HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
Burlington waterfront seafood restaurant in an 1833 general-store building haunted by Isaac Nye, the reclusive 'Hermit of Champlain' who died here in 1871.
181 Battery Street, Burlington, VT 05401
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Representative current menu examples: buffalo shrimp $12; oysters Rockefeller $23; fish and chips $23; whole-belly clams $34; veggie taco $17; Baja haddock taco $21; children’s burger basket $10.99 and fish dinner $12.99. Lobster roll is market price; full bar. No cover charge.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Waterfront restaurant with patio seating; ground-level entry from Battery Street.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1833 · Burlington Waterfront Commerce · Original Lake Champlain Wharf Structure · Adaptive Reuse / Continuous Commercial Use
Isaac Nye was born in Boston in November 1796 and made his life in Burlington, where he established a small general store on his own wharf — known locally as Nye's Wharf — in 1833. For roughly seven years he ran a conventional retail business there.
In 1840, at age 44, Nye abruptly closed the store, telling neighbors that business had become 'distasteful' to him. He continued to live in a small back room at the wharf, growing increasingly reclusive. Locals nicknamed him the 'Hermit of Champlain,' noting in particular his unusual habit of attending funerals around Burlington while otherwise avoiding contact with people. He died on April 27, 1871, at age 74. The Seven Days regional newspaper notes that Nye was famously laid out on the counter of his abandoned store, surrounded by long-spoiled merchandise — a scene odd enough to attract coverage in The New York Times.
The operator chronology records transportation-company offices followed by cold storage, the 1963 Welcome Inn conversion, and the Shanty opening on December 12, 1985. The original heavy timber beams from 1833 remain visible inside; the venue trades on its waterfront setting and on the well-known story of Nye.
The restaurant continues to operate today on the same wharf footprint, with a patio overlooking Lake Champlain. It is included on Queen City Ghostwalk's downtown Burlington and waterfront itineraries.
Sources
The Shanty's ghost story is unusual in that the owner is on the record as a witness. According to Seven Days' feature on haunted Vermont restaurants, the owner has watched the bar glasses rattle at closing time on a still night with no obvious mechanical cause. 'We believe he is still here,' the owner told Seven Days, identifying the presence as Nye.
Staff reports collected by the owner and by the owner of Queen City Ghostwalk are consistent across years: footsteps walking overhead while a single employee is in the building alone, lights flicking back on after being shut off for the night, glasses rattling at the bar in still air, and — most notably — all of the restaurant's tables and chairs being found pushed firmly against the walls in the morning by the first staff to arrive. Former employees described the table-and-chair incident to the Queen City Ghostwalk owner.
The activity is described as nuisance-level rather than menacing. The framing throughout local writing is that Nye, a recluse who chose this building as his home for the last three decades of his life, simply hasn't fully left it.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Order seafood at a waterfront restaurant operating in the same 1833 general-store building where reclusive merchant Isaac Nye lived and died. Sit at the bar where staff have reported glasses rattling on their own and footsteps overhead after closing.
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