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Historic haunted places in Phoenix, AZ. Each page gives the ghost story, whether visitors can go, and a link to the site the story came from. The stories are folklore, not documented fact.
5 listings shown.
Haunted place
Eliza Teeter lived in this Heritage Square house for 54 years and is said to have stayed. Restaurant staff describe paper towel rolls unspooling by themselves, and a paranormal gro…
This story is folklore told about a real place. It is not presented as documented fact.
Haunted place
Leone Jensen died at the hotel in May 1928, just weeks after it opened, and guests on the upper floors describe a Lady in White standing at the foot of the bed before walking to th…
This story is folklore told about a real place. It is not presented as documented fact.
Haunted place
The Orpheum's ghost is known as Mattie, a woman in mid-century clothes seen watching from the balcony or back rows. Patrons say she taps, nudges, or shushes people who talk during …
This story is folklore told about a real place. It is not presented as documented fact.
Haunted place
Caretaker and entertainer Kai 'Speedy' Skounberg was shot to death in his trailer on Heritage Square in 1981, a case never solved. Ghost tours credit him with figures near the main…
This story is folklore told about a real place. It is not presented as documented fact.
Haunted place
William Wrigley Jr. died here in 1932, only months after the mansion was finished, and his wife Ada then moved into his room. Staff describe internal phone calls with no one on the…
This story is folklore told about a real place. It is not presented as documented fact.
Phoenix's haunted ground is a single downtown square and the streets around it, and its anchor building is dated on every source collected. The Rosson House, at 113 N. Sixth Street in Heritage Square, was built in 1895. Visit Phoenix, the city's own visitor authority, describes it as a "Victorian home, built in 1895 by a prominent doctor and politician," sitting in Heritage Square next to the Arizona Science Center, and now operating as a history museum. The museum's own page, from The Square PHX, calls it "a fully-restored 1895 Queen Anne Victorian house museum that interprets the diverse history of the Phoenix area." Phoenix Ghosts, the US Ghost Adventures operation in the city, introduces the same building on its tour page as "this 1895 Victorian mansion in Heritage Square." The doctor was Dr.
Two more downtown buildings carry the routes' dated history. The Hotel San Carlos, at 202 N. Central Avenue, opened in 1928 — Visit Phoenix gives the year, and Phoenix Ghosts' haunted-places list calls it a historic hotel of that opening in its tour material. The Orpheum Theatre, at 203 W. Adams Street, was built in 1928 in Visit Phoenix's account, which notes that tours of the theatre take place on Tuesdays. Heritage Square itself is framed by Phoenix Ghosts' FAQ as the ground where its walk centres: "the city's original townsite," exploring "iconic landmarks and buildings known for their rich history." Get Ghosted Phoenix, the city's independent ghost-tour company, starts its signature walk in the same square, at the Teeter House, where, in its own route copy, "the Teeter family's history sets the darker story of Phoenix in motion."
Phoenix Ghosts' own explanation of the city's haunting is its framing, recorded as such: "Phoenix rose from the ashes of an ancient civilization, and its modern history is just as layered. The city's rapid growth from a dusty frontier outpost to a bustling metropolis was fueled by ambition, greed, and conflict. The stories of those who fought for their fortunes and those who lost everything are embedded in the very foundations of downtown's timeless buildings." That is the operator's thesis for its walk, not a documented chronology, and it is carried here as the operator's thesis.
This section is folklore — reported by the operators and accounts cited, and never asserted as fact here.
The Hotel San Carlos carries Phoenix's best-known named ghost, and both collected sources tell her the same short way. Visit Phoenix: "Both employees and guests of this downtown Phoenix hotel, which opened in 1928, have heard and seen ghosts. The most common ghost sighting is thought to be that of Leone Jensen, a woman who jumped off the roof - some say because of a broken heart." Phoenix Ghosts' haunted-places list phrases her as an invitation to "learn about the heartbroken specter of Leone Jensen, who forever roams the halls of the Hotel San Carlos." Jensen's death as Visit Phoenix reports it is the history the sources give; her roaming the halls is the legend, and the two are kept separate here, in the sources' own "some say" and "is thought to be."
The Rosson House's reports come from both sources as well, in two overlapping tellings. Visit Phoenix: "many have heard unexplained footsteps and a warm temperature coming from empty fireplaces. The home is thought to be haunted by a caretaker who was shot outside of the house in the 1980s." Phoenix Ghosts' tour page, standing a guest in front of the same house, says: "Late-night passersby report seeing shadowy figures looking out of upper windows, feeling sudden icy drafts on the porch, and hearing footsteps echoing inside the empty home," and its haunted-places list says "the spirit of a former caretaker is said to still stand guard over the property." The caretaker is reported, in both accounts, not documented in the material collected, and he is carried here as reported.
The Orpheum's resident is Visit Phoenix's single line: "If you do, you may see resident ghost Mattie watching along from the balcony." Phoenix Ghosts' list adds the theatre in more general terms, inviting guests to "discover the eerie energy of the Orpheum Theatre, a venue whose spectral audience never left their seats." Melinda's Alley, a Phoenix Ghosts stop, carries that operator's own reported phenomena: "Visitors report eerie cold spots, phantom whispers behind the bar, and catching glimpses of a shadowy figure in vintage clothing moving silently through the dark," in a stop the operator describes as a hidden speakeasy tucked inside a basement. St. Mary's Basilica, a stop on both operators' routes, is described by Phoenix Ghosts this way: "Visitors report an unsettling presence and a sense of being watched, suggesting that not all the souls within its walls have found peace, their whispers echoing through the nave." All of those are the operators' reported accounts, attributed in full, and none is asserted here as a documented event.
Hountix lists 5 places in Phoenix, AZ. Seasonal attractions keep their own open dates, so check each business's own site before you go.
The Square PHX's Rosson House tours page describes "a fully-restored 1895 Queen Anne Victorian house museum that interprets the diverse history of the Phoenix area," toured in guided groups "limited to just 10 people for a more personal experience," each tour lasting "approximately 60 minutes" and including "all living areas, offering visitors a glimpse into the lives of the many people who have called this house a home." The practical record is complete on the page: general admission $14, children aged 6–17 $6, children under 5 free, museum members free, with listed discounts; tours on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., and on Sunday at 12 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.; closed Monday to Wednesday and on the listed holidays. The Square is at Heritage and Science Park, at 113 N 6th St, Phoenix, AZ 85004, per the page footer.
No published ghost lore appears on the Rosson House's own tours page collected, and the museum goes further than silence: its own history blog's essay on why Victorian homes became the default haunted house carries a circa-1908 photograph of Rosson House captioned, in the museum's own words, as a Queen Anne home "that is not an eyesore, nor is it ugly, disfigured, awkward, chaotic, excessive, or haunted!" The museum presents the house as restored Victorian history, explicitly not as a haunted site, and this story invents none for it. The house's haunted reputation is told by others — Visit Phoenix, with its unexplained footsteps, its warmth from empty fireplaces and its caretaker "thought to be" haunting the house after being shot outside in the 1980s, and Phoenix Ghosts, with its shadowy figures at upper windows, icy drafts on the porch and a former caretaker said to stand guard — both set out, attributed, in The legend above, and both contradicted, as a claim about the house itself, by the museum's own caption. By day the house is Phoenix's restored 1895 interior; after dark it is the first haunted name on both ghost walks that meet a block away at the Teeter House.
*Website: https://thesquarephx.org/visit/rosson-house-tours/*