Sutton-Ditz House

The Sutton-Ditz House in Clarion, Pennsylvania, is a home that has been lovingly preserved and turned into a small museum. The 2½-story, revival-style brick house was first built in the 1840s by local attorney Thomas Sutton, Jr., one block south of the Clarion courthouse. In 1909, local hardware store owner John A. Ditz bought and renovated the house, inspired by late Victorian and early Arts and Crafts movements. Ditz added the impressive columned porch and balcony, as well as handmade woodwork and lighting fixtures. 

Today, the house is home to the Clarion County Historical Society and its collections. Inside, you’ll find themed rooms, bedecked in era-specific decor, with both permanent and temporary exhibits. These rooms include the Military Room, the DAR Women’s History Room, the “General Store” Room, and the Business & Industry Room, all of which give visitors a deeper look at Clarion County’s community history. 

Some believe that there are other “historical” features of the house—namely, ghosts. Three years after Thomas Sutton built the house, he and his six-year-old son both died there. According to Mary Lea Lucas, director of the Historical Society, the house welcomed paranormal investigators a few years back, who brought a “spirit box” to help them communicate with potential spirits. The box—which kept bringing up the word “bear”—led the investigators and museum staff to discover a silver Art Deco ring trapped inside the lining of a brown bear fur coat from the 1920s. 

Lucas has also experienced her own hauntings in the house: Once, while staying late to prepare for an exhibition, she randomly stopped on the second floor and asked aloud if anyone wanted to communicate. Later, she heard a never-used antique phone (with an unlisted number) ringing from the kitchen. When she picked it up, she heard a small child’s voice calling for his mother. She later learned that Sutton and his son had died on the same calendar day that she’d heard the call—March 24. Others have claimed to see a young, sick boy roaming the house.