Is Asheville, NC haunted? Yes! For dark tourists and history lovers, explore these haunted places in Asheville, including The Omni Grove Park Inn, Biltmore Estate, Helen’s Bridge, and Riverside Cemetery. Then, book the best ghost tours to learn even more history. Plan your Halloween in AVL with our top spooky attractions list—from actual locals and our favorite dark historian.
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This guide is written in collaboration with dark tourist traveler and my good friend, Dagney McKinney. Dagney loves all things macabre and weird, including long walks through graveyards and historical tangents.
And of course, as an Asheville local and undergrad English and History major with an MLIS degree, I love unique historic and bookish travel, reflected below with my husband (our handsome model, Tom). Afterward, be sure to read more about North Carolina’s abandoned sites, ruins, and ghost towns, written with Dagney’s dark tourist partner, Jeremy.
📸 All photos in this article are my own. 🖤 Christine of Uncorked Asheville
Start with a ghost tour here:
👻 Asheville Walking Ghost Tour
🚌 LaZoom Adult-Only Comedy Ghost Tour (my top pick; it’s so much fun)
🍻 Boos and Brews
Haunted Places In Asheville (& Their Ghost Stories)
These are just a few of our favorite ghost stories, historical facts, and eerie sites across Asheville. Tom and I hunted across the city, taking ghost and history tours, asking strangers to help us find sites, and more—in the name of research. Warning: Some of the information provided may be triggering.
Grove Park Inn – The Pink Lady Legend
Built in the early 20th century, The Omni Grove Park Inn has served up luxury spa treatments and mountain views for over a hundred years, though it started as a fresh-air retreat for tuberculosis patients. It’s one of Asheville’s most famous attractions.
F. Scott Fitzgerald summered here, too, allegedly getting himself kicked out for drunken shenanigans. Local gossip insists he fired a gun into the ceiling (you didn’t hear that from me).
The inn’s real legend, though, is quite darker. In the 1920s, a young woman reportedly fell to her death from a balcony. Nobody agrees on why: Some call it an accident, others say she jumped after a devastating breakup (or a secret affair, cough cough).
Either way, guests claim to see a woman in a pink dress wandering the grounds ever since, wearing the same dress she died in. She’s earned herself a name: the Pink Lady.
She mostly appears to children, but adults get their share of spookiness too. Think slamming doors, voices in empty rooms, and either a woman in pink or a strange pink mist drifting by.
The Pink Lady has made Grove Park Inn one of the most haunted houses in Asheville, NC, which is a little ironic, since it is also one of the best spots for a romantic sunset meal.
Much less spooky today, grab dinner at either of its two rooftop restaurants, Sunset Terrace and Edison (my pick), both perfect for watching the sun drop behind Mount Pisgah.
Visiting during the holidays? Don’t miss the annual Gingerbread House Competition during Christmastime in Asheville.
The Omni Grove Park Inn | 290 Macon Ave, Asheville, NC 28804
Plan Your Magical Adventure: Our Free Asheville Guide + Bucket List
Biltmore Estate – History & Spirits With A Lasting Legacy
With the help of famous architect Richard Morris Hunt and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, George Washington Vanderbilt dreamed up America’s largest home, Biltmore Estate.
Built in 1895, the estate boasts 35 bedrooms and 43 bathrooms. It is filled with historic (and creepy AF) tapestries. The Vanderbilt family lived here until 1930, when the home first opened to the public.
George and Edith Vanderbilt left such an imprint on Biltmore Estate that many believe their spirits are still felt here today. Spend too long in Biltmore Library, and you may hear the whisper of Edith calling out to George, especially in front of the marble fireplace. Guests have also felt splashing water and heard manic laughter coming from the drain in the pool room.
Personally, I think the Halloween room—aptly named—is spooky. However, the Vanderbilts hosted grand parties here, including a Boho-themed NYE gathering.
