An 1860s civic building with century-old underground jail cells where investigators say they have recorded disembodied voices; a stop on the Lackawanna Haunted Trail.
1 N Main St, Carbondale, PA 18407
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to view the building, which is the working seat of Carbondale's city government. The basement and old jail cells are restricted; access is limited to special ghost-hunt events that local groups occasionally host.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Downtown civic building with paved sidewalk approach; the historic jail cells are in a basement reached by stairs.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1860 · Rebuilt 1860 after a fire and expanded 1895 as Carbondale's civic seat · Contains century-old underground jail cells from its years as a combined city hall and lockup · Listed on the Lackawanna County visitors bureau's Haunted Trail
Carbondale grew up around the anthracite coal trade in northeastern Pennsylvania and was an important early mining and railroad center. Its City Hall reflects that 19th-century civic ambition: the building was rebuilt in 1860 after a fire and enlarged in 1895, giving Carbondale a substantial seat of government for a city of its size.
Like many civic buildings of the era, it combined municipal offices with a local lockup, and the basement holds underground jail cells that are now more than a century old. Those cells, and the building's long service as the center of city affairs, are the historical basis for its inclusion on the Lackawanna County tourism office's haunted trail.
The building still functions as Carbondale's City Hall today. Its haunted reputation is documented by the Lackawanna County visitors bureau, which lists it on the Lackawanna Haunted Trail, and by WNEP's regional podcast The Creepy Side of NEPA, which devoted an episode to the building. The verifiable history here is straightforward: a mid-19th-century civic building with old jail cells in active municipal use.
Sources
Carbondale City Hall's reputation centers on its old underground jail. According to the Lackawanna County visitors bureau and WNEP's The Creepy Side of NEPA, people in the building have reported footsteps echoing through empty halls and lights coming on by themselves late at night.
The most-cited claims come from the basement cells, where paranormal groups using audio equipment say they have captured disembodied voices, including short words such as fear and run. Access to the basement is restricted for most of the year; the cells are usually only opened for organized investigations that local ghost-hunting groups periodically host, which is how most of the recordings are said to have been gathered.
The building's place on the Lackawanna Haunted Trail keeps these stories in circulation. The reports are anecdotal and come from investigators and tourism coverage rather than independent verification, and they sit on a genuine 19th-century civic building with a real old lockup rather than an invented backstory.
Media Appearances
View the historic Carbondale City Hall, listed on the Lackawanna Haunted Trail for its century-old underground jail cells, where paranormal investigators report capturing disembodied voices. The building is a working seat of city government; basement access is limited to occasional organized ghost-hunt events.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Jim Thorpe, PA
The Mauch Chunk Museum and Cultural Center occupies a former church on West Broadway in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania (called Mauch Chunk until 1954). It documents Carbon County history, including the Switchback Gravity Railroad and the Molly Maguires, the labor secret society whose members were tried and executed in the county during the 1870s.
Weatherly, PA
Eckley is a preserved anthracite mining company town in Foster Township, Luzerne County, near Hazleton. Coal veins were located here in 1853, and by 1854 the firm of Sharpe, Weiss and Company had leased about 1,500 acres and begun building worker housing. The town, first called Fillmore, was renamed Eckley in 1857. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has owned and operated it as a museum since 1970.
Bethlehem, PA
Moravian College's Comenius Hall was constructed in 1892 on Main Street in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, designed as the complete physical home for the Moravian College and Theological Seminary — classrooms, dormitories, offices, cafeteria, and gymnasium under one roof. The building is named for John Amos Comenius, a 17th-century Moravian bishop who became the philosopher of modern universal education.