Haunted Tours
We offer ten (10) different haunted tours. We also offer several options for overnight stays in haunted houses that you can read below. Seven (7) of the haunted tours are mostly driving and cover totally different areas. They may involve some walking, into abandoned cemeteries, haunted bars and buildings, or outside such sites when they are closed. These are Haunted Tours A through G. These are between 3.0 and 3.5 hours in duration.
We also offer three (3) exclusive walking haunted tours of downtown. These are Haunted Tours W, X, and Y. The longest one is between 3.1 and 4.0 hours. The moderate one is between 2.1 and 3.0 hours. The shortest abbreviated tour is between 0.1 and 2.0 hours.
The time varies, in part, based on whether one chooses to skip going into any of the bars. We try to start our tours close to dusk, but not too late to go inside the haunted structures. The tours usually begin at:
A. January – 6:00 PM
B. February – 6:30 PM
C. March – 7:00 PM
D. April – 7:30 PM
E. May, June, July, and August – 8:00 PM
F. September – 7:30 PM
G. October – 7:00 PM
H. November and December – 6:00 PM
Our tours go to recognized haunted places that can be found in books and on the Internet. No guarantee exists that you will see, hear, smell, feel, or taste a ghost. Furthermore, no guarantee exists that you will be scared. Ghosts do not exist to scare people. We are not going to commercial horror houses.
It is advisable that with Tour C, the tourists may wish to start the tour one to two hours earlier so that one can enter into The Magick Cauldron before it closes at about 7:00 PM as well as see the swirling bats at twilight.
Some of the driving tours are designed to be children appropriate. Tours C, D, E, and F do not have any stops where alcohol is served. Tours B and G have the most variety with alleged haunted bars, cemeteries, and historic buildings. Tour C is the only driving tour that does not include a cemetery stop. Thus, no special clothing or equipment is required. Tours E and F include only abandoned and lost cemeteries. They tend to be more eerie.
You must call or send an email and receive confirmation to reserve any of these tours. Like other tours, they are scheduled by appointment. Most people will make a reservation at least two weeks in advance. Previous to our non-refundable deposit policy, over 50% of those people who called in a reservation within one week of a tour did not honor their request. A non-refundable deposit of roughly 50% is required to reserve all tours. An insufficient deposit will NOT hold a tour.
The balance can be paid at the outset of the tour in US cash only. Please bring the correct amount that is owed as the tour guide does not bring change.
Without a $100 non-refundable deposit per van or $200 non-refundable deposit per bus, no alcohol in the vehicles is allowed.
We offer the following tours:
Introduction to the Haunted Walking Tours
More Important Information
Tour A - starts close to River Oaks and includes multiple sites of famous murders and a suicide, including the Eugene Blake Hawk home where he committed suicide and attempted to murder his father in 2009, the home of the 1997 murder of Doris Angleton, the John and Joan Hill home, which was the site of the 1969 poisoning of Joan Robinson Hill and the 1972 murder site of John Hill, the home of Ash Robinson who may have orchestrated the 1972 murder of his former son-in-law, 2 abandoned cemeteries (1 black and 1 white), and driving by the former John Henry Kirby mansion, City Hall, the Julia B. Ideson Library, the Niels Esperson Building, the Bob Casey Federal Courthouse Building, the hanging oak tree, and 1 haunted bar, all of which are said to be haunted. It normally has 4 stops.
This tour begins at Central Market’s east end parking lot close to Weslayan Street. This is a large, well-lit parking lot. Central Market (CM) is located at 3815 Westheimer Road, Houston, Texas 77027. You might want to stop at CM for dinner before the tour.
Tour B – starts in Sawyer Heights and includes 1, formerly prestigious, but abandoned African American cemetery, 1 small and abandoned White cemetery in a residential neighborhood, 3 haunted bars, the former Jefferson Davis Hospital and abandoned crematorium, the Alley Theatre, Treebeards, a fake cemetery, and more. It has arguably the most diverse locations to visit. As this tour goes into 3 bars, it is inappropriate for minors. Some bartenders will not admit minors even when accompanied by their parents. Bring cash for your drinks at La Carafe. It normally has 6 or 7 stops.
