Happy Halloween

Every Halloween ghosts and goblins haunt the streets, parks and apartment buildings of Inwood–just as they have for hundreds of years.

Inwood is a spooky place where the spirit of a long dead magician might bump into the specter of a headless Hessian, where a Dutch trumpeter fights with the devil himself and cries from disturbed graves are heard by the living.

This October, the most frightening month of the year, MyInwood presents several scary tales from the past.

Asylums on the Hill: Choose a cell in one of three of the haunted asylums that once lined Inwood Hill. There’s the House of Mercy, The Magdalen Asylum and a home for tuberculosis patients. The frightening pasts of these institutions were so dark and scary that the ghosts of thier former residents haunt Inwood Hill Park to this very day.

Paranormal Inwood: Near the turn of the century a wealthy Inwood Hill resident named Walter Francis Burns had a horrifying dream that his son had been killed while crossing the intersection of Dyckman Street and Broadway. What happened next would haunt Mr. Burns to his dying day. Some say his frightened cries can be heard on the trails near dusk.

Houdini’s Ghost Every Halloween, the anniversary of Harry Houdini’s death, his widow Bess held a seance. This Halloween, listen to a recording of the final 1936 seance and discover The Houdini Inwood Connection. Would you believe Bess Houdini lived right here on Payson Avenue? The hills of Inwood are crowded with other Houdini ghosts as well. Click the link and read on if you dare.

A Turn of the Century School for the Occult Occultism was all the rage near the turn of the century. Join us as we explore the fascinating and macabre world of Ernest Loomis and his Inwood School of Philosophy. It is a bone chilling ride into another dimension. Did Loomis channel into a haunted Inwood?  His book, “Practical Occultism,” was published here the turn of the century.

Cemeteries of Yesteryear It’s hard to imagine an Inwood with mansions on the hill, a dirt road below, and just east of that cemeteries.  Hundreds of years of population generated numerous graves. In some lay the long forgotten members of once famous families. In other plots,the fallen dead of the Revolutionary War; even Indians.