HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Muskegon's 1890 Romanesque library, a gift from lumber baron Charles Hackley, where staff report books falling from shelves and the apparition of Hackley himself — in Victorian dress, reading or walking through walls.
316 West Webster Avenue, Muskegon, MI 49440
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public library; no charge for general access
Access
Wheelchair OK
Public library with accessible entrance; some sections of the 1890 building may have limited access
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1890 · Gift of lumber baron Charles Henry Hackley, opened 1890 · Romanesque Revival design; one of Muskegon's most prominent late-nineteenth-century civic buildings · Active public library for over 130 years · Part of the Charles Hackley philanthropic legacy that includes the Hackley and Hume Historic Site
Charles Henry Hackley came to Michigan with his family carrying, by the family's own accounting, seven dollars. He worked road crews at fifteen, learned sawmilling and the buying and selling of pine, arrived in Muskegon in 1858, and built one of the most substantial lumber fortunes in Michigan's lower peninsula during the decades of peak logging on the Great Lakes.
He then gave a remarkable share of it back, reportedly a third of his wealth, funding a hospital, a park, a school administration building, and the library that bears his name. His stated philosophy borrowed from Carnegie: "it is a crime to die rich." The Hackley Public Library opened in 1890 as the most legible of these gifts, a Romanesque Revival building of heavy stone with a winding staircase and an ornate terra cotta fireplace. Its stained glass windows, made by Louis Millet, an industrial-art-school founder whose work had shown at the 1889 Paris World's Fair, depict Hackley's favorite authors. The second floor carries one of the building's oddest features: a walkable floor of six-inch structural glass.
The library is owned by Muskegon Public Schools and is listed on the Michigan register of historic buildings. A $1.2 million interior renovation begun in 2014 restored the stained glass and preserved the original circulation-desk wood panels while adding accessibility ramps and modern climate systems. The collection has grown from roughly 14,000 books at opening to well over 140,000.
Author Marie Cisneros, who has written about Muskegon's paranormal history, was featured in a Muskegon Channel television segment examining the specific reported phenomena at the library, alongside the library's program and marketing coordinator.
Sources
Twice during public classes at the Hackley library, patrons have watched a book leave its shelf and land with no one standing near it. That specific, repeated incident sets the tone for the ghost tradition here, which centers on Charles Hackley himself: the lumber baron who gave Muskegon the building in 1890, and whose Victorian portrait makes him one of the few library ghosts a witness could pick out of a lineup.
The accounts are staff-relayed and unusually concrete, documented in a Muskegon Channel television segment featuring the library's program coordinator and local paranormal author Marie Cisneros. One patron, mid-conversation with a staff member, watched a man in Victorian-style clothing walk past and disappear; some time later, encountering a painting of Hackley elsewhere in town, she recognized the man she had seen. Another visitor reported the reflection of a similarly dressed man in a restroom mirror, in bathrooms that have since been fully renovated. Unexplained whispers surface in the stacks, soft enough to be ambiguous about origin.
In 2021, Great Lakes Ghost Hunters of Michigan investigated the library along with the nearby Torrent House and later shared their audio and video recordings in a public virtual program. Visit Muskegon's official tourism blog carries the library on its haunted roster, and a 2025 Writing Post article synthesized the tradition's prior accounts.
None of the reports describe anything frightening; the recurring reading is a founder still keeping an eye on his investment. The reported apparition has, obviously, confirmed nothing. The stained glass authors Hackley chose still catch the afternoon light either way.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
The Hackley Public Library is open to the public during regular library hours. The 1890 Romanesque building contains the original architectural details from the Hackley era, and the reading rooms and stacks where Charles Hackley's apparition has been reported are accessible to any visitor.
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