This tour begins at Chili’s in Sawyer Heights. It is located at 2425 Katy Freeway, Houston, Texas 77007. Drive on I-10. Exit #767B, Taylor Street. Go south. Chili’s will be to the right. You might want to stop at Chili’s for dinner before the tour.
Tour C – starts in the Montrose area. It includes the areas of Montrose, Neartown, Midtown, the Hermann Park area, Rice University, the Rice Village, the city of West University Place, and the River Oaks area. This is a large swath, mostly south, west, and southwest from downtown, and south of Buffalo Bayou. It includes going by a site where Samuel McIlhenney once owned a home. Against his wishes, his wife took their two daughters to Galveston for one more fun day at the beach on September 8, 1900, the date of the Great Storm. This hurricane killed between 6,000 and 8,000 people, the biggest disaster in United States history. A grieving Samuel, and his late children and wife are said to haunt the current building. We will see the location of the burial of the ashes of William Marsh Rice, the Waugh Drive Bat Colony, a house that looks like the front of Darth Vadar’s mask, the condominium where Ana Trujillo stabbed her boyfriend Professor Alf Andersonn at least 25 times with her stiletto heel to kill him in June 2013. We will stop by the condominium of where probable serial killer Robert Durst lived and the condominium of 2017 suicide victim Valerie McDaniel, who attempted with her boyfriend to hire a hit man to kill her ex-husband and his ex-girlfriend. We also stop by the site of the former home of the 1965 Ice Box Murders.
This tour begins at the Magick Cauldron at 2424 Montrose Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77006 at Hyde Park Boulevard. This is four blocks north from Westheimer Road and across the street from Niko Niko’s. Limited parking is available in front and around the neighborhood. This may be the single best place to purchase anything associated with the occult and the building is said to be haunted.
Tour D – starts in the Heights area. This is a revamped tour created in 2018 that used to be part of Haunted Tour C when it opened in 2014. It includes the areas of Memorial Heights, Washington Heights, Houston Heights, Northside, Woodland Heights, and Acres Homes. This is a large swath, mostly west and northwest of downtown and north of Buffalo Bayou. In the Houston Heights, we will see the site where three people reported seeing a Batman in June 1953, the 1930s home where the bones of a skeleton were found in a wall in 2017, the site of the $2 million replica of a Virginia old Black mansion with a renowned million dollar doll collection that burned on January 3, 2011, Hogg Middle School that is said be haunted by a person who was hung there, and a haunted Masonic lodge. We will stop at one of the most fascinating shops in Houston, full of oddities and curiosities including shrunken heads, a real skeleton, voodoo objects, and dozens of taxidermy. We will visit the site where serial killer and homosexual pedophile Dean Corll lived and earned the nickname as the Candy Man. He may have buried his first victims at this site. We go by a restaurant where Corll and his two henchmen David Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley picked up one of Corll’s at least 28 victims, and to another site where Corll would bound, torture, rape, and murder teenage boys, beginning by 1970, if not sooner. We will also visit sites where the serial killer of petite Hispanic heterosexual pedophile Anthony Allen Shore, The Tourniquet Killer, picked up a couple of young girls to abduct, rape, and strangle them. We will take a bathroom and refreshment break at one such site. Later, we visit one to three cemeteries. One cemetery is an old abandoned white family cemetery in an overgrown field located in Northside while the other two cemeteries are African American cemeteries in Acres Home, one abandoned and one active.
This tour begins outside of Five Guys at 3939 Washington Avenue, Houston, Texas 77007 at Leverkuhn Street. Five Guys is open until 9:00 PM every day. This location is in a strip center that also has a Buffalo Wild Wings at 3939 Washington Avenue #100, Houston, Texas 77007 that is open until at least 12:00 AM midnight every day and as late as 2:00 AM on Friday and Saturday nights. Parking is available both in the front and rear of the building. This is about 2 blocks west from Heights Boulevard.
