Have You Heard of This Famous Schenectady Stockade Ghost?

The Capital Region has some pretty haunted places. Some are haunted because they're historical and some are because something terrible happened there. In the story of this famous Schenectady Stockade ghost, it's both.

Alice VanderVeer and her father lived in what is now Schenectady's Stockade back in the late 1600s. Her father didn't think that any man in the area was good enough for his daughter and forbade her from seeing anyone. That was fine until Alice met a young shopkeeper who she fell in love with.

Alice and her lover would sneak down to the Mohawk River to meet so as to not be seen by her father. It worked, until Alice's father caught on and followed his daughter to the young man. Enraged, he shot the young shopkeeper right there, and Alice ran off.

Curious about the noise, the townspeople all came out and saw that Alice's father has shot the man dead. They chased after him, until they caught him, and burned him alive. Alice was still on the run, going as far as what is now Jackson Gardens on the Union College campus.

Eventually, the townspeople caught her. Thinking that her and her father had created this plan together to kill the young shopkeeper, she too was burned alive. Both in the spot of what is now the Yates House in the Stockade. The story goes, she was so overcome with grief that she didn't make a since noise.

Now, she continues to look for her lost love walking around the Stockade as well as the Union College campus. Apparently, every year on the first full moon after the summer solstice you can see her running.