The 13th Gate
Scary: The 13th Gate was named the top haunted house in America for the second year in a row by Hauntworld, the industry's leading trade publication. "This haunt has it all," says Hauntworld about the downtown attraction. "Not many haunted houses in America have the level of detail, set design, incredible Hollywood makeup artists, special effects, all rolled up into one big massive scream factory." The 13th Gate is scheduled to open Thursday for the Halloween season and will run through Nov. 13. The House of Shock in New Orleans also made the Hauntworld list of the 13 best professional haunted houses, coming in 10th. Click Here for more information about 13th Gate in Baton Rouge.

The Myrtles Plantation
The Legendary Myrtles Plantation has long been regarded as one of "America's Most Haunted Houses". And while scores of ghost hunters will swear to the fact that the house is infested with ghosts, these same investigators would be puzzled to learn that few of the stories that have been passed along as "fact" actually occurred.
Handprints in the mirrors, footsteps on the stairs, mysterious smells, vanishing objects, death by poison, hangings, murder and gunfire -- the Myrtles Plantation in the West Feliciana town of St. Francisville, Louisiana holds the rather dubious record of hosting more ghostly phenomena than just about any other house in the country. But what could be more dubious than the honor itself -- perhaps some of the questionable history that has been presented to "explain" why the house is so haunted in the first place!
Long perceived as one of the most haunted house in America, the Myrtles attracts an almost endless stream of visitors each year and many of them come in search of ghosts. It is not our purpose here to do anything to discourage these visitors from coming -- or even to discourage them to looking for the ghosts that they can almost certainly find here. The purpose of this article is to question the "facts" as they have been presented by several generations of Myrtles owners and guides -- facts and history that many of them know is blatantly false. They have no wish to try and debunk the ghosts, merely the identities that they have been given over the years. The Myrtles, according to hundreds of people who have encountered the unexplained here, is haunted -- but not for the reasons that we have all been told. For the first time, discover the real story behind the Myrtles and its' plethora of ghosts and haunting.
Historic Tours Daily: 9 AM to 5:00 PM, Every hour and half hour.
Mystery Tours: Friday & Saturday Evenings at 6, 7 & 8 PM; Reservations Recommended.
Click here for more information on reserving your tour.

Nottoway Plantation
Nottoway has seen much in its 150 years, the pleasant and the not so pleasant. The story of Nottoway is recounted in tours of the home, developed from years of historic research, interviews, and documents from the early years, but the complete story could only be told by the Randolphs themselves. Sensitive guests have relayed several stories of strange occurrences and ghostly apparitions along the corridors, as if the previous inhabitants did wish to tell their story.
If you happen upon the shadow of a young, auburn-haired woman, perhaps she can give you further insight into her day-to-day life at Nottoway. Several guests and staff have reported seeing the ghost of an auburn haired young woman fitting the description of the Randolph's youngest daughter, Julia Marceline, in the girls' wing of the house. A visiting psychic, seeing Julia's photographs, identified the ghost as Julia.
Today, Nottoway Plantation is open for tours, and visitors are invited to experience and savor that which was the old South. Nottoway is the ultimate in Southern grandeur and hospitality. Guided tours are offered from 9a.m. to 4p.m., seven days a week, beginning on the hour.
Candlelight Tours (groups of 20 or more) - Call or email for pricing 1-866-527-6884, ext. 120.
Click here for more information on tours at Nottoway Plantation.

Houmas House
Houmas House Plantation and Gardens is the site of two very serious, inexplicable events; one precipitated by nature, the other by the very unnatural.
On the heels of the great flood came the great depression, which spawned the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Among the projects that created work and wages for the Great Depression's hordes of indigents was the construction of new and higher levees. As progress marched down the river, it also marched up the bank toward the once-great homes along the River Road, including Houmas House, which was by then unoccupied and out of the sugar business. Only Mr. Green, the caretaker, and his wife lived on the property, making their home in the same house near the east gate where the present caretaker and his wife reside today.
Despite the national economic depression and decline in plantation life, "The Gentlemen" stood even more broad and proud than the day Burnside named the 24 stately trees nearly 100 years earlier. But as the levee construction crews approached, their big saws brought Gentleman after Gentleman crashing to the ground. Up from the river toward the great house marched progress. The levee was raised, and the road was widened and paved. The work was hard and dangerous, and 16 men died out on the big bend in the river that sweeps across the front of the Houmas House property. All perished after concocting a scheme to profit by floating the carcasses of Houmas House's giant oaks downriver to be milled in New Orleans. There were 16 profiteers set off aboard the backs of the big tree trunks. Their bodies were never recovered.
It was less than a week after the work crew felled its last victim at Houmas House that Mrs. Green returned from a daybreak trip to the outhouse, wrought with fear and animated by wide-eyed hysterics as she shook her dazed husband from their bed. As the couple wobbled onto the front porch of the caretaker's cabin, neither could believe their eyes.
Literally overnight, the 8 remaining "Gentlemen," which had maintained their stately symmetry through hurricanes, droughts, floods and seasons of sub-tropical pestilence, had re-shaped themselves into grotesque sculptures of grief and agony, heads bowed and limbs drooping like mourners at a funeral.
The engineers assigned to the project cited a change in the water table, trauma from heavy equipment and trucks and other construction factors for the overnight transformation. But the Greens, many long time local residents and members of the Houmas Tribe, original owners of the property, insist that the healthy remainder of the corps of "Gentlemen" became disfigured that cool fall night when they were occupied by wandering spirits of the lost workmen who desecrated their fallen brothers.
Houmas House offers Nighttime tours, Wednesday through Sunday.
Click here for more information on tours at Houmas House.

