Schenectady's Historic Stockade District

The Haunting

Settled nearly 400 years ago, the Historic Stockade is home to countless hauntings...

The neighborhood was the site of a devastating and bloody massacre in 1691. Since that gruesome beginning, nearly every building has a ghostly story within its walls. Spectres roam the streets of the Stockade at night, sometimes spotted by residents out a bit too late. Some of the sites of interest and stories you will find about the district include:

Cucumber Alley
In building #1 recent tenants had some complaints that the water was always turning on by itself and they heard children’s voices. They went to the apartment next door to ask their neighbor if he had seen and heard the same things and were told no - but, while they were there his water turned on without explanation.

15 Washington Ave. 
Two businessmen had a quarrel here, and one accused the other of stealing money from him.  The accused was so shocked and upset that he had a heart attack and died on the spot.  The accuser hid his partner's body in a corner of the cellar and refused to release it until the family could pay off his alleged debt.  The widow was so outraged that she put a curse on the blackmailer's soul, and footsteps in the hallway can be heard late at night to this day.

4 Washington Ave.
Spirits have been detected both inside and on the grounds of this house. A psychic who visited the house told the owner that a number spirits of Indians and children haunt the grounds going down to the river. Other visitors have sensed a presence moving objects around the house to the point where one guest could no longer stay there.

19 Front Street
On a freezing and stormy winter night in February, the residents of Schenectady went to sleep feeling safe within the walls of the wooden stockade, thinking that no one would attack in such terrible weather. The story goes that the stockade gates were left unguarded but for two snowmen, allowing a group of French and natives to walk right through the gates in the middle of the night and launch a terrible attack. A total of 60 men, women and children were killed and 27 taken prisoner. In the 1970s, a mass grave was uncovered on Front St. just outside what would have been the site of the north gate, and it is said that an evil spirit haunts 19 Front Street still to this day...

Other stories of the Stockade District include the haunting of the Stockade Inn, the pacing ghost of 4 South Church Street, the State Street story of the poor shoemaker, and the tragic tale of Alice and her lost lover...

As seen on Travel Channel's "A Haunting" - Season 11, Episode 11 "Nevermore"

Contact:

(Care of Schenectady Historical Society)
32 Washington Ave.
Schenectady, NY 12305
P: 518-374-0263 x5