The Haunted Wedding Dress at the Baker Mansion, PA
In Altoona, Pennsylvania the historic Baker Mansion is said to be haunted by the spirits of its previous owners. Its most active spirit is that of Anna Baker who suffered a tragic and heartbreaking loss prior to her wedding.
To this day, many claim she haunts the wedding dress that once belonged to her… but how much of the legend, and those stories surrounding the other spirits, actually happened?
The supposedly haunted wedding dress
The Legends of the Baker Mansion
David Woods Baker
In the mid-1840s wealthy ironmaster Elias Baker hired architect Robert Cary Long, Jr. to build his dream home in Altoona, Pennsylvania. By the end of the decade the 28-room, 3-story mansion, later known as the Baker Mansion, was ready for its owners. Elias and his wife, Hetty, two sons; David and Sylvester, and a daughter, Anna (born 1836) moved into the home in 1849.
In 1851, 28-year-old David Baker married Sarah Tuthill and moved out of the home. Tragically, two weeks after his daughter was born in August 1852, David was killed in a steamboat accident in New York.
David’s body was brought to the Baker Mansion in September for burial but the ground was too hard from the bitter cold. Elias stored his son’s body in the basement ice room until the spring when the family was finally able to bury him.
Anna Baker
In 1854, while visiting her father at the Allegheny Furnance which Elias owned, Anna Baker met and fell in love with one of the steelworkers. Though she was now 18, Anna kept the romance a secret from her family as she knew her father would prohibit her relationship with one of his employees.
Anna Baker from Baker Photo Album - Penn State
For the next two years, Anna’s relationship blossomed. The two sent each other secret letters and would sneak a few fleeting moments together whenever Elias stayed late at work. It wasn’t long after that Anna’s boyfriend proposed and she happily accepted. Anna picked out a beautiful wedding dress and the two made plans to marry but they also planned to leave the state to avoid the ire of Elias.
But, Elias found out about the secret relationship from another one of his employees and immediately fired Anna’s love, threatening him with death if he ever returned to Altoona. Elias told Anna what he had done and forbade her from communicating with her lost love. He searched her room, snatching away all the letters he could find, and threw them into a fire. Anna’s heart broke and she fell into a deep depression.
The Wedding Dress
The only thing Anna had left to remind her of the relationship was the wedding dress she picked out. For years after, Anna locked herself away in her room, at times refusing to eat or speak with anyone. Finally, in 1864 Elias Baker passed away and Anna saw this as an opportunity to find her former fiance. Unfortunately by the time she found him, he was married to another and now had a family.
This caused Anna to sink deeper into her depression locking herself away in her room. From that point forward the only time anyone saw her was through glimpses of her from her window on the third floor.
Maids claimed to see her dancing alone in her wedding dress when her family wasn’t home but would run the moment she heard someone approaching. At night they claimed to hear her heartbroken sobs echoing from her room.
By 1907 the rest of the Baker family had passed and Anna lived alone in the three-story mansion. In 1914 Anna Baker passed away, heartbroken and alone.
The Many Ghosts of the Baker Mansion
In 1922 The Blair County Historical Society leased the Baker Mansion eventually buying it in 1941 and converting it into a museum. Around this time, the reports of the Baker’s spirits wandering the home began to spread.
Baker Mansion
David Baker was said to haunt the basement where his body had been stored for many months. Visitors and volunteers claimed to hear his pained screams coming from the ice room but when they checked the basement, it was always empty.
Others have claimed to see Elias and Hetty Baker wandering the halls at night usually dressed in black. Elias is said to also haunt his office where things will move inexplicably. Meanwhile, a story tells of a visitor with car trouble who knocked on the museum door after hours and was greeted by a woman dressed in all black.
When the visitor asked for help the woman closed the door on him. The following day the visitor returned to complain but was told no one was in the building at the time. Many believe the woman in black was Hetty Baker.
In 1907 Sylvester Baker, now requiring a cane to walk, took a nap in one of the sitting rooms. When he awoke he suffered a stroke, collapsed, and died in the room. His body was found hours later by one of the maids. Today, some claim to hear the sounds of tapping from a cane coming from the sitting room. Many believe this is the spirit of Sylvester Baker wandering the home.
The Haunted Wedding Dress
Like the other spirits in the mansion, visitors claim to hear Anna Baker wandering around her room, sometimes she’s crying and other times they’ll catch her looking down at them from her window. After the Baker Mansion was converted into a museum, Anna’s wedding dress was encased in glass and put on display in her room.
Most of the paranormal activity in the home appears to be centered around the dress. Visitors have witnessed the glass case move while they were in the room, appearing as if someone was trying to get to the dress.
