All states / North Carolina
Explore 56 haunted places in North Carolina. Read ghost stories, local history, source notes, and visiting information in the PHASM Haunted Atlas.
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Albemarle, North Carolina · Theater
Albemarle's long-closed opera house retains stories of footsteps, moving shadows and music from an apparently empty stage. Haunted Places mentions a phantom ragtime band; in local newspaper reporting, the owner described a suited man, a woman in white and voices or music upstairs. The haunting belongs above the historic Main Street storefronts.
Sparta, North Carolina · Other
A contribution to Haunted Places describes footsteps on the courthouse staircase when nobody visible is walking there. Whistling is also reported near the former jail cells. The accounts give the historic Sparta courthouse a specific sound-centered haunting tradition without identifying an individual ghost.
Littleton, North Carolina · Historic house
Stephen Barcelo's contribution to Haunted Places reports voices in the Alston House and objects that disappear, return and move again. The account also describes a contractor leaving because he felt an unseen presence nearby. The story concerns the historic house associated with the Cryptozoology and Paranormal Museum.
Asheville, North Carolina · Other
Asheville City Hall lore describes an old-fashioned man waiting in the snack-bar line who disappears before those nearby fully register him. Haunted Places also records offices being found disturbed after a night. The directory's proposed Depression-era identity is not independently established and is omitted from the narrative.
New Bern, North Carolina · Historic house
Attmore-Oliver House is associated with poltergeist-like disturbances in the account collected by Haunted Places. The tradition connects those unexplained disruptions either with its last private owner or with remembered smallpox deaths. Neither explanation establishes a particular spirit's identity, but both attach the reputation to this identifiable New Bern house.
Balsam, North Carolina · Hotel
Rooms 205 and 207 figure prominently in Balsam Mountain Inn's guest folklore. The account collected by Haunted Places describes footsteps outside apparently empty rooms, doorknobs rattling and unexplained banging in the hallway. Guest journals reportedly let overnight visitors add their own experiences to the story.
Asheville, North Carolina · Other
The Basilica of St. Lawrence is associated with stories of figures appearing briefly, abrupt cold and doors or lights behaving unexpectedly. Haunted Places connects some accounts with architect Rafael Guastavino, who is buried there, while other tellings name a priest. The identities are part of the haunting tradition.
Asheville, North Carolina · Hotel
Accounts from the Battery Park Hotel's earlier commercial life describe a man's apparition appearing before hotel employees. Haunted Places links him with an alleged killing on the premises. The building's later residential use means the ghost story is historical place-lore rather than evidence of a present public hotel experience.
Wilmington, North Carolina · Historic house
Bellamy Mansion's paranormal reputation includes doors slamming without an obvious cause and recorded sounds interpreted by investigators as voices. Haunted Places associates the reports with people from the Bellamy household. The recordings and possible spirit identities are presented as investigators' interpretations, not independent proof.
Four Oaks, North Carolina · Historic house
Haunted Places records accounts of gunfire and battlefield cries after dark. A second tradition centers on the Harper House: visitors describe a little girl's apparition in an upstairs room, locally connected with a child said to have died of tuberculosis.
Winston-Salem, North Carolina · Hotel
Guests in the Brookstown Inn tradition wake to a woman's voice, sometimes repeatedly speaking their names and sometimes pleading for mercy. Haunted Places places these nighttime calls in more than one room. Its short account does not identify the woman or substantiate an originating death.
Brown Mountain / Lost Cove Cliffs Overlook near Linville, North Carolina · Natural landmark
Small lights appearing and fading over North Carolina’s mountains have inspired generations of watching and storytelling. The Brown Mountain tradition also lives in a country song about a wandering lantern. The map marks the public Lost Cove Cliffs Overlook, not a route into the mountain.
Southport, North Carolina · Hotel
Southport's Brunswick Inn is associated with Tony, described in local lore as a riverboat harpist who drowned during a visit in 1882. Haunted Places says his spirit wanders the corridors and plays small tricks on the owners. The biographical explanation remains part of the attributed inn tradition.
Charlotte, North Carolina · Historic house
The Cajun Queen restaurant's ghost is said to be a former resident of the house. Haunted Places gives two playful explanations for her return to the upstairs bar: she objects to the use of her old bedroom, or she simply wants a drink. The figure's identity is not established.
Fletcher, North Carolina · Cemetery
The Phantom Rider tradition places a fair-haired woman on a palomino near Calvary Episcopal Church. In the version collected by Haunted Places, she wears a Confederate cape and rides away abruptly. A revenge story about her soldier husband and an ambush explains the apparition within the legend.
Buxton, North Carolina · Other
One lighthouse legend concerns a large black-and-white cat that rubs against visitors, then vanishes. Haunted Places says the cat continued to appear after the tower was moved. Other stories concern a raincoated man called Bob and cries associated in folklore with the abandoned Carroll A. Deering offshore.
Ellenboro, North Carolina · Road or bridge
A local vanishing-passenger tale places two elderly women beside the Broad River bridge on rainy nights. Haunted Places says they are described as sisters who died when their car left the bridge. In some tellings, a driver offers them a lift and later discovers the rear seat empty.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina · Hotel
The Carolina Inn's best-known ghost is said to be retired physician William Jacocks. Haunted Places describes trouble around his former room: guests locked out, a disturbed bath mat and shower curtain, and an unexpected floral scent. A neatly dressed man in a long blue coat is also reported trying hallway doors.
Greensboro, North Carolina · Theater
Greensboro's Carolina Theatre has a story of seats lifting and dropping when nobody is using them. Haunted Places connects that activity to a woman who died in a 1981 fire at the theater. The reported seat movements are the haunting account; speculation about how the fire started is not adopted here.
Woodfin, North Carolina · Cemetery
Witnesses in the Church of the Redeemer tradition describe a woman descending from the steep burial ground behind the church. According to Haunted Places, she crosses Riverside Drive and disappears toward the river. The short, repeated journey connects the churchyard, road and riverside within the local story.
Chatham County, North Carolina · Natural landmark
Deep in Chatham County, a strange bare circle is said to mark the place where the Devil walks a restless path each night.
Asheville, North Carolina · Other
Asheville's First Presbyterian Church is associated with an apparition nicknamed Black Abbey. Haunted Places describes a woman wearing black walking through the building. Although Thomas Wolfe's funeral is part of the church's history, the directory specifically distinguishes this anonymous figure from the novelist.
Kure Beach, North Carolina · Other
Fort Fisher's collected ghost stories include military figures, unexplained footsteps and what sounds like distant gunfire. Haunted Places names General William H. C. Whiting among spirits said to return to the fort and also mentions the nearby hermit tradition of Robert Harrill. These stories share the historic site's coastal setting.
Manteo, North Carolina · Other
Fort Raleigh's haunted reputation is tied to Virginia Dare and the disappearance of the Roanoke colonists. Haunted Places records a belief that Dare's spirit remains at the historic site. This is later folklore built around an unresolved colonial history; it does not establish what happened to the colonists.