22 Creepy Things to do for Halloween in Seattle

Seattle is a city that was basically built for Halloween. Maybe it’s all the rain and gloom we’re used to or the incredibly dark history, from the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 that devastated an entire neighborhood, to its unfortunate reputation as home to some notorious criminals. Either way, if you visit during the month of October, prepare for all the spooky vibes!

You will find everything from spooky pub crawls to haunted houses and even a massive Halloween themed music festival! Seattle truly goes all out, and in my opinion, it’s one of the best cities to spend Halloween.

Looking for more Washington State Travel Tips? Check out these articles!

12 Amazing Snoqualmie Falls Tours from Seattle
9 Festive Things to do for Christmas in Leavenworth, WA in 202
11 Epic Things to Do On Whidbey Island, Washington: A Perfect Weekend Getaway
9 Beautiful Mt Rainier Tours from Seattle
Gifts Made in Washington State: A Local Shopping Guide
17 Mouthwatering Pike Place Market Food Tours
32 Magical Things to do For Christmas in Seattle
11 Unforgettable Seattle Boat Tours 

Things to do for Halloween in Seattle

Attend a Huge Halloween Beer Festival

Great Pumpkin Beer Festival

📍 Address: Elysian Capitol Hill Brewery, 1221 E Pike St
🗓️ Dates: October 3rd, 2026, 4pm to 10pm (tickets on sale August 5th)

The Great Pumpkin Beer Festival is Elysian Brewing’s pumpkin beer bash. It takes place at the brewery’s original Capitol Hill pub for its 22nd year on October 3rd, 2026.

You will find more than 60 pumpkin and fall harvest beers, a giant pumpkin cracked open and tapped like a keg, live music, food trucks, and a costume contest. It runs from 4pm to 10pm, and it is 21 and over.

One thing to note: when I went, the festival was still at Seattle Center, and it has since moved back to the Capitol Hill brewery where it started. So the vibe may be different. Everything below is from the Seattle Center years.

I had the best time at this one. I went alone, mainly because it sold out so quickly that I didn’t get a chance to tell anyone, so first things first, get those tickets early. Second, prepare to drink a lot. Many of the beers are festival exclusive and won’t be sold in stores, so try as many as you can without getting carried out of the festival grounds.

When you enter, you get an adorable goblet with a jack o lantern face painted on the front, plus drink tokens to start. I ate a ton beforehand hoping I wouldn’t get drunk quickly, and my plan failed spectacularly. Good thing there are food trucks all over the site. I ended up with mac n cheese dumplings and some amazing Texas BBQ.

In the evening they cut open a giant pumpkin, filled it with beer, and passed it out to the crowd while live bands played. For some reason people were holding giant corn husks, so since I wanted to fit in, I grabbed one too and danced the night away. So much fun.

Take a Spooky Pub Crawl

These are the two pub crawls I would do in October, though only one of them is on Halloween. The first is a self-guided crawl across downtown Seattle, with hundreds of attendees and an afterparty. The second is a ghost tour through Pike Place Market that runs year round, stopping at three haunted bars for drinks and stories.

Crawl With Us

📍 Address: Check in at The Chapel Lounge, 213 1st Ave S
🗓️ Dates: October 31st, 2026, 4pm to 10pm

This Halloween Bar Crawl runs from 4pm to 10pm on October 31st, and your ticket gets you into every bar on the route. At check-in you get a map and a badge with vouchers for two to three free drinks or shots, redeemable at specific bars. After those, you are paying, but crawlers get discounted specials all night. There is also a DJ afterparty.

I have done a few of these themed crawls, and they are always a lot of fun. Unlike most pub crawls where a guide walks you from bar to bar, this one is self-guided. Once you check in at the first bar, you are free to hit whatever bars you want, as long as they are on the crawl map.

I did this one alone and met some great people, so if you happen to be riding solo, you can still have a blast. When I went, there were nine bars on the map, including a couple of dance spots, though the lineup changes annually.

Seattle Booze and Boos Tour

📍 Address: Meets at the Taproom at Pike Place, 1525 1st Ave #16
🗓️ Dates: Most evenings, year round

The Booze and Boos tour is a guided ghost walk through Pike Place Market that stops at three historic bars along the way. It runs two to two and a half hours with a costumed guide. Drinks are not included in the ticket.

This one takes place around Pike Place Market, which happens to be one of Seattle’s most haunted neighborhoods, with several spooky bars clustered together. If you want to see the market in daylight too, I have a whole guide to Pike Place Market food tours.

We met our costumed guide at the taproom to start. You spend around 30 to 45 minutes at each stop, which gives you just enough time to grab a drink and listen to all the creepy stories.

The route doesn’t follow the exact same path every night, so the specific bars can vary. The tour usually finishes at Kells, a pub built inside a former mortuary, which I cover further down this list.

Georgetown Morgue

📍 Address: 5000 E Marginal Way S, Seattle, WA 98134
🗓️ Dates: Select nights late September through Halloween

Georgetown Morgue is Seattle’s most notorious haunted house, built inside a building that really did operate as a mortuary and crematorium. Two things to know before you go: costumes are not allowed, and it is not appropriate for young kids. There is a VIP pass if you would rather not wait in the regular line, which can get long.

The attraction leans hard on a story about a 1968 massacre, when two armed men allegedly forced the entire staff into the crematorium chamber during an evening meeting. There were no survivors and no suspects.

But no records of that crime exist. The backstory appears to have been created for the haunted house. Knowing that did not make it any less unsettling to walk through.

It is very well done. Wear your running shoes because you may need them. It was terrifying.

Nile Nightmares Haunted House

📍 Address: 6601 244th St SW, Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043
🗓️ Dates: Fridays and Saturdays, October 2nd to 31st, 2026, 7pm to 11pm

Nile Nightmares runs out of the Nile Shrine Golf Course, about a 30-minute drive north of Seattle, and the Shriners have been putting it on since 2010 as a fundraiser. There are four indoor haunts plus outdoor scenes and mazes. Instead of standing in line, you check in and get a text when your group is up, so you can spend the wait wandering the food trucks, escape games, and bar they set up outside. Parking is free.

This one was a bit more low-key than Georgetown, but still scary. When I went, there was no text system yet, so we stood in line, and I ended up befriending a couple because, well, I was alone. The actors kept us entertained the whole time.

If you are bringing kids, they run a Not-So-Scary daytime event on Saturday, October 17th, 2026, from 11am to 3pm. Same house with all the lights on, but no live actors, and there is candy at every entrance.

Frighthouse Station

📍 Address: 626 E 25th St, Tacoma, WA 98421
🗓️ Dates: Select nights throughout October

Frighthouse Station is Tacoma’s largest haunted attraction, set in the basement of Freighthouse Square, a former rail freight depot near the Tacoma Dome that now operates as a marketplace. There are more than 30 rooms, and it takes about 45 minutes to walk through. The basement supposedly served as a temporary morgue during World War Two, though I have never seen that confirmed anywhere official.

The house theme changes yearly. The year I went, it was ocean-themed, and in 2024 they did one about nightmares cycling through different TV channels.

It is intense and not for the faint of heart. You squeeze through tight corridors and navigate pitch black sections, strobe lights, and fog machines. They also run toned-down family nights if you want the experience without completely traumatizing your kids.

Dance the Night Away at a Halloween Music Festival

BOO Seattle

📍 Address: WAMU Theater, 800 Occidental Ave S, Seattle, WA 98134
🗓️ Dates: October 30th and 31st, 2026

BOO Seattle is a two-night Halloween electronic music festival at WAMU Theater, and each year it gets built around a different theme. The 2026 edition returns to the Haunted Mansion concept, with more than 45 artists spread across three stages: the Grand Hall for the headliners, the Bassment for bass and dubstep, and the Corridor for house and techno. You have to be 18 or older to get in, and VIP is 21 and over.

I went a few years ago and had so much fun. There were multiple stages pumping out house, dubstep, and trap music, and the stage setups were wild.

They also bring in carnival-style rides, and there are loads of treats to keep your energy going, including signature cocktails and a candy making machine.

BOO is put on by the same company behind Electric Daisy Carnival, so you know it’s going to be good.

Attend Pumpkinsutra, the Sexiest Halloween Event in Seattle

Pumpkinsutra

📍 Address: The Palmer Building, 1000 1st Ave S, Seattle, WA 98134
🗓️ Dates: Late September through early November (2026 dates to be announced)

Pumpkinsutra is an adults-only Halloween experience built around what organizers call the world’s largest display of erotically carved pumpkins, more than 100 of them. It takes about two to two and a half hours to walk through, and the sets are themed around Madam Lou, who ran Seattle’s first brothel. You have to be 21 or older with valid ID.

