Schenectady's Haunted Past: Victorian Spectres in the Stockade

This post was written by SCHS's Assistant Curator Kaitlin Morton-Bentley

As Halloween draws near, it is the time of year to think about haunted houses and ghost stories. The Stockade neighborhood is over 350 years old and has seen its share of characters come and go. Our Candlelight Walking Tours held every Friday in October explore these stories, some which have been written down decades ago by folklore enthusiasts and some which were told to us firsthand. 

Undated photograph of Green, Front, and Ferry Street.
Courtesy of the Grems-Doolittle Photograph Collection

New for this year is our Victorian Candlelight Tour. Victorian culture was passionate about death and mourning. The nation experienced an unprecedented loss of young life during the Civil War, leaving families looking for ways to recognize the passing of their loved ones. Elaborate mourning rituals developed, including dressing in black for months or years and withdrawing from society. A woman in mourning might write on stationary edged in black or wear jewelry made from the woven hair of a deceased loved one. Victorians embraced death and mourning, and it is no surprise that some of our best stories come from that time period, including three stories about ghosts near Green Street.


There is a story about a little boy ghost in a Green Street apartment, perhaps the young son of one of the servants who lived in the Ellis brothers’ mansion. The boy may have lived in a small servants quarters building just behind the mansion and would have run back and forth between the two.  He is dressed in brown pants and jacket with a white shirt and is known to be mischievous by throwing candlesticks and other small objects in the present day apartments. The woman who lives in this apartment has reported several encounters with this boy ghost. At night she felt a hand touching a sore spot on her spine, making the pain go away, but when she woke up there was no one there. She once saw a candle wiggle out of its holder by itself and fly across the room to hit the wall. She believes the young ghost wants attention, so if she talks to him, he does not cause as much mischief. When she loses items she asks the ghost to put them back before she starts searching, and they usually return on their own. This little boy ghost is a benevolent spirit and just wants to have a little fun.

The blurred faces give this photo an eerie, otherworldly quality.
Courtesy of the Grems-Doolittle Photograph Collection 

The original burying ground for the Stockade was located about halfway down Green Street. By the 19th century the burial ground was getting crowded, and they decided to build a new and bigger cemetery called Vale Cemetery. All of the people buried in the old cemetery were moved to Vale. Vale was one of the many new Victorian rural cemeteries, built not just to hold graves, but to serve as a place of nature where the living could enjoy picnic lunches and strolls alongside those who had passed on. Vale Cemetery was dedicated in 1857. Just south of Vale Park there used to be a grand mansion, which was known to be haunted. Dishes and trays were snatched from maids’ hands, and forks and spoons were grabbed as guests tried to eat. Dishes rattled in empty rooms, windows mysteriously opened and closed, and doors banged when there was no wind. The mansion was torn down decades ago. Perhaps the ghost was a spirit whose grave had been moved from the Stockade to Vale Cemetery and did not care for its new neighbors?


Ferry at Front Street, 1892. Courtesy of the Grems-Doolittle Photograph Collection

Further down the road, Green Street meets Front Street, another street filled with older houses. In one such house there is a recent story about a young woman who rented an apartment. The landlord told her she probably wouldn’t last long, because the building was haunted. She told the landlord that she did not believe in ghosts. She soon learned why so many tenants had left before. Doors would open and shut by themselves, and at night her blankets were pulled off her by invisible hands. One morning she woke up to all her things strewn about the apartment. There were cold spots in the rooms that wouldn’t warm up no matter how high she turned up the heat. The young woman decided she couldn’t take it anymore and informed the landlord she would be moving out immediately. The last nights she spent there were peaceful. Clearly the spirit who lived there was not in favor of having a roommate.



While there haven't been any reports of hauntings at 26 Front Street (that we know of), this
 photo of residents at 26 Front from the late 19th Century shows an example of Victorian fashion.
 Courtesy of the Grems-Doolittle Photograph Collection

Come see the sites of these stories and hear even more about the haunted past of the Stockade! Candlelight Walking Tours will be held Friday October 9, 16, 23, and 30 at 7:00pm and 7:30pm. Tickets can be purchased online at schenectadyhistorical.org/walking-tours. For further information contact exhibits@schenectadyhistorical.org.

Exploring the Haunted Past of Schenectady's Stockade

This ghoulish group of skeletons was unearthed in the backyard of a home on Front Street in Schenectady's Stockade neighborhood in 1902. The skeletons were thought at the time to be remains of some of the people killed in the 1690 Schenectady Massacre. Photograph from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

This blog entry is written by SCHS's Assistant Curator Kaitlin Morton-Bentley.

The Stockade Historic District is full of stories, some of them documented and some passed down over time. As the Halloween season is upon us, we’ve been researching stories of a haunted nature for our Candlelight Walking Tours. Here are some stories of ghosts from the past.

