Haunted Places Near Harrisburg, PA: 8 to Visit or See
A state hospital on the hill, a market built where five men were hanged, and a castle-style jail where a worker saw legs with no body. These are the haunted places in and around Pennsylvania’s capital, with what is true and what is legend.
Harrisburg does not have the famous ghosts of Gettysburg, about 35 miles away, and some of its best-known stories belong to buildings you cannot enter. We have checked every place below against current sources and widened the net to Carlisle, Hershey and Lebanon County, all within about 30 miles of the capital. You will see which places run tours, which you can only see from the road, and where a story is thin. Haunted Rooms does not run events in the Harrisburg area itself; our nearest ghost hunts are at Gettysburg Academy and the Cashtown Inn.
For stories told on the spot, Carlisle has walking ghost tours with east side and west side routes that take in the old jail, the old courthouse and Dickinson College, and Lebanon Farmers Market runs short Blue-Eyed Six tours of its basement each October. The Historical Society of Dauphin County has also held Halloween ghost story evenings at the Harris-Cameron Mansion on the riverfront.
Where to look The basement, where an archway from the old jail survives
Reported ghosts Footsteps and voices linked to the Blue-Eyed Six
Visiting Open during market hours; the basement is seen on the October tours
Tours October Blue-Eyed Six tours of the basement; reserve by phone
Hours and season Thursday and Friday 8 AM to 6 PM, Saturday 8 AM to 3 PM
Tickets Free to shop; October basement tours about $5
Ghost hunting Ghost hunting equipment is available on the October tours
The market building dates from 1892 and stands on the site of Lebanon County’s old jail, whose stone foundations survive in the basement. In December 1878 Joseph Raber, a poor neighbor six men had insured, was drowned in Indiantown Creek. Known as the Blue-Eyed Six, five were hanged at the county prison here, two on November 14, 1879 and three on May 13, 1880; George Zechman was acquitted at a retrial. A stone archway that once led to the cells is still in the basement.
The market’s manager has described cold spots, footsteps and lights switching on and off, vendors say they have seen apparitions on closed days, and Lebanon’s mayor told LebTown she believes ghostly voices have been caught on tape. Local paranormal teams have investigated, and one recording was said to speak a Blue-Eyed Six name, though nothing ties the activity to the hanged men. Each October the market runs short Blue-Eyed Six tours of the basement, with ghost hunting gear on hand.
What investigators report
A visiting paranormal team reported EMF hits and unexplained noises in the basement, the old jail area that guides call the spookiest spot, and a ghost box session in which a spirit reportedly answered questions.
Where to look The rooms shown on the historical society's Halloween tours
Reported ghosts No named ghost; local tales told at its ghost story nights
Visiting Guided tours on weekday afternoons
Tours Guided tours Tuesday to Friday at 1, 2 and 3 PM; seasonal Haunted History evenings
Ghost hunting No investigations; ghost story evenings only
John Harris Jr., who laid out Harrisburg and named it for his trader father, began this stone house on the riverfront in 1766. It became a women’s college in 1853, and Simon Cameron, Lincoln’s first Secretary of War, bought it in 1861. In November 1865 Cameron greeted a parade of more than 7,000 United States Colored Troops from its porch. The Historical Society of Dauphin County has owned it since 1941.
This is not a house with a famous ghost, and we will not pretend otherwise. What it has is a tradition: the historical society has hosted Dauphin County Ghost Stories evenings, where people share local tales, and Haunted History nights with a storyteller and a tour of the mansion’s creepy corners. John Harris Sr.’s grave is just across Front Street in Riverfront Park.
Haunted Rooms tip: Guided tours run Tuesday to Friday at 1, 2 and 3 PM; watch the society’s calendar for its October ghost story nights.
Address Cameron St and Arsenal Blvd, Harrisburg, PA
Where to look The old hospital buildings, basement and tunnels (not open to the public)
Reported ghosts Footsteps, voices and shadow figures, reported by investigators
Visiting State offices; no public tours. Exterior only
Ghost hunting No
The Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital, designed by John Haviland, admitted its first patient on October 6, 1851, after lobbying by Dorothea Dix. At its peak it held more than 2,400 patients, and as Harrisburg State Hospital it treated patients until January 27, 2006. The campus was listed on the National Register in 1986. Its buildings now hold state agency offices and storage, and the campus has been offered to developers, with many buildings slated for demolition; a fire destroyed one building in December 2024.