Tour E – starts in southeast Houston. This is one of our two most eerie haunted tours. We visit 3 white family and 2 black cemeteries. It includes 2 lost cemeteries, 2 abandoned cemeteries, and 1 partially lost and partially still active cemetery on the east side of Houston. No one has been buried in any of these cemeteries since at least 1987. These include three white family cemeteries whose families abandoned them as the neighborhoods changed and one or two African American cemeteries. Each of these cemeteries is covered in heavy growth with headstones hidden amongst the weeds, trees, and brush. Wear goggles to protect your eyes and long sleeves and pants to protect yourself from sticker bushes. You may wish to wear gloves and boots. You may want to bring a walking stick or hedge clippers to help clear a path in front of you. Expect to push back branches and vines to get to the headstones.
It begins on the southeast side of town at Dot’s Coffee Shop at 7006 Interstate 45, Houston, Texas 77087. This is open 24 hours and always has vehicles in the parking lot as well as being easily accessible. If coming from the north on I-45, use Exit #41B/Woodridge Drive. Pass Woodridge Drive. The restaurant is on the right side. If coming from the south on I-45, use Exit #41A/Woodridge Drive. Make a U-turn. The restaurant is on the right side. If coming from the west on I-610, use Exit #33/Telephone Road/Woodridge Drive. Pass Telephone Road. Turn left on Woodridge Drive. Turn right on the feeder road of I-145. The restaurant is on the right side. If coming from the east on I-610, use Exit #31/Broadway Boulevard. Stay on the feeder road. Pass Broadway Boulevard and a YMCA. Veer to the right at the fork. The I-610 feeder road becomes the I-45 feeder road. Pass a school. Make a U-turn at Woodridge Drive. The restaurant is on the right side.
Tour F – starts in Sawyer Heights. This tour takes participants to lost, abandoned, and neglected cemeteries on the far west side of Houston and Harris County. We have 4 stops to cemeteries that have not been used since 1930, 1902, 1937, and 1944 and 1 stop by an active cemetery. The families are predominately Germans. The first stop is to the Koch-Schmidt Cemetery in Cullen Park. It has about 32 graves. The second stop is by Bear Creek Methodist Cemetery. This is the only cemetery on this night’s tour that is still in use. It was established in 1904. The third visitation is to the Blue Light Cemetery/Hillendahl-Eggling Cemetery in Bear Creek Park. This is one of the most famous and remote cemeteries in Houston. It has been known for its blue glow. Today, only 2 flatstones remain, about 12 nameplate markers that identify the planted members, and about 6 bases without headstones can be seen. In the 1970s and 1980s, people reportedly held occult meetings here. It cannot be seen or found from any street, road, or sidewalk. All of the burials are between 1889 and 1902. We drive over the Langham Creek Bridge on Patterson Road. Several fatal accidents have been reported here. The old bridge was allegedly haunted. The current bridge was erected in 2012. The fourth cemetery is the old Gastmann-Ohlendorf Cemetery. It has 4 headstones for 5 German Americans dating from the 1870s to 1937. It is covered in vines and sticker bushes. Wear protective clothing. Lastly, we go to the Beeler Cemetery. This is a haunted cemetery that has been investigated by spiritualists. It has about 10 burials. This tour covers the second greatest area with well over 50 miles as we drive west towards Katy.
This tour begins at Chili’s in Sawyer Heights. It is located at 2425 Katy Freeway, Houston, Texas 77007. Drive on I-10. Exit #767B, Taylor Street. Go south. Chili’s will be to the right. You might want to stop at Chili’s for dinner before the tour.