Parlange Plantation
Parlange Plantation was built in 1754 by the Marquis Vincent de Ternant on land that was granted to him by the French crown. The house is still owned by his descendants today... and one of them, who lived many, many years ago, has never left.

In 1757, Vincent de Ternant dies and left the estate to his eldest son, Claude. Shortly after, Claude's wife and his first child died during childbirth. He mourned for over a year and then remarried his second cousin, Virginie, who was only fifteen at the time. She would bear him four children, Henri, Julie, Maurius and Marie Virginie. Virginie Ternant was not well-liked by neighbors in the region, mostly because of her snobbish ways, but she made sure that her children were always well dressed and cared for in the finest fashions. She hand-picked a nanny to care for the children but her choice was apparently a poor one because one day, while out walking, Henri fell into a nearby stream and drowned.

Virginie was pregnant at the time and heartbroken. She gave birth a short time later to Maurius, who from then on, became her spoiled and favorite child. He grew up to become a worthless drunkard who died at the age of only 25.
Virginie now only had her two daughters and she became very strict with them. Marie Virginie always followed whatever restrictions her mother declared, but Julie was another matter. She was always willful and headspan and against her mother's wishes, fell in love with the son of a local plantation owner. Normally, this would have pleased a doting mother as the boy's family was an upstanding one, but for some reason, Virginie had it in her head that her daughters would only be allowed to marry French noblemen. Needless to say, Julie and the young man's affair continued to the point that her mother assigned a servant to stand guard in her room each night to keep her from sneaking off to meet with her lover. She had been forbidden to see the young man again.
ulie stayed in bed for days, crying and pleading with her mother to change her mind, but it didn't matter. Virginie had her own plans for Julie's future. She had been in touch with the family of a young man of noble French birth and unaware to Julie, her mother had already begun planning a wedding for her. Finally, her mother broke the news to her and Julie, broken by this time, agreed to go through with it.
The wedding day came and the ceremony took place on the grounds of the plantation. An hour passed and suddenly, Julie snapped! She could not keep up the charade and ran screaming from the house. She ran through the alley of oak trees in front of the house and then flung herself against the base of one of the trees.... shattering her skull against the trunk.
After losing one child to her negligence and one child to the fact that she gave him whatever he wished, Virginie finally faced the fact that she was to blame for Julie's death. She realized too late that she should have never kept her from the man she loved. The next day, Julie was buried on the grounds of the plantation in her wedding gown.
Marie Virginie went on to marry a French nobleman and gave him several children. She also went on to make a lasting impression on the art world by having her portrait painted by John Singer Sargent. The painting, called Madame X, hangs today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Claude de Ternant died long before his wife, who never really got over the deaths of three of her children. She dedicated the rest of her life to her remaining daughter and her grandchildren. At a social function, she met a handsome widower named Charles Parlange. They married and returned to Louisiana and the house became known as Parlange, a name that has stuck through the years.
As mentioned earlier, the house is still in the possession of members of the Ternant family and Julie Vincent de Ternant has never really left.... She is most often seen by the light of the full moon as she makes her terrible journey through the oak trees in front of the mansion.
Parlange is a private residence located 35 miles north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana at False River, New Roads.
Parlange Plantation is located on 8211 False River Rd./Hwy. 1 at New Roads. It is privately owned, but open by appointment only; there is a fee charged. Please call 225-638-8410 for further information.

Other Haunted Places in Baton Rouge... No Tour Guide Included.

Guaranty Income Life & Broadcasting Building
The building originally housed the old location of the Baton Rouge General Hospital. The bottom floor of the building used to serve as the hospital morgue, but now it houses a cafeteria and several offices. The old morgue freezer was turned into a file storage facility during the renovations of the new office complex. At night, the entire floor drops several degrees colder than the rest of the building. Security guards refuse to go down there and many complaints of strange noises coming from the bottom floor. The elevator is even said to go up and down at night when no one is there.

