Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainThe north bank of Tonawanda Creek in Batavia, site of the village's first cemetery (1806) relocated after repeated flooding; a 'woman in gray' is said to walk the creekside where remains were reportedly left behind.
West Main Street area (north bank of Tonawanda Creek), Batavia, NY 14020
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free; a public creekside area in the City of Batavia, now occupied by businesses near where the original cemetery stood.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Urban creekside with sidewalks and commercial frontage; some soft, uneven ground near the bank.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1806 · Site of Batavia's first cemetery (1806), relocated in 1823 due to Tonawanda Creek flooding · Connected to the NRHP-listed Batavia Cemetery, which received the relocated remains · Example of an early Western New York flood-driven cemetery relocation
The north bank of Tonawanda Creek in the City of Batavia, Genesee County, was once home to the community's earliest cemetery. Established in 1806, the West Main Street Cemetery — sometimes remembered as the old Pioneer Cemetery — sat directly beside the creek. Tonawanda Creek floods regularly, and over the following years the low-lying burial ground proved a poor choice: high water would periodically erode the banks and, by local accounts, sometimes expose or wash out human remains.
By 1823 the village had established a new burial ground, the Batavia Cemetery, on the eastern edge of the village on higher ground. The Batavia Cemetery is today listed on the National Register of Historic Places and contains many of Batavia's founders. The decedents from the original West Main Street site were relocated there — but persistent local tradition holds that the relocation was incomplete and that some bodies were left behind on the old creekside ground.
In the two centuries since, the former cemetery site has been built over; commercial businesses now occupy the land along the north bank where the graves once lay. The combination of an early, flood-prone burial ground, documented relocation, and the rumor of forgotten graves has anchored a durable piece of Batavia folklore centered on the creekside.
The history of the relocation is well documented in regional genealogical and historical records, while the ghost story attached to the site is carried by local media and folklore.
Sources
According to Batavia folklore documented by regional media and paranormal aggregators, a woman dressed entirely in gray has been seen repeatedly walking along the north bank of Tonawanda Creek, in the area where the old West Main Street (Pioneer) Cemetery once stood before its 1823 relocation.
The legend is tied directly to the site's history: because flooding sometimes washed out graves and because tradition holds that not every body was moved to the new Batavia Cemetery, the woman in gray is interpreted as one of the dead left behind, still lingering near her original resting place. The original Shadowlands submission frames her as a 'mysterious woman in gray walking along the creekside,' a description echoed almost verbatim in later retellings.
No specific person is named in any account, and no apparition has been independently verified. HauntBound presents the cemetery-relocation history as documented fact and the woman in gray as enduring local folklore corroborated across regional media and ghost-lore sources.
Notable Entities
Visit the north bank of Tonawanda Creek where Batavia's first cemetery once stood before flooding forced its relocation. Local lore says a woman in gray walks the bank where some remains were reportedly never moved.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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