A 1673 tavern with a ghost by the fireplace, Gilded Age palaces on the Cliff Walk, a granite fort and a lighthouse you can sleep in. These are the most haunted places in and around Newport, with what is history, what is legend and how to visit each one.
Newport was a busy colonial port, a pirate haven and then the summer playground of the Vanderbilts and their rivals, and its ghost stories follow that history from the waterfront taverns to the mansions of Bellevue Avenue. We have checked every place below against current sources, so you know which are open for tours, which are private and which take overnight guests. Haunted Rooms’ nearest ghost hunts are at the General Stanton Inn in Charlestown, about 40 minutes away.
Where to look The French Gothic ballroom, the chapel and the Tinneys' old bedroom
Reported ghosts A robed monk, a screaming knight in armor, a lady in a ball gown
Visiting Privately owned mansion open for guided tours
Tours Hour-long guided tours, plus a seasonal Walking with Ghosts night tour
Ghost hunting Ghost-story tours only; no public investigations
Richard Morris Hunt designed Belcourt for Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, built from 1891 to 1894 in the style of a Louis XIII hunting lodge, with carriage rooms that Alva Vanderbilt turned into a banquet hall after she married Belmont in 1896. The Tinney family bought the house for $25,000 in 1956, renamed it Belcourt Castle and filled it with antiques, and Alex and Ani founder Carolyn Rafaelian bought it in 2012 for $3.6 million and reopened it for tours in 2014.
No Newport mansion has more ghost stories, nearly all from the Tinney years. Harle Tinney described a robed monk who walked through a wall, a suit of armor said to scream, a lady in a ball gown on the gallery and chairs that tipped sitters out. A tour guide said a man’s voice told her to get out of the ballroom. Belcourt now runs a seasonal night tour called Walking with Ghosts.
What investigators report
On Ghost Hunters, TAPS reported K2 meter hits when an investigator asked a spirit to light the meter in a solo session, and a recorder in the banquet hall caught a voice answering “yes” to questions about who owned objects in the room. They also logged humming near the suit of armor and footsteps by the ballroom’s spiral staircase.
The stone fort at the mouth of Newport Harbor was designed by Simon Bernard and built from 1824 to 1857, with Joseph Totten overseeing the work. It was garrisoned from 1841 to 1950 and served through five wars without firing a shot in anger. The state took it over in 1965, it became a National Historic Landmark in 1976, and the Fort Adams Trust has given tours since 1995.
Its ghosts come from deaths that had nothing to do with battle. Private William Cornell shot Private William Kane on July 4, 1819; in 1925 a young maid named Mary Gleason was found frozen in an artillery ditch; and the 1918 flu killed Delia Geary and her newborn. Ghost Hunters investigated in 2019 and reported footsteps in the bakery and a touch in the tunnels, and visitors on paranormal nights say pebbles have been thrown at them.
What investigators report
When Ghost Hunters investigated, the team reported footsteps and a tug on a jacket in the old bakery, a touch caught on video in the tunnels, and a GoPro left in the marching hallway that recorded footsteps.
Where to look The dining room fireplaces, the upstairs restrooms and hall
Reported ghosts A colonial traveler who died by the fire in the 1720s, a crying little girl
Visiting Working restaurant; open to diners
Hours and season Dinner nightly, from 4 or 5 pm (check holiday hours)
Ghost hunting A restaurant; no investigations
Francis Brindley built the first house here in 1652, and William Mayes enlarged it around 1673 and won a tavern license in 1687; his son, a Red Sea pirate, helped run it. Jonathan Nichols gave it the White Horse name in 1730, and colonial lawmakers met here while the Colony House was being built. After years as a boarding house it was restored by the Preservation Society in 1952 and is believed to be the oldest tavern building in the country.
Its ghost story starts in the 1720s, when two travelers took a room and one was found dead by the fireplace the next morning while the other had vanished. Staff and diners say a man in shabby colonial clothes appears by the dining room hearth and upstairs, along with heavy footsteps and a little girl crying near the restrooms. Thrillist named it Rhode Island’s most haunted place in 2024.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a table near the old fireplace and ask staff which hearth the colonial man is seen by.
