Welcome to October, a month of thrills and chills! To get into the Halloween spirit (pun very much intended), we researched the 8 most haunted buildings in New York City. Spanning Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, tales of these frightening locales are sure to keep you up at night. Read on…if you dare.

Manhattan

1. The Dakota — 1 West 72nd Street

First up on our list of spooktacular NYC buildings is this historic apartment complex on the Upper West Side with multiple reported ghost sightings, including cameos from one mega celebrity spirit. The Dakota, located at 1 West 72nd Street, is a 94-unit co-op built in the 1880s and a landmarked building. In the 1960s, construction workers reported sightings of a disturbing apparition: an adult man with a child’s face. Another frequently reported sighting is that of a little girl dressed in historic clothing, whom residents have described as smiling, happy, and waving.

The building’s ghastly past has also inspired art, with the iconic horror film Rosemary’s Baby (1968) being partially filmed at The Dakota. But the co-op’s biggest claim to fame is that it’s the site of the tragic and fatal shooting of John Lennon. After his death, many people claimed to see Lennon’s ghost, including his widow Yoko Ono. She recalls Lennon sitting at his piano and saying “Don’t be afraid, I am still with you.”

2. 14 West 10th Street, aka the “House of Death”

Commonly referred to as the “House of Death,” this four-story Gothic Revival brownstone in the West Village is allegedly haunted by upwards of 22 former residents — an impressive feat, considering there are only 10 apartments in the building. One of its most famous former residents is American author Mark Twain, who is said to still roam the property in a white suit, apparently favoring the building’s stairwell and window seat. Other common sights are a woman wearing a long gown being followed by a cat. One resident who lived on the top floor of the building reported a “monstrous moving shadow” that followed her around the house and smelled vaguely sweet, like rotting food. Also the site of the grisly murder of 6-year-old Lisa Nussbaum by her parents, the “House of Death” unfortunately lives up to its name. Its paranormal phenomena has even spread to neighboring buildings, where residents report flickering lights and apparitions.

3. 12 Gay Street

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Thomas Silk (@landmarksofny)

Here’s another West Village haunt — literally. Once a Prohibition-era speakeasy called The Pirate’s Den, 12 Gay Street has housed a handful of notable NYC artists and politicians over the years, including pulp novelist Walter Gibson, Howdy Doody puppeteer Frank Paris, and former NYC mayor Jimmy Walker. Almost every single resident of 12 Gay Street in history has reported hearing disembodied footsteps creaking along floorboards in the middle of the night. But there’s something else that sets the spirits of 12 Gay Street apart: their chic fashion sense. Multiple people have seen spectres dressed in 1920s-era flapper outfits, while the eponymous “Gay Street Phantom” has been described by many as a man in a top hat and tails. 12 Gay Street has come on and off the market, last documented for sale in 2009 and currently serving as a private residence.

4. The Octagon — 888 Main Street

Looming large on the northern tip of Roosevelt Island sits The Octagon. Converted in 2006 into a 500-unit high-end rental building, the Octagon once served as the entrance to the New York City Lunatic Asylum, which undercover journalist Nellie Bly made infamous in her groundbreaking article Ten Days in a Madhouse. Bly exposed the horrific and often torturous conditions that patients suffered at the asylum, a dark past that seems to have lingered. Even the Octagon’s four-legged residents aren’t immune to the paranormal goings-on, as pet owners have reported their animals refusing to climb certain stairwells in the building.

Brooklyn

5. The Lefferts-Laidlaw House — 136 Clinton Avenue

Our next frightful locale stands in Clinton Hill near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Lefferts-Laidlaw House, located at 136 Clinton Avenue, is a gorgeous Greek Revival mansion with a spooky history dating back to the 1800s. According to a New York Times article published in 1878, the tenants at 136 Clinton Avenue endured three straight weeks of mysterious knocking in the middle of the night. Police arrived to investigate but couldn’t find the culprit, saying that each time a knock sounded, all that greeted them at the door was “empty air.” What’s more, the back doors were rattled and a brick was thrown through a window by no obvious assailant. Spooky!

Staten Island

6. The Kreischer House — 4500 Arthur Kill Road

The Kreischer House, or the Kreischer Mansion, is a landmarked townhouse built circa-1885 for the family of brickwork entrepreneur Balthasar Kreischer. The 15-room estate on Staten Island echoes with eerie wails and disruptive bangs, but there’s some debate as to who’s responsible for these otherworldly noises. Some believe it’s the restless spirit of Edward Kreischer, Balthasar’s son who died by suicide in 1895. Still others believe the ghost is actually Freida Kreischer, Edward’s grief-stricken widow. There have also been reports of a chef apparition cooking up trouble in the kitchen, plus unsettling peals of children’s laughter. In 2005 the Kreischer Mansion was the site of a mob-ordered homicide, wherein Robert McKelvey was killed by the property’s caretaker, his body parts eventually thrown into the basement furnace. Some claim to have seen McKelvey’s ghost roaming the property, joining the ghastly party on 4500 Arthur Kill Road.

7. The Gustave A. Mayer House — 2475 Richmond Road

This 10-bedroom, 7,700-square-foot Italianate villa known as the Gustave A. Mayer House is stately, gorgeous…and haunted. Once owned by 19th-century inventor Gustave Mayer, who created the original recipe for Nilla Wafers, it was left to his two daughters Paula and Emilie after his death. The two women were dubbed “the Grey Gardens of Staten Island” for their extremely reclusive behavior. Rather than venture outside of the estate for errands, they developed elaborate pulley systems to retrieve their groceries and mail. Paula and Emilie lived well past their 100th birthdays and are rumored to still roam the halls of their beloved house, along with the ghost of their father. The site of Harper’s Bazaar and Cosmopolitan UK celebrity photoshoots, the Gustave A. Mayer House last hit the market on StreetEasy for $1.74 million back in 2015.

8. The Alice Austen House, aka Clear Comfort

The Alice Austen House, also known as Clear Comfort, is a 1690s (wow!) Dutch farmhouse once inhabited by Alice Austen, one of America’s first female photographers known for her street shots and depictions of the lives of women. She moved into Clear Comfort in the 1860s with her mother, and eventually Alice’s longtime partner Gertrude Tate joined her. Over the course of her life, Austen developed over 7,000 photographs in the makeshift darkroom in the house. She also reported sightings of spirit activity, which she attributed to a man rumored to have hanged himself in Clear Comfort during the Revolutionary War. After Austen died, multiple people over the years have claimed to have interacted with her ghost. Individuals have also seen unexplainable phenomena such as a dense fog inside the house, even with all of the windows and doors closed. Weird!

Sufficiently spooked? Continue your October by browsing scary good homes to buy or rent here on StreetEasy.