Laurel Hill Cemetery
Founded in 1836 above the Schuylkill River, Laurel Hill is a National Historic Landmark and one of America's first architecturally designed 'rural' cemeteries, holding tens of thousands of burials beneath thousands of monuments. Its scale and Victorian melancholy have made it a perennial target of paranormal investigators and the host of its own ghost tours. The most retold story is Martha Drinnan, daughter of the cemetery's first superintendent, who in November 1903 walked toward the nearby train station and vanished, later found dead; visitors report wailing heard near her grave. Another account centers on a man who died of a self-inflicted gunshot at his family plot, with phantom gunshots reportedly echoing through the grounds with no source. General George Meade and many Civil War figures lie here, and paranormal teams using ghost-hunting equipment have logged EVPs, cold spots and unexplained activity across the winding paths.
📍 3822 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19132, Philadelphia, PA · Get directions