HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
1742 former tavern and store in York Village, part of the Museums of Old York
4 Lindsay Road, York, ME 03909
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Museums of Old York combo admission; the Emerson-Wilcox House opens seasonally. Check oldyork.org for current rates and the building calendar.
Access
Limited Access
Colonial house with stairs and uneven historic floors
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1742 · 1742 colonial house · Former tavern, post office, and store · Museums of Old York · York Village colonial district
The Emerson-Wilcox House stands on Lindsay Road in the center of York Village, one of the oldest English-settled areas of Maine. The core of the house dates to 1742, and over the following decades it was expanded and adapted to a range of uses. At various points it operated as a tavern, served as York's post office, and housed a store, making it a hub of village life across the colonial and early national periods.
The house is now part of the Museums of Old York, the collection of historic buildings interpreted by the Old York Historical Society. The Society maintains the Emerson-Wilcox House alongside the Old Gaol, the Jefferds Tavern, the Old Schoolhouse, the John Hancock Warehouse, and other village landmarks, opening them seasonally with period furnishings and interpretation.
York Village's deep colonial record, including the 1692 Candlemas Massacre and the region's witchcraft-era prosecutions, gives the Old York grounds a dense historical backdrop. The Emerson-Wilcox House is one of the anchor buildings visitors encounter when touring the village's preserved 18th-century core.
Sources
Local ghost-walk tradition links the Emerson-Wilcox House and the surrounding Old York grounds to a set of low-key but recurring reports: objects that shift position on their own, doors that open without an obvious cause, and abrupt cold breezes inside the historic rooms. The accounts are presented as part of the village's broader folklore rather than as a single dramatic haunting.
The stories sit against York Village's documented colonial past, which included witchcraft-era accusations and executions in the wider Massachusetts colony of which York was then a part. The local 'White Witch' tradition, attached to a woman said to have been accused and put to death, is recounted on the Haunted York Village walks. The historical record of these prosecutions is treated soberly, and the witch framing should be read as oral tradition layered onto real events rather than verified biography.
The Emerson-Wilcox House appears on the evening walking tour as one stop among the village's older buildings, where guides recount both the documented history and the accumulated ghost lore of the Old York grounds.
Tour the 1742 Emerson-Wilcox House, one of the buildings interpreted by the Museums of Old York. Across its history the house served as a tavern, a post office, and a store, and it now displays period furnishings and York Village history.
A guided evening walk through York Village led by a local tour company, passing the Emerson-Wilcox House and the wider Old York grounds and recounting the area's colonial history and ghost lore, including the 'White Witch' tradition.
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