HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
+ 1 further entry on record
The Ogden home of firearms inventor John Moses Browning, now a preservation site where owners and investigators report basement activity
505 27th Street, Ogden, UT 84403
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Privately owned; visits are by appointment through the preservation organization.
Access
Limited Access
Two-and-a-half-story historic sandstone and brick mansion with basement and upper floors; stairs throughout.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1900 · National Register of Historic Places · Home of John Moses Browning · Ogden Industrial Heritage · Turn-of-the-Century Mansion
The mansion at 505 27th Street is a roughly 6,700-square-foot, two-and-a-half-story home of sandstone and red brick, built around the turn of the twentieth century to a design by architect Sam Whittaker.
It was the primary residence of John Moses Browning, the Ogden-born firearms designer whose patents shaped American gun manufacturing for generations. Browning lived in the house from the early 1900s until his death in 1926. The home stayed in the Browning family until it was sold in 1940.
In the years after, the building passed through several uses: the YWCA ran it as a women's shelter in the mid-1940s, and a law firm later used it for offices. In 2001 it was renovated and returned to use as a private residence. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 24, 1973, under reference number 73001863.
The current owners established a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the house, with a stated goal of eventually opening it as a museum. For now the mansion remains privately owned and accessible by appointment, and it is in that context—owners living and working in a historic house under renovation—that its ghost reports have surfaced.
Sources
The mansion's reported activity is documented in a KSLTV Haunted Utah feature and repeated in Ogden tourism material. The current owners say they have heard footsteps on the third floor and witnessed a door slam with no one near it. In a podcast studio set up inside the house, a weighted microphone was reportedly knocked to the floor and pushed under a table.
Visiting paranormal investigators describe the basement boiler room and a hidden brick crawlspace as the most active areas. Using a structured-light sensor camera, one team reported capturing figures that appeared to respond to commands. A second-floor bedroom is described as setting off devices, particularly around male investigators, and one session reportedly recorded sounds resembling gunshots—a detail the article ties to the house's connection to a famous gun designer.
A psychic who visited reportedly noted the letters 'LRY' in the basement; the article speculates this might reference a Browning child, Austin Leroy Browning, who died young in 1883. That connection is presented as an investigator's interpretation, not a documented fact.
The owners do not run a ticketed ghost program. The accounts come from their own experiences and from investigators they have hosted, as reported by KSLTV and local tourism sources.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
The mansion is privately owned and operated by a preservation nonprofit that is working toward opening it as a museum. Access is by appointment only; there is no standing public tour or ticketed paranormal program. Arrange a visit directly through the organization.
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