I visited a ‘haunted’ 18th-century mansion in New York City and saw things I couldn’t fully explain

The Morris-Jumel Mansion was built by Colonel Roger Morris, a Loyalist who returned to England when the Revolutionary War broke out.

During the war, George Washington used the home as his military headquarters during the Battle of Harlem Heights. It was then purchased by Stephen Jumel, a wealthy French merchant, and his wife Eliza, an actress and socialite as well as a shrewd businesswoman, in 1810. 

After Stephen Jumel died in 1832, Eliza Jumel married former vice president Aaron Burr. She filed for divorce less than a year later, and successfully protected the fortune she accrued from real-estate investments in what is now lower Manhattan. She died in her bedroom on the mansion’s second floor in 1865 with a net worth of $1 million, or around $15 million in today’s money, according to the Museum of American Finance, making her one of the richest women in America at the time.

The New York Times reported in 1981 that Eliza Jumel negotiated a $2,000 discount on the house because even then it was said to be haunted by the ghost of a Hessian soldier who fought in the Revolutionary War.

Visitors and employees of the museum have also reported incidents of paranormal activity since it opened to the public in 1904. Some tour groups have claimed to see Jumel in full period dress on the second-floor balcony. Tour guides say they’ve heard voices and footsteps with no one else present. Others report running into that same Hessian soldier on the stairs.

The museum’s staff keeps a record of these unexplained encounters known as the Book of Haunts.

In the months leading up to Halloween, the Morris-Jumel Mansion offers spooky tour experiences in addition to its regular schedule. The paranormal investigation tour, lasting 2 ½ hours and featuring the use of paranormal investigative equipment, costs $65. Morris-Jumel has also previously conducted candlelit ghost tours, though the program is not being offered in 2025.

Madeline Mungo, the mansion’s public programs and visitor services manager, recommended that I book the paranormal investigation for a “more ghostly experience.”

I’m not a big believer in ghosts and paranormal activity, but I do love exploring haunted places in the name of journalism.

REM pods light up and make noise when they detect temperature shifts and “changes of the surrounding energy field,” which some believe are indicators of paranormal activity, according to the device’s Amazon listing.

Tour guide Karen Compton explained that staff would bring the REM pod from room to room as our tour progressed.

Electricians use EMF meters to diagnose electrical or wiring issues. Paranormal researchers use them to measure electromagnetic energy that is thought to be associated with ghosts or spirits.

For example, Compton said, if we held up the EMF meter to a piece of wooden furniture with no electric wiring inside and the lights flashed to indicate a strong electromagnetic field, it could mean a ghost is responsible. Or, she said, it could mean that we’re near a lightbulb.

The cat ball toys light up when something touches them or moves near them. If they lit up during the tour with no one nearby, paranormal activity could be one explanation, according to my guide.

I admit the cat balls made me feel more skeptical going into the tour since they seemed like a less scientific approach than the REM pod and EMF meters. Then again, as Compton reminded us, there’s no proof for any of this. When it comes to paranormal investigations, it’s more about the experience and feeling of the ghost hunt than the mechanics of the hunt itself.

“This was built as their summer home to escape the city, which is funny to think about now, but at the time the city had only reached …” Mungo paused as the cat ball lit up in the empty Octagon Room, where it had clearly not been touched. I, along with other members of our group, let out a nervous giggle.

“Interesting. Well, hello,” she said, before continuing. “The city had only reached about Canal Street, so this up here was farmland. Before the Morrises, before colonization, this was the land of the Lenape, and this continues to be the unceded land of the Lenape.”

None of the paranormal-investigation equipment lit up in the parlor, but Compton said that three weeks ago, she walked into the empty house on a Sunday and heard the room’s original pianoforte playing music on its own.

A few visitors stood in front of the clock, but none reported seeing the moon wink at them. I didn’t get a wink, either.

Mungo said that while the dining room “is not one of our more active spaces,” the moon is known to be flirty.