Beyond the pumpkins, there are burlesque performances, cocktail booths, a maze, and a very cheeky pumpkin patch.

As you move room to room, you come face to face with a colorful wall of protective gear and a makeshift video store stocked with parody titles of the best “horror movies.” I will not ruin the rest.

The photos I took are too risqué for this blog, so you will have to let your imagination wander or go see it yourself.

Tickets come in general admission and all-access. I got the all-access pass, which gets you into VYR, the upstairs show and bar that only all-access holders can enter, and it was worth the extra cost.

Listen to Some Hauntingly Beautiful Music Surrounded by Candlelight

Halloween Candlelight Concerts

📍 Address: Venues rotate, with recent Halloween programs at the Arctic Club Hotel, 700 3rd Ave
🗓️ Dates: Select dates through October

Candlelight concerts are hour-long performances by a local string quartet, held in dark, atmospheric venues lit by thousands of flameless candles.

They run year round with rotating themes, and every October the programs turn to horror scores and Halloween classics. Doors open 45 minutes early and close right before the show starts.

The venues are chosen for their acoustics. Recent Halloween programs have been held at the Arctic Club Hotel, a 1916 landmark with terra cotta walrus heads lining the third floor and a stained-glass dome ceiling inside. It may be the perfect place to listen to spooky Halloween music.

Programs change year to year, but expect scores you will recognize. Past Halloween sets have included Ghostbusters and the theme from The Exorcist, and there is usually a separate program built around classic horror films like The Shining, The Conjuring, and Friday the 13th.

Get in the Halloween Spirit at a Burlesque Show

Every fall, Can Can Culinary Cabaret puts on Seattle’s spookiest burlesque shows, usually with two productions running at once. This Is Halloween is their long-running Nightmare Before Christmas parody, staged downtown at the Triple Door. Zombie Cheerleaders From Hell runs at their own theater in Pike Place Market. Both are dinner shows.

This Is Halloween

📍 Address: The Triple Door, 216 Union St, Seattle, WA 98101
🗓️ Dates: October 15th to 31st, 2026

This Is Halloween is a sexy and scandalous take on The Nightmare Before Christmas, staged as a dinner show with live orchestral music and video projections. It is rated PG-13, the 9pm shows are 21 and over, and the Sunday 5pm shows are all ages.

All ages means anyone can get in, not that the content changes, and the venue notes those shows still include partial states of undress and adult language.

The show follows Jack Skellington on his mission to figure out what Christmas is really about, even if that means kidnapping Santa along the way.

You will see an array of sexy dancers, some stripping, but I do not want to give too much away. It was fantastic, and everyone in the audience had a great time. My gut hurt from laughing so much.

Zombie Cheerleaders From Hell

📍 Address: Can Can Culinary Cabaret, 95 Pine St, Seattle, WA 98101
🗓️ Dates: September 17th to November 1st, 2026

Zombie Cheerleaders From Hell is the Can Can’s fall 2026 production at their Pike Place Market theater, a returning cult favorite built on 80s horror kitsch. Expect letterman jackets, acid wash, leg warmers, and an original soundtrack, served alongside seasonal food and spooky cocktails.

I have not seen this particular show, but I have been to their Halloween shows before and have never had a bad night there. The ones I have seen had live music and some very cool visuals, and the performers pull the audience in, so prepare to dance, sing, and chant the night away.

It is an intimate theater, only about 120 seats. The food is delicious and sourced from vendors in the market. You can add a dining package to your ticket or order a la carte.

Tour a Chocolate Factory with a Haunted Twist

Maeve Chocolate Haunted Escape Room

📍 Address: Maeve Chocolate, 1180 Andover Park W, Tukwila, WA 98188
🗓️ Dates: Thursdays through Saturdays in October (2026 dates to be announced)

Maeve Chocolate runs a Halloween escape room inside their working chocolate factory in Tukwila, about 20 minutes south of downtown Seattle. It takes about 50 minutes, the puzzles are built for ages 10 and up, and there is chocolate waiting if your group solves everything. This is also not too scary, so no need to worry about freaking out the kids.

If you love chocolate, this is a haunted event you will not want to miss. The chocolate itself is excellent as well, with a lot of seasonal flavors worth grabbing on your way out.

Drink Ghoulish Cocktails at a Spooky Bar

A few Seattle bars go all out for Halloween. These are my favorite Halloween pop-ups that I go back to every year!

Spooky Little Halloween Bar at the Edgewater

📍 Address: The Edgewater Hotel, 2411 Alaskan Way, Pier 67, Seattle, WA 98121
🗓️ Dates: Thursday through Sunday evenings, October into early November

The Edgewater runs a Halloween pop-up bar on the second floor inside a themed space they call Ravenedge Manor. There are seasonal cocktails, shots, and Halloween-themed bites, and they cover the room in the most insane decorations. They take reservations, which I would recommend.

The drinks I had were the Corpse Reviver No. Blue and a bright-green Creepy Crawlers Martini garnished with gummy worms. I also got the cheese fondue, served in an acorn squash with pretzel bread and delivered in a coffin.

I walked in without a reservation, and the wait was very long, even arriving 30 minutes after opening. Book ahead or get there right when they open.

One more thing to know: there are standing-only tables by the bar, and smaller groups often get put there. If you want a proper table, make sure you let them know.

Nightmare on Wall Street at Navy Strength

📍 Address: 2505 2nd Ave, Suite 102, Seattle, WA 98121
🗓️ Dates: Late September through early November

Navy Strength is a tiki bar in Belltown that transforms itself into Nightmare on Wall Street every fall, and 2026 marks its tenth year. The cocktail menu is built around horror films, the soundtracks are playing, and the staff dress up.

They open extra nights during the pop-up, so check their schedule before you go rather than assuming the usual hours.

The menu changes every year. Past menus have included Telekinetic Energy, a Carrie tribute with aged rum and cherry that arrives on fire, and Family Secrets, a Hereditary homage with bourbon and spiced cranberry. Recent years have pulled from Silence of the Lambs, The Exorcist, Mandy, and Candyman. They also use unique ingredients like candy corn orgeat.

Black Lagoon at Rob Roy

📍 Address: 2332 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA 98121
🗓️ Dates: Late September through early November, 4pm to 2am daily

Black Lagoon is a Halloween pop-up that takes over cocktail bars in more than 30 cities every October, and Rob Roy has been its Seattle home since 2023. Two bartenders started it in New Orleans in 2019, and it has since picked up awards and spread as far as London and Paris.

This is such a fun one. They deck the place out with dungeon-like decorations, giant spiders crawling on the walls, and hands hanging in the windows. The menu runs about eight drinks with names like Hellfire Fizz, Siren’s Song, Hex Appeal, and Nightmare Fuel, plus non-alcoholic options. A lot of them come in fun mugs, like the Siren’s Song in its skeleton mermaid.

Fair warning, it can get pretty packed, and they do not take reservations.

If you are in town in December instead, the same bar becomes a Christmas pop-up called Miracle on 2nd, which I cover in my guide to Christmas in Seattle.

Tour or See a Show at Seattle’s Oldest and Most Haunted Theater

Moore Theatre

📍 Address: 1932 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA 98101
🗓️ Dates: Shows year round, free tours the second Saturday of every month

The Moore opened in December 1907 and is Seattle’s oldest working theater, built by developer James A. Moore and designed by E.W. Houghton. It is also the building most often called the most haunted in the city. You can see a show here or take a free guided tour.

The haunted reputation starts with the ground it sits on. The Moore was built over the site of Seattle’s first cemetery, but what’s strange is that nobody has ever died here, so where do all the ghost stories come from?

One popular story involves a single chair on the balcony that smells like cigar smoke. Staff have cleaned it and reupholstered it, and the smell keeps coming back. It’s said that James Moore continues to sit there, except that can’t be true because he died broke in a San Francisco hotel in 1929.

Then there is the séance. In the 1970s, the owners walked in one night and found staff holding a séance in the auditorium. They fired everyone on the spot, which meant the séance was never properly closed. Ghost tour guides will tell you that this left a door open that nobody has managed to shut since.

The theater’s longtime manager has been there since the mid-90s and says he has heard plenty but has never seen anything. His best story is being alone in the basement one morning and hearing footsteps cross the stage above him. He went up twice, found nobody, and the third time just said out loud that whoever it was should stop playing with him. It stopped.

Other reports include singing, applause from an empty house, and shadowy figures crossing the aisles. SyFy’s Ghost Hunters came out in 2007 and could not substantiate any of it with their equipment.