Many believe Anna is trying to retrieve her dress so she can wear it and dance like she was meant to at her wedding. Others have claimed to see the dress move or have caught glimpses of what appeared to be the dress out of its case and floating around.
One version of Anna’s story says that after Elias found out about the wedding, he forced Anna to give the dress to Elizabeth Bell, the daughter of another wealthy landowner, Edward Bell. After her wedding, Elizabeth (Bell) Dysart ruthlessly mocked Anna for her inability to find her former love causing Anna to sink deeper into depression. Today, some claim to hear mocking coming from Anna’s room followed by Anna’s heartbroken sobs.
But, if there are multiple versions of Anna’s story how do we know which is true or if any of the legends are even true?
Separating Fact from Fiction
The Bakers
Based on historical documents and death records we can quickly debunk or confirm some of the legends. David Baker was tragically killed in a steamboat accident two weeks after his daughter was born but, based on burial records, he was buried within weeks of his death. David Baker was not stored in the Baker Mansion basement for months.
Elias Baker did die in 1864, Hetty Baker died in 1900 after a prolonged debilitating illness that left her mostly bedridden, and Sylvester Baker did die in 1907 in the sitting room after suffering a stroke. Some versions of the legends switch around the death years of all three and some versions claim Elias died in 1848 just 12 years after Anna’s birth.
Elias and Hetty Baker from Baker Photo Album - Penn State
The Real Life of Anna Baker
The legend of Elias that caused Anna’s heartbreak which made her a recluse and depressed never actually happened. From Anna’s actual letters that she wrote to both her parents as well as her diary entries that have been preserved by the Penn State University Library, we can see that she had a pretty happy relationship with her parents.
In reality between the 1850s and the 1880s, Anna traveled a lot, visiting other parts of Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. For a while, she lived in New Jersey for school and later in Lancaster before moving back home to care for her sick mother.
Anna Baker from Baker Photo Album - Penn State
Anna’s diary recounts her mother’s illness and how Anna took care of her daily. There were also letters throughout the years that Anna sent to her friend Enoch in which they spoke about gossip, friends, and family.
As far as Elizabeth Dysart goes, she was a real person but definitely did not use or borrow Anna’s wedding dress because when Elizabeth was married, Anna hadn’t been born. By the time Anna was born Elizabeth Dysart was already married and had three kids.
But, Anna did go through a tragic heartbreak. As a child, Anna’s best friend and schoolmate was a girl named Annie Porter. In letters from 1860, kept at the Penn State University Library, Annie details the death of her cousin William Lawrence from a prolonged unspecified illness. It’s revealed in the letters that Anna Baker and William were in love and Anna was unable to make it in time to see William before his death.
Based on the letters and diary entries, it doesn’t appear that Anna Baker was involved with anyone else after William’s death. Since this would have been considered odd for the time, this alone may have been what caused people to create their own rumors and reasons for Anna’s choice to stay single for the rest of her life.
The “Haunted” Wedding Dress
As for the wedding dress, it doesn’t appear to have belonged to Anna Baker and like other items in the museum, it was simply an item of the time and on display there. Unfortunately, there are no pictures that are clear enough to read the plaque. It was also revealed that the reason the glass case moved on its own when people were in the room, was due to loose floorboards.
The glass case also wasn’t air-tight allowing the wind to make it appear as if the dress was moving on its own. In the early 2000s, the dress was removed from display after 30 years due to deterioration from direct sunlight and air.
There is also a rumor that the Altoona Mayor from decades ago helped pass around the fake ghost stories in order to bring in more tourist dollars. This claim appeared on several websites and books that tell the legend of the haunted Baker Mansion, so it felt important to point out that I could not find any proof of this claim anywhere.
The “Haunted” Baker Mansion
It’s also important to note that the website for the Blair County Historical Society makes no claims that the mansion is haunted nor do they have any information on the wedding dress. Although using the Wayback Machine, their website did entertain the idea of ghosts in relation to The Baker Mansion until around 2011.
While it appears we can debunk the legends surrounding Anna Baker’s haunted wedding dress based on her own letters and diary entries, there was hardly any information on the other supposed hauntings.
Many of the stories are told second-hand from someone who heard them from someone who knew someone who used to work at the Baker Mansion. The same stories are passed around various websites, books, and magazines, slightly altered but with no sources.
The Baker Mansion even appeared in the November 1981 issue of LIFE magazine in a list of the most haunted places in America. Since there is really no way to verify or disprove those claims, for now, they are just hearsay. There are also a few workers who have worked at the museum who claim to never have experienced any paranormal activity.
The Blair County Historical Society is still providing tours of the Baker Mansion so if you’re in the area and curious, why not take a tour… if you dare.
