Where H.H. Holmes Hid in 1894: Burlington's Self-Guided Ghost Walk
A phone app tells Burlington's ghost stories as you walk, from a lakeside building with a haunted past up to the head of Church Street.
Nobody meets you at the start of this walk. The booking buys a code for the WalknTours app, and the app does the telling: stand outside Shanty on the Shore at 181 Battery Street, press play, and the stories come up by GPS as you walk from the lakeshore into downtown. The listing puts it at 60 to 75 minutes, all outdoors, at whatever hour you choose. The operator's own route page times it at 1 hour and 8 minutes.
The route passes Union Station, the Follett House, the Flynn, the old Nectar's building and Church Street, and finishes near the Unitarian meeting house at 152 Pearl Street. From there, the listing says, the app guides you to the house H.H. Holmes rented while he was on the run.
As of October 26, 2026, the listing below sells adult tickets, ages 16 and up, at USD 9.75 and child tickets, ages 5 to 15, at USD 6. Each booking needs an adult and covers up to 15 people.
Cancel at least 24 hours before the date you pick for a full refund. Food and drink are not included.
Burlington's Famous Ghosts Smartphone Guided Walking TourSelf-guided app audio · 60 to 75 minutes · Starts outside Shanty on the Shore · Ends near the Unitarian meeting house on Pearl Streetwww.viator.comIsaac Nye Shut His Store and Never Opened It Again
The first story belongs to the building at the start. Seven Days reported in 2013 that back in 1833 it was Isaac Nye's general store, on a stretch of land and dock known as Nye's Wharf. At 44, by that account, Nye called business distasteful, closed the shutters of his storehouse for good and lived on in a small room at the back. One of the restaurant's owners told the paper, "We believe he is still here." The National Register nomination for the Battery Street Historic District dates the present building later, to about 1900. It says the building began as a paint shop, was used for making canvas awnings and tents by 1906, and in the 1910s and 1920s was the headquarters of the Champlain Transit Co.
Nearby, the listing turns to Union Station, with stories of people struck by trains. The winged monkeys on its roof were sculpted in steel by Steve Larrabee, and Main Street Landing says the original pair flew to the old station's clock tower in 1996. The listing also names the Follett House, the columned mansion on College Street.
Up Main Street, Past the Old Nectar's Where Phish Started
Main Street carries the middle of the route. The Flynn, at 153 Main Street, is an Art Deco theater built as a movie house in 1930. The listing says it has seen many changes over the years and a few tragedies, and the app tells of the ghosts said to haunt it. Farther up, at 188 Main Street, is the building that housed Nectar's, the club the listing calls the venue where Phish got its start. Nectar's own history page says Phish began playing there regularly while its members were still unknown local musicians. The club itself is gone. Seven Days reported in July 2025 that Nectar's would not reopen after nearly 50 years, and in October 2026 that a nightclub owner had applied for zoning approval to open a new business in the building, with the Nectar's name still an open question. The listing says the app's stories cover the venue, the food and its ghosts; as of that October report the doors were still closed, so you hear them from the sidewalk.
On Church Street, the app has stories of a firehouse and haunted restaurants. On St. Paul Street, the listing points out American Flatbread: the restaurant is new, it says, but the building is old and has seen the death of many. Its National Register nomination dates the building, at 115 to 119 St. Paul Street, to about 1834, when it went up for N. K. Brown, a maker of patent medicines; its stucco front came around 1923, when the Elks made it their clubhouse.
The Meeting House at the Top, and the House Holmes Rented
The route finishes near the meeting house of the First Unitarian Universalist Society at 152 Pearl Street, the brick church with the white steeple that closes the view up Church Street. The National Register nomination for the Head of Church Street district dates it to 1816 and credits the design to Peter Banner, and the society calls it the oldest surviving place of worship in the city. From here, by the listing's account, the app guides you to the house Holmes rented.
Holmes had studied medicine at the University of Vermont for a year, long before the murders that made him notorious. VTDigger reported in 2015 that in October 1894, using the name J.A. Judson, he rented a house on North Winooski Avenue for a "Mrs. A.E. Cook" and two children. She was in fact Carrie Pitezel, whose husband Holmes was later convicted of murdering. A detective spotted Holmes at a Burlington opera house and followed him back to that house. In 2005 a University of Vermont historic preservation study placed it at 26 North Winooski Avenue, about 150 meters east of the meeting house, and read its two electric meters as a sign it had become two apartments.
Unlock It Before You Go, and Bring Earbuds
The confirmation spells out the steps: get the WalknTours app, register, pick Burlington and enter the experience code it gives you. Do not buy the tour again inside the app; the code unlocks the one you paid for. Everyone who wants the audio on their own phone registers a separate account with a separate email and uses the same code. The operator's FAQ says a downloaded tour runs offline, map and audio included, and the listing says the tour never expires.
As of October 2026, the listing has one traveler review. Posted in January 2025, it found the directions accurate but said downtown traffic and construction sometimes made the narrator hard to hear, so bring earbuds. The operator's FAQ also says many travelers bring headphones. That review came before the city finished rebuilding Main Street: Seven Days reported on July 17, 2026, that the street had reopened after years of construction, with foot and vehicle traffic flowing normally. Both the listing and the operator's route page mark the walk as not wheelchair accessible, and the operator adds that it is not stroller accessible. The listing says most travelers can participate.
If you drive, the city's rate table makes the first two hours free at its Downtown Garage, which has entrances on Battery, College and Cherry streets; after that it is USD 3 up to two and a half hours. The College Street entrance is about 300 meters from the start. For a restroom on a late walk, the Church Street Marketplace's FAQ lists the one in City Hall Park, by the corner of Church and Main, as open 24/7.
📍 Start outside Shanty on the Shore at 181 Battery Street, tour downloaded and phone charged. The last stories play around the head of Church Street, with the white steeple of the 1816 meeting house in view.