Halloween is in the air and that means ghost stories.
Tales of deranged, hitchhiking, axe-wielding psychopaths awaiting their next victims are some of the most common scare stories I heard when I was a child. But I laughed off the stories as if they were nothing. What kind of idiot stops their car in the middle of the night on an abandoned highway during a thunderstorm and then allows someone with a Mike Meyers-esque stature into their car?
"Puh-lease," I would say. Even if that were real, I wouldn't pick him up. Wham-bam, there you go. Ghost story ruined. I could crawl under my covers without staining the bed sheets after that tale.
Those childhood depictions of scenes out of Freddy Krueger's nightmares weren't the ones that left me shaking. It was the tales of all the supernatural experiences occurring around Buffalo that struck my nerves with the force of a freight train.
In honor of All Hallows Eve, it is my delight to present you with the three most haunted places in Buffalo - sites that have generated nightmares and movie ideas, places that have been nationally recognized for their otherworldly and unwanted tenants.
Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane
This monstrous, castle-like structure is located next to Buffalo State College on the corner of Elmwood Ave. and Forest Ave. It dates back to the 1800s.
This facility has been shut down for over 50 years, but according to theshadowlands.net, the complex is swarming with the phantasmal presence of the clinically insane and dangerous patients. During the asylum's days of operation, the mental patients were subjected to unspeakable, cruel and unorthodox methods of treatment in attempts to repair their damaged souls.
According to paranormalghostsociety.org, students at Buffalo State College have reported hearing screams and slamming doors coming from the grounds. They also reported seeing demonic figures in the windows of patient rooms.
Underneath this hulking menace of bloodstained stone, there is a network of subterranean catacombs, which is where the most horrid patient treatments were prescribed, according to theshadlowlands.net.
Rumor has it the asylum's patients were beaten, raped and murdered. Society sent those individuals deemed unworthy of life among us - the twisted and maimed, the mentally instable, even the drunkards and dopers - to the asylum.
Now they wait. Their shackles still dangle from their chaffed, bloodied wrists as they search for some poor fool to enter their dark grounds, wanting to spill some blood of their own.
If you want a really scary Halloween, make your way to the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane and good luck to you.
Buffalo School No. 61
According to theshadowlands.net, in 1975, a boy who went to school decided to slip away unnoticed and walk up to the second floor of the building, where the pool was located, for a nice, relaxing swim.
The boy never made it home that day. He was found dead in the pool.
Every year since his death, ceiling tiles crash to the floor in the classroom that is located directly beneath the pool where he drowned. After the dust settles and people are able to look at the damage, they see the same word spelled out with the tiles, year after year.
The tiles scattered about the floor always read "HELP."
Holiday Inn on Grand Island
Have you ever seen the movie 1408? Do you remember when the main character picked up the ringing telephone and screamed into it, "hello, hello?" All he heard in response was the deranged laughter of a little girl.
Although I am unsure of the room number at this Grand Island hotel, according to theshadowlands.net, there have been several instances in which people have rented a room at the hotel (which is now closed up and no longer available for rent) and claimed to receive a phone call in the dead of night. When they went to answer the phone, the only sound they heard was the high-pitched laughter of a little girl.
Pretty spooky stuff, huh?
That's not all, though. There are countless sightings of a little girl running through the halls, never making a sound as she frolics and disappears into thin air.
If this isn't enough for you to believe in the haunted halls of the Holiday Inn, take a trip next door. You'll find the Whitehaven Cemetery. The little girl has been seen running amongst the graveyard and her gravestone glows at night.
So there you have it, folks. Three of Buffalo's most well recognized haunted establishments. Be sure to visit them on a dark, foggy evening to prepare for the spookiest night of the year. Don't say I didn't warn you, though. You don't want to end up like those mental patients, the little boy who drowned or the little girl whose gravestone now lights up.
Email: jacob.glaser@ubspectrum.com
