HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
Philly Ghosts: Old City's Founding-Era Hauntings, an extended Late-Night Tour upgrade option, and a Pub Crawl
Washington Square Park, near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, 227 W Washington Square, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages for The Phantom Penance of Philadelphia Ghost Tour; 21+ for Philly Boos and Booze Haunted Pub Crawl
Cost
$$
The Phantom Penance of Philadelphia Ghost Tour $26; Philly Boos and Booze Haunted Pub Crawl $29.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved Old City sidewalks in Philadelphia, meeting at Washington Square Park.
Equipment
Photos OK
Independence National Historical Park · Washington Square (Philadelphia)
US Ghost Adventures runs its Philadelphia program under the brand Philly Ghosts, meeting nightly at Washington Square Park, one of the city's five original William Penn-planned squares and a documented mass burial site for Revolutionary War soldiers and yellow fever victims. The roughly 1-hour walking tour covers Old City Philadelphia, the city's colonial-era core near Independence Hall.
The operator's marketing frames Philadelphia's role as the nation's capital during the Revolutionary and early Federal periods, and its founding fathers' documented presence in the city, as backdrop for the reported hauntings covered on the tour route.
Sources
The operator's route narrative describes the Bishop White House, built in 1787 and once used as a church, as unsettling after dark, without detailing a specific incident. Old St. Joseph's Church, described by the operator as the oldest Roman Catholic parish in the United States, and St. Mary's Church & Cemetery, are both presented as sites with reported paranormal activity tied to their burial grounds.
The operator's narrative also describes Independence Hall as a site where the ghost of Benjamin Franklin is reportedly seen reviewing the Declaration of Independence, accompanied by an unexplained musty odor, and where the spirit of Benedict Arnold is said to remain, framed by the operator as forced to share the building with Franklin in death.
All of this is the tour operator's own marketing and narrative material, not documented history verified independently for this listing; it is included here as a description of what the tour covers, not as an endorsement of any specific claim.
A 1-hour walking tour meeting at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Covers Old City landmarks including the Bishop White House, Old St. Joseph's Church, and St. Mary's Church & Cemetery. Runs nightly at 7PM, 8PM or 9PM, rain or shine.
The operator's page no longer lists this as a separate named tour; it currently describes only an unspecified extended-tour upgrade option. Ask about current options when booking.
A two-hour, one-mile pub crawl through Old City Philadelphia's historic bars, paired with ghost stories, meeting at Independence Beer Garden at 7PM.
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Featured stop; built in 1787, operator's marketing frames the house as growing unsettling after dark.
Featured stop, described by the operator as the oldest Roman Catholic church in Philadelphia; no independent corpus match found.
Featured stop in Philadelphia's Old City; no independent corpus match found (a same-named 'Cooney's Grave, St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery' entry exists in the corpus but is located in St. Marys, PA, a different town, and is not this stop).
Referenced in the operator's route narrative in connection with reported apparitions of Benjamin Franklin and Benedict Arnold.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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