The Curse That Erased the Hayden Family: The Hayden House (Vermont)

In 1823, Mercie Dale lay dying in a Vermont farmhouse convinced that her son-in-law had been poisoning her. Before she died, she supposedly left the Hayden family with a curse: their name would end within three generations, and the last Hayden would die in poverty. For decades, that prediction seemed ridiculous. Mercie's grandson built a railroad fortune and erected one of the grandest mansions in Vermont, complete with an enormous ballroom and a spring-loaded dance floor. Then the children began dying. The money disappeared. The mansion was abandoned. And eventually, the final Hayden died penniless and obscure.

Tonight, we explore the curse of the Hayden family, the haunted mansion it left behind, and whether supernatural vengeance—or ordinary human pride—really destroyed one of Vermont's wealthiest families.