Haunted spots to explore on Long Island
With Long Island having such a rich history, claims of encounters with ghosts — call them phantoms, wraiths, apparitions, what have you — are a common thread shared between generations.
There are homes and businesses where the living claim to have crossed paths with specters, but there’s no need to wander through a graveyard to try to spot a spirit. Here’s a list of places you can visit that locals have claimed to be haunted.
LIGHTHOUSES
Gaviola adds that he has had "unexplainable" experiences since he became lighthouse keeper, such as hearing "a clear voice in an absolutely, completely locked and secured keeper’s dwelling." He says objects have gone missing, and he's heard unaccountable "noises and felt sweeps of chilled air." There’s a painting of Abigail in the lighthouse museum, and Gaviola blocks his eyes when he passes it, to avoid seeing her image.
However, the name “Abigail” also ties into another alleged tragic story at the lighthouse, according to Henry Osmers, the Montauk Lighthouse historian. Osmers notes that during the summer of 1860, there were major modifications made to the lighthouse, including the replacement of the tower's original wooden stairs with the iron steps still currently in place. “The story is that among the workers was a man of about 40-45 years of age who had a teenage daughter named Abigail,” says Osmers, who also tells that another worker “ended up in a romance with Abigail, not to the liking of her father!”
According to the story Osmers was told, one day Abigail’s father and romantic interest got into an argument, and she fled the lighthouse to avoid the yelling — but upon her return only her father was there. "To this day, Abigail's spirit is said to return to the tower looking for his [her lover's] lost soul.”
He says the version the society sticks to takes place back when the current lighthouse was under construction, relegating the keeper and his family to live in a shack next to the original lighthouse. The keeper’s daughter reportedly fell ill, and it took him three days to return with help. When he arrived, she had already died, and due to his overwhelming grief, he hanged himself in the current lighthouse that wasn’t yet completed.
As Femminella explained, his organization has never been able to confirm who allegedly haunts the lighthouse, but there are several candidates. Records show a man named Benjamin Smith was the keeper while the second version of the lighthouse was constructed in the 1850s, but the same documents show Smith lived at least long enough to retire in 1861. However, there is the tragic and widely documented tale of a former keeper named Hugh Walsh, who reportedly died 1878. Then there was keeper John T. Doxsee, who the U.S. Coast Guard reports "died from asphyxiation" in 1913.
FORMER HOMES
BODIES OF WATER
'MOUNT MISERY'
Further lore includes that a children’s asylum that was built there in the 18th century burned down, and the wails of the unfortunate souls who lived and worked there can still be heard. Then there is "Hatchet Mary," whose house was located somewhere within what is now the Mount Misery Nature Preserve — and Mary’s ghost has been said to haunt the area.
