Raynham Hall has been known to be haunted since the early 1900s. Among the phenomena here are a phantom white horse and a rider, an apparition of an Irish servant named Michael Conlin, an elderly man’s ghost seen coming down the stairs (believed to be Robert Townsend, the Revolutionary War spy also known as Culper, Jr.), and the sound of swishing petticoats on the stairs. Noises and voices as well as footsteps and phantom odors, like baking apple pie, have been noted here as well. But the museum’s most well-known ghost story is that of Sally Townsend and John Simcoe. Sally is thought to have fallen in love with Colonel Simcoe while he stayed here during the Revolutionary War. But after the war he never returned for Sally, and she died unmarried at 82. She kept a Valentine’s letter that Simcoe had once sent, and it was found well worn and creased. Her sad ghost is said to remain here.
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Geographic Information
- Address:
- 20 W Main St
Oyster Bay, NY 11771
United States
Get Directions » - GPS:
- 40.87246269539868, -73.5316493512073
- County:
- Nassau County, New York
- Nearest Towns:
- Oyster Bay, NY (0.5 mi.)
Oyster Bay Cove, NY (1.1 mi.)
Cove Neck, NY (1.5 mi.)
Mill Neck, NY (1.6 mi.)
East Norwich, NY (1.8 mi.)
Centre Island, NY (2.1 mi.)
Matinecock, NY (2.4 mi.)
Upper Brookville, NY (2.9 mi.)
Bayville, NY (3.1 mi.)
Laurel Hollow, NY (3.4 mi.)
Contact Information
- Web:
- http://www.raynhamhallmuseum.org/
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Disclaimer: The stories posted here are user-submitted and are, in the nature of "ghost stories," largely unverifiable. HauntedPlaces.org makes no claims that any of the statements posted here are factually accurate. The vast majority of information provided on this web site is anecdotal, and as such, should be viewed in the same light as local folklore and urban legends.
I visited Raynham Hall on a stormy Saturday about 3 years ago when I was able to photograph an orb on an old cell phone. Went back last year and didn’t get any activity. I visit often and are hoping to photograph a few more orbs.
Less known and talked about is the Bayville Historical Museum, located in the North wing of the Bayville Village Hall complex. the early evening, just before dark, one can hear footsteps on the stairway of the former house, and the sound of heavy boxes being dropped on the second floor. Downstairs, a room dedicated to the estate owners, the late Mona and Harrison Williams with photos of their Bayville estate. There is also a painting portraiture of Mona that has fallen off of the wall, although securely fastened there…
In second grade, my class took a field trip there. At first, we heard footsteps up the stairs, as if someone is trying to tiptoe up the stairs. We all freaked out and our teacher and the museum employees told us it was one of the maids. Now that I’m older, I relise there was no one else in the house except my class, my teacher, two chaperones and two tour guides or employees. That’s all. We also got spooked by all of the little balls of light floating around the corners of each room.
I once attended a Halloween party at Raynham Hall. A charity event. As part of the party, they hired a psychic who did readings on the second floor. As the party was in a tent in the garden, the house was relatively empty. I waited at the bottom of the stairs to wait my turn for my « reading », and once I got to the second floor, I could have sworn I saw a woman in a long petticoat dress, walk down the stairs as I had just come up and made a right turn. How much fun that this occurred during a Halloween party! PS I was dressed up as a nun, and probably scared the ghost more than she scared me