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Spooky season is upon us, bibliophiles! Even for the most low key bookworm there are a plethora of spooky literary destinations to visit all over the country. Here are five of the best.

5 Super Spooky Literary Destinations to Visit for Halloween

Old Dutch Church and Burial Ground
Sleepy Hollow, New York

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is one of the earliest American fiction stories to gain popularity through the years and generations after its publishing in 1820. Despite writing the short story while he was living in Birmingham, England, American writer, Washington Irving, set the tale in the small hamlet of Sleepy Hollow, deep within the countryside of the larger Dutch settlement known as Tarry Town (presently Tarrytown, New York). 

The story, set in 1790, centers on the experiences of Ichabod Crane, a lanky school teacher from Connecticut who is staying in Sleepy Hollow. Crane is superstitious and heavily believes in witchcraft. He endures a rivalry with local hero Abraham “Brom Bones” Van Brunt and each of the men compete for the love of Katrina Van Tassel. 

At the end of the story, Crane meets the Headless Horseman after fleeing a party where he failed to secure Katrina’s hand in marriage. Crane dashes to a bridge adjacent to the Old Dutch Burial Ground where it is said that the horseman will vanish before making it across the bridge. Does Ichabod Crane make it?

The Old Dutch Reformed Church of Sleepy Hollow is a 17th century Dutch colonial church located in Sleepy Hollow. While it’s now only used on special occasions and some summer worship services, you’re still able to visit its exterior on the south side of adjacent Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. 

The church has its own burial ground that includes the remains of Catriena Ecker Van Tassel and her husband (a Revolutionary War hero) who was a possible inspiration for Katrina Van Tassel in the story.

The adjacent Sleepy Hollow Cemetery to the north of the church really has nothing to do with the Legend of Sleepy Hollow story since it was created nearly 30 years after the story was published but it’s a beautiful place for a quiet walk and contains the notable gravesites of Washington, Irving, steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie, oil titan William Rockefeller, and more. The cemetery even offers daytime and lantern-lit evening guided walking tours. 

Head south of the cemetery and Old Dutch Church to cross over the Headless Horseman Bridge (on Broadway) and continue south to see the Headless Horseman statue situated on a boulevard between Broadway and Old Broadway. 

Edgar Allen Poe
Baltimore, MD

Born in Massachusetts, Edgar Allen Poe loved Richmond and told people that he was a Virginia man. His later years were mostly spent in a cottage in the Bronx, New York. But it was Baltimore where he spent what could have been the most formidable two years of his life. 

It is where he married his wife (his 13 year old cousin, Virginia Clemm) and the place where his writing career took off in 1833 after winning the top $50 prize for “MS. Found in a Bottle” that he submitted to a short story contest hosted by the Baltimore Saturday Review. Poe won second place as well with his poem “The Coliseum.” 

The poem, “The Raven”, which shot Poe to success is still honored as the namesake for the city’s NFL team, the Baltimore Ravens. There are drinking and eating establishments throughout the city that Honor Poe such as Telltale Restaurant and Apropoe’s. 

Visit Poe’s home, now a museum, where he lived for a few years with his aunt turned mother-in-law, her ailing mother, his cousin/future wife, Virginia, and possibly her older brother. At the time, Poe’s house was in the countryside on the western end of Baltimore.

The Poe house is open from Wednesday to Sunday from 11am-4pm. Tickets are $10 for adults and are required. It is located at 203 N. Amity Street, Baltimore, MD 21223.

Afterward, head over to what is considered the city’s oldest bar, The Horse You Came in On, which opened in 1775. Today, it’s dark and divey with daily live music. It’s known to be one of the last places Poe visited before his mysterious death in 1849 at the age of 40. The Horse You Came in On is located at 1626 Thames Street, Baltimore, MD 21231.

Then pay your respects to the master wordsmith at his final resting places. Yes, plural. They’re both in the burial ground (there are catacombs underneath!) of Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Baltimore. His original grave, topped with a raven and the words “Quoth the Raven Nevermore” is down a footpath at the farthest point of the cemetery. 

