BUFFALO, N.Y. — Dedicated on July 4, 1876, Old County Hall is historic in many ways. Mason Winfield, author and supernatural historian, said the place has architectural mystery.
"Any American building with a steeple, a tower, or a cupola will tend to pick up a lot of ghost stories, and they will tend to be at that part of the building. That tower is said to be a very spooky part of the building," Winfield said. "People don't want to spend time in it."
The architect of the Old County Hall was a man from Rochester named Andrew Jackson Warner. The building is constructed in the shape of a Cross of Lorraine, which potentially carries cult significance, Winfield said.
"You've got the Masonic statue of George Washington in his Masonic regalia. There are said to be only two of those in the nation. Mystery as to why they're here."
He also said there's an "eerie coincidence" of timing with the building.
"There were thousands of people gathered out here, and word came by telegraph of the American army's worst defeat to First Nations cultures. It was George Armstrong Custer's blundering defeat at the Little Bighorn."
But Winfield said the history doesn't stop there.
"President McKinley was assassinated in Buffalo, September 1st, 1901. That morning, he visited the Devil's Hole, the proverbial battle massacre site. His death day was September 15th, 1901, which is exactly, to the day, 138 years after the Devil's Hole massacre," Winfield said. "So much history has happened here, so many court cases, so much latent power to the site that you think, that's got to have some effect on ghost stories."
In the spirit of Halloween we asked Winfield about the ghost stories about the building. He said, there's been a few over time.
"It was the Franklin Square burying ground, one of the oldest in the city, 1804 to about 1830. It was in theory relocated to Forest Lawn Cemetery in 1850," Winfield said. "I don't think it's unusual to expect a few ghost stories in a city like Buffalo. It's unusual. It's a little scary that they happen at all, but if you're going to have a haunted site, I think this is one of the prominent ones in the city."
Some of the apparitions that people report, according to Winfield, are in the Old County Hall's lower levels.
"They're described as being these kind of disarticulated people. They may have legs missing or arms missing. It's not like they are gruesome. It's just that you'll see a ghost go by with only one arm, and it's almost like they're recreations of the war victims."
As Halloween night approaches, there are plenty more ghostly tales to discover in Western New York. Most Buffalo's Pete Gallivan and Courtney Cortright also explored the USS The Sullivans. You can check out that story here.