Biltmore Estate | 1 Lodge St, Asheville, NC 28803
Visiting Haunted Biltmore Estate? Read Our Local Guides First:
🎟️ Best Biltmore Things To Do
🏰 Fun Things To Know About Biltmore
🎄 Biltmore For The Winter Holiday Season
Highland Hospital – A Hidden Memorial To Zelda Fitzgerald
Snapping these photos took Tom and I on quite the adventure.
Highland Hospital no longer stands, but this former sanatorium once burned in a fire that killed nine patients, including writer Zelda Fitzgerald.
One theory points to an electric coffee urn. It malfunctioned one evening in 1948 and sparked a fire in the kitchen. The flames spread quickly, and firefighters faced a brutal problem: Staff had chained many windows shut to stop patients from jumping (or escaping). They couldn’t save everyone.
Witnesses now report seeing Zelda’s ghost wandering the grounds. A plaque marks the spot today, paired with one of her bleaker quotes.
Want to see her yourself? Hop on LaZoom for a tipsy haunted comedy tour, one of the most fun things to do in Asheville. You might catch a glimpse of Zelda… well…we saw her, um, humping a bush…
Read more about the Highland Hospital fire in Lee Smith’s Guests On Earth, a fictionalized account of that fateful night and one of the must-read books set in AVL. Sadly, while some of the treatments here were considered groundbreaking at the time, tours we’ve taken will attest to their brutal cruelty.
Former Highland Hospital/Zelda Fitzgerald Memorial | Near 75 Zillicoa Street, Asheville, NC 28801
Old Battery Park Hotel – An Unresolved, Vengeful Murder Mystery
The Old Battery Park Hotel holds one of Asheville’s most tragic ghost stories: In 1936, someone brutally murdered 19-year-old Helen Clevenger while she stayed at the hotel. Her uncle found her in Room 224, with her face slashed, killed by a gunshot.
Investigators tried, convicted, and executed a hotel staffer for the crime. However, not everyone believed he did it.
Guilty or not, guests and ghost hunters still report paranormal activity in and around Room 224. Some blame Helen’s spirit for haunting the hallway. Others suspect the convicted man, seeking revenge for a wrongful execution.
Today the building houses elderly residents as an apartment complex. You’ll find it right behind the historic Grove Arcade.
Battery Park Senior Apartments | 1 Battle Square, Asheville, NC 28801
Clyde A. Erwin High School – Where Graves Were Not All Relocated As Promised
✨ Clyde A. Erwin High School is a large educational complex with an eerie history behind its construction. The photo below is the back part of the school complex near the gymnasium and theater.
When it comes to haunted places in Asheville, no one would suspect a perfectly ordinary school…that happens to be built on a graveyard. You know, kind of like Downtown AVL’s Church Street with the ghostly nun (again, take a LaZoom tour to meet her).
Planners relocated a pre-existing cemetery to build a new education complex, exhuming and reburying plenty of graves. They missed some, though. The cemetery also held a “potter’s field”—unmarked graves for the poor—and crews built over most of them.
That history hasn’t stayed buried. Students and staff report poltergeist activity throughout the school: flickering lights, objects moving on their own, and strange humming sounds.
Clyde A. Erwin High School | 60 Lees Creek Rd, Asheville, NC 28806
Shiloh Abandoned Forestry Compound – An Urban Local Legend
This former forestry school earned its haunted reputation after officials fired the director over “temper” issues. He swore revenge on everyone who wronged him.
When he died in the mid-1950s, locals noticed strange occurrences at the now-abandoned compound. Reports of late-night lights sparked investigations, but searchers never found anyone inside.
One local man investigated and fled the building, spooked by an ominous presence and a sinister shadow. The encounter shook him so badly that he sold his house and left Asheville for good.
The creepiest legend involves a worker allegedly murdered at the compound. In one downstairs bathroom, blood supposedly collects in the toilet, and the air turns unnaturally cold.
✨ Please note that the compound sits on private property and is closed to the public. Don’t go looking for it, as trespassing charges are the only guaranteed scare you’ll find.
