The Lady in Granite

Penn Yan, NY · Cemeteries

The Lady in Granite appears on a gravestone for the Gillette family. It is an image of a lady's head, reclining, thought to be the head of Matilda Gillette. No amount of polishing has been able to remove the image from the stone. According to local legend, eventually her whole form will show on the tombstone, and then her ghost will be free to haunt the town.

Geographic Information

Address
388 Elm St
Penn Yan, NY
Get Directions »
GPS
42.6608805, -77.065775
County
Yates County County, New York
Nearest Towns

Quick Answers

Is The Lady in Granite really haunted?
Visitors rate The Lady in Granite at 76.5 out of 100 on our EHP (Estimated Haunted Probability) scale. So far 4 people have shared firsthand experiences from this location in the comments.
Where is The Lady in Granite located?
The address is 388 Elm St, Penn Yan, NY. GPS coordinates: 42.6608805, -77.065775.
What kind of haunted place is The Lady in Granite?
The Lady in Granite is listed under Cemeteries in our New York section.
What is the nearest town to The Lady in Granite?
Penn Yan, NY is the closest town, about 0.6 miles away, with Keuka Park (3.4 mi.) and Dresden (5.8 mi.) also nearby.

Please note: It is your responsibility to acquire appropriate permissions before investigating any location listed on this site. Private property should be respected at all times, as should all posted signs concerning trespassing, hours of operation and other regulations.

Share Your Experiences

Comments (4)

  • Lori J. |

    I was taken to the grave years ago around midnight & they shined the car lights on the gravestone and sure enough, there was a black shadow of a head tilted back with a bar going across under the head. I wanted to get the heck out of there. It was creepy. I never went back. I also heard the same story! It was freaky! I didn't have a camera back then to take any pics but I know what I saw & it was a women's head work a bar underneath going across!

    • Helen |

      I remember going to see the tombstone back in the 1970s but I thought that it was called "the crying tombstone" as supposedly tears came from the face of a female. Is this the same legend?

    • Terry |

      Hello,My name is TerryMartin, a 1974 graduate of Penn Yan Academy. I have visited this stone many times, sometimes by myself and other times with friends. I was there last night, a very dark night, (October 28, 2016). The face does not glow in the dark unless their is moonlight. I actually touch the face and surrounding granite to show friends it's not a defect in the finish but an actual image in the stone. I have never been "haunted" or "visited" by the occupant and love to share the story with others. so please don't let this scare you. She is just a part of our history!

      T.J. Martin

  • Jim |

    I went to college in Canandaigua at FLCC. I lived in the hotel at the end of the driveway of the college. Any ways a group of us wanted to find something spooky. One of your friends lived in Penn Yan, and I was originally from Dundee. I asked her about the head stone. She called some friends, and so we were off. The friend took us all over the grave yard. As we were walking though a group of graves I happened to notice a black form. I felt it was watching us and wondering why we were there. It went away and as we emerged from the group of graves and on to the road way the grave sight was found. It was the same place that I had noticed the form watching us. I've been there a few times since, but during the day.

Disclaimer: The stories posted here are user-submitted and are, in the truest sense, ghost stories. Haunted Places makes no claims that any of these stories are factually accurate or scientifically provable.