Haunted Places in Ohio: 24 of the Most Haunted to Visit
A castle of a prison, a Victorian asylum on a hill, a railroad tunnel in the woods, old jails, theaters and inns where you can sleep with the stories. These are Ohio’s most haunted places, with what is history, what is legend and how you can visit.
Ohio’s haunted places are as much history as ghost story. Many of the best known are real institutions with hard pasts: the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, the Athens Lunatic Asylum, the old county jail at Newark, and old schools and funeral homes that now open their doors after dark. Add canal-era taverns, river towns and theaters full of backstage legends, and you have a list that runs from Lake Erie to the Ohio River. We have checked every place below against current sources, so you know which are open, which run tours or allow ghost hunting, which take overnight guests and which you can only see from the road. Haunted Rooms runs its own ghost hunts at Mortuary Manor in Toledo, and has run them at the Old Licking County Jail and Poasttown Elementary.
Visit on a tourGhost toursParanormal investigations allowedOvernight investigations
Address 100 Reformatory Rd, Mansfield, OH 44905
Where to look The East Cell Block, solitary confinement, the West Attic, the chapel and the Glattkes' rooms
Reported ghosts Helen Glattke's rose scent, Warden Glattke's pipe smoke, guards on the stairs, a boy in the basement
Visiting Museum open year-round for self-guided and guided tours
Tours Self-guided tour $30; guided tours $40 to $55; ghost walks $45 (2026)
Hours and season Daily 11 AM to 4 PM April to October; Thursday to Sunday in winter
Ghost hunting Yes: Mini Ghost Hunts ($65), Public Ghost Hunts until 3 AM ($104), private investigations
Levi T. Scofield designed this vast castle of a prison, begun in 1886. Its first 150 young offenders arrived by train in 1896, and the six-tier East Cell Block is listed by Guinness as the largest free-standing cell block in the world. Built to reform, it became a crowded, brutal prison and closed in 1990 under a federal consent decree. It is also Shawshank in The Shawshank Redemption.
Staff and visitors report the scent of roses near the rooms of Helen Glattke, the warden’s wife, who died in 1950 after a gun fell from a closet shelf and went off, and the smell of pipe tobacco linked to Warden Arthur Glattke, who died in his office in 1959. The Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society runs tours, ghost walks and overnight ghost hunts.
What investigators report
On Portals to Hell, investigators report a Mel Meter with REM-Pod beeping in reply to questions near the warden’s quarters in the East Admin building, plus lone vigils in the West Attic and the sub-basement solitary area. The reformatory’s own ghost hunts focus on the Chapel, West Attic, both cell blocks and Solitary, using K2 meters and laser grids.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a Saturday public ghost hunt for lights-out access to solitary and the West Attic, and note that the Blood Prison haunted house changes the tour route each fall.
Visit on a tourGhost toursHaunted Rooms ghost hunts
Address 46 S Third St, Newark, OH 43055
Where to look The dungeon, the female cell block, the matron's quarters and the sheriff's bedroom
Reported ghosts Mae Varner in the matron's quarters, banging in the women's block, voices and shadows
Visiting Historic jail run by preservation volunteers
Tours Guided and flashlight tours; the Jail of Terror haunted house runs on fall weekends
Ghost hunting Yes, on organized ghost hunts
Architect Joseph Warren Yost designed this castle-like Richardsonian Romanesque jail and sheriff’s residence, which opened in 1889. It held prisoners for 99 years until overcrowding closed it in 1987. In 1910 a mob dragged 17-year-old Anti-Saloon League agent Carl Etherington from the jail and hanged him on the public square, one of Ohio’s most notorious lynchings.
Volunteers began giving tours in 2012, and Ghost Adventures filmed here in 2014. Staff tell of Mae Varner, who set herself on fire in her cell, of banging in the empty female cell block, and of the sheriff’s bedroom where four sheriffs had heart attacks. Each fall the building hosts the Jail of Terror haunted house.
Haunted Rooms tip: See our ghost hunt page for dates, and watch the jail’s own calendar for flashlight tours and the October Jail of Terror.
