Museums are filled with pieces of art and other items of significant historical value, and they are actually the perfect "breeding grounds" for paranormal activity. Spirits are said to be able to attach themselves to objects that had a rather important impact on them when they were alive, which gives museums the perfect conditions for creating a haunted environment.
Stories of haunted museums are nothing new, and the U.S. has share of haunted museums spread across the country. Let's take a look at 5 of the most haunted museums, and the stories behind their ghastly visitations.
1. The Pharmacy Museum - New Orleans, Louisiana
It's not surprising that a museum in New Orleans makes this list. New Orleans has long had a strong history of spirits, demons and hauntings. The Pharmacy Museum is particularly creepy, and the ghoulish story of the building's resident spirit is blood-chilling. The building that now houses the museum was once owned by Dr. Dupas, who was rumored to have performed gruesome experiments on pregnant slaves during the 1800s.
It is said that once the museum closes for the night, Dr. Dupas comes out and starts throwing things, moving things around in display cases, and even likes to set off the security alarm. Both staff and visitors to the museum have said they have seen his ghost appear.
2. The Mutter Museum - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Mutter Museum is a place straight out of nightmares. Not because of the any specific spirit that haunts the building, but because of the contents of the building. It houses a large number of medical oddities that have been collected over hundreds of years. These items came from people who suffered supremely throughout their lives among the living, and they appear to want to get some revenge by making visitors to the building as uncomfortable as possible.
Guests and staff have both reported major discomfort and dizziness when they have been inside the building for any length of time. The Travel Channel has ranked this among the creepiest places in the entire world.
3. The Hunter Museum - Chattanooga, Tennessee
The Chattanooga Hunter Museum of American Art is said to be very haunted. Employees of the museum say that it is haunted by no less than five individual spirits. Staff of the museum say that they often feel as if someone, or something is watching them, and the night guards often say that they see dark shadows moving around inside the building.
Only one of the five potential ghosts has been specifically identified to this point. Augusta Hoffman. She was related to the Bennett family who lived on the property next to the museum. She was said to have run away with a lover in 1915, but work being done on the Bennett house in 1924 discovered the corpse under the floorboards. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett were both charged with murder.
The next two are not for the faint of heart.
4. The San Francisco Art Institute - San Francisco, California
The story of the haunting plaguing the art institute centers around the building's bell tower has been told for decades. It was in 1940 that the first instance of the paranormal was experience by a night watchman for the building. He had heard "phantom" footsteps coming up the stairs behind him in the bell tower. When construction work started on the tower in 1968, it became a very scary place to work. Strange accidents began happening regularly, and the workers on site started suffering from work setbacks, and even personal tragedies.
A seance was eventually conducted, and it appeard that all of the negative energy that was surrounding the building was connected to generations of art students dealing with the frustration of their lives.
5. The Warren's Occult Museum - Monroe, Connecticut
No list of haunted museums would be complete without including one of the most terrifying places on the face of the earth, the Warren's Occult Museum. Founded by Ed and Lorraine Warren, world renowned paranormal investigators and demonologists (Ed passed away some years ago). They were the investigators who looked into the Amityville Haunting, and the Annabelle doll, among many others. The basement of their family home has been converted into a museum containing some of the most dangerous and haunted paranormal items on the planet. Seriously, when this museum tells you not to touch, DON'T TOUCH.
Do you think you're brave enough to visit these museums?