Front of the Farm House Museum at Iowa State University, a two-story gray stucco house with a columned porch and a brick walk

Iowa State University – Ames, IA: The Farm House, Esther Wilson and Edith’s Curtains

Midwestern US Haunted Schools

Iowa State University’s oldest building doubles as its best-known haunted house. The Farm House, a two-story residence from the 1860s on the Ames campus, is now a University Museums site, and staff and student guides have told its ghost stories for years: curtains that will not stay shut, silverware that is rearranged overnight and the spirit of a professor’s wife who died there in 1892. Across campus, the Memorial Union’s Gold Star Hall has a legend of its own. This guide sorts the documented history from the folklore.

What the record says

The Farm House dates to the first years of the college. University Museums calls it the oldest building on campus. The National Park Service landmark nomination says the kitchen wing was started in 1860, the main house in 1861, and the work was substantially complete by spring 1864. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1965 as the Knapp-Wilson House, and after a restoration from 1971 to 1976 it opened as a museum on July 4, 1976.

Seventeen families lived in the house, according to the museum. Two of them figure in the stories. Seaman Knapp, later the college’s president, lived there from 1880 to 1885. James “Tama Jim” Wilson, then the professor of agriculture, lived there from 1891 to 1896. His wife, Esther Wilbur Wilson, died on August 3, 1892. The Iowa Plain Dealer reported her death on August 11, and the Iowa State Daily later cited the Ames Intelligencer of August 4, 1892 as ruling it a suicide. That is told here without method or detail. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

A second documented person is honored in the Memorial Union’s Gold Star Hall. The hall’s directory lists Hortense Elizabeth Wind of Council Bluffs, a 1915 home economics graduate. She entered service in February 1918 and became chief dietitian at the Naval Hospital at Norfolk, Virginia. She died of influenza on December 10, 1918, and the hall lists her as the only woman honored.

The stories have an official outlet. A student-guided “Haunted Iowa State” tour began around 2005, was in its fifth year in 2007, and was described as annual in 2009. On October 30, 2025, curator Allison Sheridan gave an online talk called “Phantom Footsteps: Haunting Histories of Iowa State.”

The legends

Edith’s curtains. In the usual telling, Edith Curtiss, a daughter of Dean Charles F. Curtiss, lived on the second floor and looked out her curtains to see whether her male friends had arrived. Long after, the Daily said in 2007, the original curator closed the second-floor curtains each night and found them open each morning, even after she safety-pinned them shut.

The silverware. A 2019 Daily Q&A quoted museum staff on a coordinator who found the dining room silverware nudged out of place, sewed a thread loop around each piece, and returned to find the stitches snipped. In the Daily’s 2014 collection, Sheridan said that in summer 2005 the silverware was found askew two mornings in a row, and another former staffer described voices and a shadow on the stairs. Later retellings blame Esther.

Smaller tales. Students who worked at the house in 2000 told the Daily about a dresser that shook, rose petals in the Civil War Room and doors found locked.

Gold Star Hall. Retellings credit the hall with a moan or whistle at night, linked to Hortense Wind.

What the record does not support

  • Esther Wilson as the ghost. In 2000 a student worker said no incidents were attached to her, calling hers the one story known to be true. The silverware link came later. A student’s guess that the stress of a dean’s life broke her has no basis in the 1892 reports as cited.
  • The curtain story as told. The same 2000 article says a janitor was later found to be opening the curtains so he could look outside while cleaning. The 2007 retelling calls Edith’s father the “president of the College of Agriculture,” but Curtiss was dean of agriculture. A 1919 wedding photograph of Edith Curtiss in the museum collection shows only that she was a real person.
  • Wilson as a former Iowa State president. The 2019 Q&A says so. Knapp was president, and Wilson headed agriculture before serving as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, according to the landmark nomination.
  • Wind as a medic or nutritionist. The 2019 Q&A calls her a medic and a 2019 Daily article a nutritionist. The hall’s own record lists a dietitian.
  • A top-ranked haunted campus. Mysterious Heartland placed Iowa State fifth among Midwest colleges in 2014, but a former museum interpretation specialist told the Daily that Iowa State ranks “pretty near the bottom.”

Visiting

The Farm House Museum is at 601 Farm House Lane in Ames. Admission is free. It is closed on weekends, university holidays and breaks, and published weekday hours differ between pages, so check the museum site first. Only the first floor is accessible, and the East Campus Parking Deck at 500 Wallace Road is the nearest garage. Gold Star Hall is inside the Memorial Union, and its hours were not checked. To plan a tour of your own, see How to Run a Campus Ghost Walk This Halloween.

FAQ

Is the Farm House at Iowa State haunted?

Staff and students have told stories of curtains and silverware for years, and none has been confirmed. Treat them as campus folklore.

Who was Esther Wilson?

Esther Wilbur Wilson was the wife of James “Tama Jim” Wilson. She died on August 3, 1892, while the family lived in the Farm House. Newspaper accounts exist, but the ghost story came much later.

Can you tour the Farm House?

Yes. It is a free museum, open on weekdays. Check the hours before you go.

More haunted schools in Iowa

Read about Luther College in Decorah and Coe College in Cedar Rapids.

Sources

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Top image: The Farm House Museum at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, circa 2025. Photo: Chipchicken, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped, via Wikimedia Commons