Inside the Haunted 1890 House Museum: History, Mystery, and the Death of Chester Wickwire
“When the man who built a house also drew his last breath inside it, and credible witnesses keep describing the same experiences in the same rooms — you don't dismiss that. You investigate it the right way.”
— Jason Hawes
Some locations earn their reputation through legend and rumor — and then there are places like the 1890 House Museum in Cortland, New York, where the history alone is enough to raise the hair on the back of your neck. Before we ever set up a single piece of equipment, JV and I sat down to dig into the story behind this stunning Victorian-era mansion, and what we uncovered was equal parts fascinating and unsettling. When you learn that the man who built this house also died within its walls, the reports of unexplained activity take on a very different weight.
I've been doing this long enough to know that the most important part of any investigation isn't the equipment — it's the history. You can't evaluate what's happening in a location if you don't understand what happened there first. That's exactly why JV and I made it a priority to walk the grounds of the 1890 House and sit down with the people who know this place best before we ever switched on a single piece of gear. What they shared with us set the tone for everything that followed.
The 1890 House was built by Chester Wickwire, a prominent figure in Cortland's industrial history and the man behind the Wickwire Brothers wire manufacturing empire. The house itself is a testament to his success — an extraordinary Chateauesque-style mansion filled with hand-carved woodwork, ornate fireplaces, and period detail that transports you straight back to the Gilded Age. But beyond the architectural beauty lies a darker thread. Chester Wickwire died in this house. When a location carries that kind of personal history — when the man who poured his ambition and identity into a building also drew his last breath inside it — you have to at least ask the question: could something of that energy remain? I'm not one to jump to that conclusion, but I'm also not one to dismiss it outright. My job is to investigate, not to decide before I walk through the door.
During our pre-investigation interview, staff and historians shared accounts of unexplained experiences reported by visitors and employees over the years. We're talking about footsteps in empty rooms, objects seemingly out of place, and an overall sense of presence that multiple unconnected people have described in strikingly similar terms. Now, I want to be clear — similar reports don't automatically equal paranormal activity. Older buildings like this one come with settling foundations, drafty corridors, aging infrastructure, and acoustics that can play serious tricks on the ears and the mind. Every one of those reported experiences gets filtered through that lens first. If I can find a rational explanation, that's the explanation. But when credible witnesses, unfamiliar with each other's accounts, describe the same thing in the same part of the building, I make a note of it. The second floor and the areas connected to Chester Wickwire's personal spaces came up more than once.
What strikes me most about the 1890 House — even at this early stage, before the formal investigation — is how well-preserved and historically documented it is. That's actually a significant advantage for an investigator. The more you know about a location's authentic history, the better equipped you are to separate genuine anomalies from the noise. We know who lived here, how they lived, and how Chester Wickwire's story ended. That gives us a framework. In my experience, the locations that produce the most compelling and credible results are the ones with deep, verifiable histories — places where real human lives played out in full. The 1890 House absolutely qualifies. Whether that translates into documented paranormal activity during the investigation is a question we're going to answer the right way: methodically, skeptically, and with the evidence leading the way.
Going into the 1890 House investigation, I'm approaching it the same way I approach every location — with the intent to disprove first and consider paranormal explanations only when the evidence demands it. The history of this place is undeniably compelling, and Chester Wickwire's connection to the home adds a layer that's impossible to ignore. Whether the reported experiences have a rational explanation or something more remains to be seen, but one thing is certain — the 1890 House has earned a serious investigation.