Visit on a tourGhost toursParanormal investigations allowed
Address 12150 Main St, Trinway, OH 43842
Where to look The cellar, the third-floor ballroom and the barn
Reported ghosts Stories tied to the Underground Railroad and the Adams-Cox family
Visiting Historic house museum, open March to early December
Tours History tours, flashlight tours and guided public ghost hunts
Hours and season 2026 season opened March 21; closes in early December
Ghost hunting Yes: public ghost hunts led by the site’s investigators, and private investigations (18+)
George Willison Adams, an abolitionist, legislator and mill owner, built this Italianate mansion in 1856 on the foundation of an earlier house destroyed by arson. He and his brother ran an Underground Railroad station from their mill, and the house is on the Ohio Underground Railroad Association’s list of sites. Dave Longaberger bought it in 1988 to save it from demolition.
It is now run by the nonprofit G.W. Adams Educational Center, which offers history tours and its own guided ghost hunts. The house has been on Ghost Hunters (2008), Ghost Adventures (2010) and Ghost Brothers (2016), Visitors tell of a little girl on the stairs, said to be a child who died after a fall, a mustached man near an upper staircase and voices and footsteps in the cellar and ballroom. None of these deaths are documented beyond family lore.
What investigators report
Ghost Research Society investigators report the basement (well room and cellar) as the most active area, with knocks, scratching and Ovilus word responses, while the barn gave their most relevant device replies. They also ran EVP sessions with questions and singing in the top-floor ballroom, where motion detectors reportedly triggered with no one present.
Address The Ridges, off S Plains Rd, Athens, OH 45701
Where to look The old wards, the attic of Ward 20 and the three cemeteries
Reported ghosts The stain left by Margaret Schilling, figures in the windows
Visiting Grounds and the Kennedy Museum of Art are open; the old wards are closed
Ghost hunting No: the closed wards are off-limits to the public
The Athens Lunatic Asylum opened on January 9, 1874, a Kirkbride-plan hospital by Levi T. Scofield, the architect of the Ohio State Reformatory. Records document hydrotherapy, electroshock and lobotomy. The old hospital closed in 1993 and passed to Ohio University, which now uses it for the Kennedy Museum of Art, offices and storage. Three cemeteries hold 1,930 patients, most once marked only by numbers.
Its best-known story is true: Margaret Schilling, a patient, went missing on December 1, 1978, and was found on January 12, 1979, in the closed Ward N 20, and her body left a stain on the floor. Local historian Tom O’Grady says the ghost talk is recent, but students and visitors tell of faces at windows and voices in the empty wards.
Haunted Rooms tip: Visit the Kennedy Museum of Art in the old main building, then walk up to the cemeteries before dusk.
Address 6600 Trenton Franklin Rd, Middletown, OH 45042
Where to look The upstairs classrooms, the halls and the gym
Reported ghosts Children's footsteps and laughter, desks dragged overhead, voices
Visiting Private home and event venue; visits by booked investigation only
Ghost hunting Yes, on booked investigations; Haunted Rooms has run ghost hunts here
Madison Township’s consolidated school opened near the railroad tracks at Poasttown, just north of Middletown, in September 1937 and served the area until it closed in the 1990s. Darrell Whisman bought the 54-room building in 2004 and lives there with his wife, Brenda. He has said he will never tear it down.
The ghost stories are tied to the railroad. On July 4, 1910, a passenger train hit a freight train head-on near the West Middletown depot, killing dozens of people (accounts give between 24 and 36), and local tradition says this ground was used for triage, although the school was built decades later. Visitors report children’s footsteps, laughter and desks being dragged in empty rooms.
What investigators report
Investigators report REM pods and K-II meters reacting in the Doll Room and the Mean Teacher’s Room, and dowsing rods getting good results in the second-floor hallway. Teams also leave flashlights in doorways, and one group reports them switching on repeatedly in the principal’s office.
Where to look The box office, the elevators and the backstage halls
Reported ghosts A singing woman, figures in old-fashioned clothes, whispers in the elevators
Visiting Working concert hall; visit for a performance
Tours Indoor, outdoor and ghost tours by Friends of Music Hall
Tickets Ghost tours $45 through Cincinnati Arts
Samuel Hannaford’s red brick Venetian Gothic hall opened in 1878 in Over-the-Rhine and is a National Historic Landmark. It stands on ground that was a pauper’s burial field after the 1832 cholera outbreak, linked to the old Commercial Hospital and Lunatic Asylum, and bones have turned up in nearly every dig since: 65 graves in 1927, more than 200 pounds of bones in 1988, and coffins under the orchestra pit during the $143 million renovation of 2016 and 2017.
