Crocker Art Museum

Judge Edwin B. Crocker purchased the property in 1868 and, after a stroke in 1869, worked with architect Seth Babson to convert the former B.F. Hastings home into an Italianate mansion with an attached gallery. His widow, Margaret Crocker, gave the building to the city in 1885, making it the oldest art museum in the western United States. Margaret is said to still watch over her gift, with visitors reporting her apparition walking the hallways. Paranormal investigators have recorded EVP naming "Maggie," "Eleanor," and "Emily" — Eleanor was in fact Margaret's own middle name — and describe a presence especially attentive to the East Wing, with strong opinions about where paintings belong and how the museum should be run. A former museum archivist noted the description matched Margaret's real personality: a woman with firm ideas about the collection and a preference for order and routine.