How a House Became America’s Only Legally Recognized Haunted Home

A house on 1 Laveta Pl, Nyack, NY 10960, is considered the only “legally haunted house in the US.” It’s known as the “Ackley House”, which is now considered a Historical landmark.

Before we get into the details of the history of the Ackley house, how did it gain its paranormal-legal status?

“Disclosure of Psychologically Affected Property” is a real estate term that defines a stigmatized property as: “a property that has been psychologically impacted by an event which occurred, or was suspected to have occurred, on the property, such event being one that has no physical impact of any kind.” Source: Zillow Group. Breaking it down, it refers to traumatic events such as death or violent crimes that happened on the property, paranormal claims and hauntings, and environmental stressors. Not every state requires these disclosures, and the ones that do can be very specific and don’t mention anything paranormal related at all.

Which states have disclosure laws?

Most states don’t have strict disclosure laws, let alone address paranormal factors. Only a few have to disclose but only if asked. Thankfully, someone at the Zillow Group created a state-by-state analysis of disclosure laws in which states mention the presence of paranormal activity. You can find the full chart here: Selling a Haunted House? Here’s What You Need to Know – Zillow Group

The Zillow’s research found that New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Minnesota are the only states to address this. For example, Minnesota references “perceived paranormal activity.”

Stambovsky V. Ackley

But why this specific house?

So what happened in New York to make it make the list of states that mention the potential existence of paranormal activity? There was a case called Stambovsky v. Ackley in 1991.

The house on 1 Laveta Pl, Nyack, NY 10960, was purchased by Helen Ackley in 1967, who lived there with their family for the next 20 years. The what made this house famous is when Ackley (The owner at the time) wrote an article for Readers Digest in 1977 titled “Our Haunted House on the Hudson.”

When Ackley sought to sell their family home in 1989 to Stambovsky, the allegation was that the house’s haunting was not disclosed, so Stambovsky asked the court to rescind the contract to sell. (Resource )

Long story short, Stambovsky won on appeal, and “The Ackley House” is now officially a legally recognized haunted house. This ruling that ultimately came from the New York Supreme Court mostly means that the idea of the widely publicized haunting greatly affected the home’s value. This ruling is known as “The 1991 Ghostbusters Ruling.”

History of the Ackley House from the Readers Digest

I was able to find the full version of the article written by Ackley for Readers Digest in 1977, but I had to do some serious digging. You can download a PDF copy from the Readers Digest website at Downloadable PDF From Readers Digest

The article “Our Haunted House on the Hudson” looks into the family’s lives as they move into their new home and the experiences they encountered over the years. There is a story about their plumber, “Bob,” describing hearing footsteps walking around on the second floor and not being able to find the person making the sounds.

The family claimed they would find light fixtures swaying, doors opening on their own, and windows open when no one remembers opening them. According to Helen, she played with their new invisible friend all of the time and didn’t feel threatened or scared. One Story comes during a big home renovation while painting their living room. Ackley actually spoke to the “ghost” actually hoping they liked the new paint colors. Ackley suggest they actually saw a man watching them paint,

“I looked over my shoulder again. “He” sat there in midair, smiling at me from in front of the cold fireplace. Hands clasped around his crossed knees, he was nodding and rocking. He faded slowly, still smiling, and was gone.” 

Their oldest daughter, Cynthia was not so lucky and found the presence disturbing. Cynthia experienced things like their bed shaking in the morning to wake them up, describing the presence as a hooded figure with no decerning features.

Family and friends finally started to experience strange occurrences like one described by a cousin, Ingrid, who said in their bedroom, after hearing footsteps in their room all night, they saw the figure of a man from the Revolutionary War reading a strange book at the foot of their bed. We even get a note about George’s experience (Ackley’s husband), where his lunch would go missing, specifically a ham sandwich.

The article ends with a note from Readers Digest explaining why Helen Ackley had submitted the article to the journal.

“The Readers Digest continues to offer $3,000 for 2500-word chronicles of original experiences in the field of psychic phenomena, which can be verified through witnesses and appropriate documentation.”

After inflation, the Ackley’s would be looking at about $15,000 in 2025, which could influence Helen’s stories for a better chance of publication.

Conclusion

For sellers, transparency can be a double-edged sword. While disclosing a home’s haunted reputation could scare off some buyers, withholding that information might lead to legal consequences if the buyer discovers it later.

The lesson learned here is if you are someone with concerns about the supernatural affecting your future home and re-sale value, do your research, and make sure you ask the sellers because they might only have to tell you this information if you ask for it.

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