Staff who work late tell CityBeat about a woman singing in empty spaces, figures in old-fashioned clothes and whispering in the elevators, and Cincinnati Magazine adds a box office bell that rings by itself. Not everyone is convinced: one facilities engineer put the odd sounds down to the hall’s famous acoustics. Friends of Music Hall now runs evening ghost tours.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book one of the Friends of Music Hall ghost tours (about 90 minutes, 8 PM starts), or a concert by the Symphony or the Pops.
Visiting a haunted place by day is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through a historic building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and vigils, and gives you time to explore on your own. These are the nearest ones we run.
Mortuary Manor Ghost Hunt, Toledo: investigate a former north Toledo funeral home with its embalming rooms, basement morgue and viewing parlors still in place.
Visit on a tourGhost toursHaunted Rooms ghost hunts
Address 2907 Lagrange St, Toledo, OH 43608
Where to look The basement morgue, the embalming rooms and the casket elevator
Reported ghosts A casket elevator that moves on its own, equipment switching itself on, voices
Visiting Funeral museum with self-guided and guided tours
Tickets Weekend museum admission $12 adults, $7 children 14 and under (2026)
Ghost hunting Yes: Haunted Rooms ghost hunts, plus public and private investigations run by the venue
This Victorian building on Lagrange Street in north Toledo was the Urbanski Funeral Home until 2025. When the family business moved on, the new owners kept the building as it was, with the embalming and autopsy rooms, the basement morgue with its body slab and the viewing parlors upstairs, and reopened it late in 2025 as a funeral museum and paranormal event venue.
Its ghost stories are new but growing. Operations manager Cory Leibenguth has told Toledo City Paper that the casket elevator has moved by itself and a phlebotomy machine switched itself on. The museum runs tours and hosts outside investigations, and Haunted Rooms runs its own ghost hunts here.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book one of our Mortuary Manor ghost hunts and spend a vigil in the basement morgue.
Where to look The top-floor ballroom, the tower room and the cold room
Reported ghosts A girl in white, a lady in black at the windows, crying and footsteps
Visiting Private home: see it from the street; occasional ticketed events
Ghost hunting Only at occasional ticketed events announced by the owners or organizers
Hannes Tiedemann, a German immigrant grocer turned banker, built this four-story stone Queen Anne house in Ohio City between 1881 and 1883, to designs by Cudell and Richardson. Grief followed the family: his daughter Emma died of diabetes in 1881, his mother soon after, three more children within a few years and his wife Luise in 1895. By 1908 the whole family was gone.
The legends came later, from the 1960s on: secret passages, murders, a hanged girl and bones in the walls. Researchers such as Bill Krejci say the murder and bootlegging tales are not true, and Wikipedia notes that bones found in 1975 were probably planted. The house is privately owned and being restored, with occasional ticketed events.
Haunted Rooms tip: See it from Franklin Boulevard, then watch for one of the rare ticketed events inside.
Address Hope-Moonville Rd, Brown Township, Vinton County, OH (Moonville Rail Trail)
Where to look The tunnel mouths and the old railbed by Raccoon Creek
Reported ghosts A lantern-carrying engineer or brakeman, the Lavender Lady, the Bully of Moonville
Visiting Free to walk on the Moonville Rail Trail
Ghost hunting Open to all, but respect the trail and leave no trace
Moonville was a small mining and railroad hamlet on the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad, deep in the hills of Vinton County, and its tunnel was cut in 1856. The town peaked at around 100 people, the last family left in 1947 and the buildings were gone by the 1960s. Trains stopped in the 1980s and the rails came up in 1988, but the stone tunnel still stands in Zaleski State Forest and joined the National Register in 2021.
More than 21 people died on or near the tracks here, and the ghost stories go back to about 1880: an engineer or brakeman swinging a lantern, the Lavender Lady and her floral scent, and Baldie Keeton, the Bully of Moonville, said to throw pebbles from above the tunnel. None of it can be verified. The tunnel is on the free Moonville Rail Trail, and Vinton County holds a Midnight at Moonville event each October.
