Local Legends

wandajune6

For the sake of privacy I won't share links but I grew up around a lot of 1920/30s mafia murder sites. We heard lots of stories but I was told they were fake by my sophomore biology lab partner. I assumed he was right because he had lots of family in prison for mob-related activities (a lot of "Casino" was modeled on his family).

We crossed the street instead of passing the house, just in case.

Fran1985

My wedding venue is haunted! Its on a list of very haunted places in MA, but by friendly ghosts. The people who invstigated said it was protected by spirits.

When I was in highschol there were a few really local legends in our town- like a haunted statute we would drive to at night.

Inkdancer

My high school was haunted. It was a 175-year-old institution, so lots of old buildings. I personally saw the girl in a sailor uniform who haunted the theater, and the ghost nightgown that hung from a window in the old dorm. I never went on the ghost tour but apparently there was the ghost of a slave who died in the main building while she was hiding there (it was part of the Underground Railroad).

ohmrs2014

JCbride2015 said:

Do you have any fun local urban legends?  We are watching Weird or What (Shatner is the best) and it's the Jersey Devil episode.  I'm pretty sure I believe it's, at least, totally possible that there are undiscovered species out there that we don't understand.

Here's the story of the Jersey Devil.  In the 18th century, a woman (Mrs. Leeds) was in labor with her thirteenth child.  She was fucking tired of having babies!  She called out, "Curse this child!"  She gave birth to a monster with claws, horns, wings, and a forked tail.  The baby promptly killed his mother and as many nearby people it could get to, and flew up through the chimney.  Residents near the Pine Barrens in NJ have reported all kinds of sightings over the past couple hundred of years.  People report seeing the creature run in front of their cars, attack them in the woods, etc.  There was a rash of sightings in January 1909 that made it to the newspapers and a group of local men even banded together to hunt and kill it.  Police officers went on record with their own eye witness sightings.

Fun reading if you're interested: http://weirdnj.com/stories/jersey-devil/

This legend spooks me.  As a kid, I would spend summers down the shore with my grandfather at his shore house, about a 1/2 from the heart of the Pine Barrens.  No joke, and laugh if you want, I was watching a movie in the living room while my grandfather was sleeping, and it was during a rain storm.  The lights went out for a few moments and on the deck, I swear I saw something with red eyes and horns.  To this day, I swear I saw the Jersey Devil.

pinkcow13

ClimbingBrideNY said:

pinkcow13 said:

Oooo creepy! Very Rosemary's Baby-esque. 

 When we were in college, our friend told us about this spot called Spook Rock Road which is in Suffern NY (I think), by the Tappan Zee Bridge. I think he told us it was featured on Unsolved Mysteries. Anyways, the version he told us is as follows (I think there are other stories out there): Years ago a group of kids on a school bus were in a crash and they were all killed, at the intersection which is on the bottom of a hill. Legend says that if you put your car in neutral at the bottom of the hill, your car will start going up the hill on its own. Additionally if you put powder on the windshield, you will see tiny hand prints appear - so it is the tiny hand prints of the ghost children pushing your car up the hill. 

 One late night, bored on campus, a group of us piled into our friends van to investigate. On our way there, a deer with glowing eyes jumped out of nowhere, which was terrifying. Also, one of the guys thought it would be funny to run out of the car and go running into the woods like a maniac. The rest of us tried the experiment. While we did not see the hand prints the car did go upwards on the hill. I think that's not all that uncommon, though.

 Regardless, it was a creepy and interesting night! Edit: Seriously Why does this thing love to eat paragraphs?! They were JUST working for me!

@pinkcow13 - Spook Rock Road is like 15 minutes from me (in Rockland County). I grew up hearing that story too. And of course, I had friends claim that their cars had been pushed up the hill. I never tried it myself. I was always too scared. 

This is right where I grew up too. This place is freaking creepy as hell. 

http://www.weirdus.com/states/new_york/local_legends/tweed/index.php

It is definitely creepy! I think we did it twice when we were in college, and I remember we did it around Halloween.

