Paranormal Road Trip: Destination New York City with Victoria Davies

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.

This week's stop is New York City and our special guide is Victoria Davies, author of the Fated Match paranormal romance series, including the new release DYING TO DATE.

NYC's Top 5 Spooky Places

The Fated Match Series features a paranormal dating agency in the heart of Manhattan ready and willing to help pair supernatural creatures with their eternal mates. Whether it’s ghosts, goblins, werewolves or vampires, there’s someone out there for everyone. As the characters in the story know, while NYC boasts some world-class shopping, sites and restaurants, it also has its fair share of unnatural incidents like the top five listed below.

The Dakota
You don’t have to be a supernatural or a ghost hunter to have heard about this spot. The breathtaking gothic residence was built in 1884 and has now become one of New York’s most sought after residences. It was featured in the horror classic “Rosemary’s Baby” because of it’s creepy architecture but that’s not its only claim to fame. John Lennon was shot and killed exiting his Dakota home.

Lennon himself is said to have been sighted making a few ghostly appearances. He isn’t alone, however. Two small ghost children are the most famous attraction of the Dakota. They are said to be dressed in period clothing from the 1880s and are often seen as being very friendly to residents. Reports of their haunting has been documented as far back as the 1960s.

The House of Death
This house is always a popular place for the city’s supernatural clientele to visit. Located in the West Village, this 1850s home comes with a rich history of things going bump in the night. Found on a picturesque tree lined street, you wouldn’t think the unassuming house has such a haunted history but 22 ghosts are said to roam the halls. In 1900, Mark Twain himself lived there for a year and was quite vocal about his brushes with the supernatural. Even now, he’s said to be one of the 22 ghosts, wandering around the basement in a white suit. He certainly has enough company to keep his afterlife hopping, though. The other 21 residents are said to be made up of young children, a few old ladies and even a cat. Turnover in this brownstone apartment tends to be high. If a room became available, would you dare to take it?

St. Paul’s Chapel
This pleasant little church is one of the cities oldest public houses still in use. Though many people have been laid to rest here, one famed British actor is the source of the church’s legend. George Frederick Cooke was buried in 1812. The heavy drinker had raked up quite the mountain of debt during his life, however. In order to settle his accounts before he passed, Cooke agreed to donate his head to science. After death, his corpse was decapitated. Rumour has it you can still see Cooke wandering the church grounds looking for his head. The skull, incidentally, seemed determined to return to show business and served as the prop in “Hamlet” productions.

The Whitehorse Tavern
Witches and vampires aren’t the only ones to favour this classic watering hole. If you like your ghosts to have a taste for whisky head to this bar. Opened in 1880, it was a bit of a rough and tumble bar until famous writers began to take it over in the 1960s. Bob Dylan, Hunter S. Thompson and Jim Morrison all reportedly liked to gather here. But it was poet Dylan Thomas that really gave it a story. Always a heavy drinker, on one particular night he downed 18 shots of whiskey, a new personal record. Thomas had to be helped to a cab where he returned to his hotel and promptly fell into a coma. He was pronounced dead at the hospital the next day. Apparently the famous poet can still be seen haunting his favourite bar in hopes of getting one more drink. To support their most infamous patron, the Whitehorse keeps a large portrait of Thomas hanging over their bar.

Manhattan Bistro
And finally we come to the tale of a ghost in dire need of Fated Match’s matchmaking skills. Though rumour has it the food was enough to scare anyone away, this quaint little bistro also boasts a mournful ghost. In 1799 a young woman, Gulielma Elmore Sands, ran away from her boarding home to meet her lover. They were going to elope together but somehow Sands turned up at the bottom of the Manhattan well, which is now found in the bistro basement. Her  lover, Levi Weeks, was the key suspect of her murder. Police thought he had killed her to hide an unwanted pregnancy. Unfortunately for Sands, Weeks hired two cutthroat lawyers who were able to clear his name, much to the fury of New York residents at the time. Though Weeks when on to live his life a free man, Sands spirit continues to haunt the well in reminder of her injustice.

Thank you Victoria for giving us such a haunting tour of NYC!  

To learn more about Victoria Davies and her books, please visit her website.  You can add the Fated Match paranormal romance series here on Goodreads.

Have you ever visited New York City?  Ever had a paranormal experience in New York?

What did you think of Victoria's picks for spooky places?

On our last Paranormal Road Trip we visited Nashville, Tennessee with Emmie Mears.  Next week I'll be on my way back from In-CON-Ceivable, where I'll be staying at a reputedly haunted hotel, and we'll be traveling to New Harbor with Matthew Quinn Martin.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!