Helen’s Bridge – Don’t Turn Off Your Car For These Tragic Deaths
Looking for more than just haunted houses in Asheville… How about a haunted bridge?
Helen’s Bridge crosses College Street, once connecting to the Zealandia Mansion atop the hill. It gets its name from Helen, who lived in the mansion with her daughter until a fire killed her child. Helen later died by suicide on the bridge.
Strange things happen here now: Cars reportedly won’t restart after visitors pull over, trapping them onsite. Some visitors also spot a woman searching the area, asking passersby if they’ve seen her daughter.
To find it, head down College Street toward Beaucatcher Mountain Road—you’ll know it when you see it. Park in the small pullover area, watch for oncoming traffic, and only cut your engine if you dare. Tom and I refused to shut off the car for this photo.
Helen’s Bridge | Near The Intersection of College Street & Beaucatcher Mountain Road
Riverside Cemetery – A Beautiful But Haunted Victorian & Literary Burial Ground
One of the most haunted places in Asheville, Riverside Cemetery will appeal to both literary travelers and dark tourists. First, pay tribute to literary greats O. Henry and Thomas Wolfe while walking the paved roads of this beautiful Victorian-style cemetery. Yes, I do enjoy respectfully walking through graveyards on Sundays for “fun.”
As one of Asheville’s most famous authors, you might recognize Wolfe for Look Homeward, Angel—a classic tome where he hilariously laid bare the city’s dirty laundry and gossip.
After leaving a pen for Wolfe or a penny for O. Henry, take a closer look into Asheville’s darker history, filled with war and disease. Visitors may catch a child’s apparition playing amongst the graves, a stark reminder of the yellow fever epidemic.
Along with the probability of unmarked graves, in 1865—near today’s UNC Asheville campus—Union and Confederate forces engaged in a 5-hour standoff at the Battle of Asheville as part of the American Civil War. Visitors claim they can still hear cannon fire and gunshots. Others have caught sightings of Confederate soldiers marching, trapped in time.
Not to mention that during World War I, the U.S. interred German officers in Hot Springs, NC. At least 18 of those officers died from typhoid fever, and their remains rest at Riverside Cemetery.
Riverside Cemetery | 53 Birch St, Asheville, NC 28801
Thomas Wolfe Memorial – Proof That Gossip Never Dies
🖊️ And speaking of Thomas Wolfe…
Also known as the “Old Kentucky Home,” this Queen Anne Victorian was Thomas Wolfe’s childhood “home.” Technically, his real house sat down the street, but young Wolfe grew up here, in the boardinghouse his trailblazing mother ran. Reportedly, several members of the Wolfe family never quite checked out…
Visitors have reported a woman in the dining room and a man seen sitting in a rocking chair upstairs.
However, the story everyone shares is the faint sound of a typewriter clacking through empty rooms, along with a face spotted in an upstairs window. Most people assume it’s Wolfe himself, still finishing the work he lost time to when he died of tubercular meningitis at 37.
His brother also died in one of the rooms, a sobering story you may hear on a guided tour (it made me tear up when the guide read the passage out loud).
While Wolfe’s novel might be dry—and still worth a read—the guided tour is not. Tom and I take all of our Asheville guests on it.
Thomas Wolfe Memorial | 52 N Market St, Asheville, NC 28801
Smith-McDowell House – A Haunted History Museum With A Dark Past
Built around 1840, the Smith-McDowell House is Asheville’s oldest surviving brick house museum. Locals will tell you it’s also one of its most haunted.
The best-documented spirits from paranormal investigators include two little girls, Carrie and Sarah, who both died in the home.
In the basement, a shadowy presence known only as “the Dark One” is believed to be the spirit of a former slave owner. Visitors report cold spots, hearing their names called, and the sensation of being touched by something that isn’t there.
The Smith and McDowell families enslaved over 100 individuals here, adding to its dark history, which the museum addresses.
Today, the house operates as the Asheville Museum of History. Discover even more interesting museums across AVL.
