Haunted Libraries of the Eastern United States

Libraries are wonderful places where people from all backgrounds can access knowledge, entertainment, resources, and community without spending a dime. They’re also, as it turns out, popular homes for the restless dead. Library hauntings don’t always look like that dramatic scene from the Ghostbusters movie, but many librarians and patrons have reported hearing noises, feeling chills, and seeing apparitions. I suppose if I have to come back and haunt a particular location, spending eternity wandering the stacks does have a certain appeal. Below are a few of my favorite stories of haunted libraries up and down the Eastern United States. Why this region, specifically? There were just too many hauntings to choose from, so I decided to limit myself to the area I’m most familiar with for now. Perhaps I’ll turn this post into a series! If you know of other libraries with a resident ghost that you’d like to see featured, feel free to submit suggestions in the comments.

1. The Andrew Bayne Memorial Library – Pittsburg, PA

This Bellevue library is said to be haunted by its founder, Amanda Bayne Balph. Amanda was the daughter of county sheriff Andrew Bayne for whom the library was named. The Victorian-style building itself was originally her home, built by her architect husband. Upon her death, Amanda bequeathed the homestead to the Borough of Bellevue for use as a library and park. One of her stipulations, however, was that the elm trees throughout the property were not to be removed. Unfortunately, the elms began dying off from disease throughout the 1900s, until only one remained—a magnificent 400-year-old elm that became known as the Lone Sentinel. In 1998, the Lone Sentinel was damaged in a storm and it, too, had to finally be removed. It was around the time of this loss of the last of her favorite trees that Mrs. Balph’s ghost seems to have become particularly active. This mischievous spirit has a reputation for switching the lights on and off, playing with the library’s computers, and hiding books and other objects. Passersby have also reported seeing a figure in a large Victorian-style hat looking out the window of what used to be her bedroom.

2. The Astor Library – New York, NY

The Astor Library is by some definitions the oldest public library in New York City. Funded by the early-nineteenth-century real estate mogul John Jacob Astor, the institution initially started as a non-circulating reference library in 1854. Though it hasn’t been used as a library since 1911, the iconic Astor Library building still stands in lower Manhattan and is presently home to the New York Public Theater. This change is perhaps fortuitous, since—along with libraries—theaters also seem to be particularly popular homes for lingering specters. Over the course of its long history, the Astor Library building as accumulated a diverse assortment of ghosts. The most famous of these is the ghost of Washington Irving.

The celebrated American author was a close friend of John Astor—he helped to convince the millionaire to put his fortune toward a library and years later became president of the library’s board of trustees. After having such an interest in the library in life, it’s no surprise that Irving would return there in death! Resident librarian and fellow trustee Dr. Cogswell documented an encounter with Irving’s ghost just months after the writer’s death. Cogswell also reported seeing the ghost of insurance executive Austin Sands. The building is also said to be haunted by Joseph Papp, founder of the Public Theater, and the spirits of various Jewish immigrants from the building’s days as headquarters for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

3. The Jefferson Market Library – New York, NY

It might be biased to put two NYC locations on this list, but I couldn’t help including my personal favorite branch of the New York Public Library. If you walk along 10th Street in Greenwich Village, you may find your eye drawn to the impressive clock tower and gorgeous Gothic architecture of the building that now serves as the Jefferson Market Library. Built in 1877, the building was originally created as a courthouse and sat adjacent to the Jefferson Market Prison, and later the New York Women’s House of Detention. Though the courthouse was converted to a library in the 1960s, the prison buildings were demolished and their locations are now the site of the Jefferson Market Garden. Visitors have claimed to see female spirits roaming the garden—presumably the ghosts of former inmates. Figures have also been spotted standing on the balcony of the clock tower, which is generally kept closed to the public.

4. The Millicent Library – Fairhaven, MA

If you build a library to look like a Gothic castle, I feel like you’re kind of asking for it to be haunted. The Millicent Library was donated to the town of Fairhaven in 1893 by oil tycoon Henry Huttleston Rogers in honor of his recently deceased daughter, Millicent. In addition to being the library’s inspiration and namesake, Millicent Rogers is said to still roam its halls. Millicent was just seventeen years old when she died of heart failure. During her lifetime, Millicent had loved to read and once expressed a wish that her favorite vacation town of Fairhaven “had a good library”—thus building one seemed a fitting memorial. Contrary to popular rumors, the body of Millicent Rogers is not interred within the foundations of the library, but a sketch of her is contained in the building’s cornerstone and the stained-glass window by the entrance depicts Millicent’s likeness as the Muse of Poetry. Perhaps these representations are what drew Millicent’s spirit to a building she never got the chance to visit in life. Visitors claim to have seen a young woman walking through the hallways, surrounded by a blue light. Millicent may also have some company—the ghost of an eccentric janitor who is said to have died in the building has been spotted in the library basement.

5. The Providence Athenaeum – Providence, RI

This little Greek Revival building—built to resemble a temple to the goddess Athena—is one of the many sites where you can allegedly spot Poe’s ghost. The library was founded in 1836 and was popular among students and writers in the area. Edgar Allan Poe came to spend a significant amount of time in its halls in 1848 while courting the poet Sarah Helen Whitman, after his wife’s death. Theirs was a passionate relationship founded on a mutual admiration of each other’s works, and the two writers loved to visit the library together. Poe and Whitman were even briefly engaged, but Poe’s drinking and the disapproval of Whitman’s mother soon put an end to their plans. By some accounts, Whitman is said to have broken off the engagement right there in the library on one of their visits. To this day, passersby have claimed to see Edgar Allan Poe’s spirit sitting dejectedly on the steps of the Athenaeum or wandering the surrounding streets, as he may have done on the night their engagement ended.

Have you visited any of these libraries? Do you know of any other haunted libraries you’d like to see me highlight? Let me know in the comments!