A HauntBound editor's pick
Family-friendly
haunted attractions.
Twelve haunted destinations rated for kids — across hotels, theaters, museums, and historical sites. Every venue here scores 2 or below on gore (out of 5) and 2 or below on jump scares. Atmospheric over alarming. Real history, real ghosts, no nightmares.
Updated May 19, 2026 12 of 878 family-safe venues in the catalog
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- Photo coming soon01Haunted Hotel / Inn
Hannibal, MO
Garth Woodside Mansion
Second Empire Victorian estate built 1871 by Mark Twain's childhood friend John Garth; Twain stayed in what is now the Samuel Clemens room, and guests still report pipe-smoke phantoms there.
Garth Woodside Mansion is a Second Empire Victorian country estate completed in 1871 by Colonel John H. Garth and his wife Helen Kercheval Garth, both childhood schoolmates of Samuel Clemens. Twain stayed at Woodside on his return visits to Hannibal, including a documented 1882 trip up the Mississippi on the steamer Baton Rouge. The property has operated as a bed and breakfast since 1987.
Gore 1/5 Jump scares 1/5 Cost $$$ Age All AgesFamily notes: Upscale Victorian B&B suitable for all ages, though atmosphere and dining lean adult.
Full venue page, history, and family notes →Garth Woodside Mansion Bed and Breakfast
Overnight stays in the 1871 Garth family mansion, including the Samuel Clemens room where Mark Twain reportedly slept during return visits to Hannibal. Three private cottages on the 36-acre grounds also available.
Plan a visit → - Photo coming soon02Haunted Hotel / Inn
Vicksburg, MS
Stained Glass Manor / Oak Hall Bed & Breakfast
Mission Revival mansion completed c.1908-1910 with 32 custom stained-glass windows and Louis Millet art-glass fixtures; current operators downplay haunting reports while regional listings detail Fannie Willis Johnson lore.
The Fannie Vick Willis Johnson Home at 2430 Drummond Street in Vicksburg is a Mission Revival mansion built between 1902 and 1908-1910 (sources vary on the completion date) for philanthropist Fannie Willis Johnson. Designed by New Orleans architects Keenan & Weiss and supervised by local architect William Stanton, the house contains 32 custom stained-glass windows and original Louis Millet art-glass fixtures. It now operates as Oak Hall Bed & Breakfast.
Gore 1/5 Jump scares 1/5 Cost $$ Age All AgesFamily notes: Stained-glass and architectural focus makes this an unusually family-friendly historic stop.
Full venue page, history, and family notes →Overnight Stay at Oak Hall
Stay overnight in the early 20th-century Mission Revival mansion, with 32 original custom stained-glass windows and Louis Millet art-glass fixtures throughout the principal rooms.
Plan a visit → - Photo coming soon03Museum / Historical Site
Syracuse, NY
Erie Canal Museum
The 1850 Syracuse Weighlock Building — the last surviving Erie Canal weighlock in the country — where docents report transparent children playing in the courtyard and footsteps tromping through 175-year-old halls.
The Erie Canal Museum occupies the 1850 Syracuse Weighlock Building, the last surviving structure of its kind in the United States. The building served as a working weighlock — essentially a giant scale for canal boats determining toll fees — from 1850 until weighing was discontinued in 1883. The museum was founded as a private non-profit in 1962, and the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
Gore 1/5 Jump scares 1/5 Cost $ Age All Ages ♿ AccessibleFamily notes: Family-friendly historical museum. Paranormal lore is documented through docent stories and tourism programming rather than presented as a frightening attraction.
Full venue page, history, and family notes →Erie Canal Museum Self-Guided Visit
Walk through the only surviving Erie Canal weighlock building in the United States. Exhibits include the full-size Frank Buchanan Thomson line-boat replica installed in the original weighlock chamber, the toll office, and rotating exhibits on canal history and the people who l…
Plan a visit → -
04Haunted Hotel / InnKerrville, TX
Y.O. Ranch Hotel
Hill Country Hotel Tied to a 600,000-Acre Ranch Empire
The Y.O. Ranch Hotel in Kerrville, Texas, takes its name from the historic Y.O. Ranch founded in 1880 by Charles Schreiner. The hotel offers 190 rooms with Hill Country and Old West design and houses the Y.O. Ranch Steakhouse. Although the hotel itself is a relatively recent build, it serves as a public expression of the Schreiner cattle and conservation legacy.
Gore 1/5 Jump scares 1/5 Cost $$$ Age All Ages ♿ AccessibleFamily notes: A family-friendly conference and resort hotel with no horror programming. The haunted reputation rests on guest anecdotes rather than organized investigation events.