Smith-McDowell House | 283 Victoria Rd, Asheville, NC 28801
Chicken Alley – “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished” (& No Chickens Involved…)
Did I just sing a Wicked song? You’ll immediately recognize Chicken Alley by its 10-foot rooster, and yes, this is one of the must-visit haunted places in Asheville. Who knew?!
Molly Must, a well-known and accomplished mural artist, painted Chicken Alley in 2011. This particular series of murals shares a piece of AVL history, including Sam and Argie Young’s chicken processing plant. Must also captured Sandra Gudger, their granddaughter and local beekeeper—hence, the honey jar.
While the mural itself is not haunted, Chicken Alley certainly is.
Rumor has it that in 1902, Dr. Jamie Smith attempted to break up a bar fight at what was then called Broadway’s Tavern. Unfortunately, Dr. Smith took a fatal knife wound to the heart, dying instantly. No one found his killer, and a year later, the tavern burned down.
Late at night, you might catch the ghost of Dr. Smith, wearing a long coat and wide hat. Some say they can even hear the tapping of his cane.
Chicken Alley | Off of Woodfin Street between Carolina Lane and North Lexington Ave.
Recommended Asheville Ghost Tours
🍻 Asheville thirsty for more?! These are the most popular ghost tours in Asheville:
🚌 LaZoom’s Ghosted Comedy Tour: Tom and I took this evening ride through Downtown Asheville & Historic Montford on LaZoom’s famous purple bus, which blends legendary Asheville history with grotesque and not always appropriate comedy. We highly recommend it. This tour is for ages 17+, with beer and wine allowed on board for 21+. Book it here, and know they offer family-friendly tours, too.
👻 Haunted Asheville Nighttime Walking Ghost Tour: Take a spooky stroll through Downtown Asheville after dark. Your ghoulish host will share hair-raising tales and dark history you won’t find in any guidebook. Meet our resident Pink Lady, hear about the body entombed in the wall of the Basilica of St. Lawrence, and more than we could write about here (there are so many haunted places in Asheville!). Book the tour here.
🚃 Gray Line’s Ghost & History Tour: This is for anyone who’d rather do their Asheville ghost hunting from a trolley seat. Tom and I enjoyed this ghost tour for the best Asheville history. It’s super chill. Book Gray Line here.
🎃 Scream-Worthy Asheville Halloween Attractions & Ticketed Events
If you came here wanting jump scares and actors in masks rather than ghost stories and history, these are just a few Halloween things to do in Asheville:
- The Haunted Farm (Hendersonville, NC): Consistently ranked one of the best full-scale haunts near Asheville, our friends did this and literally screamed the entire night away. It is considered NC’s scariest attraction. Maybe I’ll get brave enough, one year.
- Fender’s Farm (Jonesborough, TN): About one hour from Asheville, don’t miss their Field of Screams, Insane Inn, and Patches Penthouse. While their haunted activities are not recommended for small children, they also host a variety of family-friendly fall events.
- The Haunted Trail (Asheville, NC): This is an outdoor, kid-friendly trail with live actors.
- Wicked Spooky 5k & the Creepy Crawly Climb (South Slope, Asheville): October 31st races with kid-friendly options.
Of course, we also have plenty of ideas for how to spend a fall in Asheville, and be sure to plan your time in Asheville with our local events calendar.
Craving More Scares, History, & Ghosts? You May Also Enjoy:
👻 North Carolina’s local legends and lore
📚 Southern Gothic books
🎞️ Southern Gothic films
👻 Haunted house books (on our sister site, The Uncorked Librarian)
👻 Do you have a favorite Asheville ghost story? Let us know in the comments, as we are always researching and updating our local travel guides.
The Pink Lady at the
Grove Park Inn of Asheville is 100 percent real. I’ve seen her myself and the atmosphere in the area suddenly became really cold before rounding the corner and suddenly there she
was.
O
That’s so spooky! Thank you for sharing!