Traverse City State Hospital was almost completely remodeled in 2000s, but reports say that the original structure remains from 1885, when it was built as the Northern Michigan Asylum. Unlike some of the others at the time, this hospital was said to be a place of beauty, where patients were treated with respect and straitjackets were not allowed. It was in operation until 1989. According to witnesses, the building is haunted. While it was not in use, lights would come on even though the electricity wasn’t hooked up. Ghostly children are said to run in the halls, and screams and voices echo in the rooms. There is said to be a ghost priest who killed himself in the chapel, and a monster in the basement area.
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Geographic Information
- Address:
- W Eleventh St
Traverse City, MI
United States
Get Directions » - GPS:
- 44.75642620136672, -85.64329969856772
- County:
- Grand Traverse County, Michigan
- Nearest Towns:
- Traverse City, MI (1.2 mi.)
Greilickville, MI (1.9 mi.)
Chums Corner, MI (5.9 mi.)
Grawn, MI (6.9 mi.)
Cedar, MI (9.8 mi.)
Interlochen, MI (9.8 mi.)
Lake Ann, MI (10.1 mi.)
Maple City, MI (12.5 mi.)
Bendon, MI (12.8 mi.)
Kingsley, MI (13.0 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.
This place is not haunted at all it’s a waste of time and gas not worth the drive!
It is haunted did u stay in it for 3 nights
this place is haunted as hell.. truuust me, im local and lets just say i dont plan to go back anytime soon.
cmon ive been there my great great grandma went to that hospital so I probably know more about it than you also just saying that place was also an insane asylum so it has to be haunted
most of the building has been renovated, and much of the activity has died down. There is a cistern type well up on the hill west of the main buildings, at night, there are two voices my team and I would often encounter. one older male, and a young female voice.
I lived not a block from the state hospital for a year at a women’s center. I was outside one night mid October and I saw what looked to a satanic ritual. It really freaked me out I watched it for awhile but got scared and left. This place is defenitly got messed up energy.
I have MULTIPLE photos of this place and many of the other buildings prior to its “renovation” I’m not sure who said patients were treated fairly, they were not. There is a room, or was a room, below one of the screened in porches. When we looked inside (I never went in because I was searching with my grandma at the time) there was a bed bolted to the floor and on my children’s lives and fathers grave, NO DOOR to enter, only a window that was about 3-4 feet off the floor. That single room is why we left. However I do have tons of pictures, they’re just not on my phone they’re hard copies. I would love to speak with you, or anyone and share these photos with you. They deserve to be seen. This building deserves to be seen for the beauty it once held and all the pictures I’ve seen are black and white, grainy and of poor quality. Mine are full color, in bright sunlight and in my opinion hauntingly captivating. You can contact me, if you’re so inclined to, by email, dfrenchmom@gmail.com, or by telephone (269) 251-7674. Thank you for your time and I sincerely hope to hear from you. I also have pictures of when they begun construction. Pictures such as a sign they posted that said “If we rebuild it they will come” that’s when they wanted to make them living quarters for doctors, ironic? Again, thank you for you time
Sincerely,
Danielle M French
My grandmother was a patient there. You make it sound like one single building. It was its own city, complete with self-reliant farm (capable patients milked cows, sheered sheep, reaped harvest, baled hay)… They were NOT treated nicely. My grandmother was over “zapped” with ECT and her heart stopped. They had to shock her again to bring her back.
My father, knowing how my mother was treated & hoping to do some good, worked there for a few years. Until they downsized & he was transferred to Lapeer (Oakdale) in 1975. I have some old admission records & medical files of patients from there. Post cards of the place from the 1920s & 30s, and a book about its history written by a local who had 1st hand knowledge. I’d be more than happy to share it all with you, if you’d update your story a bit?
Also, the “basement” you mention.. there are several underground passageways and tunnels between buildings, and more are haunted. Its how they moved the more difficult (read: harder to subdue) patients between wards without risk of them getting loose.
I have never been into the building but we pulled onto the campus to look at the renovations. I refused to get out of the car because there was such an intensely dark energy about the place. No one believed me, but I could feel it the minute we pulled up.
Picture I took a few years back before renovation (2013) I believe.
I took a picture of this same spot in 2013 for a school photography class and the window at the top right hand side the one with no bars there was a showdow of a person standing in this window when i took the pictures i showed the teacher and my classmates they all seen it to i wished i could find the picture i took. When i seen this picture it gave me chills and instintly remembered taking the same photo the same year.
We are looking for NEW locations to investigate. IDoes anyone know if they allow groups to investigate? if anyone knows please contact me.
hello,i have something to say! many of you saying oh this is a total fake paranormal place!well no the trith is horror runs in ,y family my grandma great grandma was a patient here. and to say the patients were treated poorly there is even a room I know some know a bout that has something in it that I wont even mention.but anyways this place is HORRIBLE! also I don’t want to leave this out,they helped INSANE people ya so it had an insane asylum. also many of the workers warned patient not to go under the building near the rail way, there was train tracks. people have reported seeing a worker holding her head! and now the paranormal stuff has grown daown now that the mall was built in. but there are still multiple hauntings and ghost sightings.and some of the stores are built in horrible rooms that were said to be the most haunted.so lets just enjoy the haunting beauty and the evilness of this hospital as it still is there! further into the future it wont be there. I also live in Michigan local and near traverse city!
yes honesty all that my sister said is right! this place is beautiful and we also have spent the night there and our grandma who died there woke us upn our sleep to tell us we needed to go it was not safe,we stayed. she stated words like hes watching! so I relate to my sis!
this is all true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I worked on the first phase of renovation there, I had my own keys to the place, and I was in the building alone after dark more than once. On one occasion I heard doors open and close, footsteps, keys rattling and whistling. My daughter who is an Empath encountered felt and saw a presence in the tunnels one time when she lag behind on a tour when we first got the building.
One night we took a tour with the crew when only the offices in front we’re remodeled say 2004 . We went through tunnels, the chaple, the floors that were safe and stable . My friend and I locked together by our arms, prepared to be scared out of our minds . I kept getting a creepy vibe i couldn’t handle .so I looked down quite a few times not wanting to see what I knew I could feel . I was suddenly being pulled to looked in a direction and I don’t know why I did , but what I saw must be this monster you speak of . It was grey or white mutated or malformed in some way almost looked like a mummy wrapped in gauze or peeling skin . It moved like a slow motion picture all sketchy, then faster like a blur faster than anything I’d ever seen . I blacked out or was grabbed in time or something . Because when I came to my friend wasn’t holding my arm my tour group was gone and I was alone ! I screamed for my dad and he came running down the hallway asking where I went ? I didn’t know I couldn’t tell him ,other than I saw something . My friend would not have let go ! She doesn’t know how I disappeared how we ended up separated and she did not want to talk about it again. The scariest thing of my life ! When my dad worked late nights there . Knowing damn well it was haunted . He was there for the remodel/painting crew .he often heard many things that made him say forget this and head straight home . There is an artist that took many pictures of this place before it was redone . She captured many things and heard many as well . Her name was Heidi Johnson she published a book angels in the architecture . She tried to release manily postive images of beauty . Anyways it’s an interesting place .
Photo taken of the TC State Hospital.