Haunted Patterson Park Story

Is Patterson Park in Baltimore, Maryland, Haunted?

America has many haunted parks, but most readers never knew that Patterson Park is haunted, too.

Patterson Park, Baltimore

Patterson Park is a historic urban park in the eastern part of Baltimore, Maryland. It is one of the city’s oldest parks and covers approximately 137 acres.

The park is named after William Patterson, a Baltimore merchant and the father-in-law of Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother.

Here are some key features and aspects of Patterson Park:

History: The park dates back to the early 19th century when it was established as a public space. Over the years, it has served various purposes, including military uses during the Civil War.
Patterson Park Pagoda: One of the most iconic structures in the park is the Pagoda, a three-story observation tower that offers panoramic views of the city. It was built in 1890 and is a popular attraction for visitors.
Recreational Facilities: Patterson Park provides a wide range of recreational facilities, including sports fields, basketball courts, tennis courts, and playgrounds. There’s a boating lake where visitors can enjoy paddle boating.
Lakes and Fountains: The park features several ponds and fountains, contributing to its scenic beauty. The water features attract wildlife, and the park is home to various bird species.
Events and Festivals: Patterson Park hosts numerous events and festivals throughout the year, including the popular “Art in the Park” festival. The park also provides cultural events, concerts, and community gatherings.
Community Involvement: Patterson Park is strongly connected to the surrounding communities, and community-led initiatives and activities often occur there.
Community Gardens: The park has gardens where residents can cultivate plants and flowers. These gardens contribute to the park’s green and vibrant atmosphere.
Historic Landmarks: The park has other historic landmarks besides the pagoda, including the Pulaski Monument, which honors Revolutionary War hero Casimir Pulaski.

Patterson Park is a recreational space and an important cultural and historical asset for Baltimore. Its diverse offerings make it a popular destination for residents and visitors alike.

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Haunted Patterson Park Story

When I was twelve, I spent the weekend at my grandmother’s house in the city. She lived in Canton, just south of Patterson Park and north of Canton Square.

I loved going there because she would feed me whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. Plus, she was super cool to hang with.

She would take me to Greg’s video store in the 80s, and I would always rent a scary movie. They were my favorite back then.

Besides watching movies, I would sit outside on a folding lawn chair in the evenings with my grandmother and her friends and listen to them tell stories.

It was so much fun and so relaxing. One Fall Night, while we sat on chairs on the sidewalk between the marble steps, one of my grandmother’s friend’s husband, Mr. Cotton, began talking about Patterson Park when he was a kid in the 1940s.

Before it was known as a park, the site of Patterson Park played a significant role in the War of 1812; it served as the grounds where American troops stood ready during the battle of North Point.

Patterson Park began life as a park with six acres of land donated by William Patterson, a wealthy shipping merchant, who hoped to create a “public walk,” thus becoming the oldest park in Baltimore and the first gift of land to a city for public recreation.

In 1860, the park was expanded and served as an Army hospital (Camp Patterson Park, 1862) and camp for Union soldiers.

Even though, at one time, I lived two blocks south of Patterson Park for a few years between the ages of three and five years, I was never allowed to go there. This was back in the late 70s, and the Park was not considered safe.

Even in the mid-80s decade, when I would spend the weekend at my Grandma’s, it wasn’t much better. I recall playing on the playground one afternoon, and one of the slide tunnels smelled of urine.

Yep, someone stood at the top and took a leak. I skipped the tunnel slide portion of the playground. When we went to Patterson Park for a festival, a man was urinating in broad daylight at the Eastern Ave entrance.

This ‘urinater’ wasn’t in a corner peeing; instead, he was shamelessly standing there dead center at the gate. He was wearing a softball uniform and must have finished playing a game at the Park and killed a few beers.

Mr. Cotton’s Patterson Park Nightmare

Anyway, back to my story. Mr. Cotton began telling the group how, during the hot Baltimore Summer when he was a kid, the family would bring blankets and sleep at Patterson Park on the grass.

Back then, almost no one had air conditioning in their row homes, so it was common to sleep outside somewhere to deal with the hot, humid Baltimore summer.

He began telling us about one summer night in particular.

Mr. Cotton was awakened from sleep because he had to go ‘make the bladder gladder,’ as he stated. There were dozens of families sleeping at Patterson Park that evening, and he decided to walk far away from everyone to avoid being seen.

He ended up peeing next to the Pagoda at Patterson Park. The Pagoda is an oriental-style observation tower designed by Charles H. Latrobe in 1890.

While he was peeing, he noticed someone moving around inside the Pagoda. He peered through the window on the bottom floor and claimed he saw a tall man. Mr. Cotton’s curiosity improved, and he opened the Pagoda door and walked inside.

