Haunted Columbus, OH: The 9 Most Haunted Places to Visit
A capitol built by convicts, the house where James Thurber heard a ghost, a mausoleum that knocks back and an 1830s tavern with a manslaughter case behind its ghost. These are Columbus’s most haunted places, with what is true and how to visit.
Columbus’s haunted places cluster around downtown and the old East Town Street neighborhood, with two classic haunted inns and jails within an hour’s drive. We have checked every place below against current sources, so you know which you can visit, which run tours or investigations and which you can only see from the street. The Buxton Inn in Granville is the place to stay, and Haunted Rooms has run ghost hunts at the Old Licking County Jail in Newark.
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.
Where to look The dining room, the stairs and the third floor
Reported ghosts The ghost that got in: footsteps, a man in the mirrors, thrown books
Visiting Museum open weekend afternoons
Hours and season Saturday and Sunday 1 to 4 PM (check the site)
Ghost hunting Yes: private ghost investigations by booking
James Thurber lived in this 1873 house as a student until 1917, and in “The Night the Ghost Got In” he wrote about footsteps running around the dining room table one night in 1915. The house stands on the site of the Ohio Lunatic Asylum, which burned in 1868, killing seven women. It is now a literary center and museum.
Staff and writers in residence report footsteps, a man’s figure in mirrors, books thrown from shelves and a broken clock that chimed. Ghost Hunters filmed here in 2010. The museum opens on weekend afternoons, and you can book a private ghost investigation.
What investigators report
The house suggests investigators spend time in the parlor, Robert’s bedroom and the third-floor apartment, and try playing early 1900s music or the vintage piano. Ghost Hunters recorded unexplained shuffling during EVP sessions and filmed the famous clock popping open.
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 rotunda and Senate side around 5 PM, and the House chamber
Reported ghosts Senate clerk Thomas Bateman, a weeping Lady in Gray, Civil War soldiers
Visiting Free tours daily except state holidays; enter from Third Street or the underground garage
Tours Free guided tours on the hour (weekdays 10 AM to 3 PM, weekends noon to 3 PM); ticketed haunted tours on select October nights ($16 in 2026, ages 12 and up)
Ohio’s Greek Revival capitol took from 1839 to 1861 to finish, and its 18-foot-deep foundations were laid partly by prisoners sentenced to hard labor. It opened in 1857, Abraham Lincoln visited three times, and it is a National Historic Landmark. Free guided tours leave the Map Room on the hour, 10 AM to 3 PM on weekdays and noon to 3 PM on weekends.
Its best-known ghost is Thomas Bateman, a Senate clerk from 1919 to 1971. Statehouse staff say he still heads home around 5 PM, with flickering lights, a whiff of cigar smoke or a chill crossing the rotunda toward High Street. Older tales add a weeping Lady in Gray, Civil War soldiers and Lincoln dancing with Kate Chase. The Statehouse has run haunted tours on October nights for more than 30 years; they cost $16 in 2026 and often sell out.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book an October haunted tour early, or join a free daytime tour and linger in the rotunda near 5 PM on a weekday.
Where to look The Hayden Mausoleum and the old paths
Reported ghosts Knocks from inside the Hayden Mausoleum, shadow figures
Visiting Open daily from 7 AM
Tours Night tours by Columbus Ghost Tours
Hours and season Daily 7 AM to 7 PM from mid-March, 7 AM to 5 PM from October 20
Green Lawn opened in 1849 to a plan by landscape gardener Howard Daniels and is now Ohio’s second-largest cemetery: about 360 acres on the south side of Columbus with more than 155,000 burials, among them governors, James Thurber and Eddie Rickenbacker. Its showpiece is the domed Hayden Mausoleum, designed by Frank Packard for banker Charles H. Hayden, with twelve marble sarcophagi inside and a roof that now badly needs repair.
Its local rite of passage is knocking on the Hayden Mausoleum’s chained doors, and the story says something knocks back. Visitors also report shadowy figures on the paths. The tale has no record behind it, and the mausoleum is sealed and fragile, so look but do not touch. Columbus Ghost Tours runs night tours of the cemetery, the only way to be there after closing.
Haunted Rooms tip: Visit by day, or join a Columbus Ghost Tours night walk; the gates close at 7 PM in summer and 5 PM in winter.
Reported ghosts A man killed in 1859 when he tried to break into the brothel upstairs
Visiting Bar; check current hours
This 1830s building near the courthouse is often called Columbus’s oldest bar, with drinks served here since about 1831. It began as lodging for people attending court, and for a time part of it was a brothel. It traded for decades as the Jury Room, then as the Blind Lady Tavern, which closed in 2023, and it is now back under the Jury Room name as a pub and event space.
The ghost story is rooted in a real case. In 1859 a woman named Francis Miller was convicted of manslaughter for killing a drunk man who tried to force his way into the brothel, and served eleven years. The dead man is said to be one of the spirits here. Staff and patrons also tell of a tall man in a white shirt, objects flying off shelves and stove burners that switch on by themselves.
