One of the most haunted houses in the United States is the Lemp Mansion Restaurant and Inn, 3322 DeMenil Place in St. Louis, Mo. Betsy Belanger, founder of St. Louis Spirit Search, guides visitors on a ghost hunting tour of the historic home each Monday evening. Reservations are required.

John Adam Lemp arrived in St. Louis is 1838 and by the middle of the century, Lemp’s Western Brewing Co. was one of the largest in the city. Tragedy and suicide haunted this family, however, and Belanger said six or seven spirits reside in the mansion today.

The spirits sometimes show up in photographs as orbs. Belanger said she’s felt cold spots throughout Lemp Mansion and unexplainable scents and noises also are common.

Lemp Mansion Restaurant and Inn is open for lunch and weekend dinner theater performances.

Ghosts also are rumored to rumble about Bissell Mansion Restaurant and Dinner Theater, 4426 Randall Place, near Interstate 70 and Grand Avenue in St. Louis. The Bissell Mansion, constructed in the mid-1820s by Capt. Lewis Bissell, is St. Louis’ oldest surviving brick home. Today, the mansion is open for lunch and weekend dinner theater performances. Some employees believe the ghosts are more than just part of a play. Servers claim they’ve often heard the radio change stations by itself.

Oakland House, 7801 Genesta in Affton, Mo., was constructed in the 1850s by banker Louis A Benoist. Today, the home is owned, operated and maintained by the Affton Historical Society and is open for tours the third Sunday of each month, April through October.

Belanger walked through the house twice in the past year and discovered the spirit of a little boy who is believed to have fallen to his death over the stairway banister.

Ghosts in Illinois

Salem, Ill., is just off Interstate 57 in the south-central part of the state. This quaint community is home to the McMackin house (413 North Broadway) and past generations of the McMackin family.

Warren McMackin, the family patriarch, served as a Lt. Col. in the Union army and mayor of Salem. Warren and his wife, Delilah Jane Cruise, raised seven children. Tragic death followed the family for years, and today, spirits reside in what has become a delightful restaurant. Items, including keys, have been known to disappear, and customers have felt inexplicable cold chills throughout the restaurant.

Troy Taylor, author of “Haunted Alton,” agrees with other experts who claim that Alton, Ill., is one of America’s most haunted small towns. He offers a History & Hauntings Ghost Tour, a three-hour event that allows visitors to venture from the present into the past. Tickets for the October tours go on sale at 12:01 a.m. on Sept. 7.

Antoinette’s Haunted History Tours are offered in Alton with or without dinner in April and October. Ghost hunters board a trolley for a chill-filled jaunt and enter three sites where they may encounter a spirit from the past. Previously encountered spirits include Rachel, a young girl who sits on the steps of an old hotel, patiently waiting for her parents’ return, and The Lady in Blue, who is surrounded by the scent of jasmine.

Indiana’s Haunted Hannah

Indiana state legislator Alexander Hannah’s mansion in Indianapolis is used today for weddings and reunions. The Italianate style home, however, is said to have guests that are not from this world. According to legend, the mansion was part of the Underground Railroad before the Civil War.

One night, a lantern was accidentally knocked over, which caused a fire in the basement, killing many of the slaves hiding there. The bodies were buried in simple coffins in the basement.

Unusual odors are experienced in the house, and apparitions of Hannah and an unidentified woman have been spotted on the second floor. Apparitions of slaves have been seen still hiding in the basement.

Hannah House, located at 3801 Madison Ave. in Indianapolis, is open for public tours on the first Sunday in October, November and December. Just across the Ohio River from Kentucky is Evansville, Ind., and the Willard Library, 21 First Ave. The “lady in grey,” believed to be the ghost of Louise Carpenter, daughter of the library’s founder, Willard Carpenter, generally spooks patrons and staff. Carpenter sued the library’s board for her inheritance and lost. Some say she’s been plaguing the place ever since.

Benedictines and haunted forts

Located just 54 miles north of Kansas City is Atchison, the most haunted town in Kansas, according to residents. See for yourself this fall during one of the Haunted Atchison trolley tours. The hour-long narrated tour weaves through 18 points, including Jackson Park and Molly’s Hollow, or “Molly’s Holler,” as the locals refer to it. The Haunted Atchison tours run Sept. 17–19 and 24–26; Oct. 1–3, 8–10 and 15–31. Advance reservations are required.

While in Atchison, visitors may want to spend the night at The Majestic House, 18936 262nd Road. Owner Jan Denney prefers to call her bed-and-breakfast inn blessed, not haunted. The brothers of St. Benedict’s Abbey built the house in 1890. Visitors to The Majestic House have heard footsteps and doors that open and shut.

“The house is a very special place,” Denney said. “A few months ago, I woke up in the middle of the night and my cat and I went to the sitting room. We were on the couch and I heard the pacing up and down the hall. My cat’s head was following the noise back and forth. I recently found out that the Benedictine Brothers went to bed very early and rose to pray at 12, 3 and 6 a.m. My music room was their chapel, so I’m thinking that they’re going to chapel.”

The Watching Widow makes her home at Fort Scott, Kan., 90 miles south of Kansas City. Visitors to Fort Scott may join a 50-minute narrated trolley tour that passes by the old fort; Courtland Hotel; the National Cemetery, where the spirit of Bonnie Smith lingers; and the Watching Widow at the National Historic Site. According to legend, the Watching Widow is a woman whose husband accidentally shot himself on his way home. She watches and waits for her husband in the window of the officer’s quarters. The tours run at 7, 8 and 9 p.m., Oct. 11–30. Reservations are said to sell out quickly.

Gather your courage and friends and pay a visit to one of these haunted sites for a different Halloween treat.

Shelly Schneider is a contributor from St. Peters, Mo.