New Harmony Ghosts Walking Tour

Fauntleroy Home

Your haunted walk begins outside the historic Fauntleroy Home at 508 West Church Street, long described locally as one of New Harmony’s most haunted addresses. Visitors and docents have reported unexplained touches, sudden cold spots, the scent of lavender associated in local stories with Mary Emily, and even faint harp music seemingly coming from an empty parlor.

David Lenz House and Garden

Built around 1819, the David Lenz House is one of the surviving single-family homes associated with New Harmony’s original Harmonist community. Its best-known paranormal story is strikingly simple: visitors have reported knocking at the door and hearing answering knocks from within, while local legend sometimes identifies the unseen presence as David Lenz himself.

Roofless Church and the Unmarked Harmonist Graves

Dedicated in 1960, the Roofless Church is an open-air sanctuary surrounded by a high brick wall, with a distinctive inverted-rose structure at its center. More than 200 unmarked Harmonist graves lie nearby, and local stories describe faint disembodied singing, distant choral sounds, and sudden unexplained chills around the sanctuary.

Red Geranium

The Red Geranium opened as a restaurant in 1964, although elements of the building reach back into the 19th century. A longtime bartender reportedly described recurring apparitions of a stocky older man and a bonneted woman known simply as “the lady,” while staff have also reported moving hanging glasses and the unexplained scent of old pipe tobacco.

Thrall’s Opera House

This remarkable building began as a Harmonist communal dormitory in 1824 before becoming a theater in 1856. Eugene Thrall purchased it in 1888 but died the following year, and local legend says he never entirely left; staff and visitors have described footsteps crossing the empty stage, cold drafts in the balcony, and a stage curtain moving without an obvious cause.

Old Mews Building

Dating to the 19th century, the Old Mews Building reflects New Harmony’s historic commercial life. Former shopkeepers have reported merchandise mysteriously changing position overnight and the heavy sound of booted footsteps moving across the wooden floors of supposedly empty upstairs rooms.

Artefakts

Behind the windows of Artefakts on Main Street are antiques, vintage objects, and collectibles from around Posey County. Staff stories include unwound antique clocks suddenly chiming, fleeting shadows appearing in mirrors and glass, and the unnerving impression that porcelain dolls from a former collection were following an employee with their eyes.

Ribeyre Center

The Ribeyre Center carries one of the tour’s darkest documented histories. After the catastrophic Tri-State Tornado struck on March 18, 1925, the recently opened gymnasium became a makeshift morgue; later ghost lore describes two silent child apparitions near the old entrance and a presence called Anna, associated with unexplained lights switching on and off inside empty rooms.

Murphy’s Auditorium

Built in 1913 through a bequest from Dr. Edward Murphy, Murphy’s Auditorium has served New Harmony’s cultural life for more than a century. Paranormal investigators have claimed to capture unexplained voices through spirit-box sessions—including one attributed to a former maintenance man named Gus while visitors have also reported shadow figures and the sensation of someone brushing past them on the stairs.

Working Men’s Institute

Founded in 1838 by philanthropist William Maclure, the Working Men’s Institute became an important center of education, history, and preservation in New Harmony. Investigators have claimed to record unexplained voices there, while staff have reported books shifting on shelves, pages rustling through empty aisles, and the sensation of an unseen person passing between the stacks.