Haunted Houses & Ghost Tours in Gettysburg, PA

The history

Gettysburg's haunted reputation rests on a documented catastrophe. In July 1863 the town became the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, and the fighting reached into its streets and houses, not just the fields around it. Destination Gettysburg, the county's visitor authority, notes that homes on Baltimore Street stood between the opposing forces: the Brickhouse Inn and the adjacent Welty House were struck by cannon fire, were overtaken by Confederate sharpshooters, and afterwards saw 36 Union and Confederate soldiers temporarily buried on the property.

One death in particular anchors almost every Gettysburg ghost story. Jennie Wade, aged 20, was killed by a stray bullet while she was preparing bread for Union soldiers in her sister's kitchen. Destination Gettysburg describes her as the only civilian killed during the battle. Her body, the same account says, was first buried in the garden behind the house before being moved to the German Reformed Church's cemetery. The house still stands much as it did in 1863, with the pierced door and, by Destination Gettysburg's account, original bloodstains still on the floor.

The battle's aftermath produced a second, quieter tragedy. The National Homestead Orphanage rose after the war to care for children left parentless by it. Under headmistress Rosa J. Carmichael, Destination Gettysburg says, the institution "fell into darkness," and stories circulated of a basement "dungeon" where children were chained for days as punishment.

The legend

Everything in this section is folklore — told by tour guides and visitors, and presented here as legend, never as fact.

Local legend holds that Jennie Wade never left her sister's house. Visitors claim to hear whispers and feel cold spots there, and some say they have seen Jennie's ghost moving through the rooms, according to Destination Gettysburg. Gettysburg Ghosts' own writing on the house adds the details guides repeat most: sudden cold drafts in the kitchen, footsteps on the stairs when no one is there, and the faint scent of baking bread when no oven is on.

Tour guides also tell of the Farnsworth House Inn, a few streets away. The inn is believed to house up to 16 spirits, Destination Gettysburg reports, including soldiers, a midwife and a cook, with mysterious music reported in the attic and sightings attached to its Sara Black Room. Gettysburg Ghosts repeats the same cast — a stern midwife, a restless cook whose footsteps are said to pace the kitchen — and says visitors report doors opening without reason and a figure standing at the foot of the bed in the Sara Black Room. None of this is documented history; it is the town's best-known ghostlore, repeated because visitors keep asking for it.

The orphanage carries the saddest legend of the three: small figures said to dart through shadows, and children's laughter or sobbing said to drift through the walls. Again — legend, attached to a real building with a real, hard history.

Haunted today

Hountix lists 15 places in Gettysburg, PA. Seasonal attractions keep their own open dates, so check each business's own site before you go.

• Brickhouse Inn — haunted place, 452 Baltimore St, Gettysburg, PA
• Farnsworth House Inn — haunted place, 401 Baltimore St, Gettysburg, PA 17325
• Gettysburg Ghost Tours — ghost tour, 47 Steinwehr Ave, Gettysburg, PA 17325
• Gettysburg Ghost Tours (US Ghost Adventures) — ghost tour, 444 Baltimore St, Gettysburg, PA 17325
• Ghost City Tours of Gettysburg — ghost tour, 10 Lincoln Square, Gettysburg, PA 17325
• Ghost Walk Gettysburg — ghost tour, Wainwright Avenue and, Lefever Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325
• Ghostly Images of Gettysburg — ghost tour, 778 Baltimore St, Gettysburg, PA 17325
• Haunted Gettysburg Tours — ghost tour, 27 Steinwehr Ave, Gettysburg, PA 17325
• Jennie Wade House Museum — haunted place, 548 Baltimore St, Gettysburg, PA
• Mark Nesbitt's Ghosts of Gettysburg Candlelight Walking Tours — ghost tour, 271 Baltimore St, Gettysburg, PA 17325
• Museum of Haunted Objects — haunted house, 55 Steinwehr Ave, Gettysburg, PA 17325
• National Homestead Orphanage — haunted place, 777 Baltimore St, Gettysburg, PA
• Sachs Covered Bridge — haunted place, Water Works Rd, Gettysburg, PA
• Sleepy Hollow Ghost Tours by The Farnsworth House Inn — ghost tour, 415 Baltimore St, Gettysburg, PA 17325
• The Haunted Trails of Gettysburg — ghost tour, 200 Sanders Rd, Gettysburg, PA 17325

Attraction stories

Ghostly Images of Gettysburg

Ghostly Images of Gettysburg sells its tours under a blunt promise on its own website: "True Ghost Stories, Real Haunted Houses, and Where They Buried the Bodies!" Its flagship is the Jennie Wade Ghost Tour, a 90-minute walking tour whose first half stops at three or four outdoor sites and whose second half goes inside the Jennie Wade House — which the company calls one of the most haunted houses in the country.