Discovery’s Ghost Lab filmed here in 2010 and Ghost Nation made two episodes there in February 2021, which is where most of its haunted reputation comes from. The buildings are state property and are not open for tours or ghost hunting, so this is one to read about and see from the road.
Haunted Rooms tip: Do not try to get into the buildings or tunnels: they are working state property.
Address E High St and S Bedford St, Carlisle, PA 17013
Where to look The castle-style prison and the old courthouse nearby
Reported ghosts Voices, footsteps and a pair of legs with no body
Visiting County offices; no public tours. Exterior only
Ghost hunting No: working government building
Carlisle’s turreted brownstone prison, designed in the castle style by Philadelphia architect Edward Haviland, held inmates from 1854 until 1984, on a lot that had held a jail since the 1750s. The county’s last hanging took place in its yard in 1894. When a new prison opened on Claremont Road, the building was turned over to county offices, which it still holds, so it is closed to the public and offers no tours.
In 2014 county workers told local media about voices and footsteps with nobody around, and a heating technician said he saw a pair of boots and trousers walking toward him with nothing above the knees. Staff at the old courthouse nearby reported doors slamming and toilets flushing in the early morning. Ghost Hunters filmed at the prison, and the episode aired in November 2015. Today the stories are told on Carlisle’s ghost walks.
Haunted Rooms tip: See it from the corner of High and Bedford streets, then join a Carlisle walking ghost tour, which covers the jail and the old courthouse.
Address W High St, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA 17013
Where to look The front windows after dark
Reported ghosts Soldiers seen at the windows
Visiting Campus grounds open; the building holds offices
Ghost hunting No
Benjamin Latrobe, later an architect of the U.S. Capitol, designed Old West after fire destroyed the college’s first building in February 1803, and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison gave money toward it. Built of local limestone, it is the ceremonial heart of Dickinson College: students walk through its doors at convocation and again at graduation. During the brief Confederate occupation of Carlisle in June 1863, the Confederates used it as their headquarters.
Campus lore, retold in the student newspaper in 2021, says the silhouettes of soldiers walk the halls, switch on lights and look out of the windows at night because Old West was a Civil War hospital. The record is mixed: a marker out front says West and East College served as emergency hospitals after Gettysburg, while the college’s history project says East College was the hospital. Either way, the soldiers are a story, not a sighting anyone has put a name to.
Haunted Rooms tip: Walk the campus on a fall evening, then join a Carlisle ghost walk: the west side route includes several Dickinson stories.
Where to look The mansion rooms and the riverside grounds
Reported ghosts A little girl in old-fashioned clothes
Visiting Guided mansion tours; park open daily
Tours 45-minute guided mansion tours, May 1 to December 23
Hours and season Tuesday to Saturday 10 AM to 4:30 PM, Sunday noon to 4:30 PM; park open dawn to dusk
Ghost hunting No paranormal events advertised
Fort Hunter stands on the site of a 1750s French and Indian War fort on the Susquehanna, about 6 miles north of downtown Harrisburg. Archibald McAllister, a Continental Army officer, built the middle stone section in 1786 and the Federal-style front in 1814, and a wooden rear section followed in 1870. The McAllisters enslaved more than 20 people here between 1786 and the early 1830s. The mansion is now a museum in a 40-acre county park.
The ghost stories are gentle and unverified: flickering lights, odd noises, figures glimpsed in the rooms and portraits that seem to move. Children on tours have reportedly described a little girl in old-fashioned clothes, whom many take to be a girl who once lived in the house. No paranormal events are advertised, so come for the guided tour and the riverside park.
Haunted Rooms tip: Mansion tours run May 1 to December 23, Tuesday to Sunday; the park is open dawn to dusk, with views of the Rockville Bridge.
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.
Visiting A working hotel; restaurants and public rooms open to visitors
Ghost hunting No
Milton S. Hershey built his grand hotel on a hill above the town during the Great Depression, partly to keep as many as 800 people in work. Construction began in 1931 and it opened on May 26, 1933, in a Spanish Colonial Revival style inspired by a small Mediterranean hotel he had stayed in, with a fountain lobby, a round dining room and formal gardens. It has belonged to Historic Hotels of America since 1991.
