HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
1805 former bank building on High Street with a vault-death legend
21 High Street, Wiscasset, ME 04578
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public library; open during regular library hours. Check wiscassetlibrary.org for the current schedule.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic in-town building on High Street; some stairs to upper floor
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1805 · Former Lincoln & Kennebec Bank · Federal-era Wiscasset commercial district · Lincoln County maritime trade
Wiscasset sits on the Sheepscot River in Lincoln County, and during the early 1800s it was one of Maine's busiest shipping ports, exporting lumber and ice and importing goods from across the Atlantic. That commerce produced the brick and Federal-style buildings that still line the town center, and the building now used by the Wiscasset Public Library on High Street dates to this period.
The High Street structure was built to house the Lincoln & Kennebec Bank. Local accounts place its construction in the first decade of the 1800s, consistent with the wave of bank charters that followed Wiscasset's mercantile growth. As the town's economy shifted across the 19th and 20th centuries, the building was repurposed, and it has long served as the community's library.
The library is one of several historic stops featured on guided walks of Wiscasset's downtown, which trace the town's maritime and commercial past. The building's bank-era features, including its former vault, are part of what local guides point to when interpreting the site.
Sources
The building's history as the Lincoln & Kennebec Bank anchors its best-known story. As told on local ghost walks and in regional reporting, a young man is said to have suffocated after becoming trapped inside the bank's vault. The account is presented as oral tradition rather than documented record, and no date or name is consistently attached to it.
The second floor carries the other recurring report. Visitors and staff have described the figure of a woman near the nonfiction stacks, sometimes felt as a presence rather than clearly seen. The reports are calm in tone, with no aggressive activity attributed to the apparition.
The library appears on guided evening walks of Wiscasset that move between the town's older buildings, where the vault tale and the second-floor woman are among the stories recounted. As with most of Wiscasset's downtown lore, the appeal is the pairing of a real Federal-era building with a story that has circulated locally for generations.
Walk through the former Lincoln & Kennebec Bank building, now the town's public library, during open hours. The building's early-19th-century origins and its place in Wiscasset's downtown history are visible in its architecture and interior.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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