Bush House

The paranormal association at Bush House centers on Eugenia Bush, youngest daughter of the house's founder Asahel Bush. Eugenia was diagnosed with a serious mental illness — what would today likely be classified as schizophrenia — at a young age.

Contrary to a popular legend that has circulated in regional paranormal accounts, Eugenia was not confined to the basement. Museum staff and local historians have specifically addressed this claim: Asahel Bush arranged and paid for professional institutional care, sending Eugenia to a private hospital in Boston. She spent roughly 34 years in that institution while her father and siblings wrote and visited. After Asahel died in 1913, Eugenia — then in her early 50s — came home and lived with her sister Sally at Bush House for the next 18 years. She died there at approximately age 70.

The long period she spent away from the house she grew up in, and the last years she spent there after decades of absence, form the basis of the haunting tradition. Eugenia's spirit is reported to interact primarily with the building's thermostat in the upstairs areas — the device activating and adjusting without apparent cause. Additional phenomena include cold spots in various house locations.

Despite the difficult circumstances of her life, the manifestations are not described as aggressive or threatening. The thermostat interaction suggests a presence engaging with the house's systems rather than expressing distress.