Full venue page, history, and family notes →Overnight Stay at the Y.O. Ranch Hotel
Stay in one of 190 western-themed rooms with rich wood finishes and Saltillo tile floors. The hotel takes its name from the historic Y.O. Ranch in nearby Mountain Home and houses the Y.O. Ranch Steakhouse, a restaurant inspired by the Schreiner family's longhorn legacy.
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05Haunted House / Historic HomeRugby, TN
Kingstone Lisle
The Snoring Ghost of Rugby's Founder
Kingstone Lisle is the 1884 Carpenter Gothic cottage Thomas Hughes built at Historic Rugby, his utopian colony on the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee. Hughes — British author of Tom Brown's School Days — founded Rugby in 1880 as a settlement for England's landed gentry's younger sons. He intended the cottage for his mother, though she rarely visited.
Gore 1/5 Jump scares 1/5 Cost $ Age All AgesFamily notes: Historic Rugby is an outstanding family destination. The walking tour is calm and educational. Evening ghost tours add mild atmosphere but nothing frightening. The village setting and free hiking trails make for a full day out.
Full venue page, history, and family notes →Historic Village Walking Tour
$10/adult
A 90-minute guided walking tour departs from the Rugby Visitor Centre and includes Kingstone Lisle — the 1884 Carpenter Gothic cottage Thomas Hughes built for his mother — along with the 1882 Thomas Hughes Free Public Library, Christ Church Episcopal, and the 1907 Schoolhouse.…
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06Theater / Performance VenueEnid, OK
Briggs Auditorium
College auditorium haunted by balcony apparition
Briggs Auditorium was built in 1957-58 at what was then Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma, and is named for longtime Phillips president Eugene S. Briggs. The campus was acquired by Northern Oklahoma College in 1999 after Phillips's 1998 bankruptcy.
Gore 1/5 Jump scares 1/5 Cost $ Age All Ages ♿ AccessibleFamily notes: Briggs Auditorium is an active venue on a college campus. The haunting consists of a single apparition sighting in the balcony—mild and non-threatening. Appropriate for families attending performances.
Full venue page, history, and family notes →Campus and Auditorium Tour
Tour the Northern Oklahoma College campus and the historic Briggs Auditorium, constructed in 1957-58. The auditorium is a significant architectural and cultural landmark on campus. Visitors may encounter reports of a male apparition manifesting in the balcony area.
Plan a visit → - Photo coming soon07Museum / Historical Site
Providence, RI
Old State House (Providence Colony House)
Georgian-era brick colonial statehouse at 150 Benefit Street, completed 1762 and the site of Rhode Island's May 4, 1776 renunciation of allegiance to King George III — the first colony to formally declare independence.
The Old State House at 150 Benefit Street is a Georgian-era brick colonial statehouse completed in 1762 to replace a 1732 building destroyed by fire. It was one of five Rhode Island colonial statehouses that hosted the rotating colonial legislature. On May 4, 1776, the General Assembly meeting here renounced allegiance to King George III, making Rhode Island the first colony to declare independence — two months before the Declaration of Independence.
Gore 1/5 Jump scares 1/5 Cost $ Age All Ages ♿ AccessibleFamily notes: Family-friendly colonial museum with significant Revolutionary War history. Ghost-tour content references a wrongful execution tradition — preview before sharing with younger children.
Full venue page, history, and family notes →Self-Guided Visit — Colonial Statehouse
Visit the recently renovated Old State House during posted public hours. Interpretive material covers Rhode Island's 1776 declaration of independence and the building's role across colonial and early-state government.
Plan a visit → - Photo coming soon08Theater / Performance Venue
Austin, TX
Austin Scottish Rite Theater
Austin's oldest theater, built in 1871 as a German opera house, with 19th-century painted backdrops and a working counterweight flying system that paranormal investigators visit each fall.
The Austin Scottish Rite Theater at 18th and Lavaca was erected in 1871, the year Austin became the permanent capital of Texas, as a German opera house, biergarten, and gymnastics hall for a local German social organization. It functioned as a German opera house for roughly 40 years before the Scottish Rite Masons purchased the property in 1910 and have remained tenants since. It is Austin's oldest standing theater.
Gore 1/5 Jump scares 1/5 Cost $$ Age All Ages ♿ AccessibleFamily notes: The theater's primary identity is its Scottish Rite Children's Theatre programming, which is appropriate for younger audiences. The ghost-investigation program is for older children and adults.
Full venue page, history, and family notes →Scottish Rite Children's and Community Theatre Performance
Attend a Scottish Rite Children's Theatre or community production in the original 1871 hall, with its century-plus painted backdrops by Sosman & Landis and a fully operable nineteenth-century Brown's Special Counterweighted flying system.
Plan a visit → - Photo coming soon09Haunted House / Historic Home
Anchorage, AK
Oscar Anderson House Museum
Anchorage's only historic house museum — the 1915 home of Swedish-born pioneer Oscar Anderson, said to be haunted by the man who lived here for nearly sixty years.
