Cannonball House
Cannonball House is a museum in Lewes, Delaware. Maritime museum associated with an unnamed-woman ghost story. The house was damaged in the War of 1812 bombardment; Historic Lewes acquired it in 1963 for preservation and museum use. Local lore holds that The Archives exhibit recounts a woman allegedly haunting the house after a fireplace accident.
Operator announces closure beginning September 9 for renovation, without year or reopening date. Verify before visiting; routine seasonal hours may be superseded.
· in your passport — stamped · open it
Is Cannonball House haunted?
The record holds 1 claim, 1 legend — filed as reported, not verified. The heaviest filing is classed local folklore. The archive documents the claim; it takes no position on the ghost.
The record — long form
The Cannonball House is the house the Royal Navy hit — April 6-7, 1813, the twenty-two-hour bombardment of Lewes when Commodore Beresford's squadron shelled the town for refusing supplies. The McCracken family's house took a ball in the foundation — the only surviving Lewes structure still marked by the bombardment, the cannonball that stayed in the wall for two centuries.
The town held — the hastily built pine-log fort, the militia Gilbert McCracken and his son served in, the governor who came from Dover to refuse the requisition. The British damaged a gunboat and left; Lewes had no casualties. The house became everything else — sewing shop, bank, taxi stand — before the Historical Society bought it in 1963 for the Maritime Museum. The replica ball in the foundation now is a replacement; the patched hole is the original wound.
The file keeps the Cannonball House: the 1813 bombardment, the lodged ball, the museum, and the replaced cannonball.
Cannonball House is the archive's War-of-1812 file — the house that kept the hit.
Why this file matters
Cannonball House is the archive's War-of-1812 file — the building that still shows the bombardment.
A house keeps its scar — the file's suggestion being that the Cannonball House's hold is the patch: the foundation hole where the British ball struck, the town that refused to surrender, and the only surviving structure that bears the mark.
The record of claims
The Archives exhibit recounts a woman allegedly haunting the house after a fireplace accident. Cannonball House in Lewes, Delaware curates the past professionally; the reports suggest some of the past curates back. The claim is neighborhood knowledge — retold locally, verified nowhere. The figure remains the site's most-repeated sighting.
Accident and identity unverified.
The Archives exhibit recounts a woman allegedly haunting the house after a fireplace accident. A site full of other people's belongings gives the reports an unusually well-documented inventory to haunt. It survives as local folklore, which is to say it survives because people keep telling it. The account appears in 'Cannonball House — Haunted Delaware exhibit'. Legends accrue where records go silent; this one filled the gap and stayed.
Documented history
The house was damaged in the War of 1812 bombardment; Historic Lewes acquired it in 1963 for preservation and museum use. Cannonball House's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. 'Cannonball House Maritime Museum' documents the entry. Documented ground is what separates this file from pure legend — this is part of it.
Verified historyHistoric Lewes
Planning a visit
Visitor details change. Confirm with the site before travelling.
Sources on file
- 01Cannonball House Maritime MuseumHistoric Lewes · historical society · A2
- 02Cannonball House — Haunted Delaware exhibitDelaware Public Archives · government · A1
- 03Lewes historic property survey: Phase II final 2016City of Lewes · government · A1
Field notes & open questions
Archives folklore caption gives 1743 construction;2016 city survey index gives circa 1765; current operator says mid-eighteenth century. Exact year left null.