The 1850 Forest Home Cemetery, established over a former Indian village and burial ground, is said to be home to many strange happenings. The large graveyard contains more than 110,000 gravesites including many famous names, including beer barons such as Jacob Best and Frederick Pabst of Pabst Brewing Company fame and Joseph Schlitz and August Krug of the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. Also here are William Davidson, co-founder of Harley-Davidson, and Christopher Sholes, who invented the first typewriter with the QWERTY key layout. Witnesses describe eerie or unwell feelings and visions of splintered coffins and shredded corpses.
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Geographic Information
- Address:
- 2405 W Forest Home Ave
Milwaukee, WI 53215
United States
Get Directions » - GPS:
- 42.999448, -87.9432099
- County:
- Milwaukee County, Wisconsin
- Nearest Towns:
- West Milwaukee, WI (1.7 mi.)
Milwaukee, WI (3.3 mi.)
West Allis, WI (3.4 mi.)
Saint Francis, WI (4.0 mi.)
Greenfield, WI (4.4 mi.)
Wauwatosa, WI (4.7 mi.)
Greendale, WI (4.9 mi.)
Cudahy, WI (5.0 mi.)
Shorewood, WI (6.8 mi.)
Hales Corners, WI (6.8 mi.)
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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.
Have I had a paranormal experience at Forest Home? No but the place makes me feel really creepy with the hair on the back of the neck standing up sort of feeling.
I was there doing a evp recording, right after I asked if there was any kne there and if anyone had anything to say a large tree branch fell off a tree right next to me. The creepy part is that it was not rotted or anything. And I have on video another experience.
I was recording a few grave stones and one was completely covered with bugs and I mean covered and I truned around to tell someone to check it out every one was gone, so it went from completely covered to bare, I aslo have many photos and other experiences, I will never share the photos because people will tell me there photoshoped witch there not. I suggest everyone go check it out, make sure to check the hours as there closed alot.
Thanks for reading.
Al
I for one wouldn’t say it was photoshopped. As a Paranormal Investigator I would love to see what you captured. I know what it’s like to take a photo of something and others try and deny it. Everyone has their opinions so don’t take it personal.
I lived directly across the street from Forest Home Cemetary when I was 8 til I was 10. From the first night I spent there (My mother and I moved in with her boyfriend and his 3 children. That first night, we played hide and go seek with the babysitter. Of course I was it because I was the newbie, and when they were hiding (turns out they all hid on the front balcony on the other side of the kitchen. However, while they were hiding, I heard the chairs in the kitchen scrape on the floor. When I went to look, of course, there wasn’t and hadn’t been anyone in the kitchen). Mine and the other girl’s bedroom were off the kitchen along the same wall as the back door so when I would get up every night to go to the bathroom, I would glance back at the back door (it had a window above the door. This is also the door you would have to go out of, to get to the attic). Every night I would see a bloody, bald man’s face sliding down the window from outside of it. When I double took, it would be gone and the window would be clean. The oldest boy and I were playing cribbage on his top bunk in another room off the kitchen. The room had accordian, rubber style door. We had the door slid shut but we both heard a noise and when we looked, there was a hand up to the elbow going up and down through the door and it was leaving multi colored tracks. Many years later, a good friend of mine bought the place and while we were at the bar, he asked me if I wanted to see his new place. I agreed but soon found out that this was the place. I was terrified going up the stairs and I wouldn’t go past the dining room (the room you walked into from the door). He had me lay there with him in front of the built in china cabinet, we heard noises coming from the kitchen and after about 2 minutes (maybe it wasn’t even a minute, I don’t know), I was so terrified that we had to leave. I ran down those stairs so fast that I almost fell. I felt sheer terror (and this was when I was in my late 20’s). So, although it’s not the cemetery, it is right across from it on Forest Home Avenue and 25th I think.
