1870 Gilded Age gambling clubhouse in Congress Park, now the Saratoga Springs History Museum and one of the most reported haunts in upstate New York.
1 East Congress Street, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Museum admission charged; ghost tour tickets sold separately (typically summer and October). Congress Park grounds free to visit.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved park paths around the building; museum interior has elevator access to most floors. Upper-floor ghost-tour stops may include narrow service stairs.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1870 · National Register of Historic Places · Gilded Age Gambling Heritage · Olmsted-Era Congress Park · Walworth Family History
The Canfield Casino sits at the north end of Congress Park, the 17-acre Olmsted-influenced park that gave Saratoga Springs its mineral-water tourism identity. The casino building was completed in 1870 under the direction of John Morrissey, an Irish-born former heavyweight boxing champion and U.S. Congressman who had also opened the Saratoga Race Course in 1863. Morrissey ran the building as the Saratoga Club House, restricted to men and limited to high-stakes games.
Following Morrissey's death in 1878, the casino changed hands several times before Richard Albert Canfield purchased it in 1894. Canfield, a New York gambling-house operator with a reputation for elegance and discretion, renovated the building extensively, added the Italian Gardens, and turned it into one of the most exclusive resorts of the Gilded Age. The casino's clientele included industrialists, politicians, and celebrities of the era.
New York State's anti-gambling reform movement, led locally by Saratoga County District Attorney Charles Sturges Brackett, succeeded in shutting down Canfield's operation in 1907. Canfield retired and in 1911 sold the building and grounds to the City of Saratoga Springs for use as a public park and museum. The Saratoga Springs History Museum was established in the building shortly afterward and has occupied the upper floors ever since.
The building's third floor preserves rooms associated with the Walworth family, whose nineteenth-century history included the 1873 patricide of Mansfield Tracy Walworth by his son Frank, a New York criminal case widely covered in the era's press. Reubena Hyde Walworth, a member of the family who served as a Spanish-American War nurse, died of typhoid fever in 1898 after contracting it while caring for soldiers; she is one of the historical figures most often associated with the building's paranormal lore.
The Canfield Casino is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (as part of the Canfield Casino and Congress Park district) and is a contributing structure to the Saratoga Springs historic district. The building hosts weddings, civic events, and seasonal ghost tours run by the History Museum.
Sources
The Canfield Casino is the flagship paranormal site of Saratoga Springs and one of the most-discussed haunts on the Haunted History Trail of New York State. Multiple staff and visitor accounts collected by the Saratoga Springs History Museum describe a 'lady in a white dress,' often identified as Reubena Hyde Walworth, the Spanish-American War nurse who died of typhoid in 1898 and whose family rooms occupy the third floor.
A second recurring figure, described as a woman in a high-necked green Victorian dress, has been reported in the upstairs women's restroom and adjacent corridors; according to travelthruhistory.com, a green Victorian dress was reportedly found in an attic trunk and the apparition is sometimes referred to as a Civil War widow named Beatrice. The 'Beatrice / Lady in Green' identification is also attached locally to the nearby Olde Bryan Inn, and the two sites' lore overlap in regional ghost-tour narratives.
Reported phenomena include the smell of cigar smoke when no smokers are present, sudden cold drafts and temperature drops, hair-pulling and shoulder-tapping experienced by visitors, and a sense of oppressive pressure on the upper floors. According to a 2007 tour-group account documented in regional reporting, a woman in Victorian dress addressed a question to the group and then vanished.
The casino was investigated by SyFy's Ghost Hunters in 2010 and was ranked #4 on the Travel Channel's America's Most Terrifying Places list in 2019. The Saratoga Springs History Museum runs its own ghost tours each summer (July through August) and again in October, drawing on archival research as well as visitor and staff testimony.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Self-guided visit through three floors of Saratoga history, including the Walworth family rooms on the third floor where many paranormal accounts are concentrated. The original gambling floor and high-stakes private rooms remain largely intact.
Seasonal docent-led tour through the casino's gambling rooms, ballroom, and upper floors, with accounts of staff and visitor experiences. Featured on SyFy's Ghost Hunters in 2010 and on the Travel Channel's America's Most Terrifying Places.
Walk the surrounding 17-acre park designed in part by Frederick Law Olmsted's office, with mineral springs, the Spirit of Life statue, and views of the casino exterior.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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