A 15-room Italianate Victorian time capsule on Hartford's High Street where Connecticut Landmarks staff and the G.O.N.E.R.S. team agree Charlotte Isham still keeps watch.
211 High Street, Hartford, CT 06103
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Modest admission fee charged by Connecticut Landmarks; advance registration recommended.
Access
Limited Access
Historic Victorian home with stairs; first floor partially accessible.
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1854 · Connecticut Landmarks property · Intact Victorian time capsule · Working gas-light chandelier · National Register of Historic Places
The Isham-Terry House was built around 1854 as a private residence in the Italianate style then popular in Hartford. The home is two-and-a-half stories with bracketed eaves, a low-pitched hipped roof, and elaborate interior detailing. By the 1890s the surrounding neighborhood had transitioned from single-family residential to a mixed urban character.
In 1896 Dr. Oliver Isham — a Hartford physician — purchased the home and moved in with his two unmarried sisters, Charlotte and Julia. Oliver maintained part of the ground floor as his medical practice while the sisters managed the household. After Oliver's death, Charlotte and Julia continued to live in the home together for the rest of their lives, deliberately preserving it as a Victorian-era residence rather than modernizing it as the neighborhood and the era changed around them.
Charlotte Isham died in the house in 1972; Julia Isham died there in 1979. At Julia's death the home and its complete original furnishings were bequeathed to the Antiquarian & Landmarks Society of Connecticut (now Connecticut Landmarks). Because the sisters had preserved the interior largely unchanged for nearly a century, the property opened as a museum essentially intact — including original furnishings, the doctor's medical equipment, books, and personal effects.
The Isham-Terry House contains ceiling medallions, crown molding, lincrusta wall coverings, gilt mirrors and valances, stained glass windows, and a double parlor that features an original gas-light chandelier still in working condition. The home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and operates today as a museum focused on late-Victorian Hartford domestic life.
Sources
The Isham-Terry House is among Connecticut Landmarks' most actively paranormal properties. According to Fox61, the G.O.N.E.R.S. case file, and the Connecticut Landmarks Phantasmagoria event description, witnesses report apparitions of female figures appearing in upper-floor windows and along the grand staircase, footsteps and voices in unoccupied parts of the house, and a recurring phenomenon in which objects moved during the day are found returned to their original positions overnight.
The Ghosts of New England Research Society — G.O.N.E.R.S., based in Connecticut — was invited by Connecticut Landmarks to investigate the property in June 2014. The team presented its findings at a public 'Live Reveal' event held at the house on October 24, 2014. According to the G.O.N.E.R.S. case file, the team concluded that the spirit of Charlotte Isham remains in the house 'because she loved it so' — a finding consistent with the sisters' decades-long stewardship of the property and Charlotte's death in the home in 1972.
Connecticut Landmarks has formally embraced the paranormal interpretation through the annual 'Phantasmagoria' program, an after-hours seasonal event held at the Isham-Terry House around Halloween that combines historical interpretation with paranormal discussion. The official Connecticut Landmarks listing for the property and Fox61's coverage both reference the haunting tradition as part of the site's identity.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Guided tour of the 15-room Italianate Victorian mansion preserved largely as the Isham sisters left it in the 1970s. The house features ceiling medallions, crown molding, lincrusta wall coverings, stained glass, gilt mirrors, and a double parlor with a working gas-light chandelier.
Seasonal after-hours program presented by Connecticut Landmarks exploring the house's documented paranormal lore and the 2014 G.O.N.E.R.S. investigation.
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