Address Rose Island, Narragansett Bay, Newport, RI 02840
Where to look The tower stairs, the kitchen and the old barracks
Reported ghosts Keeper Charles Curtis, quarantine victims, a woman in white in the tower
Visiting By boat only; overnight rooms and private tours by arrangement
Tours Private tours by advance arrangement
Ghost hunting No organized investigations; stay overnight as a guest
The little lighthouse on Rose Island was built in 1870 on a bastion of Fort Hamilton, which dates from 1798 to 1800. It went dark in 1970 and was relit in the early 1990s by the Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation, which now rents its rooms to overnight guests and lets visitors stay a week as volunteer keepers. The island is reached only by boat.
In the 1800s the island served as a quarantine station for cholera and yellow fever, and the 1938 hurricane is said to have uncovered old burials. Guests describe footsteps, voices and slamming doors, and footsteps coming down the tower stairs around midnight and stopping in the kitchen, which some link to keeper Charles Curtis (1887 to 1908). Ghost Hunters filmed here in 2010.
What investigators report
On Ghost Hunters, TAPS ran EVP sessions in the barracks and quarantine room and reported possible faint voices there. After calling out to the spirit in the merchant room and leaving a camera running, they recorded a moving shadow and a noise.
Where to look The top-floor window and the drill hall
Reported ghosts A figure at a top-floor window, voices recorded on ghost hunts
Visiting Museum open seasonally
Hours and season Saturdays and Sundays 10 am to 2 pm, Memorial Day to Columbus Day; other times by appointment
Ghost hunting Has hosted ticketed October ghost hunts with a local team
The Artillery Company of Newport was chartered by King George II in 1741 and is one of the oldest militia units in the country. Its granite Greek Revival armory on Clarke Street dates from the 1830s and now holds a military museum with uniforms, weapons and cannons, open on summer weekends and by appointment. A photograph from 1891 shows the company in front of the armory before a fire and the addition of a second story.
Stories of hauntings here go back more than a century, and people say a figure shows up in a top-floor window in photographs, though the company’s commander has said he has seen nothing himself. The company has hosted ticketed October ghost hunts with a local team, and Discover Newport says investigators claim more than 150 recorded voices. Treat these as stories rather than evidence.
Haunted Rooms tip: Visit on a summer weekend, or call ahead to arrange a visit at other times.
Address 3 Fort Wetherill Road, Jamestown, RI 02835
Where to look The concrete batteries and tunnels
Reported ghosts A black dog with red eyes, soldiers in uniform
Visiting State park grounds open; battery interiors closed
Ghost hunting Do not enter the fenced batteries
On the granite cliffs of Conanicut Island, Patriot troops built an earthwork in 1776 that the British later held, and a stone fort called Fort Dumpling followed from 1798. The Army replaced it with the concrete batteries of Fort Wetherill around 1900, named for a Jamestown officer killed at San Juan Hill. It closed after World War II and has been a 61-acre state park since 1972, popular with divers.
The legend is a black dog, an old British omen of death, said to have terrified the British garrison and later the soldiers of the World Wars. It is described with red eyes, walking through walls, and visitors say they hear growling and barking in the tunnels when no dog is there. Others describe soldiers in old uniforms. The graffiti-covered batteries themselves are fenced off.
Haunted Rooms tip: Enjoy the cliffs and views by day; the battery interiors are fenced and off-limits.
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 upstairs halls and the family rooms on the third floor
Reported ghosts Alice Vanderbilt, the mistress of the house
Visiting Mansion museum run by the Preservation Society of Newport County
Tours Self-guided audio tour, Third Floor and Beneath the Breakers tours
Hours and season Daily 9 am to 5 pm, last admission 4 pm (check for seasonal events)
Ghost hunting No ghost hunting; the house is a museum
Cornelius Vanderbilt II had Richard Morris Hunt build this 70-room Italian Renaissance palace on the Cliff Walk between 1893 and 1895, after fire destroyed the earlier house on the site. His widow Alice kept it until her death in 1934. The Preservation Society of Newport County began tours in 1948 and bought the house in 1972, and it is now a National Historic Landmark visited by about 450,000 people a year.