Jells2dot0

I grew up super close to the Leed's House aka the Jersey Devil's House. When my parents divorced, my mom moved offshore and the house is about 10 minutes from where she lives. She used to drive us out there when we were bad to scare us into thinking she was leaving us there! LOL

theycallmelinz

http://www.alabamaghosthunters.com/LoveladyBridge.html

There are tons of versions to this but the one I always heard was a prostitute got pregnant and was walking down the bridge crying because her lover didn't want her. She either jumped from the bridge or was hit by a car, I heard both stories as frequently. Supposedly if you park on the bridge at night a lady will come ask you for a cigarette then disappear and you can hear her crying.

hellosweetie1015

There's this too in AL. I've always wanted to visit it to see if it really is still there. In the daytime, of course. http://www.courthousewindow.com/the-story.html

Huntingdon College wasted SO MUCH PAPER on me. There was NO WAY IN HELL I was going there though, because there's this book, 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey, and the Red Lady is at Huntingdon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Lady_of_Huntingdon_College

More locally, we've got Henry the Courthouse Ghost, who is supposedly a prisoner from when part of the Courthouse was the prison. Mom works there, says he's friendly, but the Dungeon (creepy old basement) is not a place she is fond of going. My old church was supposedly haunted by a nun who hanged herself. In a Baptist hallway. Not real sure about that, but the church is creepy. Of course, the place is 130 years old so of course it's creepy. Nothing really more than that though. We're good, boring, Christian folk 'round here.

I had to come inside while I was refreshing myself on these though. The wind was blowing and there were trees and a garbage bag making noises and I'm a pansy haha.

lightningsnow

I don't have many but there's a restaurant in my hometown that is supposedly haunted by a little girl and a little boy. I'd post links but I would rather not have where I grew up be out there for strangers.

The state woods surrounding the neighborhood I grew up in is also supposedly haunted by Native American spirits. I've walked through the woods alone and I have always felt like someone was watching me. Also our dog will sometimes refuse to walk into the woods on walks. He will put his paw over the leash to indicate he wants to go back home. There are two entrances to the woods, one at the top of my street and one at the bottom. I have never felt like someone was watching me at the section down the street.

The city over from my hometown, and the one were I was born, is filled with lots of legends of hauntings. I've never experienced any thing anywhere in the city but given that it was a cotton mill city, there is a possibility of the mills being haunted.

Where I live now though there seems to be nothing. I don't live too far from what is called America's Stonehenge though and BF and I went there sometime last year and it felt off.

steph861

I live in what's considered to be one of the most haunted cities in Canada, so we've got lots of legends.

The Fairmont Empress Hotel is one of the most haunted places in Victoria. Supposedly there's an old woman that haunts the sixth floor. She's a solid figure, and seems like a normal guest. Apparently she asks other guests for help finding her room and she moves things around a lot.

Fuck, FI just went upstairs and now I'm in the basement by myself and I'm scared.

emcme22

@Fran1985 ‌ where is your wedding venue? I'm also from Mass and I know there's some haunted places just can't think of them at the moment. I think there are some stories about Lizzie Borden's house which wouldn't surprise me because, in my opinion, she totally did it. And I also think there are some hauntingly in Historic Deerfield from a massacre that happened.

missdelilah

Ooh! I love the Winchester Mystery House. It's just so bizarre! I wish the employees would just let us wander around and get lost in it, but I suppose a lot of it is unsafe. You know, I can't think of any particularly interesting ones. Perhaps I haven't lived here long enough. A lot of the Sydney ones are just generic ghost stories that are essentially always the same but set in different locations. I know a lot about a woman from Boston who was supposedly some sort of really bizarre spirit medium, and hugely famous in the 1920s, but sadly has been forgotten. I'm sure there should be some sort of random legends about her (although perhaps not as she was eventually outed as being fraudulent) but I've had to explain to history professors at both Boston University and Boston College, where I've studied at various times, who she was.

Teddy917

Where I work there is a highway going straight through town. There's houses on one side and Del Taco, McDonalds, and a Speedco on the other. This legend started about four years ago actually. A young lady (the story goes that she was an older lady but I read the story in the paper when it first happened and she was young) was going to McDonalds like she did every morning. She had to cross the road and once she got to the middle she was hit by a semi (lots of semis in this town) and her head just fell off (actually she was hit, died on impact, and got flung by the force). Now she crosses the street every morning, her head falls off in the middle of the road, and she just keeps walking. I walk that same path every day and I've never seen her.