The Scares Are Real At These Bergen Sites

According to local legend, you can find the paranormal right here in our backyard. Visit these locales…if you dare!

We’ve all embraced fall in all its glory, with seasonal treats, festivals and fantastic views. But, as Halloween draws ever-closer, how about a scare?

The upcoming weeks will be filled with costume contests, Halloween parades and more, but if you’re looking for something a little more (and a little more grounded in local history), Bergen has you covered. Check out these four spots where, according to local legend, the scares are real and the ghosts are far more than bedsheets.

The Devil’s Tower, Alpine. Built by Spanish-born millionaire and sugar importer Manuel Rionda in 1910, this structure was created for his wife, Harriet, and connected to their estate by an underground tunnel. The story goes that, upon seeing her husband with another woman from the high window, Harriet threw herself to the ground. Some say you can see her shadowy figure and smell her perfume.

Edgewater-Fairview Tunnel, Fairview. This eerie abandoned train tunnel also poses real-life dangers (just last year, two teens were trapped there by floodwaters and needed to be rescued), and has been nicknamed “the Devil’s Hole” for its dark, forlorn silhouette. A lost passageway of the American railroad system, it’s not hard to find stories of strange lights, phantom dog barking and a little girl’s ghost.

The Hermitage, Ho-Ho-Kus. Built in the mid-1700s, this house served as a Revolutionary War headquarters for Gen. George Washington and his closest advisors. Today, the building is a museum, and offers October night tours of the premises in honor of the season. If you stop by, see if you can catch a glimpse of an apparition of the old owner, Elijah Rosencrantz, and his wife, Cornelia Suffern.

The Steuben House, River Edge. Now the headquarters of the Bergen County Historical Society, the Steuben House is another true historical landmark used by Washington and the Revolutionary Army during the American Revolution. A local legend tells of an encounter with Major-General Baron von Steuben, where he asked a woman how the revolution was going—only to vanish when he was told it had been over for hundreds of years.

Have you had a ghostly encounter in Bergen County? Tell us all about it on Instagram @bergenmagnj!