Where there’s history, there are ghosts. Lancaster County has plenty of history—and plenty of ghosts.
Here are some places to visit the supernatural.
Bube’s Brewery
The restored 1800s building complex that houses restaurants and a microbrewery may also house some spirits other than the drinking ilk. The apparition of a young woman in a long gown wandering through an art gallery, and a male ghost may reside on the premises as well. Ghost tours are offered on certain days of the week. The place has been featured on TV’s “Ghost Hunters.”
Chickies Rock as seen from the Northwest Lancaster County River Trail.
Chickies Rock, a outcropping of rock in western Lancaster County that looks over the Susquehanna River, is known for its unexplained phenomena, including a 16-foot-tall creature with no arms or visible legs, a head covered with bandages, with knives protruding from the bandages, spotted in 1946. An old stone farmhouse on the property is reportedly haunted. It’s closed to the public but you can see it.
Where: 881 Chickies Hill Rd, Columbia
Contact: (717) 295-2055; Website
Built on what was storied to be Lancaster’s former Gallows Hill, Old Main (in the middle) is flanked by Goethean Hall, on the left, and Diagnothian Hall in this 1850s photo. The spot, the highest point in Lancaster city, was the site of public hangings before 1834.
The Gothic Revival building was constructed in the 1850s, reportedly on the site of Lancaster’s former “gallows hill,” where convicted criminals were hanged. It’s served as a chapel, classrooms, administrative offices and more. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places. F&M archives have stories about the bell in Old Main tolling in the middle of the night without any human involvement.
Ghost Tours of Lancaster and Strasburg and Lititz
The group listens to a story about the Corpse House at the Moravian Church during the Lititz Ghost and Departed Spirit Tour Sunday October 30, 2016.
Participants explore downtown Lancaster and hear about 300 years of haunted history. They also can tour Strasburg to hear about haunted mansions and eerie graveyards and Lititz, to hear ghostly tales at the General Sutter Inn and the Corpse House, where Moravians kept the dead before they were buried.
Lancaster: 25 S. Queen St., Lancaster
Contact: (717)687-6687
Reviews: Trip Advisor
Strasburg: 1 E Main St, Strasburg
Contact: (717) 687-6687; Website
Reviews: Yelp, Trip Advisor
Lititz: 24 N Broad St, Lititz
Contact: (717) 875-0630; Website
Exterior of the mansion.
The mansion, which dates from the 1700s, is a hot spot for paranormal activity, including a grouchy man, a little girl, a little boy, a teenage boy, an English woman and a female servant in the summer kitchen who “loves to sing and hum. She also loves to rub men’s heads.” Oral history suggests that workers installing underground plumbing and electricity on the site found 92 unmarked graves on the property. Weekly Sunday tours from May until early October.
The restaurant at Railroad House Inn has seating for 94, including 24 seats around the bar, 46 in the main dining room and 24 in a smaller dining room.
This restaurant and inn, originally from the 1820s, is said to be haunted by the men who worked nearby as well as many other spirits. The ghost of a young girl with blonde hair has been seen, dressed in Victorian clothing, and the staff says she likes to play games. Kitchen employees report seeing objects that move on their own, or finding utensils strewn all over the kitchen. Guests here have noted cold spots and eerie feelings, and have seen apparitions of men and women: Room 6 is said to be an especially active room. The tavern also is said to be popular with the spirit set. Apparitions and cold spots have been noted throughout, and a ghostly woman named Annie is said to flirt with tavern patrons.
Rock Ford Plantation, shown decorated for Halloween festivities in a file photo from 2015, is reputed to be haunted.
The home of George Washington’s pal, Gen. Edward Hand, has earned a reputation for apparitions, footsteps in empty rooms, strange knocks and barely heard conversations when no one else is there. Guided tours of the mansion from April through October.
