HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
1896 Sioux quartzite city hall where the county poor farm history lingers — and the mayor leads ghost walks through its former jail and records rooms
113 S Hiawatha Ave, Pipestone, MN 56164
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Museum admission modest; ghost walk tickets priced separately — see website for seasonal schedule.
Access
Limited Access
Three-story Sioux quartzite building; stairs to upper floors, limited accessibility to some areas
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1896 · National Register of Historic Places (1976) · Connection to early-1900s county poor farm and public welfare history · Original city jail, fire department, and first public library in same structure
The Old City Hall building at 113 S Hiawatha Avenue in Pipestone was completed in 1896 to a design by regional architect Wallace Dow, working in the Richardsonian Romanesque style in locally quarried Sioux quartzite. The building served as the center of Pipestone's civic life for over six decades, housing city offices, the city jail, the fire department, and the town's first public library in a single three-story structure.
Pipestone County operated a poor farm during the early twentieth century — an institution common across rural Minnesota at the time, housing residents classified as needing public support: widows, veterans with disabilities, and people with mental illness. The poor farm's history became intertwined with the museum site through the county's broader history of public welfare administration, and the building's former jail cells and administrative rooms are among the spaces most associated with that legacy.
The building was deeded to the Pipestone County Historical Society in 1967 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The Pipestone County Museum has operated there since, preserving documentation of the county's agricultural, Indigenous quartzite, and civic history. An annual Pipestone Paranormal Weekend draws visitors focused on the site's supernatural reputation.
Sources
The ghost walks at the Pipestone County Museum are among the more unusual in southwestern Minnesota: the city mayor serves as guide, lending the event a civic rather than theatrical character. The Star Tribune covered the tours as a regional travel feature, describing the poor farm history and the specific apparition accounts gathered over the museum's years of operation.
The most frequently described figure is a young blonde girl in a blue 19th-century dress with a white apron, reported in the upper floors by both visitors and staff. A second recurring account involves a former doctor, whose presence manifests as the sound of a chair creaking and papers shuffling in empty rooms.
The building's former jail carries the most charged accounts. Visitors have described the residual presence of poor farm residents who died by hanging within the county system, including one account describing an execution that required two shocks — language that conflates later electric-chair methods with earlier hanging practices. The specific historical records behind these claims were not independently confirmed in available sources; they are presented here as the content of the ghost tour narrative rather than verified fact.
The annual Pipestone Paranormal Weekend, listed by Explore Minnesota, draws participants specifically interested in the museum site and extends the town's engagement with its own dark history.
The Pipestone city mayor leads occasional ghost walks through the museum building, covering the site's history as a county welfare institution, its former jail, and the accounts of apparitions reported by staff and visitors. Offered around the annual Pipestone Paranormal Weekend and other seasonal dates.
Self-guided tour of the 1896 Old City Hall, now housing the Pipestone County Museum's collection of regional history, Indigenous quartzite culture, and 19th-century civic life artifacts.
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