The Spy House (Seabrook-Wilson House)

Forbes Magazine ranked this 1663 house as the most haunted in New Jersey. Originally a cabin built by Thomas Whitlock, it became a tavern where British soldiers were allegedly plied with liquor to spill military secrets during the Revolutionary War.

The Seabrook-Wilson House, known locally as the Spy House, stands as one of New Jersey's oldest surviving structures and arguably its most legendary haunted location. Forbes Magazine ranked it the most haunted house in the Garden State, while U.S. News & World Report once named it among the three most haunted houses in America. The building's origins trace to 1663 when Thomas Whitlock, who immigrated from England to Brooklyn in 1641, constructed a modest one-and-a-half-story cabin on this lonely stretch of Port Monmouth shoreline overlooking Sandy Hook Bay.

The structure evolved significantly under its second owner, Thomas Seabrook, a fervent patriot who served in the New Jersey militia during the Revolutionary War. The Seabrook family expanded the original cabin into the two-story colonial home that stands today, and the property remained in their possession for an remarkable 250 years. The farm on Sandy Hook Bay later passed to the Wilson family, whose members included ship owners, captains, local business investors, and Reverend William Wilson, a clergyman. By the early 1900s, the old farmhouse had been converted into an inn for tourists, first known as Bay Side Manor and later as The White House.

The house's infamous nickname emerged in the 1960s and 1970s when part-time curator Gertrude Neidlinger, a beloved former concert singer, transformed the neglected structure into a hands-on museum. Neidlinger crafted elaborate tales claiming the house served as a Revolutionary War tavern where British soldiers were plied with liquor to reveal military secrets, which were then passed to Colonial forces. While historians have since debunked this legend noting no evidence the house was ever a tavern during the Revolution, the stories captured public imagination and quite possibly saved the building from demolition. On the brink of national fame, the Spy House was featured in the television series Sightings in 1993, appeared in two nationally distributed books, and drew thousands of visitors to Neidlinger's candlelit ghost tours and seances.

At its peak, the Spy House reportedly harbored 22 active spirits. The most frequently encountered is the Lady in White, the ghost of an 18th-century woman who wanders from room to room searching for her crying baby. She is said to be a benevolent presence who watches over the house and its visitors. Equally prominent is Abigail, described by witnesses as wearing a long black skirt with a red blouse featuring billowy sleeves, a black bow in her hair, and a bonnet tied under her chin. Abigail has been seen standing at the back upstairs window, staring mournfully out to sea, waiting for her husband, a sea captain lost at sea. Her sobbing cries have reportedly echoed through the upstairs bedroom for generations.

The spirit of Captain Morgan, alleged to have been a British soldier stationed at the house during the Revolution, haunts the basement where he was supposedly murdered by fellow soldiers. Visitors have reported sudden temperature drops and cold breezes in the basement, along with sightings of his apparition throughout the house. Peter, a British youngster who reportedly lived in the house during the 1800s, appears as a mischievous boy of about ten or twelve years old wearing period-appropriate knickers and a billowy blouse. Witnesses describe seeing him peer from upstairs windows before slowly backing away. He is known for interfering with cameras, turning off tape recorders, and his playful laughter echoing through the halls.

Other documented spirits include Robert, supposedly Captain Morgan's first mate, frequently spotted at one of the windows; a colonial woman seen doing housework around the fireplace; and Reverend William Wilson himself, whose ghost has been observed in a back bedroom perpetually clutching his Bible and conducting phantom funeral services. Even Penelope Stout, one of the earliest European settlers in the region, has allegedly appeared in a front bedroom cradling an infant. A stern-looking sea captain has been reported looking through a telescope pointed toward the sea, and visitors have observed a spectral figure swaying in a rocking chair with no one in the seat. A ghostly dog also reportedly roams the grounds.

Psychic Jane Doherty visited the Spy House while filming a television program on the paranormal. Though the TV crew captured no visual evidence inside, Doherty's mother witnessed what she described as a woman in period clothing staring out to sea who remained completely motionless. Upon hearing the description, curator Neidlinger identified the spirit as Abigail. Paranormal investigations conducted over the years produced what investigators described as persuasive evidence of otherworldly activity, though a 2014 investigation found nothing outstanding.

The controversy surrounding the Spy House reached its peak in October 1993 when Neidlinger was evicted from the museum following disputes with the Spy House Museum Corp., ending an era of ghost tours just as national attention peaked. She passed away a few days later. In 1998, Middletown Township transferred the property to the County of Monmouth. The Monmouth County Park Commission stripped the interior to bare timbers and undertook a loving restoration to return the building to its appearance during the Seabrook era. Construction began in 2008 and completed in 2009.

Today, the Seabrook-Wilson House serves as the Bayshore Waterfront Park Activity Center, part of a 227-acre park overlooking Sandy Hook Bay. The house, listed on the National Register of Historic Places since October 29, 1974, is open to the public from April through October on Sundays from 1-4 p.m. It features exhibits on nature, history, and ecology. Though park officials have attempted to debunk the ghost stories and emphasize the building's authentic historical significance, the question lingers: are the 22 ghosts still there? Many believe these spirits remain, wandering the halls of one of New Jersey's oldest and most storied homes.