One of the oldest houses in Manhattan, this stately Georgian mansion in Washington Heights was built by Roger Morris—a colonel in the British army—in 1765. It served as military headquarters for both sides of the Revolution, with George Washington retreating here after the disastrous loss of the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776. In 1810, the house was bought by Stephen Jumel and his wife Eliza, and after his suspicious death, she remarried in 1832 to a haunted figure in his own right: Aaron Burr, the former Vice President and killer of Alexander Hamilton. Since at least the 1960s, rumors of the supernatural have persisted, when a group of rowdy schoolchildren allegedly saw the ghostly visage of Eliza Jumel, who told them to quiet down before gliding away. Other sightings include a talking grandfather clock and a Hessian soldier who’s been known to emerge from paintings on the wall, Hogwarts-style.

The Dakota is renowned for its featured role in Roman Polanski’s 1968 horror classic Rosemary’s Baby and as the site of John Lennon’s assassination, but the legendary Central Park West building has a long history of supernatural encounters in its own right. Over the years, workers and residents have reported seeing a friendly little girl dressed in turn-of-the-century clothing, an adult with the face of a small boy, and even the ghost of Lennon himself.

In 1922, Albert Champion, a former cyclist and inventor of the spark plug, married showgirl Edna Crawford. The May-September romance quickly soured when Edna took the younger, dashing Frenchman Charles Brazelle as a lover. In 1927, Brazelle allegedly murdered Champion in a Paris hotel, but Edna and Brazelle convinced authorities he died of a “weak heart” and were set to inherit his fortune, with which she and Brazelle bought the penthouse at 57 West 57th Street. Brazelle was jealous, keeping Edna a prisoner of the penthouse and eventually beating her to death with a telephone, after which her bodyguards threw him out the window. The penthouse lay vacant for years, but subsequent owner Carlton Alsop claimed to hear Edna’s clicking high heels and the couple’s violent arguments, and his guests often reported seeing horrific, unexplainable sights. His wife left him, his dogs had nervous breakdowns, and things got so bad for Alsop that he eventually had himself committed, before abandoning the penthouse forever.

This beautiful townhouse on quiet West 10th has been called the most haunted building in New York, with as many as twenty-two ghosts calling it home, earning 14 West 10th Street the sobriquet “The House of Death.” Mark Twain lived here from 1900 to 1901 and claimed that he himself had experienced supernatural incidents. Throughout the twentieth century, 14 West 10th was the site of several gruesome incidents, including a murder-suicide and the beating death of six-year-old Lisa Steinberg at the hands of her adopted father, prominent attorney Joel Steinberg, in 1987. The specter of Twain himself—white suit and all—has been seen ascending the staircase.

Located right around the corner from bustling Sixth Avenue, Gay Street is arguably one of the most picturesque blocks in New York, and the quaint brick townhouse at number 12 is no exception. The building served as a speakeasy called The Pirate’s Den during Prohibition and was purchased by the corrupt (yet wildly popular) Mayor Jimmy Walker as a home for his mistress, Ziegfeld girl Betty Compton. Neighbors insist that ghostly flappers and the Gay Street Phantom—a dapper gent in a cloak and top hat—still lurk around late at night, and if that’s not creepy enough, the property was later bought by Frank Paris, the creator of notorious hell-puppet Howdy Doody.

St. Mark’s Chruch in-the-Bowery is the second-oldest church in Manhattan, splitting from Trinity Church in 1799. Built on Dutch colonial governor Peter Stuyvesant’s family farm, legend has it that the cantankerous, peg-legged Dutchman still haunts the area. He’s been known to harass clergymen and parishioners, ring the bells, and loudly interrupt services by stomping around and singing Calvinist hymns in Dutch. Apparently, English Episcopal hymns simply don’t agree with him.

In the winter of 1800, the body of a young woman named Gulielma Sands was found at the bottom of the Manhattan Well at what is now 129 Spring Street. The ensuing trial was one of the great scandals of nineteenth century New York, with Levi Weeks (brother of influential builder Ezra Weeks)accused of her murder after he reportedly impregnated and promised to marry her. Weeks retained the city’s top attorneys (including Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton) and was acquitted, despite growing public outrage. In 1817, the Manhattan Well was filled in and built over, but it was rediscovered in 1980 and has since become a notorious destination for paranormal enthusiasts claiming that the ghost of Gulielma Sands still haunts the area.

Now part of NYU’s Furman Hall, 85 West 3rd Street was once occupied by Edgar Allen Poe for eight months in 1844 and 1845, where he wrote his classic story “The Cask of Amontillado” and at least part of “The Raven.” Nowadays, the only part of the original residence that remains is the banister and Poe’s ghost has been seen climbing it by spooked law students.

Right across the street from 85 West 3rd is another haunted building—a disused fire station converted into a private residence (and home to Anderson Cooper!). The building is apparently haunted by the ghost of “Firefighter Schwartz,” who hanged himself from the rafters after learning of his wife’s infidelity in 1930. Over the years, firefighters have reported strange noises coming from the attic, and have even seen his hanging corpse.

Located at the southernmost tip of Staten Island, this colonial manor was used by loyalist Colonel Christopher Billop as a way station for British forces during the Revolutionary War. It also hosted the unsuccessful Staten Island Peace Conference on September 11, 1776, with Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge in attendance. In 1779, Billop suspected a fifteen-year-old serving girl of spying for the rebels and allegedly killed her by throwing her down a flight of stairs, and supposedly her ghost can still be heard screaming today. As a side note, the area was also used as a Lenape Indian burial ground thousands of years before European contact, so take from that what you will.