Est. 1891 · Queen Anne Victorian Architecture · Lumber Baron Era · Children's Home and Refuge Society · National Register of Historic Places
Martin Pattison built Fairlawn at the height of the late nineteenth-century lumber boom on Lake Superior's western shore. The house was completed in 1891 at a documented cost of $150,000, which scholars at Superior Public Museums place at well over three million dollars in modern terms. It was designed in the Queen Anne Victorian style, with a four-story tower topped by a widow's walk, and the interior featured marble and tile fireplaces, gilded ceiling murals, and original leaded and stained-glass windows.
Pattison served three terms as mayor of Superior. He lived at Fairlawn with his wife Grace and their family until his death there in 1918. Two years later, Grace donated the mansion to the Superior Children's Home and Refuge Society, and the building was reconfigured as an orphanage. According to the museum's published history, an estimated 2,000 children passed through Fairlawn during its forty-year run as the Superior Children's Home, which closed in 1962.
The City of Superior acquired the building in 1963 for $12,500. A comprehensive restoration was undertaken beginning in the 1990s, returning much of the first floor to its original Pattison-era appearance. The mansion now operates as a museum under Superior Historic Properties, part of the City of Superior's Public Works Department, and is open year-round for guided tours, with a seasonal flashlight-tour series scheduled around Halloween. The nonprofit Superior Public Museums managed the museums from 1999 through 2025.
Sources
- https://superiorhistoricproperties.org/fairlawn-mansion/
- https://wisconsinlife.org/story/the-ghosts-of-superiors-fairlawn-mansion/
- https://hauntedus.com/wisconsin/fairlawn-mansion-and-museum/
- https://www.fox21online.com/2022/09/26/the-ghosts-of-fairlawn-mansion-in-superior/
- https://www.superiortelegram.com/local/ghosts-at-fairlawn
ApparitionsPhantom smellsPhantom soundsPhantom footstepsDisembodied laughterDoors opening/closing
Fairlawn's haunted reputation is unusually well-organized for a historic house, in part because the museum has not shied away from publishing accounts and offering Halloween flashlight tours that engage with the building's folklore directly. The museum staff and the local press have collected reports across two distinct historical layers.
The first layer concerns Martin Pattison himself. Staff have repeatedly reported the smell of cigar smoke in the older sections of the mansion, often in the rooms that served as Pattison's private spaces during his life. A grandfather clock on the first-floor landing has, according to staff accounts published by Wisconsin Life and Fox 21, demonstrated a recurring tendency to swing its case door open by itself.
The second layer is tied to the building's orphanage years from 1920 to 1962. Visitors and staff have reported the sound of children's laughter and footsteps, particularly in the basement, which housed the home's swimming pool. A figure described as a young female servant or housekeeper appears in some accounts; the regional folklore holds that this figure has helped guide lost guests on the upper floors.
In interviews with regional press, the museum's staff have consistently described the reported phenomena as benign and historically appropriate to the building's two distinct uses, rather than as a frightening presence.
Notable Entities
Martin Pattison
Media Appearances
- Wisconsin Life (WPR/PBS Wisconsin): The Ghosts of Superior's Fairlawn Mansion
- Fox 21 Duluth: The Ghosts of Fairlawn Mansion in Superior (2022)