Me and a friend biking home thought it would be faster to cut through the cemetery so like two idiots we did. Some how got lost and it turned dark outside we’re riding down this road that I can’t for the life of me find and about 50 feet ahead an apparition of a hunched over being appeared on the road it went south to north it was about one foot off of the ground and had a creepy glide we got to where it appeared looked to the right and there was nothing at the same time we shouted “did you see that s***!” Continued riding for 20 minutes and didnt find any open gate finally threw our bikes over the fence an crawled under a gate on 20th st
haha
I have lived in milwaukee for most of my life and spent a lot of time at forest home cemetary. When i was in my early teens and not having a car i would have to get up early to make the jurney to work witch lead me to take cleveland street witch separated the two halves of the cemetary . No sidewalks and a lamp post every 50 or so yards apart . In the distance on the poorly lit street i could see a figure in the dark coming towards me , not to be completley freaked out i quickly cross the over to the other side of the street never taking my eyes off to approaching figure that i could now clearly see was someone dress in dark clothing . Something was off about this as we got closer to one another , i started to feel like i was having a panic attack and though for a moment to turn back the way i came. No way i have to get to work , i thought and put on my best tough guy act and proceeded . Now the figure was just a couple of yards away for me and i could clearly see it was and elderly man a wave of calm washed over me as we passed one another on opposite sides of the street . He looked confused . He had a white beard waring a what appeared to be a navy pea coat matching hat. But when our eyes met nothing was the old man just nodded acknowledging me. Taking a few more steps every hair on my body stood straight up. I immediately turned around and he was no where to be seen . Needless to say i made it to work in record time.
A friend and I used to wander through said cemetery during our days off from work not too long ago usually midnights to record EVP’s and just for thrills. During our first time through, we had heard the sound of a woman crying and some sort of ghostly apparition of a tall shadow-like figure and we ran like hell to get away from him. Twice we’ve caught audio recordings of spirits rambling incomprehensible stuff and left usually afterwards because like anyone else, we were afraid.
My sister is currently living in one of the 3 houses on the very corner of the cemetery. She moved in about 4 months ago and my autistic nephew has been waking up screaming and a lot more agitated since moving there. He keeps mentioning “the guy” and “Alex”. Does anyone know of anything specific with a man named Alex relating to the cemetery or the property? My sister’s friend got pushed while she was in the bathroom, my brother-in-law heard a door slam, and my sister watched a door open in front of her last night. My mom just moved in upstairs from my sister about a month ago and there was a door that closed, the radio station was changed, and there was a rosary already hanging on the wall left by the last tenants. Please reply if you know anything about an Alex or lived in one of the house on the very corner plot of the cemetery.
i frequently walk into forest home cemetery. over time i got used to the place; however on one of my most first visits i felt a very, very, cold spot.
No one has gone behind the administration buildings? There’s a deep, bowl-shaped depression. Go in it and stay awhile. You may hear things, see things, feel things. I took a lady friend there once, and she never wants to go back to the cemetery grounds, ever. Native Americans in the area stayed away from the area, it was taboo. Only the medicine man could go, because the energies were so weird. Fitting it should be a cemetery. The part east of Forest Home Avenue is the oldest and most interesting.
Years ago i found a flat by that cemetary i loved the place but wouldn’t take i felt too afraid Never will forget it 25 years ago
Kate Cruz, what street was the place on? Was it on forest home Avenue? Third house from the corner, upstairs, by chance?
Here is a picture of the chapel.
This place is definitely haunted. Its got beautiful funeriary art, and the grounds must look amazing in full summer bloom. I went early November, it was gray and creepy. BUT the worst part is when I got home my dog started growling at my front door. (I have a crucifix over the top, maybe whatever followed me home couldn’t cross that?)…asked my husband, has he been doing that all day? No, just since you got home. Weird stuff happened around my house, had to do some saging and other stuff to get my house quiet again…annnnddd that would be the last haunted place I visited on purpose. No thanks.
OH and I might add that I took a ton of pictures that kept popping up on my phone at random times…suddenly my phone started showing me memory dates…years of pictures, but the only memory was Forest Home Cemetery pictures…needless to say I deleted those pictures…and surprise, no more random memories on my phone..
just off center of the northern part of the cemetery, there’s a lake. the Blatz mausoleum isn’t super far from this lake. I thought I remembered reading somewhere that the lake was one of the more haunted parts, so I walked around the perimeter. as I passed behind the pump house, I started feeling a weird energy that started as a heavy weight on my chest, which disappeared and was replaced with a strange lightness in my left hand.
as I got closer to the water’s edge I noticed that my left hand and arm were moving involuntarily. nothing bad or especially weird (beyond the inherent weirdness of involuntary movement), just kind of, running over my face and throat as if trying to learn its shape. I continued walking, noticing that my footsteps were only about half my own. Finally I stopped and asked a few yes or no questions, determined that whoever was in my hand was a young boy (I’m only sure that he was younger than 21 but I’d guess somewhere between 10 and 14) and that he was born before the year 1900. He straight up said (using the ASL sign) no when I asked if he remembered his name or what year he died in. Eventually I had to leave, but felt a weird kind of dark energy in my left wrist and arm for the rest of the day.