The ghost story is about Alice. Local writers and Salve Regina’s history club say her figure has been seen in the hallways, and some tellings add laughter and a young girl at play after midnight. The old claim that the family who still lived upstairs barred investigators is out of date: the Vanderbilt descendants left the third floor in 2018, and it is now open on tours. The Preservation Society itself does not tell ghost stories.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the Third Floor tour to see the private family rooms where Alice’s descendants lived until 2018.
Where to look The great hall organ and the upper halls
Reported ghosts Julia Bradley at her organ, footsteps, jiggling door handles
Visiting Private residence; view from the street or the Cliff Walk only
Ghost hunting Private property; no visits
Whiskey millionaire Edson Bradley built a French Gothic mansion on Washington’s Dupont Circle in 1907, then had it taken apart from 1923 and rebuilt here, joined to new work by architect Howard Greenley, at a cost of over $2 million. It later became the Burnham-by-the-Sea girls’ school and then a Salve Regina dorm, and its exterior was Collinwood in the 1960s TV soap Dark Shadows. A fire damaged parts of it in February 2024, and artist Hunt Slonem’s company bought it for $16 million in January 2026.
The best-known ghost is Bradley’s wife Julia, said to play the great hall organ, even though the instrument has long been broken. Students and later owners described cold drops, footsteps, voices and door handles that jiggled, and the house appeared on Ghost Hunters in 2011 and Ghost Nation in 2020. It is a private home: view it only from Ruggles Avenue or the Cliff Walk.
Haunted Rooms tip: See the towers from the Cliff Walk near Ruggles Avenue; do not go onto the grounds.
Where to look The halls of the main mansion and the pantry
Reported ghosts A woman of the Agassiz family, Alexander Agassiz
Visiting A working hotel: book a room to stay the night
Ghost hunting No public ghost hunts; stay the night instead
Castle Hill Inn began as the 1875 summer house of marine biologist Alexander Agassiz, on a point at the mouth of Narragansett Bay. The family summered here until the 1938 hurricane, after which Mrs. Maximilian Agassiz is said never to have returned. The Navy used it briefly in World War II, and it became a hotel after the war, with guests such as Grace Kelly and Thornton Wilder.
Staff and guests have reported a woman wandering the halls at night, believed to be one of the Agassiz family, and some say Alexander himself is behind the fine china that gets thrown in the pantry. It is a gentle, little-told haunting at one of New England’s most luxurious inns. The Agassiz family’s turreted mansion is still the heart of the inn.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a room in the main mansion, where the stories are told, rather than the beach cottages.
Where to look The old ballroom level, the first-floor hallway and the lower levels
Reported ghosts Phantom partygoers, a little boy cleaning floors, two girls in black
Visiting A working hotel: book a room to stay the night
Ghost hunting No public ghost hunts; stay the night instead
The Hotel Viking opened in 1926 at the top of Bellevue Avenue, built as a grand gathering place at the entrance to Newport’s historic district. The five-story brick hotel has hosted naval officers, film stars and politicians, and Bob Dylan stayed here during the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. It is marking its 100th year with a full restoration.
Its haunting is a party that never ended. Guests first heard loud revelry above a ballroom that was being used for storage; after renovations the sounds reportedly moved to the lower levels, went quiet around 2007 and were back by 2010. Historic Hotels of America mentions a little boy seen cleaning floors in the historic wing, and one guest reported two small girls in black dresses at the end of a first-floor hallway.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a room in the historic wing, where the boy and the girls are reported.