Catch a show and see if you feel a spooky presence, or take the free tour, which runs the second Saturday of every month from 10am to noon. You meet at the main entrance on the corner of 2nd and Virginia; it lasts about two hours, and volunteers walk you through the lobby, the stage, and the backstage areas. It is free, but you do need to reserve a spot.

Learn About Seattle’s Darker History on a True Crime Tour

Private Eye on Seattle Tours

📍 Address: Departs from Lake Union Piers parking lot, 809 Fairview Pl N
🗓️ Dates: Year round by reservation, daytime

Seattle’s dark history goes well beyond Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgway, and although you will hear plenty about these notorious killers, there is a lot more to uncover.

Private Eye on Seattle runs two true crime routes, one through Queen Anne and one through Capitol Hill, and I have done both.

A former private investigator named Windsor Olson started the company in 1997. Jake Jacobson came on in 2001 and eventually took over, and she still runs every tour herself. She knows these cases in detail, and and her storytelling will have you gripping your seat.

As well as murders, you will also hear about arsons, burglaries, and cases nobody has ever solved to this day.

Each tour runs about two and a half hours in a van, with stops along the way where you get out and look around. They leave from the Lake Union Piers parking lot; you need to reserve ahead, and nobody under 12 is allowed.

Queen Anne True Crime Tour

Queen Anne is one of my favorite areas in Seattle. It sits on the tallest hill in the city and takes its name from the ornate Victorian homes built along its slopes in the 1890s. Most tourists never make it up there, but not surprisingly, many murders have also taken place here.

One stop is a stately home on Bigelow Avenue North with a view over the whole city, where a legal secretary named Geneva MacDonald was killed with a hatchet in 1990.

From there the tour drops down into Pioneer Square and the Chinatown International District, and that was the most haunting spot for me. Thirteen people were killed at the Wah Mee Club in Maynard Alley in 1983, and it is still the deadliest mass murder in Washington state history.

The club sat padlocked for 30 years afterward, until a fire tore through the building on Christmas Eve 2013. The Louisa Hotel stands there now, rebuilt as affordable housing.

Capitol Hill True Crime Tour

This one covers Seattle’s music history alongside the crime. It runs through Capitol Hill, Madrona, and Madison Park and finishes near the Lake Union houseboats.

One stop is Kurt Cobain’s former home in Denny-Blaine, though there is not much left to see. The greenhouse where he died was torn down in 1997, and the house itself is privately owned. Fans go to Viretta Park next door instead, where one of the benches has become an unofficial memorial.

Other stops include the neighborhood where Jimi Hendrix grew up, Bruce Lee’s grave at Lake View Cemetery, and Ted Bundy’s old stomping grounds. You will also hear about the Goldmark family, four of whom were murdered on Christmas Eve in 1985.

Take a Scenic Fall Train Ride

Snoqualmie Halloween Train

📍 Address: Snoqualmie Depot, 38625 SE King St, or North Bend Depot, 205 E McClellan St
🗓️ Dates: October 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25, and 31, 2026

The Northwest Railway Museum runs a fall-decorated train through the upper Snoqualmie Valley every October, about a 45 minute drive east of Seattle. The ride is just shy of two hours round trip with a half-hour stop partway through, and costumes are encouraged.

You board at either the Snoqualmie Depot or the North Bend Depot and ride west along 5.5 miles of the original 1889 Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway line. You will pause at the top of Snoqualmie Falls for a view over the river valley. If you want to see the falls properly, I have a whole guide to Snoqualmie Falls tours from Seattle.

Halfway through, the train stops for 30 minutes at the Railway History Campus. They had plenty of events going on, including cider-pressing demonstrations, apple coring, crafts, live music, historic toys, and free hot cider.

Your ticket also covers the Train Shed Exhibit Hall, and you can drive back later the same day and get in free if you want more time.

A few practical things. Parking is free at both depots; they ask you to arrive 30 minutes before departure, and there are no restrooms on the train. It runs rain or shine, and there are no refunds unless the train does not run.

This is one of my favorite fall activities in the area. The foliage alone is worth it.

Catch Classic Horror Films on the Big Screen

Scarecrowber

📍 Address: SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109
🗓️ Dates: Throughout October, 2026 lineup to be announced

Every October, the Seattle International Film Festival teams up with Scarecrow Video on a horror series called Scarecrowber.

Scarecrow is a Seattle video store that runs as a nonprofit, keeping one of the largest movie collections in the world available to rent, including thousands of films you can’t stream anywhere. Half of every ticket goes toward keeping that collection going.

Do not expect the usual Halloween lineup. Recent years have brought Spanish, Japanese, Italian, and Czech horror from the 1960s and 70s, plus cult oddities and the occasional classic. Scarecrow staff introduce each screening, and in 2025 they had Ken Jennings on the bill to read Poe before one of the films.

Keep in mind this is smaller than it used to be. When it ran at the Egyptian Theatre on Capitol Hill the lineup was around 16 films. SIFF gave up that lease in 2025, and the series moved to Uptown showing about five films instead.

Drink at an Immersive Halloween Cocktail Party

Haunted Soirée: HauntOberfest

📍 Address: Rainier Chapter House, 800 E Roy St, Seattle, WA 98102
🗓️ Dates: October 2nd to November 1st, 2026

Haunted Soirée is an adults-only immersive Halloween party held inside a historic Capitol Hill mansion, with a changing theme every year.

The theme in 2026 is HauntOberfest, a haunted Bavarian beer hall with an oompah band, craft drinks, live performances, and a cast of characters performing a story that unfolds as you move through the rooms. It runs two hours and is 21 and over. You must bring a valid ID.

The Rainier Chapter House, where the event is located, is a replica of Mount Vernon, and the Daughters of the American Revolution chapter that owns it has reported furniture moving among other creepy hauntings.

It runs like a scavenger hunt, with riddles to solve and clues to find. You move through the mansion at your own pace, and every room reveals another piece of the story, which this year draws on German folk magic and a 1928 murder case involving a book of spells.

Characters pull you into it as you go. There is no strict dress code, but almost everyone dresses up in costume alongside cocktail attire.

Every ticket includes at least one drink, and the higher tiers add a second, bigger pour and a souvenir German dimple glass to take home. Snacks and extra drinks are available for purchase. The lounge opens 30 minutes before your session, and it ends on time, so arrive early. Parking is limited, so I would recommend a rideshare.

See a Hilarious Halloween Inspired Improv Show

Unexpected Productions

📍 Address: Market Theater, 1428 Post Alley, Seattle, WA 98101
🗓️ Dates: Three Halloween shows running throughout October

Unexpected Productions is Seattle’s oldest improv theater, tucked into Post Alley right next to the Gum Wall in Pike Place Market. Every October they run three Halloween shows. They ask the crowd for words or ideas tied to a theme and build the whole thing around whatever they get, so no two nights are the same.

Poe Unexpected

🗓️ Dates: Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm through October

This one has been running for over a decade and is the one to pick if you are new to improv. The premise is that lost tales have been found in Edgar Allan Poe’s attic, stories he never told and never will. An actor dressed as Poe asks the audience for ideas, then the cast makes up scenes in his style as they go.

Rocky Horror Improv Show

🗓️ Dates: October 3rd, 10th, 17th, 23rd, 24th, and 30th at 11:30pm, plus Halloween at 9:30pm

A campy musical horror parody with original songs made up on the spot. It only runs a handful of late nights, so plan around it.

Night of the Living Theater

🗓️ Dates: Sundays, October 4th to 25th at 7:30pm

An improvised zombie apocalypse where the audience helps decide who survives. This is their Sunday show.

Dine With Ghosts at a Haunted Restaurant

Kells Irish Restaurant and Pub

📍 Address: 1916 Post Alley, Seattle, WA 98101

Kells is an Irish pub in the basement of the Butterworth Building near Pike Place Market, and many people will tell you it is the most haunted spot in Seattle.

The building went up in 1903 as the city’s first purpose-built mortuary, and it has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1971. The McAleese family opened the pub down here in 1983.

This mortuary had first elevator on the West Coast designed to move bodies between floors, along with coffin showrooms, embalming rooms, a chapel, and fireproof vaults where bodies could be stored indefinitely for families.

The operation had a reputation. Patrick McAleese, who owns the building now, has said flatly that Butterworth and Sons were never licensed and paid people a few dollars a head to collect bodies off the streets.

The mortuary also turns up in one of Washington’s grimmest true crime cases. Linda Hazzard was a self-styled doctor who starved patients to death at her sanitarium in Olalla, and she was eventually convicted for it. The bodies of her victims passed through this building.

One Butterworth employee pleaded guilty to illegally removing the body of a victim named Claire Williamson from the sanitarium. The press at the time also reported rumors that the mortuary had cremated her and swapped in a healthier-looking corpse, which would have hidden how emaciated she was.

