Blithewood Mansion was built by National Guard captain and real estate mogul Andrew C. Zabriskie, who commissioned four statues for his garden. Each statue would depict one of his four daughters. When tragedy struck and one of his daughters was killed falling out of a window of a New York City apartment, her statue went missing. Rumor has it that her ghost wanders the property in place of the missing statue. In 1951, the mansion was given to Bard College.
Bard College - Blithewood Mansion
Alfred University
Alfred University is rumored to be haunted by several ghosts. Among them are a Civil War soldier who walks the hallways of The Brick, which was once used as a Civil War infirmary. Other ghosts rumored to linger here are a little boy who appears on the second floor of Herrick Library and a woman’s apparition, seen in the CDC.
St. Bonaventure University
St. Bonaventure University has more than its share of campus ghosts. Francis Hall, once called Christ the King Seminary, is said to be haunted by the spirits of deceased monks. Devereux Hall is famous for stories of its Black Mass. Legend has it that in the 1960s, the students gathered to conjure a spirit. They were interrupted by a staff member who put a stop to it, but folks still say the Black Mass brought evil spirits to the building. Also, WWI veteran Willie Cooper’s ghost is said to walk Devereux’s back wing where a war memorial once stood, and a ghostly friar jogs up and down the hallways at night. At De La Roche Hall, the ghost of a student killed in a fire is said to turn on the lights late at night on the third floor. Legend has it that he was trying to finish a paper when the fire broke out, and his ghost is attempting to finish his work.
The College of Saint Rose
The College of Saint Rose campus is rumored to have many haunted buildings. Students in the residence halls have reported apparitions, unexplained old-fashioned music, footsteps, electrical appliances that turn on or off by themselves, strange sounds, spirit orbs, and pinches on the rear end from an unseen hand.
Sage College of Albany
Some of the buildings at Sage College in Albany were once a part of the Albany Home for Children; rumor has it that shallow graves were found during some campus construction. The campus is said to be haunted by some of the home’s orphans who died in a fire in a basement.
Haldeman Mansion
Haldeman Mansion was built in the 1740s, and was purchased and enlarged by John Haldeman in 1812. John’s son, Samuel Steman Haldeman, was a renowned scientist honored by Charles Darwin for his contribution to the famous book “The Origin of the Species” and by Daniel Webster for his help on the dictionary. Ghost investigators have collected several EVP recordings from the mansion’s front porch.
Widow Susan Road
Widow Susan Road, which runs from Chapman Drive (old Route 5) to Route 67, is haunted by namesake Susan Thomas, who manifests as a female apparition in an old-fashioned white dress. She appears crying and searching for something. Susan was married to Harmanus DeGraff in 1838 and was widowed about a decade later, with several children to raise on her own. She eventually moved to Michigan, where she died. Folks speculate that Susan’s husband was buried in a cemetery along Widow Susan Road, and her ghost is upset because she was buried in Michigan instead of next to her husband.
Delaware and Hudson Railroad Building
The brownstone is said to be haunted by the ghost of an unknown woman in period clothing. Folks speculate that her death was connected to a hotel that stood here before the railroad building was constructed.
Loudon Cottage
When President Lincoln was shot, one of his guests at the theater was Sen. Ira Harris’s daughter Clara. After the event, Clara’s white dress was stained by Lincoln’s blood, so upon returning home to this cottage, she had a special closet built for it, then had it sealed up. After that, she saw an apparition of Lincoln in her room, and in later years others have met up with the former president’s ghost in the house as well.
Legs Diamond House
Jack “Legs” Diamond, aka Gentleman Jack, was an gangster during the Prohibition era. It was here that he was shot to death in 1931, in a small upstairs room. Subsequent residents have been awakened late at night to footsteps and voices on the stairs that lead up to the room.