Where to look Rooms 8 and 11 and the upper windows
Reported ghosts A young girl called Jessica, late-night laughter and music
Visiting A working hotel: book a room to stay the night
Ghost hunting No public ghost hunts; stay the night instead
The Outlook Inn, long listed as the Pilgrim House Inn, is a small bed and breakfast on Spring Street in Newport, a block up from Thames Street and the harbor. The inn says the house was built as a single-family home in the 1880s and later split into apartments for Navy families. It now has ten rooms, a two-bedroom suite and a third-floor observation deck.
Guests have described laughter and music late at night when everyone else is asleep, and a young girl in a gray dress seen looking down at the street from the windows of empty rooms. Staff have called her Jessica. Rooms 8 and 11 are the ones named in the stories, and both can be requested.
Haunted Rooms tip: Request Room 8 or Room 11 when you book.
Where to look The bar, the ballroom, the kitchen and the Annex
Reported ghosts A girl in a blue dress, a man in a top hat, a kitchen poltergeist called Jester
Visiting A working hotel: book a room to stay the night
Ghost hunting No public ghost hunts; stay the night instead
Newport Beach Hotel & Suites faces Easton’s Beach at the start of Newport’s Cliff Walk. Its Colonial Revival Historic Building was put up by the Toppa family in 1940, after the 1938 hurricane flattened the beachfront, and a suites wing was added in 2008. The historic side is where the stories gather. The hotel calls itself a member of Historic Hotels of America.
Staff describe a lot of ghosts: a little girl in a blue dress and gold shoes who runs and laughs in the halls, a man in a top hat peering around the bar or dancing in an empty ballroom, a maintenance prankster who hides tools, and a kitchen poltergeist nicknamed Jester who bangs pots. A rattling closet in the Annex, said to be a former brothel, is more likely the air conditioning.
Haunted Rooms tip: Stay in the 1940 Historic Building rather than the suites wing.
Address Tuckerman Avenue near Purgatory Road, Middletown, RI 02842
Where to look The edge of the cleft above the water
Reported ghosts A Native man who fell chasing a young woman, the Devil's leap
Visiting Public overlook with a small parking lot
Ghost hunting Open-air overlook; no organized investigations
Purgatory Chasm is a narrow crack in the rock above Second Beach in Middletown, about 10 to 12 feet across at its widest, running some 120 feet inland and dropping 40 to 50 feet to the sea. A small parking lot on Tuckerman Avenue leads to a short path, and a Newport photographer was already labeling it Purgatory or the Lover’s Leap in the mid-1800s.
Its legends are several. One says a young Native man chased a woman who leaped the gap and he fell to his death, and his ghost still searches. Another says the Devil landed here after a leap across the bay. The romantic version has a suitor jumping it on a dare in 1848 and walking away from the heiress who dared him. None of these has a record behind it.
Haunted Rooms tip: Stay back from the edge, especially in wind or wet weather; the rock is slippery.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the most haunted place in Newport?
Belcourt, on Bellevue Avenue, has the most ghost stories, from a robed monk to a screaming suit of armor, and runs its own night tour. The White Horse Tavern, dating from the 1600s, was named Rhode Island’s most haunted place by Thrillist in 2024.
Is the Breakers haunted?
The story is that Alice Vanderbilt, who lived there until 1934, still walks the halls. It is told by local writers and student ghost tours, not by the Preservation Society, which runs the house as a museum.
Can you visit the Dark Shadows house in Newport?
Seaview Terrace, the Carey Mansion, is a private home bought by artist Hunt Slonem’s company in 2026. You can see it from Ruggles Avenue and the Cliff Walk, but not go inside.
Are there ghost tours in Newport?
Yes. Belcourt runs a seasonal Walking with Ghosts night tour, and several companies run ghost walks through the historic district. Fort Adams has also hosted ticketed paranormal nights.
Can you stay overnight somewhere haunted in Newport?
Yes. Rose Island Lighthouse rents rooms to overnight guests, and Castle Hill Inn, the Hotel Viking, the Outlook Inn and Newport Beach Hotel all have ghost stories of their own.
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.