The Oscar Anderson House was built in 1915 by Swedish-born pioneer Oscar Anderson, who said he was the 18th person to arrive at the Ship Creek tent city that became Anchorage. It is the first wood-frame house in Anchorage. Anderson lived here until his death in 1974, after which the structure was restored and opened as a historic house museum.
Gore 1/5 Jump scares 1/5 Cost $ Age All AgesFamily notes: A small, gentle house museum focused on early-Anchorage history. Ghost stories are about a former resident said to remain attached to his home — appropriate for families with curious kids. Stairs and tight spaces limit accessibility.
Full venue page, history, and family notes →Self-Guided House Museum Tour
Tour the restored 1915 home of pioneer Oscar Anderson, restored to its original appearance between 1978 and 1982 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Docents share Anderson family history and, when asked, the well-known visitor reports of unexplained footste…
Plan a visit → - Photo coming soon10Museum / Historical Site
Wilmington, NC
Wilmington Railroad Museum
An 1883 warehouse housing the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad history museum since 1979, with TikTok-circuit paranormal claims and seasonal 'Ghosts of the Railroad' programming featuring costumed storytellers.
The Wilmington Railroad Museum at 505 Nutt Street in Wilmington, North Carolina has operated since 1979 in a late-1800s warehouse preserving the history of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, headquartered in Wilmington from 1840 until its move to Jacksonville in 1960. The building is part of Wilmington's broader downtown waterfront railroad heritage corridor.
Gore 1/5 Jump scares 1/5 Cost $ Age All Ages ♿ AccessibleFamily notes: Daytime museum is family-friendly and a strong stop for children interested in trains. 'Ghosts of the Railroad' seasonal program is atmospheric storytelling and appropriate for older school-age children.
Full venue page, history, and family notes →Ghosts of the Railroad (Seasonal)
Seasonal paranormal-themed evening program at the museum featuring costumed railroad-worker storytellers narrating reported paranormal incidents at the building and along the historic ACL rail corridor. Schedule varies year to year — confirm with the museum and Wilmington Down…
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11Theater / Performance VenueTampa, FL
Tampa Theatre
The 1926 Atmospheric Movie Palace Where Fink Never Left the Projection Booth
Tampa Theatre opened on October 15, 1926, designed by atmospheric theater architect John Eberson. The interior simulates an outdoor Mediterranean courtyard under a night sky — a technique Eberson called 'atmospheric' design. The theater operated as a first-run cinema for decades, fell into decline in the 1970s, and was saved from demolition by a community preservation campaign. It is now operated by the City of Tampa as a film, event, and performance venue and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Gore 1/5 Jump scares 2/5 Cost $$ Age All Ages (ghost tours and paranormal investigations may vary) ♿ AccessibleFamily notes: Tampa Theatre is a beloved community institution suitable for all ages. Ghost tours are atmospheric rather than frightening. The haunted lore centers on a well-liked former employee; no violent or disturbing histories. An excellent entry point for families new to dark tourism.
Full venue page, history, and family notes →Tampa Theatre Ghost Tour
$15/person
A guided after-hours tour of the theater focused on the documented haunting accounts, centered on Foster 'Fink' Finley, the projectionist who worked at Tampa Theatre for decades and died of a heart attack in the projection booth in 1965. Guides cover the history of the buildin…
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12Battlefield / Military SiteBoston, MA
Fort Warren
Civil War prison on Georges Island and the Lady in Black legend
Fort Warren is a granite pentagonal coastal fort on Georges Island in Boston Harbor, designed by Colonel Sylvanus Thayer and built between 1833 and 1861. During the Civil War it served as a training facility for Massachusetts regiments and a prison for Confederate soldiers and civilian officials. The fort was decommissioned in 1947 and is now part of the Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park.
Gore 1/5 Jump scares 1/5 Cost $$ Age All Ages ♿ AccessibleFamily notes: An accessible, well-interpreted historic site appropriate for all ages. Some interior corridors are dim and uneven; bring sturdy shoes.
Full venue page, history, and family notes →Ranger-Led Fort Tour
Free with ferry admission
Free guided tour of Fort Warren with a National Park Service ranger after the ferry crossing to Georges Island. Tours cover the granite pentagonal fort's 1833-1861 construction, its Civil War service as a Union training camp and prison for Confederate officers and civilian off…
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If your kids are older
This guide is calibrated for school-age kids. If your teenagers can handle more, the Moderate family-fit filter opens up another 200+ venues — including the ones with hosted ghost hunts and overnight investigations that often have a 13+ minimum.
For toddlers, stick to outdoor and museum sites — the historical museum filter is the right starting point.
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