The Most Haunted Places in West Virginia

Ranked

1. 

   1. Hill Top House Hotel Harpers Ferry · Haunted Hotel / Inn · Family Comfort: Moderate

   Thomas S. Lovett, a Storer College graduate, opened the Hill Top House Hotel in 1890 above Harpers Ferry as one of the country's largest Black-owned hotels; it hosted Presidents Wilson and Clinton, burned twice by 1919, and closed in 2007; the original building was demolished in 2022, and a new hotel is planned on the site. Visitors reported figures in Civil War-era uniforms moving through the building between 2 and 3 a.m., along with banging pots, laughter, and voices from the kitchen.

   8 original accounts · documented across 4 decades, 1917-2017 · retold in 1 later publication

2. 

   2. West Virginia State Penitentiary Moundsville · Prison / Reformatory · Family Comfort: Low

   The West Virginia State Penitentiary opened in 1876 at Moundsville and, over 119 years, saw 94 executions and 36 inmate homicides, including a 1986 riot that killed three inmates; that year courts ruled its cells unconstitutional, and the prison closed in 1995. The Gothic Revival building now hosts historic tours and paranormal investigations. Investigators report being touched or pushed in isolated corridor cells, and a figure called the Shadow Man, reported by both guards and visitors, is seen in a corridor in North Hall.

   9 original accounts · documented across 3 decades, 1930-2012 · retold in 2 later publications

3. 3. TNT Area / West Virginia Ordnance Works Point Pleasant · Outdoor / Natural Site · Family Comfort: Low

   HauntBound identified five distinct published accounts at this outdoor site, across five kinds of published source. Three later publications retell those accounts.

   5 original accounts · documented across 3 decades, 1966-2020 · retold in 3 later publications

4. 

   4. Miller Hall, Shepherd University Shepherdstown · Other Dark Tourism Site · Family Comfort: Moderate Exterior viewing only

   HauntBound identified four distinct published accounts at this documented site, across three kinds of published source. Reported phenomena include apparitions.

   4 original accounts · documented across 3 decades, 1915-2004

5. 

   5. The Wells Inn Sistersville · Haunted Hotel / Inn · Family Comfort: High

   The Wells Inn opened January 15, 1895 in Sistersville, built by Ephraim Wells, the founder's grandson, to house prospectors during Tyler County's oil boom; Wells kept an office and apartment on the second floor until his death in 1937. Guests and staff report the scratching sound of a pen on paper in his writing rooms, footsteps and doors opening in the corridors, and a door at Room 324 that resisted three attempts before swinging free.

   5 original accounts · documented across 3 decades, 2003-2021 · retold in 4 later publications

6. 6. Silver Run Tunnel Cairo · Outdoor / Natural Site · Family Comfort: Moderate

   HauntBound identified three distinct published accounts at this outdoor site, across five kinds of published source. Three later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include apparitions.

   3 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 1861-1910 · retold in 3 later publications

7. 

   7. Mothman Museum Point Pleasant · Museum / Historical Site · Family Comfort: High

   HauntBound identified three distinct published accounts at this museum site, across six kinds of published source. Three later publications retell those accounts.

   3 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 1966-2005 · retold in 3 later publications

8. 8. Marrtown Parkersburg · Outdoor / Natural Site · Family Comfort: High Exterior viewing only

   Thomas Marr, a Scottish immigrant who settled with his wife Mary in 1836, worked as a night watchman on the Parkersburg toll bridge until he died in February 1876, his body found in the river, cause unresolved. Family tradition holds Marr had seen a grey-robed rider on a white horse near the bridge on nights before his death, and the rider appeared at the home that night, told Mary her husband was dead, then vanished.

   1 original account · documented across 1 decade, 1876-1878 · retold in 3 later publications

9. 

   9. Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum Weston · Asylum / Hospital · Family Comfort: Low

   Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, built in 1858 on the Kirkbride plan for 250 patients, opened in 1864 and by the mid-20th century held about 2,600; the hospital ran a lobotomy program in the 1950s before a class-action suit led courts to close it in 1994, reopening as a tour attraction in 2008. Investigators report unexplained voices and cold spots throughout the overcrowded upper-floor wards, along with isolated pressure sensations that some attribute to the building's history.

   8 original accounts · retold in 4 later publications

10. 

    10. Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park Hillsboro · Battlefield / Military Site · Family Comfort: Moderate

    HauntBound identified three distinct published accounts at this military site, across four kinds of published source. Three later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include apparitions and disembodied voices.

    3 original accounts · documented in 1920 · retold in 3 later publications

Superlatives

Most documented counts published accounts. The ranking also weighs how many decades those accounts span and how independent they are, so the place with the most accounts is not always the place ranked first.