Haunted Forest Park Cemetery
Arguably, cemeteries are one of the least pleasant places to be. For both parties involved.
I mean, unless you're like, one of those people that goes there just to chill, or try to commune with the dead. But we don't have time to unpack all of that.
But, you know, some cemeteries are more 'famous' than others. Whether that's good or bad is really up to the inhabitants. If you think about it, cemeteries are kind of like free retirement homes. If you're annoying enough, you're going to wake something up, and it's gonna be angry. Or confused. Or hungry. But I think that's more about zombies than ghosts (unless we're talking about hungry ghosts of folklore from literally all around the world, and I think I'd run out of time trying to unpack that).
We have a lot of unpacked suitcases.
Well, laying that to rest (laugh right now) let's dive into another famous New York hotspot for the paranormal. Which is, also, conveniently a cemetery.
To be fair, you can't really have the paranormal without dead people, but shhhh....
But it's okay, because this park 'isn't like other parks' and truly wanted to prove to be an enticing and "park-like experience." For real, imagine trying to have a funeral for your great uncle when some sweaty dude in short shorts spills Powerade into the coffin hole.
What I'm talking about, of course, is the Forest Park Cemetery, also known as the Pinewood Cemetery. Supposedly, this cemetery is one of the most haunted locations in New York, and can be found in Troy- particularly, Brunswick, which is notably Not Troy and is in fact east of Troy.
Anyways, the cemetery was first incorporated by a bunch of wealthy elite businessmen in 1897, though some of the gravestones suggest the place has been used since 1856. These wealthy elites worked under the Forest Park Cemetery Corporation, which kind of sounds like the name of a Fall Out Boy song. Well, maybe not Fall Out Boy, but My Chemical Romance already took Cemetery Drive, so you have to improvise, right?
The cemetery was designed by Garnet Baltimore, the first black civil engineer, and a graduate of Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute, a college in Troy. Garnet was well known for his architectural design, landscaping, and of course, engineering. He was actually very highly requested for designing cemeteries- alongside Forest Park he also landscaped the Oakwood cemetery, as well as several other cemeteries in Hoosick, Glens Falls, and Amsterdam.
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| Garnet Douglass Baltimore |
Anyways, the park went bankrupt in 1914 (meaning they were no longer wealthy elite businessmen, but just _____) and the ____ never did get to complete the cemetery to Garnet's specifications. He had wanted to design a place that offered a "park-like experience, complete with statuary, winding trails, and a large receiving tomb near the entrance."
Honestly, cemeteries are the best place to take a nap. Some are so huge and expansive, and when you're done and exhausted you can just plop down in a hole and take a nap. Maybe uh, don't do that though.
But nah, to the public, the cemetery wasn't a huge hit (it's almost like people didn't want to die, or frolic through the stench of loss and despair in an immersive experience).
But hey, if we can go to high school for four years, that should be a cakewalk.
The park was so unpopular, in fact, that the ______ didn't get time to construct anything more than the large tomb near the entrance, where it still stands today. The building is made of solid granite, and contains 128 catacombs with the sole purpose of housing the dead. However, one site states that there are "none buried there today," which implies there were once bodies buried there.
I am very afraid of this implication.
Over the hundred or so years since the place went bankrupt, the roof and many of the graves have collapsed. There are also tons of rumors that the place is like, ridiculously haunted. There's actually quite a few paranormal hotspots, on those grounds. The place was bought by another company in 1914 to be used by the Country Club of Troy for a golf park, but it went bankrupt again 16 years later.
There was only one caretaker for the park, a man named William Christian. He oversaw the place until he died in the 1960s. Now, people estimate that over 1000 people are buried there. It's also off limits to the living, and police monitor the era, so don't go crazy and try to explore (or at least do it if you know what you're doing).
Unanimously, everyone who has been there agrees it is ridiculously haunted. In fact, here's a quote from one brave soul that dared to encroach upon the restless dead.
