THE STORY
Reported Haunting
The Patterson Homestead is associated with reports of ghostly apparitions connected to Dayton's early settlers. Visitors have reported phantom footsteps, mysterious voices, shadow figures, and unexplained cold spots inside the historic house. The property has become one of Dayton's notable haunted landmarks.
Patterson Homestead is a historic house museum built in the early 1800s, originally home to Revolutionary War veteran Colonel Robert Patterson and his wife Elizabeth Lindsay Patterson. When the house was donated to the city by ancestor Jefferson Patterson in 1953, it was complete with 18th- and 19th-century furnishings and many family possessions. So it isn’t surprising that the original Pattersons still call the place home. Museum staff have seen rocking chairs rock and other items move on their own. Some rooms have cold spots, and the smell of a phantom dinner cooking sometimes wafts from the kitchen.