The Pennsylvania collection
Erie County
24 places. A county full of stories.
Discover local legends, historic places and the stories of sites you can explore virtually.
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CemeteriesAsbury Church Cemetery
Asbury Church Cemetery near Erie became the setting for a series of childhood sightings recounted to Robin Swope. During his work with the church’s…
OutdoorsBattles Estate
The woods on the Battles estate in Girard hold a story about a stream locally called Dead Man's Creek. Estate tenants told researchers N. A. Reiter…
Battles Estate Yellow House
The Yellow House at the Battles estate in Girard was built in 1858. Rush Battles’s mother and sisters remained there after he married and moved to…
Inns & businessesEagle Hotel
Built in 1826, the Eagle Hotel in Waterford served stagecoach passengers and became a center of local social life. Thomas King’s stone inn on High…
CemeteriesErie Cemetery
Erie Cemetery, established in 1851, contains an unmarked hillside tomb known locally as the Vampire Crypt. The legend says a vampire rests there…
Erie County Memorial Gardens
In July 2001, Robin Swope was mowing the grounds of Erie County Memorial Gardens when a large bird rose from the grass about twenty-five yards away.…
Bridges & railways · Historical imageFormer Gudgeonville Covered Bridge crossing of Elk Creek
The Gudgeonville Covered Bridge once crossed Elk Creek near Girard in Erie County. Although arson destroyed the wooden bridge in 2008, stories about…
Former St. Peter Cathedral Center
In 1984, Lita T. was a first grader at St. Peter's Cathedral Center in Erie. Her music teacher, Mr. Martone, rewarded the class for learning…
Inns & businessesFormer State Street Tavern
The former State Street Tavern at 1013 State Street in Erie was investigated by Strange Happenings Ghost and Hauntings Research Society on April 24,…
Historic homes · Historical imageGeneral Anthony Wayne Blockhouse
General Anthony Wayne died at the military post in Erie on December 15, 1796, and was buried near its flagpole. Thirteen years later, his son Isaac…
OutdoorsLake Erie off Erie
An 1867 newspaper letter described strange lights on Lake Erie that resembled a burning ship. At about seven in the evening on October 29, the writer…
OutdoorsLake Erie off Presque Isle State Park
The Storm Hag is a creature of Lake Erie folklore associated with the water off Presque Isle. In S. E. Schlosser’s retelling in Spooky Pennsylvania,…
Loveland Hall
A freshman art student at Edinboro described an unsettling late-night session in Loveland Hall’s ceramics studio in 2010. Working alone at about two…
SchoolsMercyhurst University
Mercyhurst University in Erie has a campus legend about a nun who returns to a familiar place in the chapel garden. Guide Meaghan Hubert recounted it…
OutdoorsMisery Bay
The Lake Erie monster of Misery Bay survives through a family story and a bronze figurehead. Charles Curriden said he saw a huge, scaly creature with…
Niagara Hall
Niagara Hall opened at Penn State Behrend in 1968, taking its name from Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s Lake Erie ship. Its student ghost story…
Northwestern High School
Northwestern High School in Albion, Erie County, has an auditorium ghost known to drama students as Lucy. An alumnus writing in February 2008…
PA 99 at Florek and Beason roads
Hotel Evergreen, commonly called the Greens, stood along Route 99 in the Edinboro area and was remembered for weekend music sessions before ending…
Phelps Corners
Phelps Corners, near Waterford in Erie County, is the setting of a vanishing-hitchhiker legend preserved by the local collection Erie Legends. Its…
OutdoorsTamarack Swamp
Tamarack Swamp near Corry and the New York border has a local legend about a school-bus driver called George. The story says two buses met on a…
Bridges & railwaysThe Brewerie at Union Station
The Brewerie occupies part of Erie's Union Station, an Art Deco railroad terminal that opened on December 3, 1927. The brewpub opened in 2006, and…
Outdoors · Aerial viewThomas Road area south of Sterrettania Road near the Millcreek–McKean township line
Axe Murder Hollow is a longstanding Erie-area legend associated with the woods along Thomas Road, south of Sterrettania Road near the…
CemeteriesWatson-Curtze Mansion
An iron kettle associated with General Anthony Wayne is the focus of a ghost story told about Erie's Watson-Curtze Mansion and its museum…
Bridges & railwaysWest 19th Street at Chestnut Street
West 19th Street in Erie once carried freight trains along the roadway. Writer Robin Swope linked that history to a ghost-bride story he published in…