Haunted Places in Rhode Island: 10 Sites With Real History

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The best-documented haunted places in Rhode Island are a rural cemetery in Exeter where villagers dug up a tuberculosis victim in 1892, Providence streets tied to H.P. Lovecraft, and a run of Newport mansions, taverns, and forts. Below are 10 haunted places in Rhode Island, each split into what the record supports and what is only told as legend. Most ghost reports here come from tour operators, local media, and paranormal websites, not from independent documentation, and we say so wherever that is the case.

Quick answer if you're short on time: The easiest haunted places in Rhode Island to visit are Swan Point Cemetery and the Providence Athenaeum in Providence, Fort Adams and the White Horse Tavern in Newport, and Block Island Southeast Light. The Shunned House is a private home, and the Conjuring House in Burrillville has had a turbulent ownership and tour history, so treat it as private land.

1. Mercy Brown's Grave (Exeter)

This is the best-documented vampire story in America. Tuberculosis, then called consumption, killed Mary Eliza Brown on December 8, 1883 and her daughter Mary Olive on June 6, 1884. In 1891 two more of the family, Mercy and her brother Edwin, fell ill. Mercy died on January 19, 1892, at 19. On March 17, 1892, neighbors, a doctor named Harold Metcalf, and a newspaper reporter exhumed the bodies at Chestnut Hill Cemetery behind the Baptist church. Mercy's body had been kept in a crypt because the ground was frozen, and it was reported as well preserved. Her heart was burned, and the ashes were mixed into a tonic that Edwin drank. He died about two months later. Scholars have suggested that Bram Stoker read about the case, and Lovecraft referenced the incident in “The Shunned House.” The history here is medical folklore, not a haunting.

Can you visit: Yes, it is a public cemetery. Be respectful, since descendants of the family are buried nearby, and do not disturb the graves.

2. The Conjuring House (Burrillville)

An 18th-century farmhouse in Harrisville, a village in Burrillville, became famous through the 2013 film The Conjuring, which draws on the Perron family's account of living there from January 1971. Andrea Perron's book describes apparitions and attacks by unseen hands. A skeptic's visit, written up in Skeptical Inquirer, found tour claims that conflict with records. The guide said Noah Arnold Jr. died on Halloween 1737, but genealogical records show June 20, 1822, and the “Bathsheba Sherman” of the legend was a real woman, Bathsheba Thayer, born in 1812, who married Judson Sherman in 1844. A bedroom floor was bouncy enough to rock objects on tables. No evidence of a witch's curse was found. News reports say the house's ownership and its tours have changed repeatedly since 2022, including a town decision not to renew its entertainment license.

Can you visit: Do not assume so. Treat it as private property and check current news for any official tours.

3. Providence Athenaeum (Providence)

The library traces its origins to the Providence Library Company in 1753, and its Greek Revival building, designed by William Strickland, was completed in 1838. Edgar Allan Poe and the poet Sarah Helen Whitman ended their engagement here on December 23, 1848, according to the record. H.P. Lovecraft, though not a member, visited often and wrote about it in letters and fiction. The Athenaeum is an independent subscription library that is open to the public, and members alone can borrow books. We found no documented ghost reports. The ghosts are literary, and the building is real.

Can you visit: Yes, it is open to the public, but confirm current hours.

4. The Shunned House (Providence)

The house at 135 Benefit Street, built around 1763, is the real-life basis for the “Stephen Harris House” in Lovecraft's story “The Shunned House,” written October 16 to 19, 1924, and first published in Weird Tales in October 1937. Lovecraft knew it because his aunt Lillian Clark lived there in 1919 and 1920. One account says a house in Elizabeth, New Jersey, actually prompted the story. The story is fiction, and the “haunting” is a literary one. We found no reports of ghosts in the house itself.

Can you visit: Only from the sidewalk, because it is a private residence. Do not photograph the people inside or touch the property.

5. Swan Point Cemetery (Providence)

Swan Point opened in 1846 on 60 acres and has grown to about 200 acres with roughly 40,000 interments. It was added to the National Register on October 5, 1977, and landscape architect H.W.S. Cleveland redesigned it in 1886. Burials include Ambrose Burnside, Sullivan Ballou (author of the famous Civil War letter), and several governors and senators. H.P. Lovecraft is buried here, and fans visit his grave. The cemetery's reputation as haunted is thin. It is a landscaped garden cemetery, and the pull is the Lovecraft pilgrimage.

Can you visit: Yes, it is a working cemetery open to the public. Respect funerals and family plots, and check the posted hours.

6. Belcourt of Newport (Newport)

Richard Morris Hunt designed this Châteauesque mansion, built from 1891 to 1894 for Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, and its ground floor was given over to stables. The Tinney family bought the run-down house in 1956 and ran it as a museum until 2012, when Carolyn Rafaelian bought it, restored it, and reopened it for tours around 2014. The ghost stories are the family's own. Harle Tinney described waking to see a man in a brown robe walk through a wall, and later renovation revealed an old doorway there. People also tell of screams from a suit of armor. These accounts come from the Tinneys and ghost-lore sites, not independent records.

Can you visit: Yes, as a tour house and event venue, including a candlelit tour option. Check current tour days.

