HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Twin lumber-baron mansions from 1887–1888 where the Hackley and Hume families lived and died, now a Lakeshore Museum Center property offering after-dark flashlight tours with a repeatedly reported ghost at the Hume House window.
484 West Webster Avenue, Muskegon, MI 49440
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Flashlight tours ticketed; standard museum admission for daytime visits — see lakeshoremuseum.org for pricing
Access
Limited Access
Victorian-era mansions with original staircases; limited accessibility in historic sections
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1887 · Hackley House (1887) and Hume House (1888) — adjoining residences of lumber-era business partners · Both listed on the National Register of Historic Places · Multiple deaths of original family members within the homes across multiple decades · Managed by Lakeshore Museum Center; offers official flashlight tours
Charles Henry Hackley and Thomas Hume were partners in one of Muskegon's most successful lumber enterprises during the peak years of Michigan's logging industry. In the late 1880s, both men built elaborate Queen Anne mansions adjacent to each other on West Webster Avenue — the Hackley House completed in 1887 and the Hume House in 1888 — as statements of their prosperity and commitment to the city.
Both residences served as the primary family homes through the lives of their original occupants. Charles and Julia Hackley lived in the Hackley House until their deaths; Julia Hackley died in the house. Thomas Hume, his wife, and two of their daughters died within the Hume House, giving that mansion in particular a concentrated history of deaths within a single family home over multiple generations.
Both properties were eventually donated to the city and are now managed by the Lakeshore Museum Center as a historic house museum complex. Both houses are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The museum has developed a dedicated after-dark experience, the creepy flashlight tour documented by WZZM 13, that uses the deaths and reported paranormal activity as part of the interpretive program.
Sources
The Hume House has the denser paranormal tradition of the two mansions, linked to the deaths of Thomas Hume, his wife, and two daughters within its walls. The most specifically reported phenomenon is a young woman visible from outside in an upstairs window — a figure appearing when the house is known to be unoccupied.
The window apparition is noted in Visit Muskegon's official tourism materials and in Muskegon Channel's paranormal documentary coverage featuring local author Marie Cisneros, giving it a documentation record that goes beyond single-source aggregator claims. The figure is consistently described as a young woman rather than an adult, which observers have connected to the daughters who died in the house.
The Hackley House carries its own lighter tradition, connected to the home's original occupants, but the Hume House is the primary focus of documented witness accounts. The Lakeshore Museum Center's official flashlight tour acknowledges the history of deaths and the reported phenomenon as part of the interpretive experience rather than treating it as separate from the mansion's historical narrative.
WZZM 13 covered the flashlight tours as a genuine offering, lending the museum's paranormal programming a level of mainstream documentation unusual for a historic house attraction.
Notable Entities
The Lakeshore Museum Center offers after-dark flashlight tours through the Hackley and Hume mansions, exploring the Victorian interiors where multiple deaths occurred within the original families — including Charles and Julia Hackley and Thomas Hume, his wife, and two daughters.
Standard guided and self-guided museum tours of the twin mansions during regular hours, exploring the architectural details and history of two of Muskegon's most significant Victorian-era homes.
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