THE STORY
Reported Haunting
St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery in New York City is famously considered home to Manhattan's oldest European ghost, Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Director-General of New Netherland. His family vault is preserved directly beneath the church structure, which was built on the site of his original 1660 family chapel. Visitors and staff frequently report hearing a distinctive "clack-thump" sound echoing across the stone floors, traditionally blamed on the cantankerous governor pacing around on his silver-banded peg leg. Other persistent haunting claims at the historic site involve phantom church bells ringing on their own, a spectral woman who manifests to listen to sermons, and a ghost that disrupted services by loudly singing in Dutch.
St. Mark’s Chruch in-the-Bowery, second-oldest church in Manhattan, is said to be haunted by cantankerous Dutch colonial governor Peter Stuyvesant. The church was built over the former site of his family’s farm, and his peg-legged ghost has heckled clergymen and parishioners, rung church bells, and even interrupted church services with his stomping and singing.