Masquerade Is Atlanta’s Spookiest Club — But Is It Really Haunted? First-Hand Tales From Hell (and Heaven)

The staff at the Atlanta’s Masquerade can’t say for certain if the music venue is haunted, but there are stories – lots of stories.

The sprawling four-room venue first established itself in Atlanta in 1989 – two years after the first venue of its name was opened by the same owners in Tampa – and took over the former DuPre Excelsior Mill at 695 North Avenue that had come to life a century earlier. The mill produced a packing material to fill mattresses and other items (before foam eventually made it obsolete) and, like many 19^th century factories, several workers were injured in the production process, and the belt of the mill took the life of at least one man.  

While no one has managed to exchange names with those haunting the various Masquerade venues, no one claims to be specifically visited by mill workers. There’s a woman who was seen by several staff members hanging around the freight elevators at the 695 location. One of Masquerade’s owners Berta Ochs says he was supervising the construction before the venue first opened one night and a leftover coin operated basketball machine started up. He could see a man shooting hoops and after yelling at the figure to leave, Ochs said, suddenly he was gone.  

Employees have often felt like they were being watched when no one else was around and one employee who was working the venue’s haunted house Chamber of Horrors says she felt a tap on her shoulder, turned to find no one except a medical instrument from the prop table flung at her feet. There have even been online rumors that Masquerade has vampires. 

“Not to dispel the rumors,” says Masquerade marketing manager Camilla Grayson, “But I think that was because there was a plaster vampire up in the rafters that was left over from an event.” 

“There’s also a popular roleplaying game called Vampire of the Masquerade that people go around doing live enactments of,” chimes in Masquerade GM and talent booker Greg Green. “That might have played into that whole vampire rumor too.” 

Masquerade has not helped itself in the matter with rooms that denote the afterlife. Since its first Atlanta location, it has featured multiple rooms named Heaven, Hell and Purgatory and referred to them as a trinity of nightclubs. The rooms were stacked with Heaven obviously at the top, Hell on the bottom floor and Purgatory somewhere in-between.  

“The upstairs Heaven room was known for the bounciness and sway of the floors,” recalls Green, who has been with the venue for nearly 35 years. “When people would get to jumping in unison and you were downstairs, you could see the ceiling looking like a trampoline. When you hear about people reminiscing, it is like, ‘We were jumping on the trampoline floor in Heaven and we just knew we were about to fall through, but never did.’” 

The venue’s 695 North Avenue location was a behemoth on the streets of Atlanta’s Fourth Ward – with an entirely black stone exterior save for a purple cursive neon sign that read Masquerade. It was an intimidating figure brought to life by founders Ochs, Brian McNamara and Dean Riopelle that attracted all forms of rockers and punks in the early 1990s including Fugazi, The Ramones, Foo Fighters, Radiohead and, of course, grunge legends Nirvana who were paid $200 to play for a room of maybe 50 people, according to Green. 

With three rooms to fill, Masquerade was able to take a chance on many bands in their early years including Bjork, N.W.A and Coldplay. Green recalls a young Dave Matthews coming through at the start of his career with manager Coran Capshaw (a now-renowned artist manager who runs Red Light Management) selling the musician’s t-shirts out of his trunk.  

In 2016, Masquerade had to leave behind the 695 North Avenue location when ownership sold the building as gentrification (and undoubtedly the historic music venue) made the Fourth Ward a desirable neighborhood to build a mixed-use development. Ownership was looking for another space to house the multi-room venue, when the city of Atlanta stepped in.  

“The city wanted to keep us given the cultural institution that we were and [the city] had all these vacant spaces that they said, ‘Hey, is there any of this that you can use, even on a temporary basis,’” Green explains. The space is part of Underground Atlanta, a formerly neglected shopping and entertainment district that first opened in 1969, but the buildings date back to the mid-to-late 1800s when they served as the Georgia Railroad Depot and were a major hub early on for the city. “We didn’t really have a choice at the time. And wound up moving equipment, gear and all the stuff, building out on a small scale what it would take to operate temporarily and it just worked. That was nine years ago and we’ve stayed and we’ve expanded.” 

The Masquerade at Underground Atlanta now features four rooms Heaven (1,450 capacity), Hell (625), Purgatory (300) and Altar (250) connected by a shared courtyard. A fifth venue is expected to open in 2026.  

Despite moving to a new location – surrounded by pedestrian-only spaces with shops and art galleries – Masquerade has not lost its spooky factor. Underground Atlanta’s custodial staff refuses to enter certain areas of the entertainment district at night and has heard people talking at night when no one was around. On one of the interior buildings there’s a plaque that says this wall was part of the first Civil War era hospital in Atlanta, “The dead and wounded were brought here,” explains Grayson.  

A back hallway that connects all the venues is littered with creepy dolls with burnt-out eyes brought in by operations manager Howie Stepp – though no one knows where he sources the dolls from. Online, fans say they’ve seen a headless confederate soldier that walks around at night, and the courtyard is along Kenny’s Alley, which is named after a man who died in a jousting accident at the Georgia State Fair in the 1800s. That same courtyard is where fans from every room gather between sets to smoke, order some food, grab drinks and interact with music lovers of all genres. 

“The courtyard is the great equalizer,” Grayson says. “It’s awesome watching a K-pop fan interact with a ska fan because they’re both coming out of shows at the same time. It’s an awesome mix of people from all walks of life.” 

With the ten-year anniversary of the new location looming, Masquerade is reaching new milestones. By the end of 2025, Green says the venue and their company Masquerade Presents, that promotes larger concerts in the city, will have presented a record 800 shows. Despite steep competition from various local venues including the more than 70,000-capacity Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Live Nation-owned Coca-Cola Roxy and Tabernacle, and the home of NBA’s Atlanta Hawks State Farm Arena, Masquerade has continued to thrive by taking a chance on up-and-coming artists and seeing that goodwill returned.  

“We really don’t look at the individual shows as a series of battles to be won or lost,” Green says. “We look at it as one long campaign. If we can come out just a little bit better off at the end of the year than we were at the beginning, then it’s a win.” 

In recent years, they have hosted shows with Japanese Breakfast, Mitski and Doja Cat. Alex G played 10 years ago at the 250-capacity Purgatory, worked his way up from Hell to Heaven and, earlier this month, he returned to Atlanta to play the 22,000-cap Eastern with Masquerade Presents as a co-promoter. Arena act Travis Scott played the Heaven room earlier this year to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of his debut Rodeo.  

“Part of our ability to maintain over all that time is an attitude of treating people just as well when they’re young and getting their start as we do when they’re superstars,” Green says. “Providing them with amenities they might not get at other small rooms like private green rooms and showers and laundry and all the things.” 

“We’re able to take that risk on [rising acts] a second time, because we really believe in the music that people are creating, and not just focused on the numbers and the data. We were actually there. We’re talking to our staff that we’re working it that said this was really cool,” Grayson adds. “We’re like, ‘They are worth having back because they absolutely kicked ass to 30 people.” 

Last Month’s Indie Venue Profile: Antone’s in Austin