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
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Casual seafood entrees in the $15–$30 range; 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 spent essentially his entire 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 building survived the decades that followed and was eventually adapted as the Shanty on the Shore, a casual seafood restaurant. 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 it features a named living witness on the record. According to Seven Days' feature on haunted Vermont restaurants, owner Kim Gobeille has herself watched the bar glasses rattle at closing time on a still night with no obvious mechanical cause. 'We believe he is still here,' she told Seven Days, identifying the presence as Nye.
Staff reports collected by Gobeille and by Queen City Ghostwalk's Thea Lewis 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. Lewis interviewed former employees who described the table-and-chair incident in detail.
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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