An 1853 Greek Revival home where Reuben and Pauline Kempf taught music for over six decades, now a city-run museum offering docent-led tours where visitors report creaking floors and the sense of a lingering presence.
312 S Division St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free or donation-based; check the museum website for current tour policy.
Access
Limited Access
Historic 1.5-story home with stairs; first floor only is partially navigable for mobility-impaired visitors.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1853 · Listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP 73000959, March 1, 1973) · One of the best-preserved Greek Revival temple-front residences in Ann Arbor · Home of Reuben and Pauline Kempf, central figures in Ann Arbor's musical culture · Held Ann Arbor's first grand piano, played by Paderewski, Victor Herbert, and Schumann-Heink
The house at 312 South Division was built in 1853 by Henry DeWitt Bennett and his wife Mary, who had relocated from New York. Bennett served as Ann Arbor's postmaster in the 1850s and later as steward and secretary of the University of Michigan before retiring to California. The structure is a frame, 1.5-story Greek Revival temple-form home distinguished by four massive squared Doric columns across the front.
In 1890 the home was purchased by Reuben and Pauline Kempf, both raised in Ann Arbor's German community. Pauline, daughter of the German consul, had studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory; Reuben had trained at Stuttgart's Royal Conservatory, where he was a classmate of Victor Herbert. The couple established a music studio in the front parlor and made the house a center of Ann Arbor's musical life. Their Steinway grand piano — said to be the first grand piano in Ann Arbor — was loaned to the University of Michigan and played by visitors including Paderewski, Victor Herbert, and Ernestine Schumann-Heink. Reuben organized the Lyra Male Choir; Pauline served as the first choir director at the Congregational Church.
Reuben died in 1945 and Pauline in 1953. The home passed briefly to an intermediate owner before the City of Ann Arbor acquired it in 1969. The Kempf House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 1, 1973 (NRHP reference 73000959). Since 1983 it has operated as the Kempf House Center for Local History, a city-owned museum, with the music studio largely restored to the condition the Kempfs left it in.
Sources
According to a Nicole Elizabeth Real Estate blog post cataloging Ann Arbor's haunted places, visitors and staff at the Kempf House report creaking floors, mysterious voices, and occasional apparitions. The same source attributes some of the activity to Anna S. Kempf, identified as a longtime resident, though we have not been able to independently verify Anna Kempf's biographical details against the primary archival record (Wikipedia and the Ann Arbor District Library's Ann Arbor Observer coverage focus on Reuben and Pauline Kempf, who lived in the home from 1890 to 1953).
The museum's official website and the Ann Arbor District Library do not mention paranormal activity. The lore is best understood as a soft "old-house" tradition — the kind of reports common at any well-preserved 19th-century home where docents and guests notice the building settling, drafts moving through original wood floors, and the acoustic oddities of a temple-form parlor that once hosted Steinway recitals. Visitors should treat the haunting claims as folklore rather than documented phenomena.
Notable Entities
Docent-led tour of the 1853 Greek Revival home, including the restored music studio where the Kempfs taught and the front parlor that held Ann Arbor's first grand piano. Check the museum website for current open-house dates and tour times.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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