Haunted Rooms tip: Park at the gravel pull-offs by the Raccoon Creek bridge on Hope-Moonville Road and walk in an hour before dark; bring a flashlight for the way back.
Where to look The old dressing rooms, the private boxes and the elevator
Reported ghosts Miss Vicky, an actress who vanished; the scent of roses
Visiting Working theater; visit for a show
The Victoria opened on New Year’s Day 1866 as the Turner Opera House. Fires in 1869 and 1918 and the 1913 flood forced it to be rebuilt more than once, and it has been the Music Hall, the Grand Opera House and the Victory before settling on its current name. A 1989 restoration saved the auditorium, and Dayton Live runs it today.
Its ghost is Miss Vicky, a touring actress who is said to have gone back to her dressing room in the early 1900s and never returned. Staff and guests describe the scent of roses, rustling skirts, flickering lights, elevator doors opening on their own and a face in the old dressing room mirror.
Haunted Rooms tip: See a Broadway touring show, and ask an usher about Miss Vicky.
Where to look Johnny Morehouse's grave and the paths around the lake
Reported ghosts Johnny Morehouse and his dog; a girl in jeans; Civil War soldiers
Visiting Open to visitors in daylight hours
Hours and season Woodland Avenue gate daily 8 AM to 7 PM (6 PM in winter)
Woodland was incorporated in 1842 and is one of the oldest garden cemeteries in the country, 200 acres of hills and trees with more than 100,000 burials. Orville and Wilbur Wright, poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, humorist Erma Bombeck and NCR founder John H. Patterson are buried here, and its 1889 Romanesque gateway and chapel are on the National Register.
Its best-loved story is Johnny Morehouse, a five-year-old who drowned in the Miami and Erie Canal in the 1860s. Legend says his dog kept watch at his grave until it died, and a sculpture of the pair stands over it, covered in toys left by visitors. The dog story has never been confirmed, but people report a boy laughing and a dog barking.
What investigators report
Visitors leave toys and trinkets at Johnny Morehouse’s “Boy and His Dog” grave, and some report feeling warm air when they hold a hand just below the stone dog’s nose.
Where to look Sarah's Room on the fourth floor, the Vallandigham room, the main staircase
Reported ghosts A little girl often named as Sarah Stubbs, Justice Charles R. Sherman
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
Jonas Seaman opened a log tavern here in 1803, and the brick inn grew from Ichabod Corwin’s 1815 rebuild. The Golden Lamb calls itself Ohio’s oldest continuously operating business. Charles Dickens, Harriet Beecher Stowe and a long run of presidents stayed here, and its 17 rooms are named for famous guests.
The inn tells its own ghost stories. The best known is a little girl, usually said to be Sarah Stubbs, who grew up here, though some say she is Eliza Clay, Henry Clay’s daughter, who died at the inn in 1825. Guests also link cigar smoke and a gaunt figure to Justice Charles R. Sherman, who died here in 1829.
What investigators report
Staff filled the fourth-floor room next to Sarah Stubbs’ former room with antique toys behind glass, and a guest staying on that floor reported unexplained thumping overhead. Ghost author Chris Woodyard advises guests to listen quietly rather than try to call the spirits out.
Address 35 West Fifth Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202
Where to look The Hall of Mirrors, the mezzanine and the elevators
Reported ghosts The Lady in Green
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
The Netherland Plaza opened in January 1931 inside the Carew Tower, John J. Emery’s Art Deco city within a city. It is a National Historic Landmark, with Brazilian rosewood, a Rookwood Pottery fountain in the Palm Court and a ballroom modeled on the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.
Its ghost is the Lady in Green. Staff have told Cincinnati CityBeat about a server who chatted with her in an elevator before she vanished and a guest tapped on the shoulder by a woman in a green gown asking for help. Staff tie her to a construction worker’s death, but the hotel’s historian found no record to back that.
Haunted Rooms tip: Walk up to the Hall of Mirrors and the mezzanine late in the evening, when no event is on.
Where to look Room 9, Room 7 and the basement tavern
Reported ghosts Bonnie Bounell, the Lady in Blue, and Major Horton Buxton
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
Orrin Granger opened The Tavern in 1812, and it was Granville’s first post office and a stagecoach stop between Columbus and Newark. It took its name from Major Horton Buxton, who bought it in 1865, and it is one of the oldest inns in Ohio still taking guests.
