From a lonely lighthouse on a windswept shore where a drowned girl whispers, to an ancient home where ghosts dance, to a windmill playhouse haunted by a little girl, these are the most spooky stories we could find about the Hamptons.
Montauk Lighthouse
The lighthouse is haunted by a 17-year-old girl, Abigail Olsen, who died on the shore of the Point after a shipwreck in 1811. She can be heard speaking softly in the tower at night.
125 Main Street, Sag Harbor
This 250-year-old building has been the site of all sorts of creepy things, including a floating black phantom, disembodied footsteps, a ghost’s face peering out the window, and naturally, uneasy feelings. And in 1895, the New York Times reported that young men of the town were meeting a six-foot-tall ghost with a tall hat and carrying a musket on Main Street, while the young ladies of the town were staying indoors.
64 Division Street, Sag Harbor
The former Murf’s Tavern recently sold for $3.1 million. Do the new owners know it’s haunted? The building, constructed in 1792, was said to be haunted by the ghost of former resident Adelaide “Addie” King, flipping chairs and turning on the jukebox and blender when no one was around.
30 Egypt Lane, East Hampton
Renée Zellweger’s previous home is reportedly haunted. When she purchased the property in 2003, a former owner said that a ghost, thought to be the previous owner, Lillian Worthington, loved to play tricks on him.
52 Middle Lane, East Hampton
Reportedly haunted by its former owner, Barton Kaplan, who was found at the bottom of the pool one morning after a night of partying. Summer renters at the 13-bedroom house have seen lights and faucets turning themselves on and off and furniture moving around.
Grey Gardens, 3 West End Road, East Hampton
Former owner Sally Quinn reported two ghosts in the house. She’s woken up in her bedroom and seen an apparition previous resident Anna Gilman Hill. The other ghost is in Little Edie’s former bedroom. Even Senator Barry Goldwater refused to sleep in Little Edie’s room. He told Quinn, “There’s a ghost in there.”
Old Post House, 136 Main Street, Southampton
Originally built in 1684, the Post family bought the property in 1824 and ran a boarding house. It was later run by the White family after Sarah Elizabeth Post married Captain Hubert White. Strange noises have been heard as well as the ghosts who dance.
Rogers Mansion, 17 Meeting House Lane, Southampton
Built in 1843, the Rogers Mansion was the home of whaling Captain Albert Rogers. Samuel Longstreth Parrish purchased it from Rogers’ descendants in 1899. Now the headquarters of the Southampton Historical Museum, unexplained phenomena is experienced there by museum staff, including loud footsteps upstairs and the sounds of people congregating when no one is there at all, and a female figure. The ghost is assumed to be either Cordelia Rogers, Captains Rogers’ second wife, or Mary Rogers, his first wife, Cordelia’s sister.
Thomas Halsey Homestead, 249 S Main Street, Southampton
Thomas Halsey Homestead is the oldest house still standing in Southampton, built in 1648. According to legend, Elizabeth Halsey was attacked and scalped by three Pequot Indians there, and many say the house is haunted by Mrs. Halsey.
Mill Hill Windmill, 239 Montauk Highway, Southampton
Haunted by the ghost of a little girl, Beatrice Claflin. The windmill served as her playhouse on her father’s estate, until one day when Beatrice fell down the mill steps, broke her neck and died. People have seen the face of a little girl peering out from the windows.
162 West Montauk Highway, Hampton Bays
Now the Villa Paul restaurant, parts of the original 1804 log cabin remain. After the death of one owner, New York Supreme Court Justice Edward Lazansky, in 1955, his wife Cora removed all the headstones from the adjacent cemetery to sell the house more easily. Ever since then, the place has been haunted by disembodied footsteps, lights going on and off on their own, and a ghostly dog.
Sanderling, 32 Beach Lane, Quogue
When the Toppings family built a new home in Quogue in the 1950s, they installed an old staircase from a Yorkshire mansion where Anne Bronte had once worked. In 1962, Mrs. Topping heard footsteps on the stairs and saw a figure of a young woman in old-fashioned dress ascending the stairs. She felt sure it was Anne. Later she heard more ghostly rappings and footsteps, though Anne did not reveal herself again.