Its ghost reputation is thin but persistent. A widely shared travel roundup says guests have reported seeing Milton Hershey himself, along with doors opening on their own and unexplained sounds, and names the wine cellar as the most active spot. A guest’s online review also warned others away from room 924 after a cold, sleepless night. The hotel does not promote any of this and we found no staff accounts, so treat it as hearsay.
Haunted Rooms tip: Stay for the history and the gardens; we found no good reason to request a particular room.
Address PA 241 (Elizabethtown Rd) at PA 117 (Mount Wilson Rd), near Colebrook, Lebanon County, PA
Where to look The Iron Master's House, seen from the road
Reported ghosts The Hounds of Colebrook and the ironmaster who killed them
Visiting Private home; marker and house seen from the roadside
Ghost hunting No: private property
Robert Coleman built Colebrook Furnace in 1781 in what is now Lebanon County, and Samuel Jacobs managed it from the 1790s until his death in 1819. The furnace itself is long gone: its works had entirely disappeared by 1860, according to the National Register nomination for the stone Iron Master’s House, which still stands at the corner of Routes 241 and 117 and was listed in 2010. The house is a private home.
The legend is the Hounds of Colebrook. A cruel ironmaster, usually named as Jacobs, is said to have thrown his whole pack of foxhounds into the blazing furnace after a failed hunt, his favorite hound, Flora, last of all, and then to have seen the pack coming for him on the night he died. Locals said the hounds still bay on stormy winter nights. The tale first appears in George H. Boker’s 1867 poem, and the Philadelphia lawyer Francis Rawle said it had no basis in known facts.
Haunted Rooms tip: Read the roadside marker and leave it there: the Iron Master’s House is a private home.
These places appear in older lists of haunted spots. We keep them here so you know the facts before you go, but you cannot (or should not) visit them.
Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center (HยทMAC), 1110 North Third Street
This 1860s house, later home to the Hershey family, a Jewish Community Center and the Police Athletic League, stood empty until 2007 and then became a music venue with a restaurant and concert halls. Staff told CBS 21 of a kitchen bell ringing at 4 a.m. with nobody near it and of movement glimpsed by the old basement swimming pool, and the Harrisburg Area Paranormal Society investigated on camera in 2021 and 2023. In March 2026 its owner said the building faced foreclosure and the venue would not reopen, so there is no way in.
How we built this guide: this is a new page. We left out places from online lists that we could not trace to any source, moved the closed Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center to the off-limits list, and say plainly where a story is thin, as at the Hotel Hershey and the Harris-Cameron Mansion. At Dickinson College, the tale of soldiers haunting Old West because it was a Civil War hospital is contradicted by the college’s own history project, which says East College was the hospital.
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 Harrisburg, PA?
The former Harrisburg State Hospital is the best known, thanks to TV investigations, but it is state property and you can only see it from the campus roads. Of the places you can walk into, the Lebanon Farmers Market, built on the site of the jail where the Blue-Eyed Six were hanged, has the strongest stories, told by its own manager and vendors.
Can you tour Harrisburg State Hospital?
No. The hospital closed in 2006 and its buildings hold state offices and storage. There are no public tours or ghost hunts, and going into the buildings or tunnels is trespassing.
Is the Hotel Hershey haunted?
Only lightly, as far as we can tell. A travel roundup repeats guest stories of Milton Hershey’s ghost and an active wine cellar, and one online review complains about room 924, but the hotel does not promote any ghosts and we found no staff accounts.
Is the Hershey Theatre haunted?
Apparently not. When a theater writer asked in 2013, Hershey Entertainment said the theater has no known ghosts. Central Pennsylvania’s famously haunted theater is the Fulton, covered in our Lancaster guide.
Are there ghost tours near Harrisburg?
Yes, nearby. Carlisle has walking ghost tours covering the old jail, the courthouse and Dickinson College, Lebanon Farmers Market runs Blue-Eyed Six basement tours in October, and the Historical Society of Dauphin County has held Halloween ghost story nights at the Harris-Cameron Mansion. Gettysburg, about 35 miles southwest, has the most ghost tours in the state.
Where can I go ghost hunting near Harrisburg?
Haunted Rooms runs public ghost hunts about 35 miles southwest at Gettysburg Academy and the Cashtown Inn, both with overnight options.
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.