7. White Horse Tavern (Newport)

The building went up before 1673 and is believed to be the oldest tavern building in the United States. Francis Brindley built the original structure in 1652, William Mayes enlarged it into a tavern after 1673, and it received a tavern license in 1687. It took its current name in 1730. It has served as a meeting place for the Rhode Island General Assembly, a courthouse, and a city hall, and the Preservation Society of Newport funded a restoration in 1952. Ghost stories of an unidentified elderly lodger and a crying girl come from travel and ghost-lore sites. They are undated and uncorroborated. The tavern is a National Historic Landmark and remains a restaurant, though confirm that it is open before you go.

Can you visit: Yes, as a restaurant. Confirm current hours and reservations.

8. Fort Adams (Newport)

The fort was established on July 4, 1799, and the stone fort we see now was built from 1824 to 1857. It was an active U.S. Army post until 1950, became a National Historic Landmark in 1976, and was given to Rhode Island in 1965 as Fort Adams State Park. It never fired a shot in anger. Ghost lore speaks of phantom footsteps in the tunnels and soldiers in uniform, along with two violent incidents, one in the 1800s and one in the 1920s. We found those incidents only in paranormal write-ups, with no dated record, so we place them on the legend side. The fort's seasonal Halloween event is theater, not documentation.

Can you visit: Yes. It is a state park, and the Fort Adams Trust runs tours from May to September. Confirm the season.

9. Block Island Southeast Light (New Shoreham)

The brick Gothic Revival tower was built in 1874 and first lit on February 1, 1875, at Mohegan Bluffs. Because of cliff erosion, the 2,000-ton structure was moved about 300 feet back in 1993, and it became a National Historic Landmark in 1997. Now it is a museum run by the Southeast Lighthouse Foundation. The ghost, “Mad Maggie,” is said to be a keeper's wife who was pushed down the stairs in the early 1900s and who now harasses men. A lighthouse historian notes that no newspaper story of the death can be found and no keeper was removed for killing his wife. The woman in the story has no record.

Can you visit: Yes, as a seasonal museum on Block Island, with summer tours. Check the schedule and the ferry.

10. Linden Place (Bristol)

Slave trader and privateer General George DeWolf built this Federal-style mansion in 1810, designed by Russell Warren. The DeWolfs of Bristol became the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history, carrying well over 11,000 Africans between 1769 and 1820. Later residents included Samuel Pomeroy Colt, founder of U.S. Rubber, and actress Ethel Barrymore, who married Russell Colt in 1909. Linden Place was a filming location for the 1974 The Great Gatsby, and it is run as a museum by the Friends of Linden Place. The ghost story is billed as an event: a Halloween séance meant to summon Barrymore. We found no documented hauntings. The real horror is the history of the trade that paid for it.

Can you visit: Yes, as a museum. Check the schedule.

What's Actually Verifiable

Across these haunted places in Rhode Island, the dates, buildings, and families are documented. The ghosts mostly are not. The vampire case in Exeter is real folklore driven by a real disease. Mad Maggie has no newspaper record, the Conjuring House tour contains errors a skeptic could check against genealogy, and several of the best-known “haunted” places here are famous because of Lovecraft and film, not because of any documented haunting.

Visiting Haunted Places in Rhode Island Responsibly

Haunted places in Rhode Island include cemeteries, a state park, a lighthouse reachable by ferry, and private homes. Stay on public property, book official tours, and do not enter closed land or private yards. Trespassing is illegal, and cemeteries are memorials to real people. For a neighboring state, see our guide to haunted places in Connecticut and our list of haunted places in Massachusetts. Fall River's most famous case is covered in our books about Lizzie Borden. For the wider American picture, see our guide to haunted places in the United States and our list of real haunted places you can actually visit on Halloween.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened to Mercy Brown?

Mercy Lena Brown died of tuberculosis in Exeter on January 19, 1892, at age 19. On March 17, 1892, neighbors and a doctor exhumed her body, and her heart was burned and the ashes were given to her ill brother Edwin as a tonic. He died anyway. It is the best-known New England vampire case, and it is documented folklore about disease, not a haunting.

What is the most haunted place in Rhode Island?

There is no objective ranking of haunted places in Rhode Island. The Conjuring House, Belcourt, the White Horse Tavern, and Fort Adams are among the most promoted, and Mercy Brown's grave is the best-documented story. Treat any “most haunted” label as marketing, since the ghosts are unproven and the history is what can be checked.

Is the Conjuring House in Rhode Island real?

The farmhouse is real. It stands in Harrisville, in Burrillville, and the Perron family reported experiences there starting in 1971, which the 2013 film dramatized. A skeptic's visit found tour claims that contradict the genealogical record, and news reports show its ownership and tours have shifted since 2022. Treat it as private property and check current news before assuming any access.

Is Mad Maggie real at Block Island Southeast Light?

The lighthouse is real, and it opened in 1875. The story that a keeper pushed his wife down the stairs in the early 1900s has no support. A lighthouse historian writing about the legend says no newspaper account of the death can be found, and no keeper was removed for killing his wife. People on the island still tell the story, but it is folklore.

Where is H.P. Lovecraft buried?

H.P. Lovecraft is buried at Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, a garden cemetery that opened in 1846. Fans visit his grave, and the cemetery is open to the public during posted hours. The Shunned House on Benefit Street, which inspired his story of the same name, is a private home that you can view only from the sidewalk.

Is it legal to explore abandoned haunted places in Rhode Island?

Not without permission. Entering a closed building or private land without the owner's consent is trespassing, and cemeteries, forts, and state parks have posted hours. The legal ways to see these sites are public visiting hours and official tours, which also give you better history than a flashlight and a dare.