A National Historic Landmark built in 1884 by a Chicago fire survivor—~50 exits reflect his obsession—where staff report apparitions of the daughter who died here in 1886.
626 N Dawson St, Thomasville, GA 31792
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Nominal admission fee; see gastateparks.org for current pricing
Access
Limited Access
Historic Victorian structure with stairs and narrow passages; limited accessibility due to historic preservation requirements
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1884 · National Historic Landmark · Great Chicago Fire Survivor Architecture · Victorian Residential Design · Thomas County History
Charles W. Lapham of Chicago made his fortune in shoe manufacturing and survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871—an experience that left a permanent imprint on how he thought about buildings. When he commissioned a winter retreat in Thomasville, Georgia, in 1884, he specified an unusually paranoid floor plan: approximately 50 exits scattered through the asymmetrical Victorian structure, with rooms that do not repeat in layout or proportion, each one theoretically escapable by a different path in an emergency.
The house was constructed in 1884–85 and is documented by Wikipedia as one of the most architecturally peculiar residential structures in Georgia. It is a National Historic Landmark, recognized for its architectural significance rather than any association with the supernatural. After Lapham's ownership, the property passed through the Patterson family before coming under state management.
Tragedy visited the family during Lapham's own tenure: his daughter Dollie died of illness in the house in 1886, just a year after construction was completed. She was a young woman when she died, and the house she died in was already an unusual place—honeycomb of rooms and exits, each chosen by a man haunted by fire.
Georgia State Parks now administers the site as a state historic site open to the public with regular guided tours. The house's quirky architecture is the primary draw for most visitors, with the paranormal tradition layered on top of its documented history.
Sources
The paranormal reputation of the Lapham-Patterson House is among the better-documented in Southwest Georgia, with accounts coming from the site's own staff rather than only outside investigators.
According to WALB television news coverage, the Georgia Paranormal Investigators—a team that brought approximately $100,000 worth of equipment to the property—conducted a formal investigation. During their visit, the Lapham-Patterson House curator reported personally seeing ghostly figures on the premises. That a site curator made this claim on record to a television news crew, rather than it being attributed to a visiting paranormal group alone, gives the report more institutional weight than most.
The Thomasville Times-Enterprise corroborates sightings of a woman in white and a child on the staircase. These two figures appear consistently across multiple accounts. The woman in white is commonly associated in visitor and staff reports with Dollie Lapham, Charles Lapham's daughter, who died of illness in the house in 1886 at a young age. Whether Dollie is the correct identification is a matter of tradition rather than documented evidence, but the association is well established in local lore.
The house's approximately 50 exits and asymmetrical floor plan—features designed by a man who had survived a citywide fire—give any investigation an inherently disorienting quality. Rooms do not connect in expected ways. Exits appear where walls might be expected. This architectural uncanniness has likely reinforced the paranormal reputation the house carries.
Notable Entities
Georgia State Parks staff lead guided tours of this asymmetrical Victorian landmark, including its ~50 exits and no-two-rooms-alike floor plan—features reflecting C.W. Lapham's extreme fire-escape anxiety following the 1871 Great Chicago Fire. Tour includes history of the family and the documented paranormal reports.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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