Its ghosts are its former keepers. Bonnie Bounell, the opera singer who ran the inn from 1934 until her death in 1960, is the Lady in Blue, linked to Room 9 and the scent of gardenias. Guests also tell of Major Buxton’s cigar smoke and a cat that settles on the bed at night. The inn changed hands in 2026.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for Room 9, Bonnie’s old suite, and pair a stay with the old jail in Newark, ten minutes away.
Where to look The dressing rooms, the auditorium and Masonic Alley outside
Reported ghosts Voices and whispers, shadow figures, a young woman
Visiting Working theater; visit for a show
The Masons’ hall and opera house here opened on October 7, 1853, after a fire destroyed the earlier hall, and it is one of the oldest working theaters in the country. Edwin Forrest and Ole Bull played here, it showed Chillicothe’s first films in 1896, and the Myers brothers renamed it the Majestic in 1915. During the 1918 influenza epidemic, the theater’s own history says, Lowery Mortuary used it as a morgue for soldiers from nearby Camp Sherman.
Bodies were kept in the dressing rooms and embalmed on the stage, and the alley beside it became known as Blood Alley. Ohio Exploration Society investigators who spent a night inside in August 2006 reported whispered recordings of “Get out” and “Help me,” and some tell of a girl in blue in the audience. A nonprofit has run the theater since 1990, with films, plays and concerts.
What investigators report
Ohio Exploration Society investigators report EVPs in the old basement boiler room, including a faint “No” when they asked if anyone was down there, and a whispered “Help me” in the star dressing room. They also report a persistent squeak stopping right after an investigator asked it to.
Reported ghosts Growls and voices, scratches, shoves, child spirits
Visiting Private property under renovation: see it from the street
This brick rectory housed the priests of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, a Sedamsville church that later closed. The buildings were saved from demolition and the rectory has changed hands several times since the 1980s. CityBeat notes that one priest, Father Donald MacLeod, was reportedly killed by a train near the rectory, but rumors of darker crimes have no record behind them.
Its fame came from investigators. Ghost Adventures filmed here in 2012, and visitors have described growling voices, icy breezes, shoves and a cross-shaped scratch. Cincinnati Magazine says no recorded tragedy explains the stories. It is private property under renovation, so see it from the street.
Haunted Rooms tip: See it from Steiner Avenue, and only go inside if the owners announce a public event.
Where to look The third-floor wing named for Durward Hoag and the Gun Room
Reported ghosts Former owner S. Durward Hoag and a maid in black
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
The Lafayette stands where the Muskingum meets the Ohio River, on the site of the Bellevue Hotel, which burned in 1916. The new hotel opened in 1918, and the Hoag family ran it for about half a century. It is a member of Historic Hotels of America and still full of riverboat-era pieces.
Durward Hoag, who ran the hotel until 1973, is the ghost guests mention most. Stories blame him for bulbs that flicker or burst and elevators that open by themselves, and his old third-floor wing is the place to ask for. The Marietta Times also lists footsteps, voices and a maid in a black dress.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for the third floor, and walk to the Hackett Hotel’s Galley for a late drink.
Where to look The tower suites, the Windsor Suite and the dining room
Reported ghosts A man said to be seen hanging in the dining room, and many unnamed figures
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
Punderson Manor is an English Tudor mansion begun in the late 1920s as a private home on Punderson Lake in Geauga County. The State of Ohio bought the land in 1948, finished the house and opened it to guests in 1956. It is now a state park lodge with rooms, cabins and the lake on the doorstep.
Guests have reported at least a dozen figures over the years. The best-known story is of a man in work clothes seen hanging from the dining room ceiling, and visitors also report laughter, doors and faucets that work by themselves and figures in the tower suites.
Haunted Rooms tip: Request a tower suite, and walk the lake boardwalk at dusk.
Address Southwest corner of South Bass Island, Put-in-Bay, OH
Where to look The keeper's house, the basement and the cliff above the lake
Reported ghosts Assistant keeper Samuel Anderson
Visiting Grounds open dawn to dusk
Tours Free Stone Lab tours, Fridays and Saturdays 11 AM to 4 PM, mid-June to mid-August
Ghost hunting No: it is a university research site
This Queen Anne brick keeper’s house and tower was first lit on July 10, 1897, with Harry Riley as keeper. A year later, during a smallpox scare in August 1898, his newly hired assistant Samuel Anderson hid in the basement and then threw himself off the cliff into Lake Erie. The same day Riley was picked up in Sandusky, apparently insane, and he died in a state hospital the next spring.