Haunted Rooms tip: Check current opening hours before you go, as the bar has changed hands.
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.
Reported ghosts The original owner's wife; a ghostly piano player
Visiting Restaurant; check current hours
The Red Brick Tavern was built in 1836 and 1837 as a stagecoach inn on the National Road at Lafayette, about 25 miles west of Columbus near London. Six presidents stopped here, from John Quincy Adams to Warren G. Harding. Railroads emptied the road and it closed as an inn in 1859, held a school on its third floor, returned to tavern use in 1924 and joined the National Register in 1975. Brothers Kyle and Travis Massey bought the shuttered building in 2021 and reopened it as a restaurant.
Its ghost is said to be a young wife who took her own life after learning of her husband’s affairs, seen at a third-floor window and heard walking overhead; one owner named her as Effa, wife of the man who built it. Diners have also told of a phantom piano player and pictures that move. The Masseys say they have never seen a thing, even staying overnight, and hope to offer rooms again one day.
Haunted Rooms tip: Make a reservation for dinner and ask for a table under the old upstairs rooms.
Address Ohio State University campus, south of the Oval, Columbus, OH 43210
Where to look The water's edge after dark
Reported ghosts A woman in a pink dress; a drowning replayed
Visiting Open campus grounds
Mirror Lake is the small pond at the heart of Ohio State’s campus, just south of the Oval and below Pomerene Hall. It began as spring-fed pools in the 1870s, was paved with brick in 1935 and reopened in 2018 after a two-year restoration that also ended the old Mirror Lake Jump before the Michigan game, after a student died in 2015.
The best-known tale is of a woman in a pink dress who walks or skates across the water at night. She is usually said to be the widow of economics professor Frederick Clark, who took his own life in 1903 after a bad mining investment; tellings disagree on whether he died on the hill where Pomerene Hall stands or in the lake. Students have passed the story on since at least 1990.
Haunted Rooms tip: Walk the lake after dark, then cross to Orton Hall, whose bell tower has its own ghost story.
Reported ghosts A woman in servant's clothing, with smells of smoke
Visiting Offices: see it from the street
Frank Packard designed this red brick Georgian mansion on East Broad Street for uniform maker Charles Lindenberg, whose family moved in in 1904. The state bought it in 1919 for $75,000, and from 1920 to 1957 ten governors and their families lived here, starting with James M. Cox. It later held the state archives and a restaurant, and has been the headquarters of the Columbus Foundation since 1987.
Its ghost, as Columbus Navigator and NBC4 tell it, is a Black woman in old-fashioned servant’s clothing seen in several rooms. Workers restoring the house said she appeared to them and seemed pleased with the work, and others report strange smells, sometimes of smoke, and pictures that seem to jump off the walls. There are no tours, so admire it from the street.
Haunted Rooms tip: See it from East Broad Street, then walk on to the Kelton House and Thurber House nearby.
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.
Kelton House Museum and Garden
The 1852 Kelton family home on East Town Street, an Underground Railroad site with stories of Oscar Kelton in his Civil War uniform, has been closed since a gas explosion and fire in November 2025. Inspectors said the main house may be salvageable; check for news of a reopening.
The Ohio Penitentiary
The state prison that once held thousands of men, and whose inmates helped build the Statehouse, was demolished in 1998. Nothing remains to visit.
Nationwide Children's Hospital
Older lists tell of a Pink Lady seen from the wards. It is a working children’s hospital: please do not visit for ghost hunting.
More haunted places nearby
Haunted places in Ohio: the Ohio State Reformatory, The Ridges, Franklin Castle and more
Changed from our older guide: the Red Brick Tavern is in Lafayette on the National Road, not on Gates Street in Columbus, and it opened in 1837; the Blind Lady Tavern closed in 2023 and the bar is now the Jury Room; the Kelton House is closed after a 2025 fire. We removed the Elevator Brewery, because we could not confirm it is still open, and Watkins Road Bridge, because we found no reliable source for its stories. New in this update: the Ohio Statehouse, the Buxton Inn and the Old Licking County Jail.
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.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most haunted place in Columbus?
Thurber House, where James Thurber set “The Night the Ghost Got In,” is the best known, followed by the Ohio Statehouse, Green Lawn Cemetery and the Kelton House. Just outside the city, the Old Licking County Jail and the Buxton Inn have the strongest reputations.
Can you go ghost hunting in Columbus?
Thurber House offers private ghost investigations, the Statehouse runs lantern-lit haunted tours each October, and Columbus Ghost Tours runs night walks including Green Lawn Cemetery. Haunted Rooms has run ghost hunts at the Old Licking County Jail in Newark.
Is the Kelton House open?
Not at the moment. A gas explosion and fire in November 2025 closed it, and no reopening date has been set.
Is the old Ohio Penitentiary still standing?
No. It was demolished in 1998. Its prisoners helped build the Ohio Statehouse, which you can tour for free.
Where can I stay in a haunted hotel near Columbus?
The Buxton Inn in Granville, about 30 miles east, is one of Ohio’s oldest and most haunted inns. See our Buxton Inn guide.
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.