“He did wink at me last week, so he is exploring himself,” Mungo said, eliciting a laugh from the group.

Dowsing rods have historically been used to locate underground water sources, Compton said. The L-shaped tools feature long sticks that swing from side to side, even when held still by their handles.

“The idea is that if they cross, then you’ve found a spirit,” she said. “Would anybody like to try them?”

I volunteered. I tried to stay perfectly still, but I could feel the way the slightest movement would cause the rods to swing.

“Eliza, are you here?” Compton asked. 

After a few seconds, the rods crossed. I wasn’t convinced that a ghost had caused the movement, but I was excited that something had happened.

I handed them to another member of the group, and the rods pointed towards a lamp in the corner of the room. Compton explained that everything in the room was original except for the carpeting and that lamp. The original fixture shattered during the installation of new carpet, which some interpreted as Jumel expressing her displeasure at the design choice.

“Do you like the carpet now?” someone asked.

The rods remained still.

Many people’s EMF meters, including my own, flashed yellow, orange, and red, as Compton explained that Lee was a constant presence at Washington’s side for two decades and was the only enslaved person freed in his will.

“He’s excited to hear you,” a member of our group said of Lee.

“William Lee always responds,” Compton said.

Did the presence of electromagnetic energy indicate the ghost of Lee? Were all the EMF meters in the small space simply activating each other? Perhaps my EMF meter was responding to the electric candlesticks placed on the windowsills to fill the room with a flickering yellow glow. I don’t know enough about how the devices work to say, but I did appreciate the acknowledgement of Washington’s complicated history as a slave owner as part of the tour.

In paranormal investigations, EVP is defined as “apparent ghost voices attempting to communicate through typical audio recording equipment,” according to a 2022 study about paranormal experiences and sensory-processing sensitivity published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.

Authors Jess M. Williams and Mark Blagrove wrote that EVP is “an example of an illusion that results in the perception of meaningful patterns in meaningless stimuli, referred to as pareidolia, occurring in both visual and auditory forms, such as seeing faces in clouds or hearing phantom words in white noise.”

Compton showed us a video taken in the room around seven years ago during a ghost tour like ours. It took a few listens, but I could make out what sounded like a scratchy, high-pitched voice exclaiming something unintelligible. It just as easily could have been a creaky piece of furniture, or distortion caused by overlapping voices in the recording.

I asked the ghost of Burr what he thought of his portrayal in the musical “Hamilton,” but unfortunately did not get a response.

Mungo also spoke about the people who would have worked in the kitchen — the enslaved individuals whose names and stories were never recorded — and asked if they wanted to come forward. The REM pod and recordings remained silent.

Even as a skeptic, I found myself hoping to hear some mysterious footsteps or feel a sudden chill. This made me hyper-aware of every aspect of my surroundings, which caused some false alarms, like a mysterious shadow that turned out to be my own reflection in a glass barrier. I was struck by how easy it is to interpret anything as a sign of paranormal activity if you want to find it badly enough — even if you don’t really believe in it to begin with.

Even so, I enjoyed learning about the way paranormal investigations are conducted and getting to try out some of the equipment, which I never would have known about or bought myself. I also appreciated that the tour welcomed skeptics and simply presented stories and theories without trying to convince anyone of anything.

The Morris-Jumel Mansion didn’t always embrace its reputation as a haunted building, but Mungo said the museum started offering ghost tours and paranormal investigations about a decade ago to help bring more visitors to the little-known site.

“We’re kind of a hidden gem, and because this is a fun thing that has a different audience than museums tend to have, it’s a gateway for them to come and see this place,” Mungo said. “You do still get the history of the house. We do sneak it in.”

Whether or not Jumel’s ghost haunts the property, Mungo feels that her story is worth telling.

“Eliza Jumel is the coolest lady in American history and we completely forgot about her,” she said. “This is the only place that’s still talking about her. It’s layers upon layers of history.”

Editor’s note: This story was published in September 2023 and updated in October 2025.