Island ghost lore says Anderson never left, and William G. Krejci’s 2015 book Haunted Put-in-Bay retells the story. Ohio State University has owned the lighthouse since 1967, and its Stone Lab uses it to house researchers. It joined the National Register in 1990. The grounds are open from dawn to dusk, and Stone Lab runs free tower tours on summer Fridays and Saturdays.
Haunted Rooms tip: Time your Put-in-Bay trip for a summer Stone Lab tour, and stand on the cliff where Anderson jumped.
Where to look The balcony, the restrooms and the canal behind the theater
Reported ghosts Fred the janitor, a well-dressed man in the balcony, a weeping woman by the canal
Visiting Working theater; visit for a show
John Eberson designed this atmospheric theater, which opened as Loew’s on April 20, 1929. Its auditorium looks like a Moorish garden under a night sky, with stars and drifting clouds on the ceiling, and the entrance lobby extends over the Ohio and Erie Canal. It is one of only five atmospheric theaters of its kind left in the country, the theater says and reopened in November 2002 after a 16-month restoration. It has been on the National Register since 1973.
Local legend gives it three ghosts: Fred, a longtime janitor said to guard his theater; a well-dressed man in the balcony; and a young woman from a canal barge family who is said to have drowned herself in the canal, and who is heard weeping where it runs under the building. Fred is said to have worked here in the Loew’s days and to chase off vandals. The stories come from patrons, tour guides and books such as Weird U.S., not from any record of these deaths.
Haunted Rooms tip: See a show, then walk down to the canal and Lock 3 behind the theater, where the weeping woman is said to be heard.
Address 35 West Jackson Street, Millersburg, OH 44654
Where to look The lobby, the upper halls and empty guest rooms
Reported ghosts An elderly gentleman in a 1920s suit and hat
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
Hotel Millersburg began as a tavern and stagecoach stop in the 1820s and became the Central Hotel in 1847, one of the oldest hotels still operating in Ohio. The brick building stands in the middle of Holmes County’s Amish Country, with a tavern downstairs and rooms above.
Guests and staff describe an elderly man in a 1920s suit and hat who walks the hotel and disappears. Other reports include footsteps in empty halls, knocks with nobody there and lights flashing in unoccupied rooms. It is a gentle haunting and a good base for the county.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask the staff about the gentleman in the suit, and explore the Amish villages by day.
Where to look The empty stone rooms, the stair area and the round tower
Reported ghosts Squire's wife, said to carry a lantern through the rooms
Visiting Free; in Cleveland Metroparks’ North Chagrin Reservation
Hours and season Reservation open 6 AM to 11 PM
Standard Oil executive Feargus B. Squire bought about 525 acres here around 1890 for a country estate he called River Farm. Only the gatekeeper’s house was built, from about 1895 to 1897, of local Euclid bluestone, and he used it as an occasional weekend retreat before selling in 1922. The Cleveland park board bought the land in 1925. After years of vandalism the park removed the upper floors and filled the basement, leaving the stone shell you can walk through today in the North Chagrin Reservation.
The legend says Squire’s wife woke in the night, was startled by mounted animal heads in a flash of lightning, fell down the stairs and died, and that her lantern still moves from room to room. Records show she died years later in Wickliffe, not here, so the story is folklore. The castle is free to visit and a favorite October walk.
Haunted Rooms tip: Go in the late afternoon, then stay for the sunset; the reservation is open until 11 PM.
Where to look The Galley restaurant and the upstairs rooms
Reported ghosts A spirit the staff call Charlotte
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
Oilman John H. Riley put up this brick block at Second Street and Tiber Way in 1899. The Hackett opened as a small boutique hotel in 2012, with five upstairs rooms named for figures from Marietta’s past, above The Galley restaurant and the Adelphia Music Hall.
The Galley’s staff are the main witnesses. They describe bottles crashing, glasses flying off shelves and chairs scraping across empty rooms, often enough that many believe one ghost is responsible, a woman they call Charlotte. Overnight guests upstairs have reported figures too.
