston Strangler, but Boston police ruled that out within a week, and nobody was ever charged; it is Bangor’s oldest cold case. Residents and ghost walk guides say she is still seen on the second and third floors.
Haunted Rooms tip: See it from the corner of Main and Union streets; it is a private apartment building, so do not go in.
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 Bangor?
The Bangor Opera House, home of Penobscot Theatre Company, has the best-documented stories, told by its own artistic director. A Bangor Historical Society guide has called the Phenix Inn possibly the most haunted spot downtown.
Are there ghost tours in Bangor?
Yes. The Bangor Historical Society runs the Ghostly Bangor walking tour from the Thomas A. Hill House in October, and the nighttime Darker Mount Hope tour on select October dates.
Is Mount Hope Cemetery in Pet Sematary?
Yes. The 1989 film was shot there. The cemetery, laid out in 1834, is also where the bank robber Al Brady is buried.
Can you go inside the Thomas Hill Standpipe?
Only on the Bangor Water District’s occasional open-house days, and tours are paused for planned repairs. You can see it any time from the park on Thomas Hill.
Can you stay in a haunted hotel in Bangor?
Yes. The Phenix Inn on West Market Square, formerly the Charles Inn, takes guests, and the Lucerne Inn in Dedham is about 20 minutes away.
Is Stephen King's house haunted?
There are no ghost stories about it. It is a private home; admire it from the sidewalk and leave the owners in peace.
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. Each place shows how many independent sources we checked it against; our own Haunted Rooms pages are not counted.
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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.
