HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Traverse City's original Carnegie Library now houses a regional arts center — and the woman in white Desirae Dine saw in an upper window as a teenager reportedly still appears.
322 6th St, Traverse City, MI 49684
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Gallery admission fees vary; many exhibitions are free. See website for current hours and programming.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Ground-level entry; interior is largely flat.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1904 · Carnegie Library Program · Traverse City Public Library History · Arts Center Adaptive Reuse
The building at 322 Sixth Street in Traverse City was constructed as part of Andrew Carnegie's early-20th-century library philanthropy program, which funded public library buildings in hundreds of American communities. Carnegie libraries followed recognizable architectural conventions — typically symmetrical masonry facades, prominent entrance stairs, and reading rooms designed for natural light — and the Traverse City building follows that model.
For decades the structure served as Traverse City's main public library before the city built a larger facility. The building was then repurposed and is now occupied by the Traverse City branch of Crooked Tree Arts Center, a regional arts organization with additional locations in Petoskey and Harbor Springs. The organization's own website confirms the 6th Street location as its Traverse City gallery and programming space.
The building's position on Sixth Street places it within a block of the Perry Hannah House, now Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home — giving the immediate neighborhood an unusual concentration of historic structures with dark histories. Both are stops on Traverse City ghost tour routes.
The Carnegie Library building's transition from institutional public space to arts center preserved the exterior and much of the interior character. The upper floors and older sections of the building are where paranormal encounters have been reported by staff and visiting investigators.
Sources
Desirae Dine, who founded Haunted Traverse Tours and is the primary compiler of Traverse City's paranormal tradition, traces her interest in the city's haunted history partly to a personal encounter at the Carnegie Library building. As a teenager on a ghost-hunting visit with friends, she witnessed a figure — described as a woman in white — appear in an upper-floor window of the then-unoccupied building. The account is cited by the Historical Ghost Lantern Tour as part of its documentation of this site.
The building's current function as an arts center has not eliminated the reports. Staff at Crooked Tree Arts Center have described their own paranormal encounters inside the building, according to MyNorth's reporting on Traverse City ghost stories. The specific nature of these encounters — sounds, movement, visual anomalies — is not detailed in available sources.
The woman-in-white figure that Dine reported is a consistent type in Great Lakes regional paranormal tradition. Whether the entity is identified with a specific historical person connected to the Carnegie Library's operational history is not established in available documentation. The building's significance in the local haunting tradition rests primarily on Dine's personal account and its subsequent incorporation into organized ghost tour programming.
Notable Entities
The Crooked Tree Arts Center occupies Traverse City's original Carnegie Library building. Visitors can explore current exhibitions in a historic early 20th-century structure that, according to paranormal historian Desirae Dine and staff accounts, has had documented paranormal encounters. The building sits on 6th Street near the Perry Hannah House.
The Historical Ghost Lantern Tour includes the former Carnegie Library (now Crooked Tree Arts Center) as a featured stop. The tour documents Desirae Dine's personal encounter here as a teenager and staff-reported paranormal activity.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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