HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
The 1903 state armory drew SyFy's Ghost Hunters in 2004 over a black-hooded figure and doors that slammed on their own
5 Sycamore Street, New Bedford, MA 02740
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
City-owned building; no public tour program. Exterior is visible from the street. There is no ticketed paranormal access.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Urban sidewalk; flat, paved
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1903 · Early-20th-century state armory architecture · Massachusetts National Guard history · City-owned historic building
The New Bedford Armory was built in 1903 on Sycamore Street to house units of the Massachusetts state militia, later the National Guard. Like the period's other state armories, it pairs an administrative head house with a large open drill hall, a fortress-like brick and stone design meant to project civic authority and to give guard units a space for assembly, training, and the storage of equipment.
The armory served its military function through much of the twentieth century. As the National Guard consolidated facilities, the building's active use wound down and it eventually stood vacant for extended periods, a common fate for the era's urban armories once their original units moved out.
The City of New Bedford took possession of the armory, and discussion of the building has since centered on its preservation and possible reuse. The structure is a prominent piece of the city's early-twentieth-century institutional architecture, and its scale and condition have made its future a recurring local question. The armory is most widely known to a general audience not for its military history but for a 2004 television investigation of its reported hauntings, which is covered in the legends section.
Sources
The armory's reputation comes from accounts attributed to National Guardsmen who used the building. They reported a black-hooded figure lurking in the shadows of the drill hall, heavy interior doors that swung shut on their own, and the feeling of being shoved from behind by something unseen. Those claims drew The Atlantic Paranormal Society, the Rhode Island group known as TAPS, to investigate the armory for SyFy's Ghost Hunters.
The investigation aired as an episode in the show's first season in 2004. The TAPS roster at the time included New Bedford native Steve Gonsalves. According to the network's own episode recap and the show's records, the most-cited moment of the night involved a member of the production crew who said he was struck by his own equipment and knocked down during the investigation.
The episode kept the armory in regional paranormal coverage for years afterward. SouthCoast outlet WBSM revisited the building when the City of New Bedford took ownership, framing it as one of the area's better-known haunted sites largely on the strength of the Ghost Hunters segment. There is no public ghost-tour program at the armory; the building is closed to general visitors, and the site functions as an exterior drive-by for those following its television history.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
The armory is a city-owned building at 5 Sycamore Street with no public tour program. Its brick-and-stone exterior, with crenellated drill-hall walls, is visible from the surrounding streets. There is no ticketed interior access; the site is a drive-by stop for visitors following the building's Ghost Hunters history.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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