Civil War Inn with 135 Bullet Scars and Sixteen Reported Spirits
401 Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325
Age
All Ages (some ghost programs 12+)
Cost
$$
Dining entrees mid-range; ghost walks and Mourning Theatre programs ticketed separately; overnight stays vary by room.
Access
Limited Access
Historic building with stairs; some ground-floor access
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1810 · Battle of Gettysburg · Civil War Field Hospital · Confederate Sharpshooter Position · Gettysburg Historic District
The Farnsworth House began as a two-story log dwelling built around 1810 by John F. McFarlane, a tanner and local civic leader who had purchased a portion of land originally held by the Dobbin family. McFarlane added a brick wing in 1833, a date confirmed by a single inscribed brick discovered during a 1970s restoration.
The building's role in the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 defines its historical importance. During the three-day engagement, Confederate forces occupied the inn and used the upper floors and attic as a sharpshooter position, with the structure also pressed into service as a temporary field hospital. On the third day of the battle, Union soldiers concentrated fire on the building to dislodge the Confederate snipers. The south wall of the property still carries 135 documented bullet holes, one of the most visible surviving examples of structural battle damage in the borough of Gettysburg.
The house was later named for Brigadier General Elon J. Farnsworth, the young Union cavalry officer who led a fatal charge on the final day of the battle. Restored beginning in the 1970s, the property now operates as an inn, restaurant, and tour stop. The Schultz family, longtime operators, maintain it as one of Gettysburg's most-visited civilian Civil War buildings.
Sources
The Farnsworth House is one of the most actively-marketed haunted properties in Gettysburg. The Schultz family, who restored the inn beginning in the 1970s, have catalogued as many as sixteen spirits across the building, each given a name and a recurring set of reported behaviors.
The most frequently described phenomenon involves the attic, the position Confederate sharpshooters occupied during the battle. Staff and overnight guests have reported hearing the sound of a Jew's harp drifting down from the floor above when the attic is verified empty. The story attached to the sound identifies the player as a young soldier who, in the building's lore, did not leave his post.
Other recurring reports include a midwife figure observed near the Sara Black Room, a man carrying a small child wrapped in cloth, and the sound of a soldier singing to a wounded comrade in the cellar. The inn hosts regular ghost walks and the Mourning Theatre, a candle-lit storytelling program that uses the building's actual rooms as performance space.
The property has been featured in segments produced by paranormal-television crews and remains a fixture on Gettysburg's commercial ghost-tour circuit. The Schultz family openly markets the haunted reputation while preserving the building's documented Civil War provenance.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Stay in one of the inn's themed rooms in a building that still bears 135 documented bullet holes from the Battle of Gettysburg. Guests are advised that paranormal reports are part of the property's marketed history; the Schultz family identifies as many as sixteen named spirits across the building.
Period-style dining in a Civil War-era building. The restaurant serves Pennsylvania-Dutch and Civil War-inspired menus inside rooms once used as a Confederate sharpshooter post and field hospital.
Evening ghost walks and the inn's Mourning Theatre programs lead small groups through the building's documented Civil War damage and the attic, where staff and guests have repeatedly reported the sound of a Jew's harp said to be played by a young Confederate soldier.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Eureka Springs, AR
The 1905 Basin Park Hotel is a seven-story limestone hotel in downtown Eureka Springs, Arkansas, built on the site of the Perry House, an 1881 hotel that burned in 1890. The Basin Park's distinctive limestone-cut design, with every floor opening at ground level on its hillside, was featured by Ripley's Believe It or Not.
Eureka Springs, AR
The Crescent Hotel opened in 1886 atop Crescent Mountain in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, as a luxury Ozark resort. In 1937 the property was acquired by Norman Baker, a radio personality and fraudulent cancer healer whose two-year operation produced at least 42 confirmed patient deaths. The hotel reopened as a resort after Baker's 1940 mail-fraud conviction and is now marketed as America's Most Haunted Hotel.
Deadwood, SD
Seth Bullock and Sol Star constructed the Historic Bullock Hotel in 1895 in Deadwood, South Dakota at a cost of $40,000. Bullock, appointed the first Sheriff of Deadwood in 1876 following Wild Bill Hickok's death, built the hotel as a premier hospitality establishment featuring 63 oak and brass-appointed rooms and a 100-seat restaurant serving refined cuisine. The hotel remains continuously operational as Deadwood's most iconic lodging.