As Poe gained popularity posthumously, his body was moved to a more prominent white marble mausoleum right inside the burial ground’s gates. Westminster Presbyterian Church is located at 515 W. Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD 21201.

Stephen King
Bangor, Maine

A Maine native, Stephen King has chosen to live in his home state for most of his life. The 76 year old and king of the horror genre purchased a historical 1858 Victorian house in 1980 for approximately $135,000. He then installed a wrought-iron fence featuring bats and spider webs, ensuring that fans of his work would very easily be able to spot his home on a quiet residential street just outside of downtown Bangor. 

While the King’s now spend most of their days in Florida, his Bangor home still draws a crowd. Eventually, the house at 47 West Broadway will become King’s archives though he’s been very vocal about not opening it to the public. 

There are other spots you should see in Bangor that were inspirations to King. Mount Hope Cemetery (1048 State Street) was the filming location for 1989’s supernatural film Pet Sematary, based on his 1983 novel of the same name. Mount Hope Cemetery is located at 1048 State Street, Bangor, ME 04401.

The Thomas Hill Standpipe over on Thomas Hill Road was the inspiration for the haunted water tower in King’s 1986 thriller It. The tower was built in 1897 and still offers a few guided tours to the top each year. It’s said that King wrote much of the novel while sitting on a bench in the small greenspace at the bottom of the tower. 

While we’re still discussing It, just down the street from the Standpipe, at the corner of Jackson and Union Streets, there is a sewer drain that was the inspiration for one of the beginning scenes in the story. It’s where the evil clown, Pennywise, beckons over an innocent Georgie Denbrough and subsequently rips off his arm. Tread carefully!

Ghost Tours at The Mount
Lennox, MA

Edith Wharton may not come to mind when thinking of spooky ghost stories but she does it quite well with a collection of eerie tales in The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton–a collection of short stories written from 1904-1937 (the year of her death). 

Wharton’s Berkshire country home, The Mount, was something she designed and lived in with her husband from 1902-1911. After the Whartons left the property, the house was a private residence for a time before it became a dormitory as part of the Foxhollow School for Girls in the 1940s. When they vacated the property, it sat empty for years until a Shakespearean theater company took it over as a dormitory and performance space. 

Both the girls’ school and the theater company claimed to have heard unexplained noises, experiences, and seeing figures in period dress while they were living there. The Mount hosts guided ghost tours through the darkened halls of the home beginning in July. Tickets for this adult tour (children under 12 not allowed) are available for $25 and sell out quickly.

For children, check out their kid friendly ghost tours occurring on Friday evenings in September and October. These tours are designed for adult accompanied children ages 6-12 and tickets are $10.

The Mount is located at 2 Plunkett Street, Lennox, MA 01240.

The House of Seven Gables
Salem, MA

Hawthorne, who’s great-great-grandfather, John Hathorne, was a judge who presided over the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, always felt a great sense of guilt for his family’s legacy. After the Witch Trials ended, John Hathorne lost most of his fortune and his reputation, as grieving families of those hanged sought justice. It’s said that Hathorne’s downfall began after a curse was put on his family for his role in the trials. 

Generations later, that sense of foreboding and guilt clung on to Nathaniel who even added a “w” to his surname as a way to distance himself from his family’s baggage. It was often evident in his writing as we see in The House of Seven Gables. The real house in Salem was used as the setting for Hawthorne’s 1851 novel. 

In it, the Pyncheon family has been in the center of the witch trials with the head of the family serving as a judge. The judge wants the land of his neighbor, Thomas Maule, and has devised a plan to convict him of witchcraft in order to get it. 

As Thomas Maule spends his last moments on earth at the gallows he curses the Pyncheon family with the words: “God will give you blood to drink and quench your greed for eternity.” Judge Pynchon ignores Maule, who’s then executed, and pushes forward building a mansion that appears very similar to the real life house of seven gables. 

But at dinner on the first evening in the new home the judge dies…by choking on his own blood. 

The House of Seven Gables is located at 115 Derby Street, Salem, MA 01970. Tours of the house are offered daily from 10am-6:30pm. Advance tickets are required, prices vary.

Have you been to these spooky literary destinations? Let us know in the comments!