Shelburne Museum
You can find just about anything at this expansive museum, from barns, to steamships, to phantoms
Ghost Stories of
Shelburne Museum
- A man's apparition is seen in Dutton House
- Visitors report sounds of a child crying and playing in Dutton House
- Tourists claim to see faces watching them in Dutton House's windows
- A woman's figure is spotted around Dutton House
- Cold spots are encountered throughout the complex
- Disembodied footsteps are heard aboard the Ticonderoga
- Sounds of doors opening and closing are sometimes reported on the Ticonderoga
- Shadow figures are spotted on the museum steamship
From Eccentric Collector to Vermont’s Most Haunted Museum: The History of Shelburne Museum
From the roadside, Vermont’s Shelburne Museum is an almost surreal sight.
A dreamscape of random settings that feel simultaneously out-of-place and right at home.
A red barn, farmsteads, a lighthouse, a covered bridge, a water mill, and a side-wheeled steamboat are all spread out through the grounds of the Shelburne Museum.
But as strange as the Shelburne Museum might seem from the outside, it’s only when you start exploring the open-air campus that true mystery manifests.
Timeline of Shelburne Museum's History
Swipe or use timeline points to see Shelburne Museum through the years
1888
Shelburne Museum’s odd, one-of-a-kind collection of Vermont artifacts began with an odd, one-of-a-kind Vermonter. Electra Havemeyer Webb was born in 1888 into a family of eccentric art collectors and quickly grew into quite the collector herself. While her family focused on international art, Electra adored American art and history. By her elder years, she had amassed a massive art collection, as well as vast assortments of pottery, quilts, weathervanes, and her family’s collection of horse-drawn carriages. She just didn’t know where to store it all.
1947
Webb founded the Shelburne Museum in 1947, mostly just to store the carriages at first. The expansive museum grounds offered plenty of opportunity, and Webb soon got creative. In a few short years, the Shelburne Museum grew into a complex of misfit structures and curious collections. Historic homes from throughout Vermont were moved to the property, along with bridges, mills, a lighthouse, and the steamshipTiconderoga. It quickly became one of the best museums around to learn about the full, detailed history of Vermont.
1960
Electra Webb died in 1960, but her museum and collections have been meticulously maintained since then. Still today, the Shelburne Museum preserves many historic sites and keeps them filled with oddities from Webb’s log of antiques. The sprawling museum now includes 38 separate buildings, all filled with exhibits and artifacts. But, out of the dozens of historic sites at the museum, there are a select few that curate a different kind of collection: ghosts.
Is Shelburne Museum Haunted?
Out of all the homes and buildings at Shelburne Museum, the Dutton House is said to be the paranormal hotspot.
Dutton House is a large, plum-colored home that was originally built in the 1780s in Cavendish, Vermont before being moved to the museum in 1950.
One well-known specter at Dutton House is a mysterious old man who lingers upstairs. Visitors can sometimes hear his footsteps creaking on the old wood. Others who explore the attic claim to see his vivid apparition lurking up there.
It’s said that the man’s entity conjures uneasy feelings in people, and some staff won’t enter the home alone.
The Woman, the Child, and the Spirits Inside Shelburne Museum’s Dutton House
Dutton House’s old man isn’t the only one haunting the house. Some visitors report the shadowy apparition of a woman down on the first floor. While the old man makes people feel a little uneasy, the woman’s presence is more peaceful. Reports suggest she is a kind entity, welcoming visitors to the historic home. And she might be joined in the greeting by a ghostly child.
Little is known about Dutton House’s ghost child, but some tourists claim to hear both a child’s playful laughter and distressed cries billowing from empty rooms.
What Shelburne Museum Security Guards Hear After Dark at Dutton House
Even on the paths and walkways around Dutton House, visitors and museum staff have strange experiences. Tourists and security guards alike claim to see specters watching them from the house’s upstairs windows.
Later at night, after the museum is closed, guards may hear loud sounds from Dutton House, like someone is still exploring inside. Of course, if they go in and check, they’ll find the home completely empty. Though, they may feel a chilled breeze go by if they linger in the house for too long.
Ghost Activity Aboard the Ticonderoga at Vermont’s Shelburne Museum
Dutton House is certainly the most haunted area of the Shelburne Museum, but it isn’t the only one.
Another notable museum feature, the steamship Ticonderoga, is also said to have specters on board.
Visitors who explore the ship’s interior occasionally report hearing the sounds of footsteps down empty halls, followed shortly after by doors opening and closing. Others still claim to see shadowy figures roaming the ship’s corridors.
Even when they’re not appearing to the living, the ship’s spirits conjure uneasy feelings in tourists, very similar to the sensations reported at Dutton House.
Why Shelburne Museum Is Vermont’s Most Haunted Place to Spend the Day
Since the day Electra Webb opened it in 1947, Shelburne Museum has been a place that celebrates and preserves oddity. Over the last three quarters of a century, it’s likely amassed more strangeness than any place else in Vermont.
And where strangeness goes, hauntings so often follow.
Ghost hunts and tours are not regular offerings at the Shelburne Museum today. But daylight doesn’t seem to bother the museum’s phantoms. Plenty of daytime tourists report unexplained encounters at both Dutton House and the Ticonderoga.
Visitors these days get two-day passes as part of admission, one day to see the artifacts, and another to meet the apparitions.