As for the ghosts, the famous one is Charlie, an older man in a derby hat who shows up in a mirror on the wood-paneled wall around the corner from the bar. People see him smiling from the top corner, turn around, and find nobody there.

The other regular is a little girl in a red dress, usually seen at the top of a set of stairs. She is said to be playful with children who come in during the day. Plenty of people connect her to the 1918 flu pandemic, when countless children came through this building.

Then there is the everyday stuff. Glasses slide off tables and shatter, handprints appear on clean windows, and the pub’s longtime manager says the smell of formaldehyde still surfaces now and then.

Ghost Adventures filmed an episode here in season four after the owners invited them in, hoping they might move the spirits along.

Kells is a great spot near Pike Place Market to grab a drink and a bite. I have not had any spooky experiences myself, but that is not to say you will not.

Merchants Cafe and Saloon

📍 Address: 109 Yesler Way, Seattle, WA 98104

Merchants opened in 1890, and was rebuilt in brick after the Great Seattle Fire burned down the wooden building that stood here. It bills itself as Seattle’s oldest restaurant.

Over the years the upstairs has been a hotel, a boarding house, and a brothel, and the saloon itself doubled as a bank for miners heading north, taking gold as payment for five-cent drinks.

The brothel ran under the cover of hiring women as seamstresses. Clients picked who they wanted from portraits hanging around the bar, and some of those portraits are still on the walls.

The ghosts reside downstairs for the most part.

Two children are said to have died in a fire in the underground bar in 1938, and staff report small shadowy figures and the sound of kids laughing.

The lead bartender told a local news crew about coming in one morning to the lower bar, which had been padlocked overnight, and finding everything tipped over.

There is also a man with a badly damaged face who turns up in different parts of the building and reports of a woman’s voice in the basement restrooms. Glasses move, faucets turn themselves on, and wine bottles rearrange themselves behind the bar.

The staff keep a binder behind the bar full of photos and handwritten accounts going back decades.

Pioneer Square was the roughest part of town back then, full of gold prospectors, loggers, and sailors passing through on their way to Alaska, and the neighborhood saw plenty of violence.

If you are wanting a beer while exploring the area, this is a fantastic place to come, and they have live music on weekends.

The Pine Box

📍 Address: 1600 Melrose Ave, Seattle, WA 98122

The Pine Box has one of the best backstories of any bar in Seattle. The building opened in March 1923 as the Butterworth family’s Capitol Hill mortuary, an expansion of the operation they had been running down at Pike Place in what is now Kells.

From World War Two onward, Butterworth’s became the funeral home for Seattle’s Chinese and Japanese communities. A former employee told the Seattle Times that was two-thirds of their business for 60 years.

On July 30th, 1973, Bruce Lee’s funeral took place in what is now the main dining room. Steve McQueen and James Coburn were among the pallbearers.

The bar opened in the old chapel in 2012, and the rest of the building has been closed ever since. The owners kept a lot of the original fittings. The benches and booths are chapel pews, and the tabletops were built from cabinets that stored funeral supplies in the basement.

They run more than 30 rotating taps and a full cocktail list. They serve pizza, which is just okay.

It is walk-in only, 21 and over; the patio is open year-round, and dogs are welcome.

Il Bistro

📍 Address: 93 Pike St, Suite A, Seattle, WA 98101

Il Bistro is tucked below Pike Place Market on the lane that runs down to the Gum Wall, and it’s easy to walk past if you aren’t looking for it.

The place feels haunted before you know anything about it. The ceilings are low, the lighting is dim, and the whole room feels old.

The stories center on a ghost said to live in a mirror in the dining room, who reportedly turns up as a smear in photographs. There is also a woman who drifts in through the closed front door and heads straight down the hall toward the bathroom. Staff describe others as playful, appearing behind customers to startle them, or just irritating, knocking glasses and plates onto the floor.

The building went up in 1900 and the space has been through a lot. In the 1950s it was Sadie’s Café, a Chinese-American restaurant where a young Gary Locke helped his parents out before going on to become governor of Washington. After that it was a longshoreman’s tavern, then a subterranean dive bar in the 1970s.

Il Bistro has been here since 1975 and claims to be the first real Italian restaurant in Seattle, still cooking from their founding chef’s recipes. They open at 5pm every day and run late, until 2am.

The food and cocktails are excellent and worth a visit.

Stay in a Haunted Airbnb

Historic Merchants Apartment

📍 Address: Above Merchants Cafe, Pioneer Square, Seattle

As I mentioned above, Merchants Cafe is Seattle’s oldest restaurant and one of its most haunted buildings. The upstairs rooms operated as a brothel in the early 1900s and have since been converted into apartments you can book.

Back when Seattle was a rough frontier town full of miners and lumberjacks, the owner of what was then the Merchant’s Exchange Saloon saw an opportunity. He brought women to Seattle, listed them discreetly as seamstresses, and housed them upstairs.

Framed portraits of those women hung at the back of the saloon, and that collection worked as the menu. A man pointed to whoever he wanted to hem his trousers, paid the proprietor, and headed up the stairs.

The apartment sleeps two and has a kitchen, a washer and dryer, and lockbox entry, and you are walking distance from Pike Place Market, the waterfront, and the stadiums.

If you want somewhere unusual to sleep for a couple of nights, this is it.

Tour Seattle’s Underground City

BOOK A SEATTLE UNDERGROUND TOUR

Seattle’s Underground Tour is hands-down one of the most fascinating attractions in the city. You may be wondering, how did a city get built underground?

Well, the story starts with one of the most catastrophic events in Seattle’s history. On June 6, 1889, a massive fire broke out in downtown Seattle and burned the entire business district to the ground. The blaze began in a cabinet shop and rapidly spread, fueled by strong winds and the abundance of wooden structures. Within hours, it had consumed over 30 blocks.

Instead of just rebuilding at the same level, city planners decided to solve two problems at once. Seattle had always struggled with flooding because of its low elevation, and they were tired of dealing with the sewage and water issues. So they came up with a solution. They would raise the entire street level by about 12 feet and build new sidewalks to connect the second stories of buildings.

Today, you can explore these tunnels on guided tours. As you explore the underground, you’ll see old passageways that were once ground-level windows and doors, old oddities such as toilets and sewing machines, and you’ll learn about the glass skylights. These skylights were installed into sections of the new, higher street level so that the underground wouldn’t be so dark.

But of course, there are ghost stories too, because how could there not be? The Underground is renowned for paranormal spirits thought to be the neighborhood’s notoriously murdered, unrequited souls. The two main haunted hotspots of the Underground are the old bank, and a former brothel called the Oriental Hotel.

People report seeing the ghost of Fred the bank teller, as well as the spectres of gangsters and sex workers in the underground passages. There are stories about the spirit of a sex worker who has also been spotted in and around the tunnels. Quite a few tourists claim to have captured the images of ghosts while taking selfies.

There are two companies that run tours. Bill Speidel Underground which is the original tour and Beneath the Streets which is a newer company. Both companies offer daily tours that run every hour.

Do the Time Warp at a Screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show

GET TICKETS TO ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW

The Paramount Theatre is throwing a massive 50th anniversary party for The Rocky Horror Picture Show on October 28th and Barry Bostwick, will be there! I went to this screening last year and was not expecting it to be so wild!

People showed up in corsets and fishnets, they were yelling stuff at the screen, and there was even a costume contest. It’s weird and chaotic and so much fun.

Every single person also got a bag full of props that we could use during the movie. We got rice to throw during the wedding scene, a newspaper to cover our heads during the rainstorm and tons more surprises.

The show starts at 7:30, but doors open at 6:30 so you can get there early and soak it all in. Fair warning though, if this is your first Rocky Horror experience, prepare to feel like you’ve fallen down some kind of glittery, musical rabbit hole. It’s completely bonkers, but a great time.

Stay with Ghostly Friends at a Haunted Hotel

Hotel Ändra | Address: 2000 4th Ave, Seattle, WA 98121

Originally built in 1926 as the Claremont Hotel, this 10-story building witnessed Seattle’s wildest prohibition-era days. The ninth floor was particularly notorious for hosting high-class jazz parties where Seattle’s socialites would gather to drink, dance, and carry on well into the night. Nearly a century later, it seems those parties never really ended.

The hotel’s most persistent paranormal activity centers around what guests describe as phantom celebrations on the ninth floor. Hotel patrons regularly report hearing jazz music and party sounds, but when staff investigate, they find the area completely empty. The sounds include loud voices, clinking glasses, and even what sounds like fights breaking out.