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| Thank you for your brave sacrifice, 2Spoopy. |
To name a few of the fun things someone might experience during their stay at the Forest Park Cemetery (aside from getting arrested):
- Hair pulling
- Disembodied voices (which are better than bodied voices in a cemetery)
- Strange unexplainable orbs
- Scratch marks
- Cell phones dying unexpectedly
- Children's laughter
- Getting poked or tripped
- A warm and positive energy (but only if you have extreme mental anxiety)
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| Emma Willard School |
The Decapitated Angel
This is probably one of the better known tales from the crypt. Just off one of the many walking paths that line the park, there is a 10 foot tall statue of an angel in front of a cross. Notably, the angel is also missing a head. As the legend goes, one night some boys were goofing around, and decided to wander around the cemetery. They approached the grave, and within a short while, the eyes of the statue began to bleed. Naturally, the boys were freaked out, and did what any sane person would do in that situation- they decapitated the statue and threw the head deep into the woods. I don't believe anyone has actually found the head, so it's possible they may have buried it as well. Nowadays, people say that the statue continues to bleed, just from the neck. Of course, there are always a few skeptics that say that the blood is just wet moss. Other people have reported hearing children's laughter around the grave, as well as getting poked or tripped.
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| Does this image not spark joy |
Til Death Do Us Part
"When we got inside, I remembered that it was so cold and there were empty marble vaults where coffins had once stood. The temperature was so cold, we could see our breath and there was frost coming down the sides of the interior of the vault. Just a little light came in even though there were plenty of broken windows all around. We stayed there for about a half hour, because we couldn’t leave––we felt as if something was holding us back, spinning us around in the mausoleum. I took pictures on my Instamatic and, par for the course, they did not come out! When we left, we felt fear and then calm. I knew that was probably my first true visit from spirits, yet I was not afraid at all. After that experience, I started walking through the Pawling Cemeteries at night, just to see if I could get the same feeling at another cemetery, but I could not."
Other people have reported that, upon leaving, they found the gates physically locked, and that they had so much difficulty trying to break the locks or find an exist, they eventually had to climb over the metal fences o escape. Interestingly, the gates themselves are also known as the 'Gates of Hell,' because people will feel such intense spiritual energy once they step through. Other people have stated that their electronics will die and they are unable to call for help, or their cars will refuse to start.
People have also reported seeing shadowy figures that follow them from the corner of their eye. Back in 2014, one man stated the following;
"We kept going in a few more steps looked over and saw a black shadow moving across the background … Human nature eyes follow motion and we all followed it with our eyes as best as we could anticipating where we think we would see it through the dark and all of a sudden at the corner of our eye in a couple of seconds of first seeing it we look over and see a human like dark figure wayyy farther away then we thought it would be about 50 feet away … The feeling I remember best is when we all saw it at the same time it gave a shockwave of fear from the bottom of our feet to out head … Just not a natural feeling even if it was a person … We were real freaked out when online all night looking up experiences and found more then enough evidence that people have experienced the same exact thing at the exact same spot and the rumors go that a man hung himself from the tree there and his wife found him when she opened her front door in the morning kinda like he was presenting himself … Weird but I swear it’s all true."
Someone in the same thread had also commented on the shadow, saying that they definitely feel there are strange things there, "especially a black shadow out of the corner of your eye and when you look again it's gone." Other people have similarly described a "dark mass" that made them feel sick, or a "black figure" that caused them to run away as fast as they could. However, many will also describe the figure as bestial (almost like a dog, or wolf), and incredibly angry.
Aside from the shadowy figures and beasts, many people have also supposedly seen a pure white figure with a headpiece not unlike that of an angle or war chief (at least, that's what it has been compared to). One person described it as wolf-like. Another person going by 'Brittany,' actually had a photo to share:
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| Supposedly at full zoom, one can see a face and some kind of headpiece. |
Interestingly, many people have stated that they feel incredibly calm upon entering the graveyard. This makes me wonder if it may have something to do with the ghost of Harold Hubbard Horne, and how his spirit presents a warm and calming presence. Regardless, there is no way to know for certain!
Even on the country club grounds, though, some people have felt some sort of dark energy, perhaps due to the fact that the cemetery was once 200 acres (though now it's 22).
Regardless of how large the plot of land is now, people are still incredibly interested in what this cemetery truly is. I mean- other than a cemetery. Nearly every single person that has entered it has sworn up and down it's haunted, after all. But despite being heavily guarded, people haven't given up on finding the perfect proof. Back in 2007, on the unexplained-mysteries forum, one such individual shared photos from their own expedition into the inexplicable cemetery:
Despite the "obvious ghost orb" to the left of the tree,
you can supposedly see a the head of a dark haired woman.
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