The 1850 Syracuse Weighlock Building — the last surviving Erie Canal weighlock in the country — where docents report transparent children playing in the courtyard and footsteps tromping through 175-year-old halls.
318 Erie Boulevard East, Syracuse, NY 13202
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Suggested donation for admission; check eriecanalmuseum.org for current rates and special tour pricing.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Restored Greek Revival weighlock building; most exhibits on accessible floors
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1850 · Erie Canal Heritage · Last Surviving Weighlock · National Register of Historic Places · Greek Revival Architecture
The Syracuse Weighlock Building was constructed in 1850 along the Erie Canal — which ran directly down what is now Erie Boulevard East — as one of seven weighlocks the state operated to assess tolls on canal traffic. Boats entered the lock chamber, water was drained, and the vessel was weighed on a massive iron cradle; the difference between the loaded and empty weight determined the cargo and the toll. The Syracuse weighlock operated in this capacity from 1850 until the state discontinued weighing in 1883, after which the building was used for various canal-management functions.
The Greek Revival structure — designed in a temple form unusual for industrial buildings — is the only surviving weighlock in the United States. When the original Erie Canal was bypassed by the larger Barge Canal in the early twentieth century and the section running through downtown Syracuse was filled in to create Erie Boulevard, most evidence of the canal's central role in the city's nineteenth-century growth disappeared. The weighlock building remained.
In 1962 a group of Syracuse residents incorporated the Canal Society of New York State and established the Erie Canal Museum as a non-profit institution housed in the weighlock building. The museum was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Its permanent collection includes the Frank Buchanan Thomson, a full-size replica line boat installed in what was originally the lock chamber, along with the original toll office, period furnishings, and rotating exhibits on canal history, immigration, and Central New York industry.
The museum is part of the Haunted History Trail of New York State and remains a key piece of Erie Canal heritage interpretation; the New York State Canal Corporation and partners have programmed America 250 commemorations through the museum as the canal approaches its bicentennial.
Sources
The Erie Canal Museum's paranormal lore is described by museum staff and docents during seasonal programming, by the Haunted History Trail of New York State, by Visit Syracuse, and — in two independent October 2024 features — by The Daily Orange (Syracuse University's student newspaper) and This Is CNY (Syracuse.com's lifestyle vertical). The museum also runs its own 'Weighlock Building Ghost Hunt' events in partnership with the Central New York Ghost Hunters, anchoring the lore in the institution's own public programming.
In the 2024 Daily Orange feature, named staff members go on record. Steph Adams, director of interpretation, described hearing typing coming from a colleague's empty office. Museum staff member Amie Flanigan recounted that during a session with a medium she asked if a spirit's last name was 'Flanigan' and that the medium confirmed it — Flanigan said the spirit was identified as Peter Flanigan, an ancestor of hers. The same article describes a little boy who 'drowned and told a medium he felt sad that he was stuck' and women secretaries of canal engineers among the ghost identifications, and recounts a Gridley-family baby carriage stored in the attic that an employee reported seeing roll back and forth on its own.
The most frequently described phenomenon involves see-through figures of children playing in the courtyard area — visible during the day, generally seen out of the corner of the eye, and not associated with any single identified historical figure. A second recurring report involves two arguing men, heard rather than seen, in the upper-floor hallways. A third places a woman's apparition near the model canal boat exhibit; she is said to have been killed where the boat now sits, though no source provides a verifiable historical incident to anchor this claim. One commonly cited story describes a canal-boat captain's wife who fell overboard when the tiller swung and knocked her into the lock chamber while her vessel was being weighed. The 'Ghosts Along the Erie' folklore collection separately attributes a poltergeist named 'Mr. Buchanan' to the building, said to knock books and knick-knacks from shelves.
Heavy footsteps echoing through the building have been attributed by Visit Syracuse to Frank Buchanan, described in their tourism coverage as the museum's founding director. The footsteps are reported during early-morning and after-hours periods when staff are alone in the building. Staff also describe the basement as having 'bad energy' and avoid spending time there unaccompanied.
The museum has been featured on the cable program NY Shadow Chasers and named in AAA's ghost-hunting picks. The Haunted History Trail of New York State includes the building as one of its anchor sites in Central New York. While the museum's own programming presents the lore as folklore rather than as evidentially proven paranormal phenomena, it is documented across at least four distinct independent outlets (Daily Orange 2024, This Is CNY 2024, Visit Syracuse, Haunted History Trail) and incorporated into a recurring ticketed ghost-hunt program at the museum itself.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Walk through the only surviving Erie Canal weighlock building in the United States. Exhibits include the full-size Frank Buchanan Thomson line-boat replica installed in the original weighlock chamber, the toll office, and rotating exhibits on canal history and the people who lived and worked along it.
The museum participates in the Haunted History Trail of New York State and is featured during seasonal programming. Docents share the building's reported paranormal activity — including see-through children in the courtyard, footsteps attributed to founding director Frank Buchanan, and the spirit of a woman near the canal-boat exhibit.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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