Haunted Hotels in Vermont

Wilson Castle in Proctor, Vermont stands as a monument to broken dreams and financial ruin, built between 1885-1892 by Dr. John Johnson using his wife Sarah Robbins’ substantial wealth at the staggering cost of $1.3 million ($50 million in today’s currency) for a 32-room mansion across three floors.

Sarah Johnson’s spirit has become the castle’s most prominent ghost, forever bound to the home she never fully lived in before the couple was forced to sell, her presence strongest in her favorite room where visitors regularly capture her figure in the background of photographs. The Pink Bedroom has earned distinction as the most haunted room since the 1970s, where Sarah’s apparition appears most frequently, her sadness palpable as she mourns the loss of both her child and her belief that her husband married her only for money.

The castle’s most unsettling feature is a closet believed to function as a portal between the spirit and human worlds, where paranormal investigators document the highest levels of supernatural activity.

The deliberately unfinished attic serves as the most active investigation area, its incomplete state creating an eerie atmosphere where disembodied voices, phantom music, and the sounds of invisible pool games echo through the empty spaces. Visitors report being physically poked by unseen entities, while unexplained cigar smoke permeates rooms despite no smoking on the property.

Motion-activated equipment facilitates communication with spirits, while confirmed photographs show ghost children appearing in mirrors throughout the castle. Wilson Castle represents the intersection of American Gilded Age excess and supernatural tragedy, where the portal functions as a “revolving door between dimensions,” making it one of New England’s most actively haunted architectural treasures.