In the 1960s, tragedy struck when a female hotel worker fell to her death from the upper floors. Many believe her spirit still roams the building. Guests frequently encounter the apparition of a woman dressed in 1930s-style clothing appearing in their rooms.

The paranormal experiences aren’t limited to the upper floors. In the lobby, guests and staff have witnessed a paperweight suddenly lift itself off a glass table and crash back down with a loud bang.

The Mayflower Park Hotel Seattle | Address: 405 Olive Wy, Seattle, WA 98101

The Mayflower Park Hotel was built in 1927 as the Bergonian Hotel. The developer managed to construct this beauty in just six months, opening ahead of schedule with 240 rooms that were considered the height of luxury for the time.

The grand opening was extravagant with a concert orchestra, dancing, and drinks flowing all night. But from a supernatural standpoint., unlike some of Seattle’s other allegedly haunted hotels that have dramatic histories filled with scandals and tragedies, the Mayflower Park has been refreshingly… well, normal.

No wild parties that ended in bloodshed, no mysterious disappearances, no suicides. It’s been a respectable, well-run establishment for almost a century. Which makes it all the more puzzling that it seems to be home to some very persistent spirits.

The Gentleman of the Sixth Floor is an elderly gentleman who apparently lived and died somewhere on the sixth floor. Nobody knows exactly who he was or when he passed away, but guests have been reporting encounters with him for decades.

This ghostly resident has a rather unsettling habit of watching guests while they sleep. He’s been spotted drifting from room to room.

If you’re feeling brave and want to up your chances of a paranormal encounter, request Room 1120 on the eleventh floor. This is where the hotel’s second known spirit likes to hang out, and unlike his more serious counterpart on the sixth floor, this guy has a sense of humor.

This ghostly resident is known for playing practical jokes on both guests and staff. He’s particularly fond of making mop buckets disappear. One employee found his cleaning supplies had mysteriously relocated to a different floor entirely. He’s also known for making mysterious sounds, and moving objects around.

The hotel actually refers to this spirit as “friendly,” though you might want to ask some of the guests who’ve encountered him whether they’d use the same terminology.

Whether you’re a believer in the supernatural or just someone who appreciates a good ghost story, the Mayflower Park Hotel is a unique place to stay in Seattle. The spirits here seem more curious than malicious, more interested in companionship than causing chaos. That being said, if you’re easily startled or prefer your accommodations completely spirit-free, you might want to book elsewhere.

Hotel Sorrento | Address: 900 Madison St, Seattle, WA 98104

Back in 1909, when Seattle was gearing up to host the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, clothing merchant Samuel Rosenberg had a grand vision. He’d made a fortune outfitting gold rush prospectors and figured all those expo visitors would need somewhere spectacular to stay.

Rosenberg hired architect Harlan Thomas, a well-traveled man who’d fallen hard for the Italian coastline. Thomas took one look at Seattle’s hills and harbor views which reminded him of Italy and decided to build the Sorrento hotel, a piece of Italy right in the heart of Seattle.

The hotel was an instant hit with Seattle’s elite and distinguished visitors. This hotel was home to Seattle’s first rooftop restaurant. Back then, you could see clear views of Mount Rainier and Puget Sound.

Now, for the spooky hauntings! The hotel’s most famous resident isn’t someone you’d expect to find haunting a Seattle establishment. Alice B. Toklas was a literary legend. The life partner of writer Gertrude Stein and a fascinating character in her own right. She was part of the bohemian art scene in Paris, hosted salons for famous writers and artists, and yes, she’s the woman who made pot brownies famous through her cookbook.

Alice probably never actually stayed at Hotel Sorrento during her lifetime. She did live in Seattle as a teenager in the 1890s, studying music at the University of Washington, while her family lived somewhere near where the hotel now stands. But they moved back to San Francisco well before the hotel was even built, and Alice spent most of her adult life in Paris, where she eventually died in 1967.

So why is she apparently spending her afterlife wandering the halls of a hotel she never stayed at? Nobody has a clue, but she’s definitely made herself at home.

If you’re hoping to encounter Alice, your best bet is Room 408 on the fourth floor. That seems to be Alice’s favorite spot, though she’s been spotted throughout the building. Guests have reported seeing a figure in flowing white clothing drifting through the hallways, never speaking or interacting, just gliding around.

People regularly report their drinks moving on their own in the hotel’s Dunbar Room. Lights have a tendency to flicker and dim when she’s around.

Staff members sometimes hear piano music drifting from the seventh-floor penthouse when no one’s staying there. Given that Alice was trained as a concert pianist before she became a famous author.

Hotel Sorrento has completely embraced their famous ghost. A few years back, they hosted an entire dinner party in Alice’s honor, complete with recipes from her famous cookbook and ghost tours of the property. The bar even created a signature cocktail named after her.

Not every guest experiences something supernatural. Plenty of people stay in Room 408 and have perfectly normal hotel stays. But for those who do encounter something unexplained, the stories are remarkably consistent.

The Arctic Club | Address: 700 3rd Ave, Seattle, WA 98104

If walls could talk, the Arctic Club Hotel would have some absolutely wild stories to tell. The story begins in 1907 when two men who’d struck it rich during the Klondike Gold Rush decided they needed somewhere impressive to reminisce about their frozen adventures. E.A. Von Hasslocher, a native Alaskan explorer, and A.D. Coulter, a former Chicago newspaperman turned successful prospector, founded the Arctic Club as a gathering place for fellow gold rush veterans.

By 1916 they commissioned architect A. Warren Gould to design a headquarters where they could meet. The result was the Arctic Club!

The club featured card rooms, billiard rooms, a private barbershop, a bowling alley, multiple dining rooms, and a Northern Lights Dome Room, topped with a magnificent 60-foot diameter stained glass dome and crystal chandelier. There was even a rooftop garden where members could relax and swap stories about their adventures.

The Arctic Club’s haunted reputation largely stems from one devastating event in 1936. Marion Zioncheck, Washington’s first elected Democratic congressman, had made the building his home base and office on the fifth floor. Zioncheck was already something of a character. He’d previously been arrested for drunken antics on the White House lawn, got into fights on the House floor, and once sent President Roosevelt a bizarre gift of empty beer bottles and mothballs.

But beneath the eccentric behavior, Zioncheck was struggling with serious mental health issues. After a public breakdown that landed him briefly in a mental institution (from which he dramatically escaped by climbing a seven-foot wall), he returned to Seattle.

On a tragic day in August 1936, Zioncheck opened his fifth-floor office window and jumped to his death, landing on the pavement below, directly in front of the car his wife was in.

A suicide note found in his office revealed his disillusionment with what he saw as an unjust economic system that offered no hope to ordinary people despite all the wealth around him.

But Zioncheck isn’t the only supernatural resident of the Arctic Club Hotel. The building seems to be populated by the restless spirits of its original members. The third and fifth floors are particularly active. Guests regularly report hearing phantom conversations drifting through the halls, the disembodied voices of long-dead businessmen still discussing their frontier deals. The smell of cigars occasionally wafts through rooms.

At the Polar Bar, staff and patrons have reported hearing ghostly whispers and the sound of glasses clinking in toasts.  Phantom footsteps echo through corridors at all hours, and some guests report hearing what sounds like a party in full swing.

As for Congressman Zioncheck himself, his presence is felt most strongly on the fifth floor where his office was located. The hotel’s elevator has a disturbing habit of stopping at the fifth floor on its own, as if he is in the elevator with guests.

The most unsettling encounters involve people actually witnessing replays of Zioncheck’s final moments. Some guests and passersby on the street below have reported seeing a figure falling from the fifth-floor window, only to have the apparition vanish mid-air. Others claim to have glimpsed his mangled body on the pavement outside, lying in a pool of blood, before the vision disappears when they look again.

Today, the Arctic Club operates as a luxury boutique hotel, part of the DoubleTree chain. The famous Northern Lights Dome Room is still there in all its stained-glass glory, and the Polar Bar continues to serve as a gathering place.

Learn About Seattle’s Haunted History on a Ghost Tour

Seattle Terror Ghost Tour

If you’re going to be in Seattle for Halloween and you want to do something actually scary instead of just hitting up another crowded bar, you have to check out the Seattle Terrors ghost tour.

They run every night and last 1 hour. On the tour you will visit a bar that used to be a mortuary, and they also take you through Pike Place Market, which is one of the most haunted places in the city. Plus lots of other spooky spots. The guide will share all the haunted stories with you and maybe, if you are lucky, you might come head to head with a ghost.

Spooktacular Ghost Tour (All Ages)

If you’re looking for a fun family friendly ghost tour you can take your kids on without traumatizing them for life, look no further! The tour runs for 1.5 hours and takes you through downtown Seattle, focusing heavily on Pike Place Market, which is honestly perfect for kids because there’s so much to see there anyway. You will also have a costumed guide leading the way.

