Fort Devens, named for Civil War general Charles Devens, is now the Devens Reserve Forces Training Area. Reports say that in the older, unused buildings, unexplained flashing lights have been noticed at night. And piano playing has been heard coming from the defunct movie house.
If you've had a paranormal experience here, or have any additional information about this location, please let us know!
Rate this Haunted Place
What do you think? Is this place really haunted? Voice your opinion here! Click "thumbs up" if you think its haunted, or "thumbs down" if you think its all just a tall tale.
Geographic Information
- Address:
- Fort Devens
Ayer, MA
United States
Get Directions » - GPS:
- 42.537994546213, -71.6163146487088
- County:
- Worcester County, Massachusetts
- Nearest Towns:
- Shirley, MA (1.7 mi.)
Ayer, MA (2.1 mi.)
Harvard, MA (3.1 mi.)
Groton, MA (5.5 mi.)
Lancaster, MA (6.4 mi.)
Lunenburg, MA (6.8 mi.)
Bolton, MA (7.2 mi.)
Littleton Common, MA (7.2 mi.)
Leominster, MA (7.4 mi.)
South Lancaster, MA (7.4 mi.)
Please note: It is your responsibility to acquire appropriate permissions before investigating any location listed on this site. Private property should be respected at all times, as should all posted signs concerning trespassing, hours of operation and other local regulations. Many "ghost hunters" have been arrested because they failed to contact property owners and/or local authorities ahead of time.
Share Your Experiences
Comments (15)
Share Your Comments
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 am a former student of the Shriver Job Corps school in Sevens, MA and it is actually haunted. My roommates have reported evil beings haunting their rooms and actually making physical contact with him and his old roommates. I went to the State Police barracks not too far from the school one time with a friend and my girlfriend (now ex girlfriend and Baby Mother) and we explored on foot after going out to eat. There is an old abandoned mental hospital across the parking lot of the Police barracks and if you acknowledge the beings in the windows they can and will hay t you for weeks and possibly possess any person with you or even you. The aparations can be found on the first floor mostly watching you and young children can be heard playing. And there is an evil demon of Legion who will possess you at any given time. That demon possessed my girlfriend at the time and it’s hard to walk back to school with a possessed girlfriend and not know how to react or what to do. My experience is the most lenient of the experiences. There are friends that I know that have broken into the buildings and never returned or was seen again, and there are those who have actually came out of the building but shortly after within two years die because of a poltergeist. Do NOT go near this building if you want to keep a beautiful memory! Also the field across the street is beautiful during the day but at night don’t let looks fool you because your sight will surely say different.
Have proof Devens theater is haunted!! Just type in
(Haunted Fort Devens theater I, II, III & watch the times posted need more info let me know, i even have an orb there!!. I have other videos with ghost activities also on YouTube thanks
Hi. I lived on fort devens in the old officers housing. The place I lived in was very haunted. Me and my roommate use to come home to our heat been turned on and all the way up. You could hear voices at night and foot steps. We have had the front door that was dead bolted and locked on the knob open and close just before our eyes. Even seen a man standing in the bedroom. I had a daughter at the time who wasn’t even one and we would go to get her out of the crib and the crib with her in it across the room. There’s so much more I could say.
I lived in family housing on Ft. Devens 1982-1984. The housing unit I lived in definitely had something going on. The bathroom was upstairs. Twice unexpectedly the hot water tub faucet turned on by itself. The faucet was conventional twist to turn on. So it’s either turned off or on. This happened Once when I was the only person in the housing unit. The other time when my wife was in the house by herself. It happened to her first. Then a couple of months later to me. I never felt afraid but it was startling.
Hi Todd what unit were you with I was there about the sane time
I lived in the fort devens housing apartments when I was a around 10 years old for a short time (around 2-3 months), me my younger brother and mother all experienced tremendous amounts of paranormal activity. I use to be the only one downstairs during the day because my mother was so afraid of the house she would barely even come downstairs, i just came back from living with my father in upstate New York so I was not enrolled in school, during the day the toilet would flush by itself, I always felt something watching me every day ! Now mind you, my mom did not share her experiences with me while we were living there because she didn’t want to get us afraid. One day around Christmas I woke up went downstairs looked outback to see the snowfall, and when I looked out the back door I seen footprints coming towards the back door, but the weird thing was the footprints did not start from the side walk which was a good distance away, it started almost near the middle of the grass and had footprints all around our door as if something was circling around the door. Creepy ! My mom later on told me that she would hear something like chains and footsteps coming up the stairs almost every night, which is why she slept during the day.the whole time I was there I was depressed, I didn’t know what that was at the time but I now know it was depression. Even when we would leave the house I always felt foggy and had very little emotion. I need to get back and record some video footage because that place is no joke. I’m 22 now so I live there around the year 2004 going into 2005. If anyone had similar experiences and want to share them find me on Facebook my name is Anthony Carrion from Boston Mass.
I moved to Ayer over Memorial Day.
Have had uneasy feelings about the apartment I live in, especially finding Pentagrams in the attic and seeing a dark shadow hovering by the bedroom door. Finding the floor fan moved to block the door. Today my dog was pushed out the kitchen window, a 45 ft drop. Know one was home.
Hey, so I’m a paranormal hunter and I made blogs about haunted places and I was wondering if anyone could give me some history and more examples as to what happened and what is seen/heard. If you could help out that would be lovely.
