Haunted Houses & Ghost Tours in St. Augustine, FL

The history

St. Augustine's history spans more than 450 years, and Ghosts & introduces it as the oldest continuously settled European city in the United States, layered through Spanish settlement, British rule and the Civil War. Its haunted map is built from structures a visitor can still enter, and the oldest of them is a fort. The Castillo de San Marcos was built between 1672 and 1695, per the operator's haunted-history page, making it the oldest masonry fort of its kind in the continental United States; it stayed in continuous military possession until it was deactivated in 1933.

The second anchor is a jail that was designed, deliberately, not to look like one. The Old Jail was built in 1891 by Henry Flagler in Romanesque Revival style — because, as Ghosts & Gravestones recounts, the original jail was an eyesore within view of one of Flagler's luxury hotels, and he was compelled to replace it with a building that resembled the city's other magnificent structures. Aside from bars on the windows, the operator says, no one would guess it was a jail. It housed inmates alongside the sheriff and his family, and it was the city's only jail for more than 60 years, operating until 1953.

The documented conditions inside are the darkest facts on this page, and they need no ghost to be disturbing. The operator's Old Jail page records cells with no glass in the windows, mattresses stuffed with Spanish moss and infested with red bugs, no bathing facilities or sanitation, maximum-security cells equipped with stockades and a torture cage within view of the execution area, and a solitary cell with no bed at all. Eight documented hangings were carried out on the site.

The third anchor is a castle with a hotel's tragedy inside it. Castle Warden was built in 1887 by William G. Warden, a partner of John D. Rockefeller and Henry Flagler, as a lavish winter retreat; Ripley's own history recounts that on the morning of April 23, 1944, a fire on its third and fourth floors, by then the Castle Warden Hotel, killed two local women. And at the Huguenot Cemetery, dating to 1821, and the Spanish Military Hospital — where an 1821 water-line dig reportedly unearthed thousands of bones from a Timucuan burial ground — the city's buried past keeps surfacing, literally, in its own accounts.

The legend

Folklore, clearly labelled: at the Castillo, the operator tells a story it introduces with "it is said" — of Dolores Martis, wife of Colonel Garcia Martis, slipping away to meet her lover, Captain Manuel Abela, until the Colonel caught her perfume on the Captain; both then disappeared, and two skeletons were later discovered in a hidden room of the fort's dungeon. "There's no proof as to what really happened," the operator concedes. Visitors nonetheless report her perfume and a chill in the dungeon — reported, as legend requires.

At the Old Jail, visitors and neighbours report the rattling of chains and painful moaning from the gallows area, the heavy tread and sight of long-dead Sheriff Perry — known, the operator says, for his firm hand and harsh punishments — and phantom odours of sewage and boiling molasses that survive daily cleaning. At Huguenot Cemetery, it is told that grave robbers stole the gold teeth of John Stickney during his exhumation, and that Stickney has been seen roaming the cemetery since, perhaps in search of his stolen property. At Tolomato Cemetery, the story is told of a young woman nearly buried alive, freed when a mourner heard scratching inside her coffin. Every one of these is a story told about St. Augustine — attributed here, believed by some, documented by none in this research.

Haunted today

Hountix lists 16 places in St. Augustine, FL. Seasonal attractions keep their own open dates, so check each business's own site before you go.

• A Ghostly Encounter — ghost tour, 12 St George St, St. Augustine, FL 32084
• Castillo de San Marcos — haunted place, 11 S Castillo Dr, St. Augustine, FL 32084
• Dark of the Moon Ghost Tour — ghost tour, 100 Red Cox Dr, St. Augustine, FL 32080
• GhoSt Augustine and GhoSt Hunters Equipment — ghost tour, 162 St George St #19, St. Augustine, FL 32084
• Ghost City Tours of St. Augustine — ghost tour, 32 Charlotte St, St. Augustine, FL 32084
• Ghosts & Gravestones St. Augustine - Old Jail — ghost tour, 27 San Marco Ave, St. Augustine, FL 32084
• Kindred Spirits Tours — ghost tour, 23 Cuna St, St. Augustine, FL 32084
• Last Ghost Tour — ghost tour, 3 Aviles St, St. Augustine, FL 32084
• Nightly Spirits — ghost tour, Tour meets inside City Perks Coffee / Wines at Fort Alley, 13 St George St, St. Augustine, FL 32084
• Old Town Trolley St. Augustine Ghost Tours — ghost tour, 27 San Marco Ave, St. Augustine, FL 32084
• Ripley's Haunted Castle Investigation — ghost tour, 19 San Marco Ave, St. Augustine, FL 32084
• Spanish Military Hospital — haunted place, 3 Aviles St, St. Augustine, FL 32084
• St. Augustine Lighthouse — haunted place, 100 Red Cox Dr, St. Augustine, FL 32080
• St. Francis Inn — haunted place, 279 St. George St, St. Augustine, FL 32084
• The Haunted Barbour House — haunted house, 8 Arenta St, St. Augustine, FL 32084
• The Old Jail — haunted place, 167 San Marco Ave, St. Augustine, FL 32084

Ghosts & Gravestones St. Augustine — Old Jail

Ghosts & Gravestones' St. Augustine product is built on one privilege: exclusive after-hours access inside the Old Jail. Its own page offers "exclusive, after-hours access inside this historic structure, allowing you to walk through the cell blocks after dark," led by costumed ghost hosts mixing historical insight with firsthand accounts. A second product on the same page, The Old Jail After Dark, is a 45-minute experience in which visitors take part in an actual paranormal investigation of the building.

