THE GOV’S HAUNTEDHOUSE
Cuomo: ‘It’s creepy’; Paterson: ‘It’s Casper’
Gov. Cuomo swears he doesn’t believe in ghosts — but maybe he should.
Cuomo said Thursday he hears spooky noises when he’s alone in the Executive (governor’s) Mansion in Albany — and one of his predecessors claimed the place is full of paranormal activity.
“So it’s me alone when I’m in the house, because my family is in Westchester . . . and there are stories that this house is haunted,” Cuomo said.
“Now, I don’t believe in ghosts, and I’m a big, tough Italian guy, but I’ll tell you, it gets creepy in that house, and there are a lot of noises that go on and you are very alone,” he said.
Former Gov. David Paterson shared his own ghost story with The Post.
He was in a second-floor bedroom late at night during his term when he heard sounds like a vase smashing and water spilling.
Paterson searched two floors but found no evidence of the breakage.
“The next morning, I told the staff, and they all got quiet and left the room,” he said.
“One came to me and said, ‘Governor, nobody wanted to say this to you, but it’s the ghost.’ One employee is afraid to go in one of the rooms because she thinks the ghost is in the room.”
Staffers believe it’s the spirit of a groundskeeper who served the mansion’s original owners before the state bought the building in 1877, meaning nearly every governor since Samuel Tilden — including Cuomo’s dad, Mario — lived in a haunted house, Paterson believes.
While Paterson was living there, his 5-year-old nephew claimed that he could feel an invisible hand guiding him when he climbed the mansion’s stairs.
“Governor Cuomo should be relieved,” Paterson said. “It’s a friendly ghost, like Casper.”
The mansion has seen some dark days.
Gov. Charles Evan Hughes’ father died in the mansion while visiting his son in 1909, according to the state’s Office of General Services.
In 1961, a midnight fire erupted, decimating nearly half the struc- ture, but then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller and the house’s other four occupants at the time escaped.
The mansion is not the capital’s only undead haunt. The State Capitol building is believed to be infested with the supernatural, and spooky tours are offered.
A night watchman was killed in a fire there in 1911, said Matt Hamm, who gives “haunted” tours of the building.
“A lot of reports we get are of people walking around the [building] late at night during budget season, and the lights turn off or they hear keys jingling,” he said.