The documented history underneath that claim is short and stark, and it comes from Destination Gettysburg rather than the tour company. Jennie Wade, 20 years old, was the only civilian killed during the Battle of Gettysburg, struck by a stray bullet while preparing bread for Union soldiers. She was buried first in the garden and later moved to the German Reformed Church's cemetery. The house, Destination Gettysburg says, stands much as it did in 1863.

The haunting is folklore, and Ghostly Images presents it as such: its site says the house is where Jennie Wade's death "caused an ill-fated legacy of hauntings." Destination Gettysburg records the reports visitors make there — whispers, cold spots, and sightings of a figure said to be Jennie — without endorsing them, and neither does this listing.

The company's second tour covers the other side of Gettysburg's grief. Its Haunted Orphanage Tour tells the tales of Steinwehr Avenue before going inside the Soldiers National Museum, which, the company says, served as an orphanage for children whose fathers died in battle, and offers "the daring" a descent into its cellar.

Practical facts, from the company's own site: both tours run 90 minutes, tickets are listed at $11.50 per person with ages 7 and under free, and tours depart from the Ghostly Images headquarters on Baltimore Street. Check the site for current dates and times before travelling — the listing links to the business's own page for booking.

*Website: https://Ghosttour.net/gettysburg.html*

Sleepy Hollow Ghost Tours by The Farnsworth House Inn

The Farnsworth House Inn runs its ghost operation under the Sleepy Hollow name, and its own "Play" page is unusually specific about what visitors actually do. The Haunted Cellar Tour is a one-hour seated presentation in the inn's cellar, which the inn says stays a constant 58 degrees year-round, decorated with an antique coffin, vintage photographs and old church pews. The Attic Whispers & Cellar Shadows Tour climbs to the garret — the attic "sharpshooter's nest" — and then descends to the same cellar.

The documented battle history is real even where the ghosts are legend. The inn's Historic House Tour points out more than 100 bullet holes in its brick facade, and its attic is presented as the place where a Confederate sharpshooter sheltered during the battle. It is believed — the inn presents this as belief, and so do we — that the fatal shot that killed Jennie Wade was fired from that attic. Haunts.com's page for the inn's ghost walks makes the same claim in the same hedged terms: the cellar tour "includes access to the haunted cellar of the Farnsworth House, believed to be the origin of the fatal shot that killed Jennie Wade."

The folklore centres on a child. Both the inn's own page and Haunts.com describe coins left in the cellar for "Jeremy," a child spirit; the inn says look for the small coins left between the casket and the mirror, and that the offerings are donated each year to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Haunts.com adds two more names its tours invoke — Walter, and a ghost cat. Beyond the cellar, Destination Gettysburg reports the inn is believed to house up to 16 spirits, and Gettysburg Ghosts describes the Sara Black Room as the room where visitors most often report a figure at the foot of the bed. These are reported experiences, attributed to the people and publications that report them — folklore, not findings.

For visitors who want instruments rather than stories, the inn also runs paranormal investigations, from a two-hour Mini Paranormal Night to a four-hour Paranormal Night, both listed as 16-and-up on its site. One-hour tours on its page are listed from $15 to $23; confirm current pricing and schedule on the inn's own site.

*Website: https://farnsworthhouseinn.com/play/*

Sources

• Destination Gettysburg — "Take A Trip Visiting Gettysburg's Most Haunted Places" — https://destinationgettysburg.com/trip-ideas/a-day-in-haunted-gettysburg/ (fetched 2026-10-22)
• Ghostly Images of Gettysburg — the business's own tour page — https://Ghosttour.net/gettysburg.html (fetched 2026-10-22)
• Farnsworth House Inn — "Play" (tours and investigations) — https://farnsworthhouseinn.com/play/ (fetched 2026-10-22)
• Haunts.com — "Ghost Walks at Historic Farnsworth Inn" — https://www.haunts.com/farnsworthhouseinn (fetched 2026-10-22)
• Gettysburg Ghosts (US Ghost Adventures) — "The Top 3 Haunted Locations in Gettysburg" — https://gettysburgghosts.com/the-top-3-haunted-locations-in-gettysburg/ (fetched 2026-10-22)