Haunted Cape May, NJ: The 7 Most Haunted Places to Visit
Cape May is a town of painted Victorian hotels, and nearly every one of them has a ghost on an upper floor. These are the most haunted places in Cape May, with the stories, the history and how to get inside.
Cape May has been a summer resort since the early 1800s, and after the Great Fire of 1878 it rebuilt itself in wood and brick, which is why its streets are lined with Victorian hotels and cottages. Those old buildings carry most of New Jersey’s best-known haunted hotel stories: Miss Irene Wright and her trunk in Room 10 at the Hotel Macomber, Ester Mercur at the Southern Mansion, a woman in old-fashioned dress on the third floor at Congress Hall. The Emlen Physick Estate, run by Cape May MAC, is the town’s haunted house museum and the starting point for its evening ghost tours. All but one of the places below take overnight guests, so you can sleep with the stories. For rooms and booking tips, see our guide to haunted hotels in Cape May.
Where to look Room 10 on the first floor, the Union Park dining room and kitchen, the basement
Reported ghosts Miss Irene Wright, the "Trunk Lady" of Room 10; a waitress in an old-fashioned dress; the basement "Growler"
Visiting A working hotel that takes overnight guests
Hotel Macomber is the big shingle-style hotel on Beach Avenue, across the road from the ocean in Cape May. Built in 1916, it was the largest frame structure of its day east of the Mississippi, and it is described as the last landmark building erected in the town’s historic district. The Union Park restaurant is on the ground floor, the rooms sit on the top three floors (stairs only), guests must be 16 or older and the season runs mid-April to mid-December.
Room 10 is one of the best-known haunted rooms in New Jersey. Guests describe knocking and banging on the door, doors slamming down the corridor and the sound of something heavy dragged across the floor, which local medium Craig McManus links to Miss Irene Wright, a longtime summer guest who arrived each year with a huge steamer trunk. Staff also tell of a woman in an old-fashioned dress who walks into the kitchen.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book Room 10 directly by phone; McManus says activity peaks in June and November, so the shoulder season is the time to go.
Where to look Room 14 and Rooms 9, 10 and 12, the ballroom and kitchen
Reported ghosts Ester Mercur, the last of the Allen family; a man in military uniform; a talking couple in Room 14
Visiting A working hotel that takes overnight guests
The Southern Mansion is an Italianate villa set in gardens on Washington Street. Philadelphia industrialist George Allen built it in 1863 to a design by Samuel Sloan, and his family kept it for 83 years. After Ester Mercur, the last of the line, died in 1946 it became a run-down boarding house; a Philadelphia family bought and restored it in 1994, reopening it as an inn in 1996 and adding a South Wing with ten suites in 1997.
The inn’s own blog calls Ester a happy ghost who enjoys the restored house, and guests describe a strong smell of perfume, laughter and cold spots. Older reports place a murmured conversation between a man and a woman in Room 14, while other writers name Rooms 9, 10 and 12. A chef has told of a man in military uniform in the ballroom and kitchen.
Haunted Rooms tip: The inn talks about Ester on its own blog, so it is fine to ask staff which rooms guests mention most.
Address 1048 Washington Street, Cape May, NJ 08204
Where to look The family rooms of the Physick House
Reported ghosts Dr. Emlen Physick, his mother Frances Ralston and his aunts Emilie and Isabella
Visiting A house museum run by Cape May MAC; the house is seen on guided tours
Tours Daytime house tours and evening ghost tours, including Voices From Beyond and Haunted Tales of the Cape
Ghost hunting No public investigations; staff share their own recordings on the tours
Frank Furness, the great Philadelphia architect, designed this Stick-style mansion in 1879 for Dr. Emlen Physick Jr., who moved in with his widowed mother and his aunt Emilie. By the 1960s the estate was close to demolition; a group of residents formed the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities in 1970 to save it, the city bought it, and the center has run it as a museum ever since.
Cape May MAC calls it the town’s haunted house. Dr. Physick, his mother Frances Ralston and his aunts Emilie and Isabella are all said to still be about, and the medium Craig McManus, MAC’s resident ghost expert, talks of thumps, sighs and cold drafts. MAC’s registrar told the Philadelphia Inquirer he once heard two women talking in the locked, dark house, and local reports add phantom dogs. Evening Voices From Beyond and Haunted Tales of the Cape tours are the easiest way in after dark.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the evening Haunted Tales of the Cape combo: a trolley ride through the historic district that ends inside the Physick House.
Where to look Upstairs hallways, especially the third floor; empty guest rooms
Reported ghosts A woman in old-fashioned dress in the halls; children heard playing
Visiting A working hotel that takes overnight guests
Congress Hall is Cape May’s oldest big hotel, a long yellow building with a tall white colonnade facing the beach. Thomas Hughes opened it in 1816 as a wooden boarding house locals called “Tommy’s Folly”, renamed it when he went to Congress, and after the Great Fire of 1878 it was rebuilt in brick. Presidents Pierce, Buchanan, Grant and Benjamin Harrison stayed here; Harrison made it his Summer White House. A $22 million restoration reopened it in 2002.