What investigators report
Staff at The Galley restaurant call their ghost Charlotte and say she interacts mainly with men, with glasses moving off shelves and chairs sliding across empty rooms. Activity is also reported on the third floor, now guest rooms.
These places appear in older lists of haunted spots. We keep them here so you know the facts before you go, but you cannot (or should not) visit them.
Molly Stark Hospital, Louisville
The former tuberculosis sanatorium closed in 1995, the park around it closed in April 2024, and demolition began in October 2025. The site is closed. Read its history in our Molly Stark guide.
Mudhouse Mansion, near Lancaster
Its owners demolished the ruined mansion on September 21, 2015, and the land is private. The murder and Bloody Mary stories are legends with no record behind them. See our Mudhouse Mansion guide.
The Ohio Penitentiary, Columbus
The state prison stood from 1834 and was demolished in 1998. Its stories, including the 1930 fire, live on, but there is nothing left to visit. See our Columbus guide.
The Bissman Building, Mansfield
This 1880s warehouse, which hosted ghost walks and investigations for years, was put up for online auction in late 2025. We could not confirm whether events still run there, so check before you plan a visit.
Seven places on this list take overnight guests, from the Golden Lamb to Punderson Manor. For rooms, booking tips and the full stories, see our guide to haunted hotels in Ohio. For nights out with our team, see all Ohio ghost hunts.
Changed from our older guide: Molly Stark Hospital is being demolished and Mudhouse Mansion was demolished in 2015, so both moved to the off-limits list; the Bissman Building moved there too after its 2025 auction. We removed Fudge Road Bridge in Gratis and Staley Road in New Carlisle, because we could not find reliable sources for their stories or current access, and we corrected Franklin Castle’s history, where the murder and secret passage tales have been debunked. New in this update: haunted hotels count as haunted places, so the Golden Lamb, Buxton Inn, Netherland Plaza, Lafayette, Hackett, Hotel Millersburg and Punderson Manor now have cards; we added Mortuary Manor, the Old Licking County Jail and Poasttown Elementary, where Haunted Rooms runs or has run ghost hunts; and we added the Moonville Tunnel, Squire’s Castle, Cincinnati Music Hall and the Victoria Theatre, plus a full guide to The Ridges.
Visited one of these places? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from visitors and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your visit. We read every story before it’s published.
The Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield is the most famous, with its own ghost walks and overnight ghost hunts. The Ridges in Athens, Franklin Castle in Cleveland, the Old Licking County Jail in Newark and the Moonville Tunnel in Vinton County are close behind.
Where can I go ghost hunting in Ohio?
The Ohio State Reformatory runs public ghost hunts, Prospect Place in Trinway runs guided ghost hunts, and Haunted Rooms runs ghost hunts at Mortuary Manor in Toledo. We have also run ghost hunts at the Old Licking County Jail and Poasttown Elementary.
Can you stay overnight in a haunted place in Ohio?
Yes. The Golden Lamb in Lebanon, the Buxton Inn in Granville, the Lafayette and Hackett hotels in Marietta, Hotel Millersburg, Punderson Manor Lodge and the Netherland Plaza in Cincinnati all take guests. See our guide to haunted hotels in Ohio.
Is Molly Stark Hospital still standing?
No. Stark Parks closed the park around it in April 2024, and demolition began in October 2025. The site is closed to visitors.
Is Mudhouse Mansion still there?
No. Its owners demolished it on September 21, 2015, and the land is private. Its murder legends have no record behind them.
Can you visit the Moonville Tunnel at night?
Yes. It is on the free Moonville Rail Trail in Vinton County. Park at the gravel pull-offs by the bridge, walk in before dark and bring a flashlight for the way back.
Sources and how we research
Every place in this guide is checked against its official website, historic register listings and news coverage, and we confirm whether it is open, closed, private or gone before we list it. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and local historians tell them; we say so where records contradict a story. Each place shows how many independent sources we checked it against; our own Haunted Rooms pages are not counted.
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every place in our guides using official sites, historic registers, local archives and news coverage, and we report ghost stories as the stories they are. We review each guide regularly so you are not sent to a place that has closed, changed hands or banned visitors. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