Tour G – starts in Sawyer Heights. This is one of our two newest tours, opened in 2014. This takes us to the Spring and Old Town Spring area. We start by visiting a Walgreen’s that is said to be haunted since the store manager John Cedars was murdered in an execution style during a robbery there, in 1996. In Old Town Spring, we will spend about 2 hours walking around and visiting places. We will visit the outside of the Spring Historical Museum where staff and others have claimed to see young lovers named Marie Bailey and Albert Paetzold dancing to waltzes that can be heard playing on an antique Victrola. We will go by the Doering Court former barn where allegedly the specter of a 12-year old girl named Sarah can be seen. Sarah died from injuries suffered as a result of a fall from the barn’s loft in the 1940s. Later, we see the former Spring State Bank that opened its doors in 1910 and still has bullet pockmarks from where a gunfight occurred in 1932. After a series of robberies during the Great Depression, the bank shut its doors in 1933. We go by an alleged former haunted house. Then depending on the time and lines, we visit inside for a drink at two different bars/restaurants that are said to be haunted; one dates to 1902! If this is not enough, we also go to the Wunche Family Cemetery that is sandwiched between the feeder road and I-45. You could drive by this hundreds of times and not notice it. The second cemetery and last place that we normally visit is the Spring Cemetery that is located near railroad tracks and dates to 1910. It is largely hidden from view from the road. This tour covers the greatest area with well over 60 miles as we drive north to Spring and Old Town Spring.
This tour begins at Chili’s in Sawyer Heights. It is located at 2425 Katy Freeway, Houston, Texas 77007. Drive on I-10. Exit #767B, Taylor Street. Go south. Chili’s will be to the right. You might want to stop at Chili’s for dinner before the tour.
Haunted Hotels
In our research, we have been able to identify several cities with documented haunted hotels. These cities include in alphabetical order with the names of the hotels and the years that they were built are listed below:
- Austin – The Driskill Hotel (1886) and the Inn at Pearl Street (1914) Downtown Austin is 167 miles/269 kilometers from downtown Houston. About a 2.8-hour drive.
- Dallas – The Adolphus Hotel (1912) and the Hotel Lawrence (1925) Downtown Dallas is 242 miles/390 kilometers. About a 3.6-hour drive.
- Fort Worth – Miss Molly’s Hotel (1910) and the Texas White House (1910) Downtown Fort Worth is 264 miles/425 kilometers from downtown Houston. About a 4.2-hour drive + with a comfort stop.
- Galveston – The Hotel Galvez ((1911) Approximately 51 miles/82 kilometers from downtown Houston. About a 1.0-hour drive.
- Jefferson – The Jefferson Hotel (1851) Approximately 233 miles/375 kilometers from downtown Houston. About a 3.9-hour drive + with a comfort stop.
- Liberty – The Historic Ott Hotel (1928) Approximately 42 miles/68 kilometers from downtown Houston. About a 0.8-hour drive.
- Marathon – The Gage Hotel (1927) – Approximately 523 miles/842 kilometers from downtown Houston. It is more than twice as far away compared to any other haunted hotel. The drive is 10 to 11 hours each way including multiple stops for a meal and bathroom. Plan on spending two nights here.
- New Braunfels – The Faust Hotel (1929) Approximately 174 miles/280 kilometers from downtown Houston. About a 3.1-hour drive + with a comfort stop.
- San Antonio – The Crockett Hotel (1909), The Emily Morgan Hotel (1924), the Gunter Hotel (1909), and the Menger Hotel (1859) Downtown San Antonio is 196 miles/316 kilometers from downtown Houston. About a 3.0-hour drive + with a comfort stop.
- Schulenburg – The Von Minden Hotel (1929) – Closed in 2016 indefinitely. Approximately 96 miles/155 kilometers from Houston. About a 1.7-hour drive.
Offering tours to stay in haunted hotels is a novel experiment for us in 2016. Many people over many years have asked us about this option, but we have not acted on it. Obviously, this will be a more expensive tour with considerations of fuel, accommodations, meals, and time. Hotels in larger metropolitan cities (San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin) will generally cost far more than hotels in rural areas (Jefferson, Liberty, Marathon, New Braunfels, and Schulenburg). Many of these cities and towns have other interesting local historical places, museums, festivals, and sites to visit. In fact, some cities, particularly San Antonio and Dallas, have numerous other haunted sites.
If you know of other haunted hotels that can be accessed within a one-day’s drive, please share them with us.