Housekeepers describe radios, televisions and voices behind closed doors on the third floor, with no one inside when they knock, and guests tell of a woman in old-fashioned dress who walks down an upstairs corridor and disappears around the corner. Children are sometimes heard playing when none are staying, which local ghost tours connect to a boy who drowned off the beach in 1876.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a third-floor room and have a drink in the Brown Room, then join a Cape May ghost walk outside.
Where to look The hallways and the upper floors, including the fifth floor
Reported ghosts Laughing children in the halls, unseen guests talking in empty rooms
Visiting A working hotel with a restaurant and bar open to the public
Tours Channeling dinners and ghost walks with Craig McManus through Cape May MAC
The Church brothers opened the Inn of Cape May in 1895 as the Colonial Hotel, a boarding house of about 60 rooms at the foot of Ocean Street, said to be the tallest building on the coast at the time. A south wing added by 1905 roughly doubled it, giving the Second Empire front its towers and concave mansard roof. It has Cape May’s first elevator, still running, was renovated again in 2022, and still takes guests.
The inn tells its own ghost stories. Guests have asked staff about noisy children running and laughing in the halls when no children were staying nearby, and the Cape May medium and author Craig McManus says he saw light under a fifth-floor door of a room that turned out to be empty, and recorded what sounded like several people talking in another. McManus also hosts channeling dinners at the inn through Cape May MAC.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book one of Cape May MAC’s channeling dinners at the inn, or ask for an upper-floor room, where most of the stories come from.
Where to look The upper floors of the second building, the stairs, guest rooms including Room 17
Reported ghosts A young woman who fell from a window in the 1960s, often called Miss Brown; a girl looking out to sea
Visiting A working hotel that takes overnight guests
Angel of the Sea is the pink Victorian with the twin towers half a block from the beach on Trenton Avenue. It began around 1850 as the summer cottage of Philadelphia chemist William Weightman Sr., was cut in half to be dragged closer to the ocean in 1881, and was rescued after the 1962 storm, when Reverend Carl McIntire moved both halves here. It reopened as a 27-room bed and breakfast in 1989 and 1990 and is run today by the Stanton family.
The ghost story dates from the 1960s and 1970s, when the houses were a dormitory for Shelton College. A young woman, usually called Miss Brown, is said to have locked herself out and fallen while climbing through a window. Guests describe beds that shake, footsteps on the stairs, flickering lights, coughing and an alarm clock in Room 17 going off by itself at 2:30 in the morning.
Haunted Rooms tip: Breakfast, afternoon tea and evening wine and cheese are included, and the porches are the place to watch the sea at dusk.
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.
Where to look The third floor and its cedar-lined room, the attic ladder, the grand staircase, the old basement bar
Reported ghosts Earle Shields, the builder's 15-year-old son, once called "Ernest" by staff
Visiting A working hotel that takes overnight guests
The Peter Shields Inn is the white 1907 Georgian Revival mansion at the quiet east end of Beach Avenue, across the road from the ocean. Peter Shields, the Pittsburgh businessman who helped found East Cape May, built it as his family’s summer home, and Philadelphia architect Lloyd Titus designed it. It became a bed and breakfast in the 1980s and today has nine guest rooms above a well-known oceanfront restaurant.
Its ghost is a boy. In 1907, fifteen-year-old Earle Shields was fatally wounded in a hunting accident on a boat off Cape May, and the family left town a few years later. Earlier owners and staff called the presence on the stairs “Ernest”, and Cape May medium Craig McManus believes that was Earle, who he says haunts the third floor and the attic.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a room on the third floor, and book dinner downstairs: the restaurant is a destination in its own right.
Not included: the Washington Inn, a restaurant in an 1840 house on Washington Street. Older lists tell of a girl called Elizabeth, but we could not find a published source for the story.
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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 Cape May?
Room 10 at the Hotel Macomber is the most famous single haunted room, linked by local medium Craig McManus to Miss Irene Wright, a longtime guest with a huge steamer trunk. The Southern Mansion and the Emlen Physick Estate are close behind.
Are there ghost tours in Cape May?
Yes. Cape May MAC runs evening trolley and walking ghost tours most of the year, including Haunted Tales of the Cape, which ends inside the Physick House, and ghost walks and channeling dinners with Craig McManus.
Can you stay in a haunted hotel in Cape May?
Yes. The Hotel Macomber, the Southern Mansion, Congress Hall, Angel of the Sea, the Peter Shields Inn and the Inn of Cape May all take overnight guests. Room 10 at the Macomber can be requested when you book by phone.
Is Congress Hall haunted?
Housekeepers tell of voices and televisions behind empty doors on the third floor, and guests describe a woman in old-fashioned dress walking an upstairs corridor. It is Cape May’s oldest big hotel, opened in 1816 and rebuilt in brick after the 1878 fire.
When is the best time for a haunted trip to Cape May?
October, when MAC runs the most ghost tours and the town is quieter, or the spring and late fall shoulder seasons. Craig McManus says activity at the Macomber peaks in June and November.
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.
