Do Ghosts Inhabit These 5 Hamptons Haunts?

Like nearly every town or region with hundreds of years of history, the Hamptons holds many vestiges of the past, including a rich patchwork of stories, centuries-old objects and venerable buildings. But hidden in the shadows and dark corners of those properties, we also have our ghosts, and there seems to be no shortage of them.

I’ve spent many years investigating the paranormal, and these are places I’ve either explored myself or learned enough to know they’re worth looking at.

5 Haunted Hamptons Spots

Murf’s Tavern
64 Division Street, Sag Harbor

Ownership has changed a couple times over the years, but Murf’s resident ghost will likely stay as long as the structure, built in 1792, remains standing. Tom Murphy, the Sag Harbor bar’s original owner, named Adelaide “Addie” King as the spirit responsible and said she got up to all kinds of mischief over the many years he ran the place.

Murphy said the blender once began running while still turned off, she’s flipped chairs, and once turned on the jukebox while he was in the middle of a television interview. According to Murphy, who died in 2010, Addie lived in the home and probably died there. Perhaps the two, former resident and former proprietor, now haunt Murf’s together.

I investigated Murf’s firsthand in October of 2007, but had little to show for it besides one inconclusive voice recording saying “Ahhh yeah” and some stray electromagnetic fields.

Buddhaberry
125 Main Street, Sag Harbor

Another 18^th century building in the former whaling port, the current home of Buddhaberry has quite a storied past. Back in 2009, a former owner of the Greek Revival structure named Ernest Schade spoke to me while I was reporting for The Southampton Press and shared more than 20 years of ghostly goings on, including reports of a floating black phantom, disembodied footsteps, feelings of unease and dread, and even a ghostly face seen looking out the window. Schade spoke of the otherworldly presence as protective, noting it once compelled a tenant to go home in time to stop a fire that was about to cause a serious conflagration.

I was never able to investigate this building.

Old Whalers Church
44 Union Street, Sag Harbor

Built in 1844, this prime example of Greek Revival architecture has a number of creepy stories attached to it, and I’ve also personally experienced some weirdness here. Along with general reports of people feeling uneasy and creeped out here reported, an organist said he saw two faces in his instrument’s mirror when he was practicing alone at night. Construction workers found themselves locked in the building’s guts after an access door closed and locked on them while they were working in the rafters — and no one else was there.

I looked at this door and found it would be next to impossible to do this on its own, and watch and camera batteries both drained at the same time in this exact spot during my own investigation of the church. The camera battery refilled after I left the area, but the watched did not work until I replaced the battery. This place demands further exploration.

Mill Hill Windmill
Stony Brook Southampton Campus

Currently in the midst of a major restoration project that will bring it back from a dilapidated state of disrepair, the more than 300-year-old windmill on the Stony Brook Southampton campus is famously haunted. Built in 1713 and moved to its current spot in 1890, the structure was designated a Literary Landmark because Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tennessee Williams lived there in the summer of 1957 and wrote his experimental one-act play “The Day On Which a Man Dies.”

The windmill is also supposedly home to the spirit of Beatrice Claflin, a young girl who fell down its stairs and broke her neck while using it as a playhouse. Stony Brook Southampton and LIU students have reported seeing her apparition peering out of the windows, and in Ghosts of Long Island, author Kerriann Flanagan Brosky writes of a car breaking down outside the windmill without explanation, and of people recording the sound of grain sliding down the chutes inside, despite it being inoperable for many decades. The restoration work, while positive, will likely stir up the spiritual activity, making it an excellent time to try encountering the ghost of young Beatrice.

I was never able to investigate this building, despite my best efforts.

Rogers Mansion
17 Meeting House Lane, Southampton

Probably the most investigated property on the East End for paranormal phenomena, the Rogers Mansion, which is home to the Southampton Historical Museum, has long been home to strange activity. The earliest reports include sightings of a female apparition — believed to be one of two sisters who were married to Nathaniel Rogers. Workers there have also heard loud footsteps upstairs and people gathering and making noise when the place was actually empty. Since the Historical Museum began hosting regular ghost hunts with a group called Long Island Paranormal Investigators (LIPI), they’ve shared a treasure trove of evidence that can be reviewed at southamptonhistory.org/ghost-evidence.

And while some of the voice recordings are more compelling than others, if one assumes everything was done on the up and up (and I do), their most interesting bit is a recording of a lightbulb shattering on its own in the basement moments after investigators told the spirit, “If you want us to leave, make a loud noise and we’ll leave.” The recording is backed up by a photo of the broken bulb and a second image enveloped in shadow despite being taken immediately after the first.

I lead a large group investigating this building in 2013 and found no evidence during that event. LIPI, which has been around for a long time and has a good reputation, just hosted two Halloween ghost investigations at the site on October 25 and 26. Keep an eye out for future events if you want to join them.