We are willing to offer the following – we will conduct such a tour at cost + the amount of typical Haunted Tour A. For example, the interested party will pay for the fuel, private hotel accommodations at the same hotel, 3 meals (1 lunch, 1 dinner, and 1 breakfast) for each night’s stay plus the cost of what would be a local haunted tour. If a party wants to have 2 nights, then include 6 meals. The tour cost would be $100 + sales tax = $108.25 for 1 or 2 people or $35.00 per person + sales tax = $37.89 per person for 3 or more people.
Because advanced planning and paying for rooms are necessary, haunted hotel tours should be planned at least 1 month in advance.
Introduction to the Haunted Walking Tours
Please Read
Hurricane Harvey ravished Houston for five days from August 25 through the 29th, 2017. Everything within three blocks of Buffalo Bayou that flows through downtown was under water. Beyond the three blocks, you would see little to no damage whatsoever. As I write this on January 21, 2018, almost five months since Hurricane Harvey hit us, many of these buildings are still rebuilding. However, the buildings along Commerce Street and Franklin Street that at different areas are the first streets south of Buffalo Bayou are still closed. They may never reopen. One can still smell the putrid odor of the mold escaping from these buildings. These include the Spaghetti Warehouse on Commerce Street and the Brewery Tap on Franklin Street. We used to sometimes go inside Alj, a newly opened jazz bar on Franklin Street. Who knows if these buildings will be reinhabited or torn down. If reoccupied, then the question may be by whom? The Spaghetti Warehouse has been non-committal if it will reopen at its current site or relocate.
In the meantime, we are meeting outside the former Spaghetti Warehouse at 901 Commerce Street, Houston, Texas 77002. This is by Travis Street. Parking at street meters is free on Sunday and after 6:00 PM on Monday through Saturday. These tours are exclusively for those people who are 21 years and older since we will be going into bars that serve alcohol. They are inappropriate for minors. Do not bring minors.
If you want to enter a bar, plan on buying a drink. If you want to patronize a business, do not be cheap and refuse to buy anything. That is inconsiderate and rude to the owners. Let me know in advance if you do not want to buy anything and we can just look inside the bar from the sidewalk and peer through windows.
Tour W – This is a great tour for people who want something shorter than a driving tour, cheaper than a driving tour, want to drink, and appreciate history. We will go inside 2 haunted bars/restaurants for approximately 30 to 40 minutes each including La Carafe in the old Kennedy Bakery from 1860 and Molly’s Pub in a 1920 building, for you to have one drink in each one. Bring cash for your drinks at La Carafe. The more spirits you drink, the more spirits you are likely to see. Pace yourself accordingly. Do not drink in excess and or if you are going to drive after the tour. We also stop briefly at other haunted buildings to tell stories, such as at the 1903 former Spaghetti Warehouse and the 1912 former Brewery Tap, the 1861 Baker-Travis Building and the circa 1912 – 1914 Post Rice Lofts which was the site of the capitol of the Republic of Texas from 1837 to 1839 and again in 1842. We go to the site of the White House of the Republic of Texas, the Donnellan Crypt from 1849, as well as past many other historical buildings. We will walk in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Wards. You will also:
- See the remnants of a 1915 bridge when Houston was approximately 15 feet lower.
- Go into Market Square Park where you will see photos of earlier city hall buildings on that site from 1841 to 1939 and a 911 memorial to Houstonian Lauren Grandcolas (1963 – 2001). She was a victim on UA 93. A memorial plaque is there.
- View the Houston Cotton Exchange Building from 1884 when it was originally 4 stories and then the 1907 renovations that raised it to 5 stories. It has a historical marker.
- Hear more stories of Houston’s growth, decline, transformation, and development, including the Cotswold Project to renew downtown in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
- See a building’s original first floor from before the city was raised more than 15 feet that you thought was a basement.
- Have more time to drink.
