An 1847 Victorian house museum at 131 Gilman Avenue in Marietta, Ohio, the former home of attorney Henry Fearing and later Civil War General Benjamin D. Fearing; operated by the Washington County Historical Society and offering occasional lantern-led ghost tours.
131 Gilman Avenue, Marietta, OH 45750
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Tour pricing posted by the Washington County Historical Society; ghost tours sold as ticketed seasonal events.
Access
Limited Access
Multi-story 1847 residence with original staircases.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1847 · Built in 1847 for Marietta attorney Henry Fearing · Later home of Civil War General Benjamin D. Fearing · Acquired by the Washington County Historical Society in 1974; reopened as a museum in 1982
The Fearing House at 131 Gilman Avenue was completed in 1847 for Henry Fearing, an attorney whose practice in early Marietta connected him to many of the city's founding families and to broader Northwest Territory legal history. The home is a representative Victorian residence in the Harmar neighborhood and remained in the Fearing family across multiple generations.
The home was also the residence of Civil War General Benjamin D. Fearing, who recruited soldiers from the Marietta region during the Civil War. The Washington County Historical Society purchased the property in 1974, remodeled it, and opened it as a public house museum in 1982.
A more recent renovation has returned the interior closer to its 1870s appearance, presenting the home as a lived-in family residence rather than a strictly didactic museum installation. The Fearing House is regularly featured in Marietta Times and News and Sentinel coverage of WCHS events, and is included on Marietta Museums' historic-sites listings.
Sources
According to coverage in My Ohio Fun, Ohio Cooperative Living's 'Haunted Marietta' feature, and independent visitor-experience write-ups, the Henry Fearing House's paranormal reputation centers on Eliza Fearing — the original lady of the house, who died in the home three years after it was built. Visitors and ghost-hunters report her spirit wandering the home, speaking in a soft voice or singing quietly, and the building's security cameras have reportedly captured footage of unexplained activity that is shown during the museum's seasonal lantern-led ghost tours.
The museum's own ghost-tour programming, run through the Washington County Historical Society, presents the Fearing family's tragedies and deaths in the home as the interpretive frame for reported activity. The lantern tours debuted in September-October 2025 and have been covered by Marietta Times and News and Sentinel feature articles documenting the inaugural events. A dedicated YouTube video — 'We Left Cameras Alone In A Haunted House of Fear: Unbelievable Paranormal Evidence' — documents independent overnight camera footage from the home.
While coverage is still thinner than for flagship Marietta haunted venues like The Castle or The Anchorage, the Fearing House now appears on multiple independent Ohio haunted-places aggregators in addition to its own venue programming.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Tour the restored 1847 Fearing home with Washington County Historical Society volunteers. Recent renovations have returned the interior to an 1870s appearance reflecting the home's era under attorney Henry Fearing and Civil War General Benjamin D. Fearing.
Seasonal lantern-led evening tours recount the lives, tragedies, and deaths of the Fearing family and present security-camera footage of unexplained events recorded inside the property.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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