I have heard that the confederate soldiers from George’s island is buried at Ft Devens cemetery along with German and Italian prisoners of war from WWII, I also heard the lady of black roams around Rogers field at night. I have heard that the shriver job corps building is haunted by some students I have met, I also saw an light coming from the abandon military buildings that are know fenced in, one early morning at 2 am, I just found out my best friend kill himself in Maryland with a .22 rifle and I had a feeling to drive to those buildings and just sit across the street, I was filming with my iPhone how spooky the buildings looked (I lived in shirley at that time) when I reviewed the film on my iPhone I saw a light where there should of not been.
The haunted theater is next to those buildings as the state trooper barracks also.
Hi Sam,
I have a long past and present with Ft. Devens. This ranges from Post Military Police 1998-2000, later as a civilian I began work on post 2002 till present.
This is a very old post, I have read stories of bodies being stacked from floor to ceiling at the old red cross during the Spanish flu. in addition there is a Fed Prison on post which has a nick name of Devens death house. The prison is built around the posts 1970’s hospital. The prison plays host to a large group of mentally and physically ill prisoners (who commit suicide or who sacrum to there illnesses. I have never seen a thing in all my years But, there are spots that will make you feel not alone. I find August to be the creepy time (with the fog at night) around the parade field. Much of this post has been reconfigured but the old areas are a little strange.
My wife and I lived on Salerno Circle in family housing from ‘92-‘94. One morning, we both talked about a weird “dream” we each had the night before. Basically, we both saw a ghost or ghosts come into our bedroom. My wife remembers seeing the figures, but doesn’t remember a lot of detail. I specifically remember one wearing a blue revolutionary war type uniform. I think there were three figures, but not positive. I don’t remember anything creepy, though.
My ex-husband was stationed at Fort Devens in 1987. We had to get housing off post at first. We found a 3 bedroom second floor apartment in Shirley Ma. This apartment cost us 997.00 a month. The landlord bragged about it all being remodeled. All new carpet, paint and so on. Each room had its own heat register on the floor base. With the dial above it. It had a brand new stairs to the back door in the 3rd bedroom. Now to get to the strange. First off we couldn’t keep the heat on in that room. I would turn it on and a short time later it would be off. 2nd I would close the door to the room and by the time I took a few steps it would open. 3rd my dog would not go in that room. He would look in there and whine. 4th I had to move my kids out of that room and put them in the smaller room because they said they couldn’t sleep plus the heat would shut off. I showed my friend downstairs about the door opening and the heat shutting off. Lori like me thought it was odd. She also told me the neighbors below me had complained about all the noise at night. The stomping on the floor from that room. The yelling and pounding, scratching. They said it was my kids and dog. Well worked 3rd shift it was my husband and 2 kids. When I worked they slept in the king bed with him. So it wasn’t them and my dog slept in his kennel. So I went to talk to them. They ask me who lived above me? I’m like what no it’s just a crawl space attic. We all went up to my apartment and looked at the attic door to go up. I pulled down the ladder and up we went. When we got up there we were shocked when we seen what was up there! It was a 4th apartment that had been totally gutted by a fire! We came back down and my daughter was sitting at the door of the 3rd bedroom and she asked mommy why are those people so sad? She said the lady is crying and the man can’t open the window. Can you open it for him? I went in and opened it up she said oh mommy they are so happy! At that point I called the landlord and demanded he come over right now. When he got there and seen all of us together he was like oh good you guys have talked to each other because I was getting ready to call you about the noise you were making at night. I said oh yeah, now tell me why my apartment was the only one remodeled? Think hard before you answer. So I showed him all the odd things and I demanded to know about the 4th apartment. Well to end the story it had caught fire along with mine. Due to there not being back fire stairs the people in my apartment couldn’t get out. They tried to get out the bedroom window but couldn’t open it and the husband and wife died in that room! I told him you should have told us the truth! I told him I want a reduction in rent and when my quarters came available he would let me out of my lease! Since I found out the situation I left the heat off the door open and the window cracked about 2 inches and everything calmed down. My daughter would sit in the door area and carry on full conversations. My dog calmed down. I told the landlord I will tell housing about the 4th apartment fire. The next month were very peaceful.
Sara, what is that street address of this building? I live in Shirley.
I was stationed at Ft Devens in 1977-1978. During that time I heard reports about an affair between the First Sargent and his assistant. One day according to the rumors his wife who suspected he was cheating on her came in unexpectedly to “bring brownies” to her husband. She caught the two of them in a compromising position drew out the revolver she carried and shot both of them. Several other officers heard the shots and ran into the room only to be shot dead by her as well. When she was done she reloaded her gun and shot herself in the head. They cleaned up the First Sargent’s room and used it to house soldiers who were there for training. When I was there the room I was assigned to with my 3 roommates had on the one wall “in this room have sat the very best” I thought it was weird that only my room had this phrase on the wall but what was weirder was that sometimes when we were alone in the room and it was quiet sometimes you would hear a commanding voice yell “attention” and hear a general commotion. One night we heard gunshots and my roommates and I all ran out of the room to find out the cause of it thinking we were under attack. No one else heard the gunshots. Needless to say we all refused to go back in that room that night. The next day all 4 of us were called to report to the Commanding Officers office. He asked us to explain what happened. We told him and then he told us about the history of the room we were assigned to. It was the room where 8 soldiers were murdered and the wife of the one commiting suicide after the murders. We eventually adjusted to the unusual events that continued to happen and whenever “George” as we called him let his presence be known we would respond with “stand down George” and he would calm down. When word got out that the rumors were true we had numerous requests from our fellow soldiers to have their pictures taken in the room with the backdrop of the wording on the wall.
i play soccer near fort devens on wilde road and i am petrified.