Once inside, he followed the shadowy figure up the circular stairs to the top. Mr. Cotton thought at the time it was one of the adults staying at the Park that night, so he wasn’t that scared.

According to Mr. Cotton, the dark figure was on the top level of the Pagoda, on an outside observation deck.

Once outside, he confronted the shadow man and said, ‘Hey, whatcha doin mister?’ This is where it gets interesting; Mr. Cotton claimed the figure slowly turned around to him and put his finger to where his mouth would be as to say, “Shhhhhh.”

Mr. Cotton said he was afraid and couldn’t even breathe, much less speak. Immediately, the figure flew off the pagoda’s observation deck towards a nearby tree and then disappeared. Mr. Cotton said he was in shock but managed to walk down the spiral stairs and back to the spot on the lawn where his family was sleeping.

He never told his parents about what happened, but he told most of his neighborhood friends. It turns out Mr. Cotton wasn’t the only person to see the dark shadowy figure at Patterson Park; many of his friends also saw him at night.

Gotta Go to Patterson Park After Dark

After hearing this story, I thought I would go to the Pagoda at Patterson Park. The day after eating breakfast, I decided to sneak down to the Park and look.

I rode my skateboard up several blocks and arrived close to the entrance.

I picked up my skateboard and walked across Eastern Ave to The Gates of the Park when suddenly, I heard my grandma’s voice. She said in no uncertain terms to get my butt back here and return to her house.

She grounded me for the rest of the day. I was bummed, but I had a plan.

While lounging in the spare bedroom at my grandma’s house, I devised a scheme to go to the Pagoda without my grandma knowing about it. She was a regular 10:00 pm sleeper. My idea was to leave the house after she was sound asleep.

That evening after we ate dinner together and finished watching Miami Vice, or was it Magnum P.I. I don’t remember, but I remember she went to bed afterward.

I told her I would watch a V.H.S. tape of Ghostbusters while eating some Pepperidge Farm Cheddar Cheese Goldfish and then go to bed myself, but I didn’t.

After watching Ghostbusters, I changed out of my pajamas and into my street clothes, and then I grabbed the spare house keys on a hook near the cellar door.

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Heading Out to Patterson Park After Dark

I walked outside around 11 pm, hoping none of the neighbors were outside because I didn’t want them to see me. As I walked up the street, I prayed no one would be driving home or looking out their window and see me, and from what I could tell, they didn’t.

Patterson Park was just three blocks from my grandma’s house, and I was there in no time. I know what you’re probably thinking. What is some twelve-year-old kid doing in a Park at night, and he isn’t afraid?

I was nervous but not scared. I love adventures, and this was one I wasn’t going to miss.

There were lights on in the Park that night, even though most of them were burnt out, and I only saw a few people in the park that evening, mostly older people drinking and smoking. They didn’t bother me, and I didn’t bother them, so all was good in my mind.

The Pagoda I was walking towards is diagonal to the Park entrance on Eastern Ave and on the upper left corner of the park, and the entrance I came in on is at the lower right side of the Park. For the record, Patterson Park is 137 acres, and walking that distance at night by myself was intense.

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Chilly Autumn Evening

It was a chilly mid-October night, and the wind was steadily blowing. Tree limbs would fall to the ground as I walked ever so carefully. My primary concerns that night were stray dogs, punk kids, and Police Officers – in that order.

I’ve always been very good at going into ‘stealth mode.’ That night, I was wearing my black Bones Brigade Hoodie in ‘super stealth mode’. I didn’t want anything to get in between me and my destination.

I remember walking past baseball diamonds and ‘Boat Lake.’ The park had some of those ‘sketchy’ restrooms, like in the movie Candyman, with graffiti and trash everywhere.

Boat Lake is a wildlife habitat now, but God only knows what was in there back then, probably a dead body or two. I recall one of the neighborhood kids telling me about ‘Little Boy Johnnie’ who drowned in the 1970s.

The neighborhood kids would play in the lake during the hotter months.

Little Boy Johnnie went missing one summer and was never found. His older brother Michael drowned him and left him for dead out of sibling jealousy. I walked near Boat Lake that night, but not too close.

I had at least another 20 minutes or so of walking, and because it was semi-dark that night, I couldn’t see the Pagoda in the distance. I was going purely on memory as to where the Pagoda was. Next, I walked upon a Pavilion where about ten to fifteen kids were partying. I just put my head down and kept walking.

One of the guys saw me and told me to come to the pavilion. I was shit out of luck now, I thought. The guy said, “What are you doing here, kid?” I told him I was walking home and was in trouble with my Mom, so I had to hurry home.

I told him, ‘Nah, it’s cool; I’m just going to keep walking.’ He replied, ‘How about I kick your ass first, and then you can go home.’ he told me he was messing with me. He handed me a Natty Boh beer and said to stay away from the Pagoda because it’s haunted.

