Raleigh, North Carolina’s capital city, has been plagued with political turmoil, instability, epidemics, and numerous other tragic events, which have all left its mark on this city of around 500,000 inhabitants. 

Here are the five spookiest, most haunted spots in Raleigh. Don’t forget to join a local Raleigh ghost tour to experience this city’s dark side! 

The haunted Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh – Copyright US Ghost Adventures

The Mordecai House

The Mordecai House, which dates back to before Raleigh was founded, was once part of a massive, 5,000-acre plantation. Built in 1785, this building was home to five generations of the Mordecai family, and their personal items, including a creepy piano, are still present in the home. 

This piano randomly plays keys even when nobody is visible around it, the spooky sounds of its chords echoing through the centuries-old home. Someone is playing it, and that someone is definitely not amongst the living. 

Many believe it’s the spirit of Mary Willis, who died in the house in the early 1900s. Her full name was Mary Willis Mordecai Turk, and her apparition is sometimes seen from the staircase or balcony. 

Widely considered one of the most haunted places in all of North Carolina, the Mordecai House is a must-visit. 

410 Glenwood Ave

410 Glenwood Ave is the location of several popular businesses, including Milk Bar, a local favorite, and Sullivan’s Steakhouse. However, this building also has a dark and sinister history. 

In the 1990s, there was a gruesome string of murders in the area, and two female bodies were found in and behind the building. 

At first, a serial killer was suspected, as six female victims were discovered in Raleigh, one after the other. However, two separate suspects were later arrested and charged for the deaths of three of the six women. The other three murders remain unsolved to this day. 

That’s not the only death that occurred in this building, though. The building was once a dairy co-operative called Pine State Creamery, which delivered milk to schools and families in Raleigh, and a worker was found dead in the freezer after suffering a heart attack. 

There was also an incident in 1986 in which two Pine State Creamery employees were injured in an ammonia flash fire. The place just seems to have bad luck! As refrigerators became more common, the days of daily fresh milk deliveries passed, and Pine State Creamery went out of business. 

Employees here have reported banging on the walls, eerie laughter echoing through the walls, and strange thuds. 

The Dorothea Dix Hospital

The Dorothea Dix Hospital is one of Raleigh’s creepiest buildings. Founded by mental health advocate Dorothea Dix, it was Raleigh’s first psychiatric hospital and designed to be a safe refuge for patients with mental illnesses. 

Although Dorothea Dix advocated for more humane treatment of mentally ill patients and against common practices of the time such as shackling patients or locking them in straightjackets, the hospital was plagued by poor administration and lack of funding. 

A federal investigation by the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division found that severe federal civil rights violations of patients were taking place at Dix. Practices included using benzodiazepines to sedate patients (a form of chemical restraint) and forceful intramuscular injection of medications when patients refused to ingest their prescribed meds orally. 

Sometimes, these intramuscular medications would be completely different from the oral medications the patient needed and not even indicated for the same symptoms. Thus, the forced injections served as a form of punishment for patients refusing medication. 

Even worse, patients, including minors, were routinely placed in restraints or seclusion for lengthy periods of time without adequate and sufficient reason for doing so.  

Other issues included inadequate physical care and treatment, suicide risks in the bathrooms, lack of proper mental health care, inadequate discharge planning, and more. 

Several areas at Dix are haunted, including where those who were deemed mentally insane were locked up and the children’s ward. An eerie, oppressive atmosphere is immediately felt when entering these areas. 

In another scandal, three employees were fired for having sex with female prisoners who were working at the hospital. 

The hospital was eventually shut down, and most of the compound has been converted into a public park, but the ghosts of the past have never left this place. The cemetery where those who died in the facility were laid to rest also has a strange, foreboding presence. 

Crybaby Lane

Crybaby Lane isn’t an actual lane but a deserted strip of land not far from the Dorothea Dix Hospital. According to local legend, a Christian orphanage once stood here, but one night, a horrific fire broke out in the dormitory. 

There are several versions of how this went down. Some people say patients at the Dix hospital broke out and started the fire; others claim a priest was trying to clear out a wasp nest with smoke. 

In any case, the blaze burned out of control, and many children lost their lives. The fire was eventually contained, but something strange happened. Days later, the rancid smell of smoke and burning wood and skin still burned the neighbors’ eyes and skin. Months, years, and decades passed, yet the smell still lingers in the air, as if the fire was raging just yesterday. 

At night is when the real terror happens. The wailing and crying of young children fill the air, deep into the dead of night. People who walk through the field claim they can feel little baby ghost hands grasping at their legs, as if they were crying out to be rescued. 

As with many urban legends, though, this story has been embellished over time, with fact and fiction intertwined in this spooky tale. There was indeed an orphanage in Raleigh called the Nazareth Orphanage, which was part of the Nazareth Church.

Over the decades of its existence, it caught fire multiple times, according to WFMY News. In 1905, three people jumped from the fourth floor to escape a fire, and some reports stated that one of them later died from internal injuries. However, there is no evidence that dozens of children died.

Regardless, the legend of Crybaby Lane lives on, seared into Raleigh’s local lore. 

The Historic Oakwood Cemetery

The Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh was founded in 1869 and has two sections: the Confederate Cemetery and the Hebrew Cemetery. 

As is common in old, historic cemeteries, plenty of ghosts and spirits abound. This is especially true in the Confederate section, where people report eerie shadows, disembodied voices, and even the faint crackle of gunfire. 

Perhaps the most haunted thing in this cemetery, though, is the angel statue at the grave of Etta White, who died in 1918 at the age of 38. 

One of the first things you will notice when gazing at this statue are its striking eyes, which appear to be as if they were staring straight into your soul. Urban legends surrounding this angel statue, which has a face modeled after the likeness of Etta White, are many. Some swear that they have seen its head turn on a swivel, staring at them and following their every movement. 

Most of the soldiers who are buried in the Oakwood Cemetery weren’t originally interred here. At first, most were buried in the nearby Rock Quarry Cemetery. However, when the Federal army came and took control in 1867, they decided that the cemetery would be used for their own dead and threatened to throw the bodies of the Confederates buried there into the street if they were not reinterred within two days. 

The townsfolk, including both men and women, brothers, friends, and sisters of the dead, led a massive effort to move hundreds of bodies to the Oakwood Cemetery. Over the following decades, a few hundred additional corpses were reinterred in the Oakwood Cemetery from places as far away as Gettysburg. 

Perhaps the spirits of the soldiers buried here never fully recovered after being disturbed from their original resting places, which may explain why this place is so haunted. 

Do you want to experience Raleigh’s haunted side? Join a Raleigh ghost tour – if you’re brave enough! 

Guest post by: Benjamin Levin – a web developer and SEO strategist with a passion for storytelling, history, and unique travel experiences. He leads SEO strategy for US Ghost Adventures, helping bring America’s most haunted locations to curious travelers.

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