Lincoln-Tallman House

The Lincoln-Tallman House is an 1857 Italianate mansion in Janesville known for once having Abraham Lincoln as a guest. And it has a long history of reported paranormal activity. Built for lawyer and abolitionist William M. Tallman, the house is where Lincoln stayed for two nights in October 1859, less than two years before he became president. Tallman was a prominent opponent of slavery, and stories have long connected the house to the Underground Railroad, although historians have never established that the mansion itself was used to shelter people escaping slavery. The Tallman family lived in the house until 1915, and the restored mansion is now operated as a historic house museum by the Rock County Historical Society.

The house’s ghost stories are largely connected to the Tallman family and the rooms where they lived. One of the most frequently reported spirits is Cornelia “Gussie” Tallman, who died in 1866 and was known to play the family piano. Paranormal accounts describe piano music coming from the instrument when nobody is playing, footsteps on the second floor and the apparition of a woman in white. Other reports include a dark female figure near the second-floor hallway, shadowy figures around the attic, unexplained activity near the servants’ quarters and an unsettling male presence in the basement. Visitors and workers have also reported feeling watched, seeing unexplained shadows and witnessing equipment behave strangely. Whether any of these experiences have a paranormal explanation is impossible to establish, but the combination of documented history, preserved 19th-century architecture and persistent ghost stories makes the Lincoln-Tallman House one of Janesville’s most compelling haunted locations.

Reported Paranormal Activity

• Unexplained piano music heard inside the house
• A female apparition dressed in white, usually on the second floor
• Dark female-shaped figure seen near the second-floor hallway overlooking the foyer
• Shadowy figures have reportedly appeared around attic doorways
• Footsteps heard near Gussie’s bedroom, throughout the second floor and around the servants’ quarters
• Unsettling male presence in the basement, particularly around the former canning-room area
• Workers and visitors have reportedly experienced unexplained feelings of dread or the sensation that someone was watching them