Duval County holds two of Florida's ten most haunted places

With Halloween approaching, two Duval County places rank among Florida's ten most haunted in HauntBound's 2026 index. The index ranks 282 Florida sites by separate published accounts and how far back they go, not by fame or search popularity.

Evergreen Cemetery on North Main Street ranks #5. Established in 1880, it is the city's oldest fully operating cemetery, with more than 80,000 burials. Three separate published accounts describe activity there, the earliest dated to 1940. The Jaxson has noted that all three of its named ghost stories trace to a single article published in October 1999, and Jacksonville Today retold them in its Jax Lore series in 2022.

TacoLu Baja Mexicana ranks #9. Alpha Paynter built the two-story log cabin in 1934 as a boarding house and her home, then ran it as the Homestead Restaurant; she died in 1962, and TacoLu moved in in 2012. Three separate published accounts describe activity there, the earliest dated to 1960. Staff in both restaurants have described a woman near the big limestone fireplace and footsteps upstairs when no one is there, attributed to Paynter watching over the place she built. The popular claim that she is buried behind the building is a later embellishment, The Jaxson and Jacksonville Today found.

Statewide, Keating Hall at Ringling College in Sarasota (exterior viewing only) ranks #1, and Fort East Martello Museum in Key West, home of Robert the Doll and the state's most famous haunted site, misses the top ten.

"We rank by evidence, not legend: independent published accounts, documented history, and how far back the reports go. We don't claim ghosts are real, or that they aren't. We document where the reports concentrate, and we show our work," said Ben Fineman, editor of HauntBound. The ranking shows each site's documented record.

Visiting:Evergreen Cemetery, 4535 North Main St., Jacksonville, is an active cemetery open during posted daylight hours; please visit respectfully.TacoLu Baja Mexicana, 1712 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville Beach, is an operating restaurant.

For media:The full ranking: https://hauntbound.com/most-haunted/florida/The fact sheet, with Jacksonville numbers and cleared images: https://hauntbound.com/press/fact-sheets/florida/Photo: Evergreen Cemetery, on the fact sheet.A short version follows.

HauntBound (hauntbound.com) is a family-friendly field guide to more than 6,000 documented haunted and historic places across the United States, ranked by published evidence rather than legend. No venue pays to be listed or ranked.

Media contact: Ben Fineman, Editor, HauntBound, editor@hauntbound.com

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