Keene's 1762 tavern, muster point for the local militia and site of Dartmouth's first trustees meeting, now a museum where staff report footsteps and objects moving.
339 Main Street, Keene, NH 03431
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Seasonal museum admission; the Historical Society of Cheshire County operates the tavern as a house museum with limited summer hours. Check hsccnh.org for current days and admission.
Access
Limited Access
Two-story 18th-century building with stairs; ground-floor rooms are level. Street parking on Main Street.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1762 · Built 1762 by Isaac Wyman, French and Indian War veteran · Site of the first Dartmouth College trustees meeting (1770) · Revolutionary War militia muster ground (1775) · Listed on the National Register of Historic Places (1972)
The Wyman Tavern stands at 339 Main Street in Keene, New Hampshire, built in 1762 by Isaac Wyman, a veteran of the French and Indian War. Wyman operated the building as a tavern for roughly three decades, and in the colonial period a tavern of this kind served as a town's de facto meeting hall, courthouse, and news exchange.
Two events fix the building in the regional record. In 1770 the first meeting of the trustees of the newly chartered Dartmouth College was held in the tavern; Dartmouth marked the bicentennial of that meeting at the site in 1970. At the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, the tavern served as a muster ground where local militia gathered before marching toward the fighting in Massachusetts.
The building passed through private ownership for most of the next two centuries. In 1968 a local non-profit acquired it, and the property was leased to the Historical Society of Cheshire County, which restored and furnished the rooms to their 18th-century appearance and opened the tavern as a house museum. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 3, 1972.
Today the Historical Society runs seasonal tours and events at the tavern, presenting it as one of the oldest surviving public buildings in the Monadnock region.
Sources
The Wyman Tavern's paranormal reputation rests on quiet, repeated reports rather than any single dramatic event. Staff and visitors describe hearing footsteps move through the building's rooms and hallways when no one else is inside, and small objects in the furnished period rooms are said to shift position without anyone touching them.
Local coverage of the Monadnock region's haunted sites ties the activity to the people who passed through the tavern across its long life — former residents and the militia who mustered on the grounds in 1775. No specific named apparition is attached to the building; the accounts are general impressions of presence rather than identified figures.
Because the tavern is a working house museum with a documented colonial history, its haunted reputation has attracted paranormal investigators over the years. The Historical Society presents the building primarily as a history site, and the ghost stories sit alongside, rather than in place of, its verified 18th-century record.
Notable Entities
A docent-led tour of the 1762 tavern, restored and furnished to its 18th-century appearance by the Historical Society of Cheshire County. The visit covers the building's role as a colonial public house, the 1770 Dartmouth College trustees meeting held here, and the Revolutionary-era militia muster.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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