{"id":290,"slug":"felt-mansion-saugatuck-michigan","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The Felt Mansion was built in the 1920s — inventor Dorr Felt's summer estate on the Lake Michigan shore, the adding-machine magnate's palace at Saugatuck, where his wife Agnes died just weeks after they moved in and he followed within two years. The file's documented spine is the mansion's tragic timing: a dream house that became a tomb for both its owners almost immediately, the estate then serving as a seminary and a prison before restoration."]},{"heading":"Agnes at the doors","paragraphs":["The lore attributes moving doors and shadows to Agnes Felt and relatives — the file's ghost being the woman who barely lived in the house: Agnes, dead within weeks of arrival, reportedly still opening doors in the mansion she never got to enjoy.","Agnes's presence is the file's signature — the mansion's first lady reportedly still resident, her short occupancy made eternal by the haunting's tradition."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Felt Mansion is the archive's dream-house file — a 1920s palace whose owners died within two years of moving in, keeping Agnes reportedly at the doors. The documented tragedy is the record; her lingering presence is the lore of a house that became a tomb.","A mansion that killed its owners' dream keeps its first lady — the file's suggestion being that Agnes Felt never got to leave the house that was supposed to be her summer."]}],"name":"Felt Mansion","aliases":["Felt Estate"],"type":"MANSION","type_label":"Mansion","cats":["HAUNTING"],"groups":["hauntings","historic-sites"],"desc":"Mansion associated with documented cultural history.","full_desc":"Felt Mansion is a mansion in Saugatuck, Michigan. Mansion associated with documented cultural history. HauntHunt files it with haunting reports. Ask the file who haunts it and it answers: Agnes Felt. The dossier holds 1 reported claim, 1 legend, 1 documented fact and 1 named or described presence — documented record and retelling kept side by side. The site is open to visitors.","address":"6597 138th Ave","city":"Saugatuck","county":"Allegan","state":"Michigan","postal":null,"region":"Midwest","lat":42.661361,"lon":-86.204623,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"HISTORIC_SITE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":"https://www.feltmansion.org/","phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"Discovery pass. Earliest attestation, primary history, precise location and current access require independent enrichment.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":64.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.85,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.6,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":224,"type":"SHADOW_FIGURE","description":"Reported moving doors and shadows are attributed in folklore to Agnes Felt and relatives. A house with Saugatuck's history behind it gives the reports a setting that needs no exaggeration. The claim is neighborhood knowledge — retold locally, verified nowhere. 'Ghosts of the Art Coast' carries the account. The apparition is the file's anchor — every other report orbits it.","evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","evidence_label":"Local folklore","entity":"Agnes Felt","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.7,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Ghosts of the Art Coast","url":"https://saugatuck.com/ghosts-of-the-art-coast/","publisher":"Saugatuck Douglas Area Convention and Visitors Bureau","type":"TOURISM","authority":3},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The restored 1920s mansion serves as an event venue with historical tours. Felt Mansion's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The press recorded it; the detail stands as reported history. The detail is preserved in 'The Felt Mansion'. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.","evidence":"MEDIA_REPORTED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"The Felt Mansion","url":"https://saugatuck.com/business/the-felt-mansion/","publisher":"Saugatuck Douglas Area Convention and Visitors Bureau","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"Reported moving doors and shadows are attributed in folklore to Agnes Felt and relatives. Felt Mansion wears the claim the way old houses do: visibly, and without comment. Local lore carries the account; no documentation has ever caught up with it. The report is preserved in sources like 'Ghosts of the Art Coast'. The retelling is the record now — the legend metabolized the facts long ago.","earliest":null,"evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","source":{"name":"Ghosts of the Art Coast","url":"https://saugatuck.com/ghosts-of-the-art-coast/","publisher":"Saugatuck Douglas Area Convention and Visitors Bureau","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"entities":[{"name":"Agnes Felt","claimed_identity":"Agnes Felt","verified":null,"summary":"Reported moving doors and shadows are attributed in folklore to Agnes Felt and relatives. The house's rooms are where the accounts concentrate — old houses keep their stories in the walls they were built around. The report is preserved in sources like 'Ghosts of the Art Coast'. The file keeps Agnes Felt on the roster; the sightings keep the name alive.","behavior":"Reported moving doors and shadows are attributed in folklore to Agnes Felt and relatives.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Ghosts of the Art Coast","url":"https://saugatuck.com/ghosts-of-the-art-coast/","publisher":"Saugatuck Douglas Area Convention and Visitors Bureau","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Self-guided, private and scheduled tours advertised.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-14T10:36:19+00:00","source":{"name":"The Felt Mansion","url":"https://saugatuck.com/business/the-felt-mansion/","publisher":"Saugatuck Douglas Area Convention and Visitors Bureau","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}},"sources":[{"name":"Ghosts of the Art Coast","url":"https://saugatuck.com/ghosts-of-the-art-coast/","publisher":"Saugatuck Douglas Area Convention and Visitors Bureau","type":"TOURISM","authority":3},{"name":"The Felt Mansion","url":"https://saugatuck.com/business/the-felt-mansion/","publisher":"Saugatuck Douglas Area Convention and Visitors Bureau","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":{"title":"Dorr E. Felt Mansion","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorr_E._Felt_Mansion","desc":"Historic house in Michigan, United States","extract":"The Felt Mansion is a house located at 66th Street and 138th Avenue, in Laketown Township, Michigan near Saugatuck, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Felt_Mansion.jpg/330px-Felt_Mansion.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":90,"lat":42.69694444,"lon":-86.19361111},"counts":{"claims":1,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":2}}