This tour focuses more on the historical mysteries and strange coincidences rather than the bloodier, more violent stories. They also offer private versions of the all-ages walk if you want to book something just for your family or a maybe a birthday party.

Explore the Most Haunted Places in Seattle

The Cadillac Hotel | Address: 168 S Jackson St, Seattle, WA 98104

Some buildings are born from disaster, and the Cadillac Hotel is the perfect example. Rising literally from the ashes of one of Seattle’s most devastating catastrophes. This three-story Victorian building has been home to over a century’s worth of working-class folks whose struggles, hopes, and heartbreaking stories seem to have never really left.

The Great Seattle Fire of 1889 changed the city forever. In just twelve hours, flames consumed 25 city blocks, destroying most of downtown Seattle and leaving thousands homeless.

Completed in 1889 and opening its doors in 1890, the building started life as the Elliott House with 56 rooms. It was positioned perfectly in what would become Seattle’s original commercial district, designed to serve the army of workers who were rebuilding the city from the ground up.

Like many buildings that survive this long, the Cadillac Hotel went through several identity changes. From 1891 to 1904, it operated as the Derig Hotel, maintaining its focus on providing affordable housing for working men.

In 1906, new ownership brought the final transformation into the Cadillac Hotel. This wasn’t a place for tourists or business travelers. The Cadillac was the home away from home for loggers coming down from the forests, fishermen between voyages, railroad workers laying the tracks that would connect Seattle to the rest of America, and shipyard workers building the vessels that made Seattle a major port city. For 25 to 50 cents a night, a worker could get a bed and a roof over his head.

The hotel’s first floor bustled with small businesses, including a lunch counter that fed the steady stream of workers.

But the Cadillac’s working-class clientele brought with it all sorts of problems. Pioneer Square in those days was rough territory, filled with saloons, gambling dens, and brothels.

The area attracted sex workers who served the largely single, male workforce that dominated the neighborhood. These women lived harsh lives with few options and even fewer safety nets. And it’s here that the Cadillac’s most famous ghost story begins.

The most heartbreaking supernatural presence at the Cadillac Hotel involves a woman and her child whose story has become legend, though the exact details remain murky. What’s clear is that tragedy struck in one of the hotel’s upper rooms, and the emotional imprint of that night has never faded.

According to some versions of the story, she was a single mother who had already lost everything, evicted from her home and forced to seek refuge in the cheapest accommodations she could find. The Cadillac Hotel became her last resort, but even here, her situation continued to deteriorate. Whether through desperation, mental illness, or simply the crushing weight of impossible circumstances, she made the unthinkable decision to take her child’s life and then her own.

Another version tells of a woman working in the sex trade who found herself pregnant with nowhere to turn. In desperation, she attempted to perform her own abortion in her hotel room, a procedure that went horribly wrong, resulting in her death and that of her unborn child.

Regardless of which version is true, guests, and staff at the Cadillac Hotel have reported the same haunting for decades: the sound of a woman and child crying, echoing through the halls, especially during the night.

But the crying mother and child aren’t the hotel’s only ghostly residents. The Cadillac seems to be populated by the spirits of the countless working men who lived and died there over the years. Guests have reported seeing shadowy figures in the windows of the upper floors, even when those floors have been closed and empty for years.

There are reports of phantom footsteps pacing the hallways, disembodied voices, and the general sense of being watched by unseen eyes. The building’s elevator, when it was still in operation for guests, had a reputation for stopping at floors where nobody had pressed the button. Some visitors claim to have spotted the apparitions of old loggers, fishermen, and railroad workers moving through the building.

The hotel operated successfully for decades, weathering the Great Depression. But in 1970, everything changed when a tragedy took place at a different building.

An arsonist set fires at the Ozark Hotel that killed over twenty people, spurring the Seattle City Council to pass the Ozark Ordinance. This new law required all hotels and apartment buildings to install expensive sprinkler systems on their upper floors. For struggling establishments in Pioneer Square, already dealing with economic decline, the cost was prohibitive.

Like many other buildings in the neighborhood, the Cadillac Hotel was forced to permanently close its upper floors to guests. The hotel portion of the business shut down, leaving only the ground floor open for small businesses. For thirty years, the upper floors sat empty.

The abandoned upper floors became even more eerie over the decades, but they were nearly lost forever when the 6.8-magnitude Nisqually Earthquake struck on February 28, 2001. The Cadillac Hotel was one of the hardest hit buildings in Pioneer Square, suffering severe structural damage.

With demolition seeming likely due to the enormous cost of repairs, Historic Seattle stepped in with an ambitious preservation plan. After four years of complex restoration work, the building reopened in 2005 with a new mission. Housing the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park and serving as a museum dedicated to Seattle’s gold rush era. It’s free to visit and very fascinating if you like history!

Despite its transformation into a respectable museum, the Cadillac Hotel hasn’t lost its supernatural residents. Visitors and staff still report unexplained sounds, and mysterious presences.

Fremont Troll | Address: North 36th Street, Troll Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103

Sometimes the most unsettling places are hiding in plain sight under busy bridges, where a massive concrete creature has been silently watching the neighborhood for over three decades, and according to some locals, he’s not alone down there.

The Fremont Troll wasn’t just designed to look intimidating. It was built to last and to make a statement. Weighing 13,000 pounds and constructed from steel rebar, wire, and concrete. The Volkswagen Beetle clutched in its left hand is a real car that was encased in concrete, complete with what was originally a California license plate (though that’s been stolen over the years).

The troll’s single visible eye stares out with an expression that manages to be both mischievous and menacing, while its concrete fingers seem ready to crush anything that gets too close.

But the troll’s imposing presence was intended to serve a practical purpose. The sculpture was meant to be a guardian of sorts, protecting the neighborhood’s character from unwanted changes.

What the artists probably didn’t anticipate was how quickly legends sorrounding the troll would spread. Within just a few years of its installation, residents began reporting strange activities in the area.

The most persistent story involves an unnamed ghost that supposedly haunts the underpass alongside the concrete troll. Witnesses claim to have seen garbage cans moving by themselves in the middle of the night, sliding across the pavement with no visible cause. People describe watching trash containers deliberately repositioning themselves.

The sightings are consistent enough that they’ve become part of local folklore, with some residents suggesting that the troll’s presence has attracted other supernatural entities to the area. Whether the ghost is connected to the sculpture itself or simply drawn to the spot for other reasons, nobody seems to know.

But the supernatural stories took a much darker turn in 2013 when Seattle police were called to investigate a disturbing discovery near the troll. Officers found more than a dozen freshly skinned sheep skulls arranged in what appeared to be a ritual pattern in a yard adjacent to the sculpture.

The macabre find sparked immediate speculation about occult activities, with some darkly joking that “the statue had a snack.” While authorities ultimately concluded it was likely the work of pranksters rather than anything sinister.

The bloody skulls weren’t an isolated incident. Over the years, police have been called to investigate various bizarre discoveries around the troll, including other animal remains arranged in ceremonial patterns.

From the beginning, the Fremont Troll has had to defend its territory against various forms of vandalism and unwanted attention. Almost immediately after its installation, homeless individuals who had previously used the space began retaliating against their displacement by spray-painting and damaging the sculpture.

The vandalism became so persistent that in 1991, neighbors pooled money to install powerful floodlights around the troll to deter “late-night revelers” and protect it from continued damage. But the troll seemed to develop its own form of resilience. Every time vandals tried to deface it with paint or graffiti, the city would apply a fresh layer of concrete over the damage.

Local folklore has developed its own stories for the strange events around the Fremont Troll. Some residents claim that the sculpture comes alive at night, prowling the neighborhood to protect it from threats and ward off evil spirits.

But there are darker stories too. Some visitors report feeling distinctly unwelcome in the space, as if they’re being watched by hostile eyes that see them as intruders. The sculpture has been featured in movies, inspired songs, and become such an iconic part of Seattle that the street above it was officially renamed Troll Avenue.

Pike Place Market

Most people visit Pike Place Market for the flying fish, fresh flowers, and world-famous coffee. But Seattle’s most beloved tourist destination has also become home to some of the city’s most persistent ghosts, each with their own story.

Pike Place Market’s ghost story begins before the first vendor ever set up shop. The land where the market stands today has a deep, complicated history that goes back centuries before Seattle even existed. When the market was being planned in 1907, developers built it directly on the site where one of Seattle’s most notable Native American residents had made her home.

