41 Most Haunted Travel Destinations For Brave Adventurers

32. Whaley House, San Diego, USA: A Courthouse of Horrors

Often cited as America's most haunted house, the Whaley House in Old Town San Diego stands on land that once hosted public gallows. Built in 1857, it served as a family home, granary, county courthouse, and San Diego's first commercial theater. The spirits of "Yankee Jim" Robinson, hanged on the property before the house was built, and various Whaley family members are said to linger. Visitors report phantom footsteps, disembodied voices, the scent of cigar smoke (Thomas Whaley's signature), and apparitions, making it a potent site of lingering historical trauma and spectral encounters.