Tour X – This is a great tour for people who want something shorter than a driving tour, cheaper than a driving tour, want to drink, and or appreciate a moderate amount of history. This is similar to Tour W without as much history. We will go inside 2 haunted bars/restaurants for approximately 30 to 40 minutes each including La Carafe in the old Kennedy Bakery from 1860 and Molly’s Pub in a 1920 building, for you to have one drink in each one. Bring cash for your drinks at La Carafe. The more spirits you drink, the more spirits you are likely to see. Pace yourself accordingly. Do not drink in excess and or if you are going to drive after the tour. We also stop briefly at other haunted buildings to tell stories, such as at the 1903 former Spaghetti Warehouse and the 1912 former Brewery Tap, the 1861 Baker-Travis Building and the circa 1912 – 1914 Post Rice Lofts which was the site of the capitol of the Republic of Texas from 1837 to 1839 and again in 1842. We go to the site of the White House of the Republic of Texas, the Donnellan Crypt from 1849, as well as past many other historical buildings. We will walk in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Wards. You will also:
- See the remnants of a 1915 bridge when Houston was approximately 15 feet lower.
- Go into Market Square Park where you will see photos of earlier city hall buildings on that site from 1841 to 1939 and a 911 memorial to Houstonian Lauren Grandcolas (1963 – 2001). She was a victim on UA 93. A memorial plaque is there.
- View the Houston Cotton Exchange Building from 1884 when it was originally 4 stories and then the 1907 renovations that raised it to 5 stories. It has a historical marker.
- Hear more stories of Houston’s growth, decline, transformation, and development, including the Cotswold Project to renew downtown in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
- See a building’s original first floor from before the city was raised more than 15 feet that you thought was a basement.
- Have more time to drink.
Tour Y – This tour is similar to Tour W, only abbreviated. This is a great tour for people who want something shorter than a driving tour, cheaper than a driving tour, want to drink, and or appreciate a little history. We will go inside 1 or 2 haunted bars/restaurants for approximately 20 to 30 minutes each including the La Carafe in the old Kennedy Bakery from 1860 and possibly Molly’s Pub in a 1920 building. Bring cash for your drinks at La Carafe. We also stop briefly at other haunted buildings to tell stories, such as at the 1903 former Spaghetti Warehouse and the 1912 former Brewery Tap, the 1861 Baker-Travis Building and the circa 1912 – 1914 Post Rice Lofts which was the site of the capitol of the Republic of Texas from 1837 to 1839 and again in 1842. We will walk in the 1st and 4th Wards. You will also:
- See the remnants of a 1915 bridge when Houston was approximately 15 feet lower.
- View the Houston Cotton Exchange Building from 1884 when it was originally 4 stories and then the 1907 renovations that raised it to 5 stories. It has a historical marker.
- Hear more stories of Houston’s growth, decline, transformation, and development, including the Cotswold Project to renew downtown in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
- See a building’s original first floor from before the city was raised more than 15 feet that you thought was a basement.
More Important Information
Unlike other companies, we do not spend more than 15 minutes for an introduction and we actually go into numerous buildings on a walking tour.
If tours start late due to the tardiness of the participants, some sites will have to be eliminated.
Wear and bring the following for the Ghost/Haunted Tours A, B, C, D, E, and F:
- Long pants – to prevent rubbing up against poison ivy.
- Socks – to prevent rubbing up against poison ivy.
- Closed toe, flat, comfortable shoes that you can get dirty – to walk on uneven ground in abandoned cemeteries and to minimize anything that could crawl over your feet (and really scare you).
- A flashlight with working batteries – for use in the abandoned dark cemeteries.
- Insect repellent – if rain has fallen within 48 hours before the tour, standing water can be present which will serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
- Cameras – if you like to take photos and to be able to see orbs.
For Ghost/Haunted Tours D and E, also wear:
- Protective eye wear (goggles) on Tours D and E.
- A long sleeve shirt or blouse on Tours D and E.
- Gloves on Tours D and E.
Transportation for Tours A, B, C, D, E , and F:
- 1 - 2 people — sedan
- 3 - 5 people — Toyota Sienna van.
- 6 - 14 people — Chevy van.
- 15 + people — mini-, mid-, and full-size buses.
Remember that walking tours only move as fast as the slowest person, drinker, and or person using the bathroom. Large groups of 6 or more people are going to move slower than small groups as we have to wait for everyone and we may not cover as much territory.
For prices of these tours, click here. Note that you will require the free Adobe Reader in order to read these pricing documents. You can download the latest version of this software by clicking this link.