Princess Angeline whose Duwamish name was Kikisoblu was the eldest daughter of Chief Seattle himself. In 1855, when all Duwamish people were ordered to leave their ancestral lands and move to reservations, Angeline flat-out refused. She was one of the only Native Americans allowed to remain in the growing city, and she made her living selling hand-woven baskets and doing laundry for settlers.

For decades, Angeline was a familiar sight around Seattle, instantly recognizable by her small, bent-over figure and the red cape she always wore. She lived in a simple waterfront cabin right where Pike Place Market would later be constructed. When she died in 1896 at age 85, the whole city mourned her passing with a grand funeral.

But according to local legend, Angeline never really left. Her father, Chief Seattle, had once prophesied that long after his tribe disappeared from the area, their spirits would remain.

Frank Goodwin was one of the original developers who helped bring Pike Place Market to life in 1907. By all accounts, he was a friendly man who took genuine pride in his work and loved helping people navigate the new market. Those personality traits apparently carried over into his afterlife.

For decades now, visitors to Pike Place Market have reported encounters with a tall, elderly gentleman who approaches them near the restrooms or on the main stairways, introduces himself as Frank, and asks “How can I help you?” Before people can respond or ask questions, the helpful man simply disappears into thin air.

The encounters are consistent enough that market regulars have come to expect Frank’s appearances. He seems particularly drawn to people who look lost or confused, appearing just when visitors need directions or assistance the most.

Frank wasn’t the only Goodwin family member who became permanently attached to Pike Place Market. His nephew Arthur was instrumental in the market’s early development and served as Market Director from 1918 to 1941. Arthur was known for keeping a close eye on operations from his upper-level office.

Arthur’s former office has been converted into what’s now called the Goodwin Library, but staff and visitors regularly report seeing a man’s silhouette looking down from the library window, just as Arthur used to do. Sometimes people even spot him carrying a golf club, which makes sense given his memberships at several exclusive golf clubs when he was alive.

But Arthur’s most famous haunting occurs at Ghost Alley Espresso. The shop openly claims Arthur as “our ghost,” and the former manager has become something of a beloved mascot. Customers and staff report sensing his presence, especially during busy periods when the coffee shop needs an extra hand with crowd management.

One of Pike Place Market’s more unsettling ghost stories involves a woman whose criminal activities came to a sudden, dramatic end right in the heart of the market. Known now only as the “Fat Lady Barber” (a rather unfortunate nickname that stuck over the decades), she ran a barbershop within the market.

The barber would sing to her male customers while cutting their hair, using her voice to lull them into a relaxed, drowsy state. Once they were nearly asleep in her chair, she’d rifle through their wallets and steal their money. This scam worked successfully for quite some time, until one day when karma caught up with her.

During what would be her final theft, the floor beneath the barber’s chair suddenly gave way. She plunged through to her death, ending her criminal career. But her voice apparently lived on. Market workers, especially those cleaning late at night or early in the morning, report hearing a woman singing somewhere in the building, though they can never pinpoint the source of the music.

The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic hit Seattle hard, killing over a thousand residents including many children. One of those young victims was a boy who’s become known simply as Jacob, and he’s found a perfect eternal home in Merry Tales, Pike Place Market’s toy store.

When Jacob first began haunting the toy store, his methods of getting attention were rather disruptive. He’d throw toys around, knock items off shelves, and generally create chaos as he tried to play with customers and staff. The activity was frequent enough that it was affecting business, so the shop owner came up with a creative solution.

They set up a special room just for Jacob, complete with his own bed and toys. The gesture apparently worked. Jacob’s disruptive behavior calmed down significantly. He still makes his presence known occasionally, but now it’s more playful than problematic. Cash register drawers sometimes open and close by themselves, and toys occasionally move on their own.

Princess Angeline remains Pike Place Market’s most frequently sighted ghost. Witnesses describe seeing a small, hunched woman in a red cape moving through the market, often carrying baskets just as she did in life. She appears most commonly near a rough wooden column in the lower level of the market, where the temperature reportedly drops noticeably whenever she’s present.

Individual shops throughout Pike Place Market have developed their own ghost stories over the years. At the former Bead Emporium, renovation work uncovered a basket of beads that had been hidden in a wall for decades, presumably by the ghost of a small boy who liked to hoard the colorful trinkets. Staff would arrive to find cash registers operating on their own and beads mysteriously rearranged throughout the store.

At various magic and crystal shops in the market, there have been reports of spirits inhabiting crystal balls and other mystical items. One particularly active crystal ball was passed from shop to shop after repeatedly causing unexplained phenomena wherever it was displayed. The spirit inhabiting it was known as Madame Nora.

Even the bookstores have had their share of ghostly encounters. At one shop, employees would arrive every morning to find the same book on the floor, despite repeatedly placing it back on the shelf. The mysterious activity only stopped when the book was finally destroyed, though nobody ever learned what was so special about that particular title.

Grand Army of the Republic Cemetary

The Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery might be the most overlooked haunted location in all of Seattle. But don’t let its small size fool you. This 2.3-acre plot of land holds some of the most intense paranormal activity in the city, and it’s all connected to one of the bloodiest chapters in American history.

The story of GAR Cemetery begins in 1895, thirty years after the Civil War ended, when five Seattle chapters of the Grand Army of the Republic decided their aging brothers-in-arms needed a proper place to rest.

These men had seen things that would haunt them for the rest of their lives. They’d watched friends die on blood-soaked battlefields, participated in charges where survival was pure luck, and lived through the kind of violence that leaves permanent scars on a person’s soul. Many of them carried physical wounds that would never heal, but the psychological damage ran even deeper.

When the war ended, thousands of these veterans headed west to start over, hoping that distance and new opportunities might help them forget what they’d experienced. Seattle, with its promise of prosperity and fresh beginnings, attracted its share of these broken men seeking redemption or at least peace.

The most commonly reported ghostly incidents at GAR Cemetery are the sounds of battle. Visitors consistently describe hearing shouting, crying, and what can only be described as the sounds of men in agony.

Electronic voice recordings taken in the cemetery have allegedly captured conversations between soldiers, discussions about battles that ended over 150 years ago, and desperate pleas from men who seem unaware that the war is over.

Multiple witnesses over the decades have reported seeing full-bodied apparitions of soldiers in Civil War uniforms moving through the cemetery grounds, often appearing to be engaged in military activities.

Witnesses describe seeing groups of uniformed men who appear to be on patrol, standing guard, or preparing for battle. Some reports describe soldiers who seem to be digging trenches or fortifications, while others mention figures who appear to be treating wounded comrades.

The most frequently reported apparition is a single soldier, usually described as tall and gaunt, wearing a Union Army uniform that appears authentically detailed down to the brass buttons and military insignia. This figure has been seen standing at attention near the cemetery’s central monument, as if he’s still on duty.

Among the 526 veterans buried at GAR Cemetery, one grave holds particular significance for those interested in the paranormal activity: the burial site of a soldier who survived the notorious Andersonville prison camp, where thousands of Union prisoners died in horrific conditions during the final months of the Civil War.

These men had endured months of starvation, disease, exposure, and systematic brutality that broke many of them permanently. The area around this particular grave has become a focal point for some of the most intense paranormal activity in the cemetery. Visitors report feeling an overwhelming sense of anger and desperation near this site, emotions so powerful that some people have had to leave the cemetery entirely.

Electronic equipment malfunctions consistently in this area, with cameras failing, phones dying, and temperature readings dropping dramatically without explanation. Several paranormal investigators have reported feeling physically pushed or grabbed while standing near this grave.

GAR Cemetery is open from 4 AM to 11:30 PM daily, and it’s free to visit.

Martha Washintons Home for Girls

If you’re looking for a place in Seattle that’ll give you the chills, head to Martha Washington Park down by Lake Washington. During the day, it’s just another pretty lakeside park where families hang out and people walk their dogs. But once the sun starts going down, it become much darker & sinister

Most people have no clue that this peaceful park used to be the site of the Martha Washington School for Girls. This place operated from 1921 to 1971, and it was basically where Seattle sent the girls that society had given up on. The “bad” ones, the “troubled” ones, the ones whose families couldn’t handle them anymore.

The horror of this place actually starts way before the school was even built. This whole area used to be sacred ground for the Duwamish tribe. They camped here, fished here, and most importantly, buried their dead here for generations. It was consecrated ground.

In the late 1800s, some judge bought the property and built his fancy mansion right on top of the burial ground. The construction crews just plowed right through graves, scattering bones and destroying the area.

The judge built this weird hollow staircase that led up to this massive tree on the property which would later become central to some of the most disturbing stories about the school. Even before the school opened, people reported strange things happening around that tree.

