Portland has seven documented haunted places in Maine's new index

With Halloween approaching, Portland has seven documented haunted places in HauntBound's 2026 index of Maine's most haunted places, more than any other Maine town, though none rank among the state's ten most haunted. The index ranks 51 Maine sites by separate published accounts and how far back they go, not by fame or search popularity.

At the Wadsworth-Longfellow House, the 1785-86 Federal brick house where Henry Wadsworth Longfellow grew up, Maine Historical Society guides say they hold some belief the house is truly haunted. Staff and visitors describe unexplained footsteps in the empty house at night, most often attributed to Longfellow's sister Anne Longfellow Pierce, who lived there until her death in 1901.

At Rosie's Restaurant & Pub, a commercial building dating to about 1901 in the Old Port, security cameras caught the bar's jukebox turning on by itself at about 4:30 a.m. in January 2022, a phenomenon staff nicknamed the Jukebox from Hell. A separate August 2022 recording showed two chairs and a wall-mounted television fall in the closed, empty restaurant, reported by the Portland Press Herald in 2023.

Also documented in Portland: the McLellan-Sweat Mansion, the 1801 Federal mansion now part of the Portland Museum of Art, where an apparition is attributed to 19th-century shipping magnate Captain Asa Clapp.

Statewide, Fort Knox State Historic Site in Prospect ranks #1 and is also Maine's most famous haunted site.

"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:The Wadsworth-Longfellow House, 489 Congress St., is open seasonally for tours through the Maine Historical Society.Rosie's Restaurant & Pub, 330 Fore St., is an operating restaurant and bar.The McLellan-Sweat Mansion, 111 High St., is open during scheduled Portland Museum of Art tours.

For media:The full ranking: https://hauntbound.com/most-haunted/maine/The fact sheet, with Portland numbers and cleared images: https://hauntbound.com/press/fact-sheets/maine/Venue contact: mainehistory.org and rosies-oldport.com and portlandmuseum.orgA 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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