Hometown ghost stories from Boston

As one of the oldest cities in the US, it’s no surprise that Boston is known for its ghosts and ghouls. And while you may have heard the stories about the Parker House and USS Salem, we’ve collected one-of-a-kind stories from local driver-partners who’ve had their own experience with the paranormal. Be warned: You might have to turn on the nightlight after reading these truly haunting stories.

The home I grew up in was notorious for spooky occurrences. And this story is by far the scariest. One day I took a trip to the local grocery store leaving my little brother, who was 10 at the time, at home. Halfway through our trip, we got a disturbing call from him. He was crying and pleading for us to come home as soon as possible. We left all of our groceries and ran out of the store. About halfway home (a 10-minute drive) my brother called again. He was saying that there was someone scratching loudly outside of his bedroom door. This concerned me because we didn’t have any animals. We rushed into our house and up the stairs, not knowing what to expect. My brother’s door was covered from floor to ceiling with scratches. To this day we have no idea what caused them or what would have happened if my brother opened his door that day. As I said before, there are many stories I could share but that was by far the story that will haunt me forever.

I live in a 1740 house with 2 little ghost boys that love to come out and play. Swings move and then stop, metal door handles rattle, doors open and close (and if they’re mad, the doors will slam) and get dead bolted, tv channels change from movies to cartoons, light bulbs burst, and radio stations get fuzzy. We had to give our dog away to our neighbor because he refused to come in the house!  

I once lived in a house with my family in a town called Smoketown off of Old Philadelphia Pike. The house that we lived in was once an old railroad house and we believe that the house was haunted because of the things that we saw and heard. One time I was laying in bed and decided to start peeling the old wallpaper off the wall. When I started peeling I saw a pair of glowing red eyes staring at me. After that, I refused to sleep in that room. Another time, when everybody was upstairs in my mother’s bedroom watching TV, we heard something moving across the piano as if someone was trying to play. One winter I made a snowman and I felt like she was always staring at us. Once the rain hit, instead of melting, she turned to solid ice. I couldn’t wait until I could knock that snow woman down so she’d stop watching us. Years later, I found out that my younger sister saw the same red eyes in the wall and that was the reason why she also stopped sleeping in the bedroom. We only lived there for a few years, but my mother said part of the reason we moved was because of all the strange things that happened.

One morning I woke up at 3am. I was so sleepy I barely knew what was going on around me.  I went into the bathroom and when I looked up I saw a little girl looking out of the window. She was sitting on top of something and my first thought was, “Oh my god, ghosts are real.” I ran from the bathroom and slept in the fetal position for the rest of the night. The next day I went to see if the ghost was still there and I realized that it was only an Iron Man helmet on top of a few boxes… Yep, I’m a complete fool.

I live in an old colonial home in Dorchester Center that was built in the late 1880s. It was the first home built on my street and was previously owned by an Irish steamboat captain and his family. Every day when my family eats dinner we can hear his family shuffling around with silverware and laughing in the dining room. We usually hear someone drop a plate and the entire family will go silent. I also see a person walking in and out of my room late nights. When absolutely nobody is home, I sometimes hear a little kid running up the stairs to the third floor and then back down.

If you’re looking for more scary stories, check out what other driver partners and riders have experienced in notoriously haunted cities around the US.