About This Location
Rolling Hills Asylum opened in 1827 as the Genesee County Poor House, providing shelter for orphans, widowed women, the disabled, mentally ill, and minor criminals. In 1828, a stone building was added for confining those who misbehaved, beginning a history of harsh treatment. A woodshop made coffins for the dead, who were buried on the property. The facility operated until 1974, with over 1,700 documented deaths and hundreds more unrecorded in unmarked graves.
The Ghost Story
Rated the second most haunted site in North America by Haunted North America, Rolling Hills has been featured on Ghost Adventures and Ghost Asylum. The most famous spirit is Roy Crouse, a seven-foot-tall "shadow man" who lived there from age 12 until his death in 1942. Roy, likely suffering from gigantism, was sent there because his prominent banker father considered him an embarrassment. The "Shadow Hallway" on the second floor consistently shows shadow figures walking in and out of doorways and crawling across floors. In "Hattie's Room," an elderly blind woman's voice yells "Hello!" The basement contains iron shackles used to restrain patients, and the morgue remains supernaturally active with ghostly voices and objects moving.