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Phelps Mansion, Binghamton, New York — a grand Victorian-era estate built in the 1870s for Sherman D. Phelps. The mansion has stood for over 150 years and is considered one of the region's most historically significant surviving structures, now surrounded by a vastly changed landscape from the world it was built into.
September 29, 2026
Inconclusive — The investigation successfully debunked several reported claims through structural and environmental explanations, but produced a small number of audio and environmental captures that could not be fully accounted for. Jason stops short of calling the location haunted, but acknowledges that not everything documented had a clean explanation. The case remains open.

Inside the Haunted Phelps Mansion: What We Found After 150 Years of Unanswered Questions

35.4K views on YouTube

“Saying something is unexplained is not the same as saying it's paranormal — it means we documented something we couldn't fully account for, and that distinction matters enormously.”

— Jason Hawes
The Investigation

Some buildings hold their history like a closed fist — they don't give it up easily, and they don't let you walk away without questions. The Phelps Mansion in Binghamton, New York is exactly that kind of place. Built in the 1870s for Sherman D. Phelps, this mansion has outlasted nearly everything that once surrounded it, standing alone while more than 150 years of stories accumulated inside its walls. When we got the call to investigate, I knew this one was going to demand our full attention.

Findings

Before we ever set up a single piece of equipment, we did what we always do — we learned the building. I've said it a hundred times and I'll say it again: you cannot investigate a location you don't understand. We walked every room, every hallway, every corner of that mansion in full light. We talked to the people who know it best, documented the layout, identified the hot spots where claims had been reported, and started building a mental map of what was normal for this structure. Old buildings have personalities. They settle, they breathe, they react to temperature changes in ways that can fool even experienced investigators. The Phelps Mansion is well over a century old, and that means there are plenty of rational explanations waiting to be found before we even consider anything else.

The claims connected to this property aren't new. Over the years, people have reported unexplained sounds, figures seen where no one should be standing, and a general sense that the building is somehow still occupied by more than just the living. I take those reports seriously — not because I assume they're paranormal, but because something caused those experiences, and it's my job to figure out what. When the building finally went quiet and we started our investigation in earnest, we moved methodically through the spaces where activity had been reported most frequently. We ran baseline readings throughout the property, logged environmental conditions, and paid close attention to anything the building itself might explain — air drafts near old windows and doors, temperature fluctuations from aged infrastructure, sounds traveling through the structure in unexpected ways.

What I will tell you is that this mansion does not give up its secrets quietly. There were moments during the investigation that stopped us cold — audio captures that required multiple listens, environmental readings that shifted without an obvious source, and at least one instance where what we documented didn't have a clean, immediate explanation. I want to be precise about that, because being precise is the whole point. Saying something is unexplained is not the same as saying it's paranormal. It means we documented something we couldn't fully account for with the information and conditions available to us at that moment. That distinction matters enormously. Our job isn't to tell people what they want to hear — it's to document honestly and let the evidence carry the weight.

What makes the Phelps Mansion compelling isn't just the claims. It's the layered history embedded in those rooms — the lives lived there, the changes the building absorbed across generations, the fact that it's still standing when so much around it isn't. There's something worth paying attention to in a structure that has witnessed that much time pass. Whether the explanation turns out to be environmental, psychological, or something we genuinely can't account for, this location earned every hour we spent inside it. We documented everything. We reviewed every piece of footage and audio carefully. And I'll let the evidence — all of it — speak for itself in the full investigation.

Verdict

The Phelps Mansion left me with more questions than clean answers, and in this work, that's not a failure — that's an honest result. I went in as a skeptic, I investigated as a skeptic, and I'm reporting back as a skeptic. What I can say is that something about this building lingers after you leave it, and I don't mean that loosely. Watch the full investigation, listen closely with headphones, and form your own conclusion — that's exactly what you should do.

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