Late at night at 4 South Church Street, some say the sound of pacing footsteps can be heard. The number of paces is always the same – 22. In the 1870s Henry Horstmyer owned this house and every night around midnight, he would hear someone pacing back and forth in the living room. He counted 22 paces, but when he examined the room, found that it was only 18 paces wide. He hired carpenters to find an explanation but they could find none. Older inhabitants were able to provide the answer. During the Civil War a sixteen year old boy was hoping to enlist. He was afraid he would be rejected because of his small size, and so on the night before he was to report for duty he spent the night awake, pacing the floor back and forth. He was accepted into the army and later died at Gettysburg, but it is said that his spirit returned to the house to pace his small 22 paces for eternity.

Image of 4 South Church Street, where Henry Horstmyer heard mysterious pacing footsteps. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

In the 1700s Riverside Park was lined with small fishing docks and natives would routinely sell fish to settlers. One of these natives was an old Mohawk who was well-known in the area for his fishing and hunting knowledge. One day he visited the Stockade and gave a large present of fish to one of the townspeople without asking for any money in return. "The Great Spirit calls me," was his response when asked why. He returned to the river in his canoe. Boys swimming in the river reported that though his canoe was traveling against the current, they could not figure out how, for the Indian sat erect with his arms folded, not touching the paddles. His canoe was found floating in the river without him, and no body was ever found. A Dutchman traveling down the river thought he saw his friend on the shore, but as soon as his boat touched the bank, the Mohawk turned his head and disappeared. For some time after the Mohawk was seen sitting near the river, his knees pulled up to his chin, but whenever someone spoke to him, he disappeared.

A spooky moonlit image of the Mohawk River near Riverside park. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Some ghosts are uneasy, some mysterious, and some, apparently, are rather generous. A poor shoemaker and his wife lived in an old house where the Erie Canal used to run. One evening as the shoemaker sat out on his porch as the sun was setting, an old man dressed in a gray coat passed by and motioned for the man to follow. The shoemaker was afraid and stayed on the porch, and then the man disappeared. The shoemaker told his wife the story, and she determined they would sit on the porch the next night and this time, they would follow the man if he appeared. The next evening they sat together as the sun went down, and again the man in the gray coat appeared. He beckoned to them, and this time the shoemaker and his wife followed. He led them through a garden gate to the back yard by an apple tree, then pointed to the ground and disappeared. The shoemaker’s wife marked the spot and the shoemaker found a shovel and started to dig. To their astonishment they dug up a pot of gold coins, buried long ago. It was the lost treasure of one of the victims of the 1690 Schenectady Massacre, and now the ghost could rest in peace knowing his lost gold was now found.

Interested hearing more tales of the supernatural and spooky in the Stockade? Register for one of our Candlelight Walking Tours on Friday, October 17 and Friday, October 24. Tours are held at 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. (a 7:15 p.m. tour will be added to both dates if demand requires). Cost is $10.00 per person, which includes refreshments after the tour. Pre-registration is required and spots for the tour are filling up fast! To register, purchase your ticket online, email our Assistant Curator, Kaitlin Morton-Bentley, or call 518-374-0263, option 4. Proceeds from the Candlelight Walking Tours benefit the Schenectady Heritage Foundation and the Schenectady County Historical Society.

Spooky Schenectady: Halloween Images from the Grems-Doolittle Library

We wish everyone a safe, fun, and happy Halloween! In celebration, here's a look at some tricks and treats of times past in Schenectady.

1969 Halloween parade at Euclid Elementary School. Photo from Eleanor Jaeger School Photograph Collection.



Notice regarding Halloween from an 1863 issue of the Schenectady Evening Star and Times newspaper. Image obtained via www.fultonhistory.com.






1903 newspaper clipping from the Utica Globe depicting a "wheel puzzle" assembled by Halloween-inspired vandals in front of Samuel Hillis's grocery on Mohawk Avenue in Scotia. The Globe reported that the store "was blocked on both sides by 23 wagons, carriages, busses, and carryalls, so closely packed together with wheels locked that the work of removing them was something like the famous '15' puzzle of a few years ago. It remains somewhat of a mystery because the thing was done by 11:00 p.m. The majority of people look upon it as a good joke, remembering their own youthful days and pranks, but there are one or two who have lived long long beyond their 'happy days' and forget that they were many, many years ago young too." James Ransom of Scotia, who spoke with Larry Hart about the prank at the age of 81 in 1972, recalls that "it was done just about every year from about the turn of the century until maybe about 1910 or so . . . Of course the boys had to pick different places each year, but it was always done. I guess it was kind of expected, like a sort of Halloween ritual." Photo of image from Larry Hart Collection.






1927 newspaper advertisement for Halloween masquerade party at the Cains Castle "College of Dancing" at 164 Barrett Street in Schenectady. Image obtained via www.fultonhistory.com.





Costumed children take part in a sidewalk parade down Union Street in 1950. Photograph from Larry Hart Collection.



1937 advertisement for Halloween costumes for children and adults at Kresge's, 271 State Street, Schenectady. Image obtained via www.fultonhistory.com.



Boys march in the 1967 Halloween parade at Euclid Elementary School. Photograph from Eleanor Jaeger School Photograph Collection.