Highland Road near Lee Drive
Usually during September or early October, and occasionally at other times, the ghosts of ragged Confederate soldiers can be seen walking along or crossing Highland Road beginning around Lee Drive (south of the LSU campus) and the sightings continue as far down as Gardere Lane. There are numerous reports of soldiers scurrying across the road late at night. In 1999 there was an incident in early October of that year in which several drivers called police when a filthy, bleeding young man in a conferedate uniform and carrying a rifle staggered across the busy intersection of Lee Drive and Highland Road around 5:00pm. Police searched the area and found no one.

Hilton (Heidelberg) Hotel Ghost Stories
Shortly before opening The Chief Engineer and one other engineer were helping clean up in the kitchen. There was no one else but these two in the vicinity for quite some time. Off to the side there was a prep table and some glass light fixtures were left on the table waiting to be installed. During the clean up, one of the fixtures somehow came from the center of the table and fell to the floor shattering into a million pieces. No one had been near the table.
On the eighth and ninth floors people claim to smell cigar smoke on occasion, as well as mysterious knocks on doors at night. The ninth floor was the original floor for the Huey suite.
Before the hotel was fully operational the ninth floor was still under construction. One night an Engineer working the night shift was outside smoking and checking the grounds when he looked up and on the ninth floor peering through a window he saw a woman dressed in white. Knowing no one was supposed to be up there, he went in to check things out. Checking all around and especially in 912 where he was sure he had seen the woman, he found no one on the floor or in any rooms, but the ghost of a young lady in a white wedding dress in said to have been seen in the 10th floor ball room dancing. Consequently for some odd reason the air in the ball room becomes very humid and with adjustments made that should eliminate this, there is yet to be an explanation for the high humidity. About the same time a housekeeping supervisor was getting the ninth floor ready to be opened and while on the floor heard faint music and voices coming from 912. She went to investigate and as she opened the door it became quiet and she found no one in the room.
One of the service elevators for some mysterious reason will go directly to the eighth floor for no apparent reason before it will bring you the requested floor. This has happened to numerous employees.
One night another engineer was working the night shift and as he came around a corner in the basement he saw someone in white pass by the large doorway leading to laundry.
Knowing no one in housekeeping was still working he checked things out. As he walked back he hollered to see if anyone was there and got no reply. He looked around the machines and saw no one and there being only one way out any one there would have had to pass right by him but there was no one to be found.
Guest elevator #1 at night for no apparent reason will come down to the basement open its doors and the go back up all on its own. Several front desk employees have witnessed this.
I spoke to a guest that stayed at the hotel on the ninth floor when it was open in the eighties and said he had loud knocks at his door during his stay and thinking someone may be playing a prank he stayed at his door and the next time they knocked he hurried and opened the door only to find that no one was there. This time when he stayed he requested to be put on a different floor.
Oddly enough all of these occurrences happened only on the Heidelberg side of the hotel, no strange events ever seem to take place on the Capitol house side what so ever.

Louisiana State University (Pleasant Hall)
Formerly a women's dormitory, several accounts of murder/suicides have been reported. Most famous is the incident in Room 312. The story goes a young woman and her boyfriend got into an argument late one night. The young woman shot her boyfriend but he survived. She ran upstairs to her room, 312, and committed suicide. Reports of strange noises and sightings have been recorded.

Old State Capital Building
The ghost of "Pierre" who was believed to be a Senator or Congressman and died of a heart attack is his mid to late forties because of a political issue that he was particularly riled about before the start to his term. He is said to haunt the upstairs of the Old State Capital Building. Several security officers report alarms (motion activated) going off in the middle of the night and video cameras showing no sign of anyone in the vicinity. One female security guard briefly glimpsed "Pierre" one night upstairs where the Senate used to meet. The guards and tour guides at the building also report instances of doors opening and closing when no one else is in the building.

Old State Penitentiary
Now housing Louisiana State Police Headquarters and Barracks this place is a veritable hotspot of ghostly activity. The old execution chambers and morgue now house offices. The main two story building is housed over a basement that seeps with water due to the high water table in Louisiana. Employees have experience sounds of footsteps on many occasions which upon close examination would have no explanation in that condition. Other strange instances reported included radios in offices turning themselves on and off on their own.

Spanish Moon
This downtown area nightclub is inhabited by at least one known ghost. During the 1880's the building served as a firehouse. It has seen many occupants since then. It was even used as a "wino flophouse" over thirty years ago. This era is where the spirit is believed to have originated from. Manifestations include apparitions of a young man, beer taps turning on by themselves, strange noises and flying glassware.

Willie's Ghost at Little Village
Formerly the Thirsty Tiger - one of Baton Rouge's most famous watering holes - Willie's On The River is named after the ghost that reportedly haunts the building. Willie was a stable hand who was killed in 1848, when he was crushed by a falling wall at what is now the site of the bar. Patrons and employees claim Willie never left, so we decided to name this place after him and give him a permanent home. Cheers, Willie!