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New York’s toughest housing competition might be among people who no longer need an apartment. And apparently, a substantial portion of the dearly departed have settled on Staten Island.
Andrea Janes, founder of macabre walking tour company Boroughs of the Dead, has declared the borough NYC’s prime paranormal territory. Speaking to the New York Post, she described an island packed with haunted mansions, former institutions and military grounds. “It’s wall-to-wall ghosts,” she told the paper.
This is one expert’s assessment, not the result of a citywide spirit census. But Staten Island has plenty of history to fuel the stories.
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Start with its long association with quarantine: the New York Marine Hospital opened there in 1799 to isolate people with infectious diseases, including yellow fever. Known as “The Quarantine,” the complex was burned down in 1858 amid fierce local opposition. Decades later, Sea View Hospital opened in 1913 to treat tuberculosis patients.
“If you ask me what is the most haunted place in Staten Island, I would say the entire island,” Janes told the Post.
Among her standout spooky addresses is Kreischer Mansion on Arthur Kill Road. Built in the 1880s for brick manufacturer Edward Kreischer, the Victorian house has a grim backstory: Kreischer died from a gunshot wound in 1894 and the property was the site of Robert McKelvey’s murder in 2005. The ghost lore includes figures appearing in windows, furniture allegedly moving by itself and mysterious kitchen clatter.
At Conference House, where British and American representatives held unsuccessful peace talks in 1776, stories circulate about a murdered servant and spectral soldiers. (The alleged killing hasn’t been substantiated by historical evidence, though.)
Fort Wadsworth has its own reported supernatural soundtrack: footsteps, gunfire and cannon blasts, along with supposed soldier sightings.
Janes also draws a line between spooky entertainment and suffering. She told the Post she excludes the former Willowbrook State School site, now partly occupied by the College of Staten Island, from her tours because its history of institutional abuse is too sad.
For anyone plotting a seasonal outing, the appeal is the borough’s unusually dense collection of unsettling stories and historic settings. Whether you believe in ghosts or simply appreciate an atmospheric old building, Staten Island makes a compelling case for taking the ferry.