Deepwells Haunted Mansion in St. James: Your 2026 Guide

The Deepwells Haunted Mansion has three nights left this season: Friday, October 23, Saturday, October 24, and Friday, October 30. Each runs from 7 to 10 p.m. at 2 Taylor Lane in St. James, just outside Nissequogue. Advance tickets cost $30 and gate tickets cost $40, according to the TBR News Media calendar listing. This year's theme is "The Mayor's Last Masquerade of 1913."

The ball in that title is an invented legend, set inside a house with a documented 1913 history of its own. The best way to understand this year's show is to know which parts of the story belong to the house and which parts the volunteers invented. Every ticket sold this month goes toward keeping the true parts standing.

What Deepwells actually saw before 1913

The house is older than its most famous owner. Newsday reported in March 2020 that Joel L.G. Smith built Deepwells as a 50-acre farm in 1845. William J. Gaynor bought it in 1905 from Clinton Smith, who was then secretary of the New York City Parks Department. The same Newsday piece says Gaynor is credited with naming the property for its two 125-foot wells. Suffolk County Parks describes the estate as a 19th-century Greek Revival agricultural property listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Gaynor became mayor of New York City in 1910. TBR News Media identifies Deepwells as the summer home he shared with his wife, Augusta, while he was in office. He served until his death. According to the Historical Society of the New York Courts, he died on September 10, 1913, aboard a steamship off the coast of Ireland. The St. James estate named for its wells was the summer house of a sitting mayor who did not return to it.

So 1913 is the year Deepwells lost its best-known owner. The masquerade is the part the haunt's organizers added to that real story.

Where the history ends and the haunt begins

In an August 25, 2026 Q&A with LIHauntedHouses.com, an organizer named Denise explained how this year's show was built:

"This year we've intertwined the real history of Deepwells Mansion with a fictional legend we created around the Masquerade of 1913."

She described period costumes, waltzing couples, a ballroom, candlelit dining and a heavy focus on masks. The evening "starts out beautiful and elegant," she said, "but it doesn't stay that way for long." The haunt uses the real 1845 rooms and staircases instead of a built set. Guests are inside the same house Gaynor owned while they watch a party that never took place there.

In the same interview, she said the haunt has run for about 20 years. It started with a couple of rooms for neighborhood kids at Halloween and now fills both floors of the mansion and the grounds.

Who your ticket actually pays

Suffolk County owns Deepwells. Newsday's 2020 account says the county Department of Parks bought the farm, along with the neighboring St. James General Store, around 1990 as part of a preservation effort. The county does not run the haunted house. That job falls to the Deepwells Farm Historical Society, a nonprofit that holds a license agreement with the county for use of the facilities. A 2025 Suffolk County Legislature resolution on a separate event at the park spells out that arrangement.

In the LIHauntedHouses.com interview, the organizer called the haunt the society's largest fundraiser. It is run entirely by volunteers, and 100% of the proceeds go to preserving and restoring Deepwells Mansion.

The county owns the house, but its upkeep depends heavily on one volunteer-run month of scares each fall, held inside the rooms the money is meant to protect.

Before you go

The official Deepwells Haunted Mansion site and its booking page list several house rules. Read them before you bring a group:

1. Presale tickets are $30 through the ticket site. Door tickets are $40, payable in cash or Venmo.
2. The haunt is not suitable for young children, and anyone 12 or under must come with an adult. The booking page lists the event as 12 and up.
3. Groups go in five at a time, and guests should arrive 10 minutes before showtime.
4. There are no refunds, and the mansion is not handicap accessible.
5. Expect dark areas, flashing theatrical lights, loud noises, sudden scares, outdoor sections and uneven ground.

Because groups enter in fives, a family or carpool of five can go through together.

The $4 version of the same week

Deepwells is not the only place near the village telling local history in the dark this month. The other options come from New York State Parks and cost $4 per person, with registration required.

The closest match in tone is the Haunted Lantern Walk at Sunken Meadow State Park, held the same evening as the first of Deepwells' remaining nights. According to the State Parks event page, the group rounds the point of the beach by lantern light and stops for "Long Island historical scary stories." It meets at the Nature Center in Field 1, and reservations go through Eventbrite.

On October 25, Nissequogue River State Park hosts a daytime pumpkin carving session with refreshments. On Halloween morning, Sunken Meadow runs Hunt for Bigfoot 2: Electric Boogaloo, which meets in Field 3 by the bathrooms.

Here is the remaining calendar from publication day through Halloween:

On October 23, the lantern walk ends at 8 p.m. and the Deepwells doors stay open until 10, so one evening can hold both. The lantern walk requires an Eventbrite reservation, while Deepwells sells tickets in advance and at the gate. After Halloween, Nissequogue River State Park's next listed program is Tiny Tots: Turkey Time on November 19.

If you own an older home near Deepwells and would like to know how your home's age, condition and setting affect its value today, Kenny Calderon and Team Calderon can walk you through it with a free home valuation built on local knowledge and construction insight.