1864 Victorian Home with Long-Circulated Internet Lore
Midland Park, NJ
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Private residence — no admission, no public access.
Access
Limited Access
Public sidewalk only; private property otherwise
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1864 · Victorian Residential Architecture · Subject of Regional Folklore
The Crayhay Mansion is a Victorian-era home built in 1864 in Midland Park, a small Bergen County borough roughly twenty miles from Manhattan. The Crayhay family lived in the house from 1906 to 1934, and that occupancy supplied the name still used in regional folklore and real-estate coverage.
The home returned to public attention in 2014 when it was listed for sale. Coverage of that listing in the Ridgewood Blog and the National Paranormal Association's clearinghouse referenced the long-running urban myth attached to the property. The sellers were reported to have known about the lore when they moved in, and the listing surfaced in regional discussions of how haunted reputations affect home sales.
Midland Park itself was incorporated as a borough in 1894 from portions of the surrounding townships. The community remains predominantly residential, and the Crayhay Mansion sits within that residential fabric. There is no public museum program, tour, or commercial paranormal access associated with the property.
Sources
Lore attached to the Crayhay Mansion has spread primarily through regional blogs and paranormal-listing sites. The accounts describe apparitions said to include a former owner and a ghost cat, with informal reports stretching back through several ownership changes.
Coverage by the Ridgewood Blog and the National Paranormal Association notes the persistence of the rumors but emphasizes their unverifiable origin. Neither previous nor current owners have spoken publicly about the experiences, and no paranormal-investigation team appears to have published documented findings on the property.
Because the home is an occupied private residence, the lore should be approached as folklore — interesting as a piece of Bergen County real-estate culture, not as documented case history.
Notable Entities
View the Victorian residence from the public road. The Crayhay Mansion is a private home; do not enter the property or approach the structure. Be respectful of the residents and neighbors.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Redlands, CA
Morey Mansion is an 1890 Queen Anne house in Redlands, California, built by retired shipbuilder David Morey and his wife Sarah from profits of their citrus nursery. The 4,800-square-foot, twenty-room residence was designed by Jerome Seymour and incorporates carved nautical motifs. Returned to private ownership in 2010, it operates today as a single-family residence.
San Francisco, CA
The Westerfeld House is an 1889 Stick-style Victorian at 1198 Fulton Street, built by German-born confectioner William Westerfeld. The 28-room mansion served as the Russian consulate in the 1920s, was occupied by underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger and Bobby Beausoleil in 1966-67, and is a designated San Francisco Landmark and National Register property.
Lexington, KY
The Maria Dudley House was built in 1879 by Maria B. Dudley on what had previously been the side yard of the Hunt-Morgan House, in Lexington's Gratz Park Historic District. Designed by architect Phelix Lundin in a starkly Victorian style, the castle-like townhouse stands out among the predominantly Federal and Greek Revival buildings of the surrounding park. It remains a private residence today.