Orson Starr House

The Orson Starr House is Royal Oak’s oldest standing building, built in 1845 by cowbell manufacturer Orson Starr, whose family name still marks a nearby park, church, and stretch of what’s now 13 Mile Road. Five generations of Starrs lived in the house until 1964, and the family’s tragedies were real: of Orson and Rhoda’s ten children, only five survived to adulthood, with three dying within the same week.

The city bought the house in 1976 and restored it as a museum with period-accurate furnishings, and it’s since built a genuine reputation as one of Metro Detroit’s most consistently investigated haunted sites. Flyer Paranormal partners with the Royal Oak Historical Commission to run monthly public ghost tours, with proceeds funding the museum’s upkeep, and even commission staff who started out skeptical say they’ve had experiences in the house they can’t otherwise explain — disembodied footsteps, unexplained knocking, and reports tied to a German Shepherd, matching the real dog Orson Starr once kept.

On our radar for one of the few Metro Detroit hauntings with genuine civic backing behind the ghost tours, or for the daytime museum visit alone if the paranormal side isn’t your thing.