When the Seattle School District bought the property in 1920, they thought they were creating a place to help “wayward” girls get back on track. What they actually created was a horror show disguised as an institution of learning. The girls who ended up at Martha Washington had run away from abusive homes or gotten pregnant. Some just had the bad luck to be born into poverty in an era when being poor was treated like a moral failing.

Once those girls walked through the gates, they disappeared from the outside world. No one was checking on them. No one was making sure they were being treated humanely. Society had already written them off, which made them perfect victims for the predators who ran the place.

The stories that eventually leaked out were absolutely horrific. There was systematic abuse, sexual assault, and violence that went on for decades.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the school’s history centers around the groundskeeper who lived in a small hut on the property. He became a violent alcoholic who would terrorize the girls.

Multiple sources describe this guy as being completely insane, seeing things that weren’t there, hearing voices, and becoming increasingly paranoid and violent. The most persistent story involves him murdering at least one student, possibly more, and hanging her body from that same massive tree that the judge had built his weird staircase to reach. Some versions say he assaulted her first, others suggest it was part of some ritualistic killing.

After the school finally closed in 1971, things got even worse. The buildings sat empty for years, attracting vagrants and vandals. In the 1980s, a satanic cult started using the abandoned buildings for their rituals. There were animal sacrifices, blood ceremonies, and who knows what else.

The neighbors were so freaked out by what was happening that they actually petitioned the city council to tear the whole place down. In 1989, Seattle finally demolished the buildings, but as anyone who understands haunted places will tell you, destroying the structures doesn’t destroy the spiritual imprint of what happened there.

Today, Martha Washington Park looks peaceful and innocent, but people who visit after dark have had some very different stories to tell. The most commonly reported ghost is a young girl in a white nightgown who appears among the trees. She doesn’t seem threatening. It seems like she’s still looking for help that never came.

Witnesses say she’ll sometimes walk alongside groups of visitors, especially if there’s an odd number of people. She seems drawn to teenage girls who might be going through something, as if she’s trying to offer the comfort and protection. But she also apparently has no problem scaring the hell out of anyone she perceives as a threat.

People report hearing phantom footsteps, disembodied crying, and the sound of girls’ voices calling out in the distance. Electronic equipment goes haywire near the old tree, and visitors consistently report feeling watched, followed, or actively pushed away from certain areas of the park.

Tha tree is still standing, and it’s become the epicenter of paranormal activity in the park. The hollow staircase is gone, but people who get too close to the tree report feeling overwhelmed by sadness, anger, and desperation.

Martha Washington Park is open to the public year-round, but if you decide to visit, just remember, if you see a young girl in white walking through the trees at dusk, she’s not there to hurt you. She’s there because she never got the chance to grow up, never got the help she needed, never got the justice she deserved. The least we can do is listen.

Where to Stay in Seattle

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Halloween in Seattle: FAQS

What’s the Weather Typically like in October

October weather in Seattle is typically mild and increasingly wet as the month progresses. Temperatures are comfortable, with daytime highs usually ranging from 55-65°F (13-18°C) and nighttime lows generally falling between 45-50°F (7-10°C).

October marks the beginning of Seattle’s rainy season, though it’s not as crazy as many visitors expect. The city typically receives around 3-4 inches of rain throughout the month.

How many days should I plan for a Halloween trip to Seattle

Most of the events in this article are going on the entire month of October, so you could really come anytime, but in terms of how long to stay, that depends on how much you want to see and do. I would recommend coming 3 or 4 days during the weekend as that is when most of the events are happening, but you could easily come for two days and see a ton!

How far in advance should I book Halloween activities?

If you know the dates you will be visiting, I recommend booking at least 2-4 weeks in advance.

How do I get around Seattle?

Public Transportation will be the best way to get around, and luckily Seattle has an awesome public transport network compared to most West Coast cities.

Light Rail – The Link Light Rail connects Sea-Tac Airport to downtown and extends to the University District and Northgate. It’s reliable, affordable ($2.25-$3.50), and great for north-south travel.

Buses – There are extensive bus routes throughout the city. Most major neighborhoods are well-connected. Fares are $2.75-$3.25.

To ride all public transportation in the city, you can either get an ORCA card which you can tap when you enter the light rail or bus. If you are only coming for a few days, you can pay with cash , but only on the bus. You need an ORCA to ride the light rail.

Seattle is also very walkable, especially if you are staying downtown. You can walk to Capitol Hill in 20 min.

Uber and Lyft are also available if you plan on staying out late, it would be much more reliable than the buses.

Is Seattle safe?

Seattle is generally safe, but like any major U.S. city, there are areas that are sketchier than others, so always use common sense and if you feel unsafe, call a ride-share or move to a busier street.

Overall Safety:
Most tourist areas and popular neighborhoods are safe, especially during daytime hours. Violent crime against tourists is uncommon, though property crime (car break-ins, theft) is more common.

Safer Neighborhoods:

• Capitol Hill, Fremont, Ballard, Queen Anne, Wallingford, Green Lake, and the University District are typically safe.
• Downtown Seattle during the day is safe
• Pike Place Market and the waterfront area are heavily visited and patrolled

Areas Requiring More Caution:

Parts of downtown (particularly 3rd Avenue and Pioneer Square) as well as The area around the King Street Station in the international district can feel uncomfortable, especially at night, these areas have a lot of homelessness and drug use.

Common Issues:

Car break-ins are the most frequent crime affecting visitors. Never leave valuables visible in your car

Safety Tips:

• Stay in well-lit, populated areas at night
• Don’t leave anything visible in parked cars
• Use rideshare or transit rather than walking alone late at night in unfamiliar areas
• Keep valuables secure and stay aware of your surroundings

Looking for more Washington State Travel Tips? Check out these articles!

12 Amazing Snoqualmie Falls Tours from Seattle
9 Festive Things to do for Christmas in Leavenworth, WA in 202
11 Epic Things to Do On Whidbey Island, Washington: A Perfect Weekend Getaway
9 Beautiful Mt Rainier Tours from Seattle
Gifts Made in Washington State: A Local Shopping Guide
17 Mouthwatering Pike Place Market Food Tours
32 Magical Things to do For Christmas in Seattle
11 Unforgettable Seattle Boat Tours 

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Travel Resources

First off, if you want to browse all my favorite travel resources, check out my Travel Resources page.

Trip Planning: I have put together the ultimate trip planning guide that will walk you through everything you need to know to plan your perfect trip.

Book your Flight: Check out Momondo! They are my go to for booking flights. Airfarewatchdog is also a favorite of mine. I get notified by email every time there is a good deal from my local airport. WayAway is also a good option. They list mistake fares so many times, you can get an international ticket for as little as $300!

Book your Transportation: Busbud is usually where I check first. They check hundreds of different transportation companies all over the world and find you the best bus deal. Flixbus is one of my favorite cheap options for Europe. The buses generally aren’t too bad, and they go to most countries around Europe. It’s the perfect option for short distances. Train travel is my favorite mode of transportation, and I always use Rail Europe to book my tickets. If you need a transfer from the airport or if you are going somewhere where transport is limited (like a festival in the middle of nowhere or even a day trip) Welcome Pickups is a great option. I have used them on multiple occasions, and you can book a ride 5 hours in advance!

Book your Accommodation: My number one is Booking. If you book enough hotels from them, you can get huge discounts and perks like free breakfast and room upgrade. On a budget and looking for cheap accommodation? Hostelworld is my preferred site to book cheap and reliable hostels. Hotwire has a fun mystery to it. It’s a great site to use for last-minute bookings. They don’t actually tell you the name of the hotel when you are browsing. You will just get the area of the city it’s in, the price, and how many stars it has. I love the surprise aspect of it! Traveling to Asia? Agoda is the best accommodation booking site! If you are traveling with a big group, Vrbo is a good option. They have a huge selection of vacation rentals. Hotellook allows you to compare hotel prices around the world, so you can find the best deal!

Book your Travel Insurance: Getting travel insurance is such a crucial part of preparing for a trip. You never know what could happen, and why take the risk? Before I travel anywhere, I always book my insurance through Visitors Coverage.

Book your Activities: Now, you have planned all the logistics, time to think about what you will do once you get to your destination! These are a few of my favorite trip planning sites. I always use Get Your Guide and Viator when I am looking for tours. If you are traveling to Asia, Klook is widely used to book activities. Go City sells tickets to top attractions for up to 65% off. Eat With allows you to book dinners or cooking classes with local families. If you enjoy self-guided walking tours, We Go Trip has audio guides you can download. Big Bus Tours offers open-top sightseeing tours.

Store Your Luggage: Do you have a long layover or a late flight and need to store your luggage? Radical Storage has got you covered.

Get an eSim: Airlalo has been an amazing way for me to stay connected on the road. They have eSims in 200 countries and set up is super easy.