If Gettysburg wasn’t home to enough paranormal intrigue on its own, the infamous ‘Annabelle’ doll that inspired a lucrative film series will soon pay a visit to a haunting site in one of the most haunted towns in the country.
The original Annabelle doll from the Warren’s Occult Museum in Monroe, Ct., will be on display at the National Soldiers’ Orphans’ Homestead in Gettysburg from July 11 through 13, 2025, as part of the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR)’s “Devils on the Run Tour,” led by paranormal investigator Ryan Daniel Buell.
Tour, announcements rile up social media
Buell has been documenting the journey with Annabelle through his TikTok, with videos on the doll’s travels frequently going viral with millions of views, and even sparking outrage as it stops from town to town.
Underneath of many of the posts, commenters shared their concerns for the doll’s journey, citing the Warrens’ original instructions to “not move the doll.”
The TikTok announcement that Annabelle’s next stop will be in Gettysburg had racked up close to a million views in roughly a day, with many commenting on the post asking for Buell to skip Pennsylvania due to the superstitions around the doll.
The intense response to the doll’s travels have even led to Buell sharing videos of blessings and “binding rituals” to “keep Annabelle contained.”
How to see Annabelle for yourself
The showings of Annabelle at the orphanage are ticketed, with showings every 30 minutes between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Friday, July 11, through Sunday, July 13, 2025.
General admission tickets to view Annabelle are $40 a person, according to the event, and children under the age of 10 are free.
In an already sold-out special event at 10 p.m. on Friday, July 11, ticketed participants, ages 18 and over, will get to partake in a four-hour ghost hunt of the Jennie Wade House and the orphanage in the presence of the Annabelle doll, which will end around 2 a.m. that Saturday.
The National Soldiers’ Orphanage Homestead is seen along Baltimore Street, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in Gettysburg Borough.
What’s the story behind Annabelle?
Annabelle is a supposedly haunted Raggedy Ann doll which was first purchased in Hartford, Ct., in 1970, according to NESPR.
NESPR was founded in 1952 by famous paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who were known for their paranormal investigations of “The Amityville Horror” house on Long Island, the “Enfield Poltergeist,” and of course, the Annabelle doll.
As the Annabelle legend goes, as recounted on the website for NESPR, in 1970, a mother bought the Raggedy Ann doll for her daughter, who was in nursing school. The daughter is said to have then experienced strange occurrences, such as the doll moving or leaving messages, and sought a medium.
That medium, the story says, told the daughter that the doll claimed to be the spirit of a young girl who died near the building, Annabelle Higgins.
The Warrens became involved when the strange occurrences became increasingly violent in nature, and claimed that their investigation found that the doll was not possessed by a young girl, but rather an “inhuman demonic spirit” that was seeking a human victim to possess.
The story concludes with the Warrens having a Catholic priest perform an exorcism, and the Warrens then locking the doll away in their home, where they created their own occult museum.
After the Warrens alleged several more incidents, they created a special glass case for Annabelle, which it continues to occupy, adorned with the warning “positively do not open.”
The legend of Annabelle, and the stories of the Warrens, served as inspiration for the Annabelle doll in “The Conjuring” film series, which includes “The Conjuring” in 2013, “Annabelle” in 2014, “Annabelle: Creation” in 2017, “Annabelle Comes Home” in 2019, and “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” in 2021.
In the films, the doll is not portrayed as its original Raggedy Ann likeness, instead appearing as a more sinister, porcelain doll.
The film series was the highest-grossing horror series worldwide as of 2023, bringing in a total of $2,280,642,532 worldwide across eight films.
After Ed Warren passed in 2006 and Lorraine passed in 2019, the Warrens’ museum collection has been maintained by their son-in-law, Tony Spera. While the museum closed to the public in 2019, the items within the Warrens’ museums have in recent years traveled around the country to be displayed.
Where is the doll being displayed in Gettysburg?
Though the Annabelle doll first visited Gettysburg in 2024 during the ”Warren’s Seekers of the Supernatural” conference held at Allstar Events Complex south of Gettysburg, the upcoming visit will take place inside of a space that is already commonly referred to as one of the “most haunted buildings in Gettysburg.”
In July, the doll will be on display at the National Soldiers’ Orphans’ Homestead at 788 Baltimore Street in Gettysburg, which is often referred to as the haunted orphanage.
“Annabelle’s visit to this locations is sure to create a unique experience for those brave enough to join,” a listing for the event shared.
The National National Soldiers’ Orphanage Homestead seen from the front as it appeared in July 1874 on a picture hanging in the church that is part of the the tour.
Even without the allegedly haunted doll, the National Soldiers’ Orphans’ Homestead is, on its own, a popular location for ghost tours, which are led by Ghostly Images of Gettysburg Tours.
The building, according to local legend, was built as a private residence, but became the site of an orphanage following the battle of Gettysburg.
Read about a tour of the orphanage: I toured one of Gettysburg’s most haunted spots in time for Halloween. Here’s what I saw
Three bloody days of fighting at Gettysburg saw 51,000 casualties, which includes dead, wounded and missing in action.
As a result, the battle left numerous children in the area fatherless, and those whose mothers couldn’t provide for them, aged 5 through 13, would stay at the orphanage until they turned 14.
After several years, the legend goes, the orphanage eventually came under the oversight of headmistress Rosa Carmichael in 1869.
Carmichael, according to legend, was known for her cruelty and is alleged to have tortured children in the home.
Shackles in the basement of the National Soldiers’ Orphanage Homestead in Gettysburg on October 24, 2024
Children were not allowed outside of the home, and outside visitors, such as doctors, were only ever allowed to see the children on the front porch.
Among the worst of the legends involve the building’s cellar, where Carmichael is said to have shackled children to the wall or confined them to a tiny room, called the pit, where they would sit starved for hours. Some, according to the stories, died in that tiny room.
The legends surrounding the orphanage have spawned significant interest from the paranormal community, with ghost hunters, paranormal experts and videographers from across the country visiting the site to set up equipment in the cellar.
This article originally appeared on Hanover Evening Sun: Gettysburg, Pa. to be visited by doll from ‘The Conjuring’ series
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