The documented case for the building's atmosphere is laid out in the city story and bears repeating in short form, because it is the tour's real substance: built by Henry Flagler in 1891 to look like a house, the city's only jail until 1953, housing the sheriff's family alongside inmates kept without bathing facilities or sanitation, in cells the operator describes as unlivable by today's standards, with eight documented hangings on the site. The operator states plainly that there was "much sickness and death in the Old Jail — even beyond the executions."

The reported layer is catalogued on the operator's page as reports, and stays that way here: loud, clunky footsteps attributed to former criminals; wailing and moaning from maximum security and solitary; a little girl's voice in the sheriff's quarters; a dastardly laugh in the women's cells; phantom barking from the sheriffs' long-dead family dogs; sudden cold spots and the sensation of an icy hand on a shoulder. The sheriff in the strongest of these stories is Sheriff Perry, whom the operator describes as known for firm, harsh punishments, and whose heavy footsteps are said to send guests hurrying out. Said — by the operator, of its guests. Tickets and current tour status are on the business's own Old Jail page.

Ripley's Haunted Castle Investigation

Castle Warden's documented story, from Ripley's own published history of its first museum, begins in 1887, when William G. Warden — a partner of oil tycoons John D. Rockefeller and Henry Flagler — built the castle as a lavish winter retreat and social hub. By the 1930s, local accounts say, the family had stopped visiting, the estate fell into disrepair, and the city considered demolishing it. Norton Baskin and his wife, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, bought it, restored it, and turned it into a luxurious hotel.

Then the date this listing turns on: the morning of April 23, 1944, when a fire on the third and fourth floors of the Castle Warden Hotel killed two local women. Ripley's account is precise about the strangeness and careful about the uncertainty: the fire was assumed to have started from a lit cigarette, "no proof was ever found," and both women were discovered with wet towels around their faces and no burns. The night before, a man had checked in signing only as "Mr. X"; reports said he ordered extra towels and was seen carrying something like a rolled-up rug shortly before the fire, and no one saw him again after the blaze. "Was the fire really an accident?" Ripley's asks — and leaves it unanswered, as this page does.

In December 1950, just after Robert Ripley's passing, the castle opened as the first permanent Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum. Since then, Ripley's reports, guests and staff have described unexplained noises, cold spots and ghostly figures believed to be the spirits of Bette Richeson and Ruth Pickering — the two women who died in 1944, named in the company's account. Believed to be: the attribution is the company's, and the haunting is presented here as the company's reported lore around a documented fire. The Haunted Castle Investigation is the attraction built on that night; tickets and hours are on Ripley's own attraction page.

Sources

• Ghosts & Gravestones, "Haunted History of St. Augustine" (450+ years / oldest continuously settled European city, Castillo built 1672–1695 and deactivated 1933, Dolores Martis legend with "no proof" caveat, Tolomato near-burial story, lighthouse accounts, Old Jail built 1891 and Sheriff Perry reports, Spanish Military Hospital bones, Huguenot Cemetery 1821 and Stickney story — fetched) — https://www.ghostsandgravestones.com/st-augustine/haunted-history
• Ghosts & Gravestones, "Old Jail St. Augustine Haunted Guide" (after-hours access, Old Jail After Dark 45-minute investigation, Flagler house-like design, operating until 1953, cell conditions, eight documented hangings, catalogue of reported phenomena — fetched) — https://www.ghostsandgravestones.com/st-augustine/old-jail
• Ripley's, "Uncovering the Dark History of Ripley's First Museum" (Castle Warden built 1887 by William G. Warden, Rawlings/Baskin hotel era, April 23 1944 fire, wet towels and no burns, "Mr. X," museum opened December 1950, reported figures of Bette Richeson and Ruth Pickering; published 2025-03-07 — fetched) — https://www.ripleys.com/stories/haunted-st-augustine
• Ripley's Haunted Castle Investigation, official attraction page (fetched page carried tickets/hours framing only) — https://www.ripleys.com/attractions/ripleys-haunted-castle-investigation-st-augustine
• Ghost Tours of St. Augustine Inc., official contact page (4 Granada Street address as printed on the site, across from Flagler College and the Casa Monica — fetched) — http://www.ghosttoursofstaugustine.net/contact-us.html