This year it is estimated that Americans will spend $7.4 Billion (yep, billion) on Halloween costumes, candy, and decorations according to NBC News.  No need to assume that we love Halloween.  From haunted houses to scary corn mazes, we have a fascination with the supernatural world.  We tend to think Historic = Haunted and many historic homes, buildings, places tend to take advantage of this time of year to draw visitors to their “hauntedness.”  Whether you’re into the spiritual hunting or not, these “haunted” buildings will begin to tell you how people lived in the past.  

The Memphis Metro area, has a variety of historic towns, buildings, and places that take you back in time (and of course can frighten you).

Step on to the grounds at the historic US Marine Hospital in south Memphis to experience an unusual sensation.  This eerie, dark, dusty, vacant building, will soon have amazing potential in the future.  Sitting in the French Fort community, this property was first established in the late 1800s as a hospital where they treated Civil War soldiers and workers who were injured on the levees.  In the 1930s the Antebellum-esque property was upgraded to the now brick 3-story Georgian style building.  

LaGrange, TN in Fayette County, has a unique feeling as you enter this small town.  Very much unchanged, this town was the Antebellum center of Southern culture.  Walking down the sidewalk of the tiny downtown makes you think of hoop skirts, corsets, top hats and canes.  This town saw the Union Troops, General Sherman, and many victims of the Civil War.  The Immanuel Episcopal Church was used as a Union hospital  where the pews were used to make coffins – creepy enough.

No need to pay to go to a haunted house, go find a place that people actually inhibited and use your imagination.  You never know what creepiness or story you might be told or see.