Self-Guided Boston Ghosts Walking Audio Tour

Boston Common, America’s oldest city park, has a chilling history beyond its peaceful greenery. Once grazing land and later the site of public executions, it’s said to be haunted by the souls of those hanged from the Great Elm.

Granary Burying Ground holds an estimated 5,000 burials, far more than the 2,345 stones you see. Revolutionary figures rest here, including Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock.

The Boston Athenaeum is a landmark library and museum with about 600,000 volumes and notable art. Its most notorious item is a memoir by the highwayman James Allen, also known as George Walton, bound in his own skin. Local legend says the room grows watchful around that book.

The Omni Parker House is as renowned for whispers as for luxury. Guests and staff still speak of founder Harvey D. Parker making quiet rounds, most often near the tenth floor. Stories gather on the third floor as well, centered on Room 303, where a liquor salesman reportedly died in 1949, and on the suite once used by Charles Dickens, whose presence some say lingers after midnight.