I tensed up when he told me that, but I thanked him for the beer and went. I sipped the beer; it was piss warm, so I chucked it into the bushes and kept walking. I saw a building up ahead but didn’t know what it was. Later, I found out it was a building called the “Casino.’

Not a gambling casino but a building that served refreshments. It’s too bad it was closed that night because I could have used a Cherry Coke, but I digress.

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The Patterson Park Pagoda

I walked for a few more minutes, and there she was the Pagoda. Wow, finally, now is there any chance it is unlocked? I walked up to the main door of the pagoda, and it was padlocked shut. Damn, I thought to myself, better go and find another way.

I checked the windows on the ground floor of the Pagoda, and they were all locked.

I stepped back to see if I could climb the Pagoda some way. The Pagoda is four stories high, and each story has an outside wrap-around walkway observatory.

I somehow managed to grab one of the support beams from the bottom of the second-story walkway and pull myself up. It wasn’t easy, but I got to the second-story walkway.

I checked all those doors and windows, and they were also locked. When I climbed to the next level, the status remained the same.

By now, I was getting tired. I had one more level to climb, but not only that, if it were locked, I would have to climb back down.

My impulse told me to climb to the final balcony walkway and try the door. If I could get inside, I figured I could open up one of the windows on the ground floor and leave that way. I climbed up to the final balcony and breathed for a few minutes.

I stood up and looked from the observational balcony, and I could see the bonfire the kids at the Pavilion Party had set up. It looked like they were having fun, but I wasn’t. I didn’t think I would have to climb the Pagoda to the top to get inside.

After sighing heavily, I checked all the windows. The last one I checked was wide open, not even closed or locked. Yes!!!!! I checked the door on the top level, and it, too, was locked.

I stepped through the large, arched window and was finally inside. It was dark and dusty, and I didn’t bring a flashlight, matches, or a lighter. It was bright enough outside from the Moon that I could see enough to get by.

Pagoda Top Level

I walked to the center of the top level of the Pagoda and began walking down the spiral staircase to the ground floor.

I walked over to the first window I saw and unlocked it. I slid it open and was about to go through it when I heard a commotion nearby in the Park. All the kids from the Pavilion Party were running past the Pagoda.

A few seconds later, about five Police officers with German Shepherds were chasing them.

One of the cops approached the Pagoda and tried to open the door, then shone his flashlight through the window. I ducked down underneath the window and waited a few minutes.

I looked up, and the officer was gone. Now, I was worried about going home because I am a minor, and if a Police Officer saw me out at night by myself, I could get into serious trouble, especially if I was caught inside the Pagoda. By now, it was 12:30 in the morning, and I was tired, thirsty, and hungry—in that order.

Also, my thinking was getting fuzzy, and my wits were lessening by the minute. After a few minutes of internal dialogue, I decided it was time to leave.

I propped open the window and had one leg out when suddenly, I heard a thump on the top-floor balcony. At this point, I was scared. What do I do? I was thinking. I decided to continue out the window on the bottom floor.

Once out, I slowly walked over to the nearest small tree and looked up at the observation balcony’s top level. I didn’t see anything, so I completed an entire circle around the Pagoda until I saw something standing on the top-level balcony.

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The Black Shape

I couldn’t make out what it was. It was like a “black shape” as I saw it. As I stared at the shape to make sense of it, I sensed it saw me. I swear, the hairs on my neck stood as they say, and adrenaline automatically pumped through my system.

The human subconscious mind knows and senses things our conscious, awake mind cannot.

The shape on top of the balcony that I thought was standing upright was not; it was crouching because when it stood up, its head, which was crowned with spiky horns, was almost to the top of the Pagoda roof point. As it stood, wings unfolded from either side of its body.

The dark, leathery wings began to flap and began flying toward me.

As fast as possible, I ran towards Patterson Park Ave, the nearest road. As I was running, I could hear and feel the power of this creature’s mighty wings.

As I left Patterson Park, I turned around, and it was gone. I walked south on Patterson Park Avenue, took a left onto Eastern Avenue, and South on Decker Avenue, and returned to grandmas by 1:30 a.m.

I was exhausted from the adrenaline rush and passed out in the guest bedroom.

The following day, I woke up, and my grandma was gone—thank God. I took a shower, immediately ate breakfast, and watched television on the couch all day. I never told anyone about my experience until now.

I haven’t been to Patterson Park since. I live in a rural setting, as far away from Patterson Park as possible. I thought I was safe living in the country, far away from the city, around farmland and agriculture.

I was wrong; whatever I saw at Patterson Park that night followed me here. I will have to tell you about that encounter another time.