HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
+ 2 further entries on record
A 45-acre folk-art museum near Lake Champlain whose relocated 1782 Dutton House carries a long reputation for a resident old man and a crying child
6000 Shelburne Road, Shelburne, VT 05482
Research updated July 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
General admission covers the full grounds and is good for two consecutive days; see the museum website for current pricing. Adult admission was $27.50 in 2026.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Open 45-acre campus with paved and grass paths between 39 buildings; historic structures like the Dutton House have narrow stairs and low doorways
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1947 · Founded 1947 by folk-art collector Electra Havemeyer Webb · 45-acre campus of 39 buildings, 25 relocated historic structures · Dutton House (built 1782, Cavendish VT) was the first building moved to the museum in 1950
Electra Havemeyer Webb established Shelburne Museum in 1947 to display her large collections of American folk art, quilts, decorative arts, and Americana. The daughter of prominent Impressionist collectors Henry and Louisine Havemeyer, she set out to build what she called an educational project that was varied and alive, pairing objects with the buildings that once held them.
The result is unusual among American museums. Rather than a single gallery, Shelburne is a campus of 39 buildings on 45 acres near Lake Champlain, holding more than 150,000 works. Twenty-five of those buildings are genuine historic structures that were dismantled or moved intact to the grounds from sites across New England and New York, among them a jail, a schoolhouse, a general store, a covered bridge, a lighthouse, and the side-wheel steamboat Ticonderoga.
The Dutton House was the first building relocated to the museum, moved to Shelburne in 1950. It was built in 1782 in Cavendish, Vermont, and over its working life served as a store, tavern, inn, and boarding house before standing empty for decades. Its long and mixed history as a place where travelers lodged and, by local tradition, where a number of people died, is the seed of the ghost stories that staff and visitors still repeat today.
Sources
Almost all of Shelburne Museum's paranormal reputation attaches to one building: the Dutton House. Because the 1782 structure spent generations as a store, tavern, and boarding house before it was moved to Shelburne in 1950, local tradition holds that a number of people died there over the years, and staff have long treated it as the campus's uneasy building.
The accounts describe two recurring figures. One is an old man in a white shirt, often said to be seen crouched under the sloped roof of an upstairs room and described as unwelcoming toward visitors. The other is a young girl whose crying is reported from empty rooms and who is said to be attached to the house. A woman in nineteenth-century clothing has also been reported walking the halls.
Reported phenomena include footsteps in rooms known to be empty, children's laughter upstairs, flickering or flashing lights, cold breezes on hot summer days, and an upstairs bed that guards say is found rumpled each morning as though someone had rested on it. A security guard identified in local accounts as Burt Levitt is among those who described unsettling experiences, and the Green Mountain Paranormal Society is named as having investigated the building. Over the years, several employees and volunteers have reportedly preferred not to work inside the Dutton House alone.
Notable Entities
General admission gives access to all 39 buildings across the 45-acre campus, including the 1782 Dutton House, the steamboat Ticonderoga, a covered bridge, a lighthouse, and the art galleries. The Dutton House is open to walk through during museum hours; visitors and staff have long reported unexplained sounds and sightings inside it. The museum is seasonal, generally open mid-May through late October.
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