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The Clown Motel’s “IT” room.
murder

The Best Haunted Hotels to Book for a Spooky Getaway

From an inn with secret cellars to a clown motel next to a graveyard, these 12 hotels don’t just have history — they have houseguests who never checked out.
Holyn Thigpen September 30, 2026
Lilly, Pennsylvania

Cresson Sanatorium and Prison

This sanitorium-turned-asylum-turned-prison is now abandoned and a hotspot for enjoyers of the paranormal.
Seacliff, New Zealand

Seacliff Asylum Ruins

The remains of a notorious mental institution that became known for its structural design failures and experiments carried out on patients.
Taunton, Massachusetts

Taunton State Hospital

This historic psychiatric hospital is haunted by its chilling past.
Monticello, Iowa

Edinburgh Manor

Spend the night in this former asylum for the incurably insane, which claims to be one of the most haunted places in the United States.
cemeteries

Porcelain Gallbladder Found in Human Remains in Mississippi Asylum Cemetery

A rare secret was taken to the grave in an unmarked, 100-year-old burial ground.
Hannah Seo April 24, 2024
A bronze fast of a female face atop a pedestal with a lighthouse in the background
New York, New York

Girl Puzzle Monument

An art installation commemorates journalist Nellie Bly's undercover reporting inside a New York asylum.
Visitors may catch a glimpse of themselves in the installation's mirrored spheres (shown here in an early rendering).
insane asylums

A New Monument Celebrates Nellie Bly's Undercover Reporting, Right Where It Happened

The Roosevelt Island artwork pays homage to her reporting, especially her inside look at a city asylum.
Jessica Leigh Hester March 23, 2022
The primary tunnel.
Traverse City, Michigan

Tunnels of Traverse City State Hospital

A subterranean world of tunnels links several buildings of this rare 19th-century asylum.
Batavia Depot Museum
Batavia, Illinois

Batavia Depot Museum

An exhibit of items from the mental institution where Mary Todd Lincoln lived after her son conspired to have her committed.
Permanently Closed
The abandoned London Psychiatric Hospital.
London, Ontario

London Psychiatric Hospital

Clusters of abandoned buildings hint at the facility's 144-year history with psychiatric health.
An abandoned building once used by the Säter psychiatric hospital.
Säter, Sweden

Säter Museum of Mental Health

A museum dedicated to the history of psychiatric treatment featuring a gallery of art made by patients.
The St. Elizabeths center building on August 2006.
Washington, D.C.

St. Elizabeths Hospital

Government testing at the asylum briefly explored using marijuana as a "truth serum" on Nazi prisoners of war.
Permanently Closed
Crownsville State Hospital
Crownsville, Maryland

Crownsville Hospital Center

This former asylum for Black Americans is haunted by its history of violence and racism.
Permanently Closed
Maidstone, England

Kent County Lunatic Asylum (Oakwood Hospital)

This former abandoned hospital, a complex of stunning 19th century buildings, once housed 2,000 psychiatric patients.
Permanently Closed
DeJarnette Sanitarium.
Staunton, Virginia

Abandoned DeJarnette Sanitarium

A former mental hospital founded in the 1930s by a eugenicist who advocated for the forced sterilization of patients.
An ornate door
Wingdale, New York

Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center

An abandoned asylum once on the cutting edge of lobotomies may be reborn as a Christian college.
Permanently Closed
Peeling paint inside The Maples.
Ovid, New York

Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane

An abandoned asylum where patients have been forgotten but their possessions remain.