Our Favorite Haunts
Halloween is the one day a year even the most cowardly among us longs to hear a scary story. (Just not too scary!)
From ghostly tales about local landmarks to embarking on a guided trek of spooky spots around town, it’s easy to get your fright on. For Halloween, we explore a few stories perfect for Halloween night. All you need to do is a flashlight to put under your chin!
Not a photo from The Shining.
Need a drink to steady your nerves? If you find yourself having a martini at the Hilton Netherland Plaza, don’t be surprised if you run into a Lady in Green.
According to the Walking Tour and Pocket History of the hotel, the Lady in Green was the wife of one of the hotel’s laborers back who was killed during construction. His body was never found! Her restless spirit continues to search for him his wife continues to search for his body even in the afterlife. Construction workers who helped in the hotel’s renovation in the 1980s reported seeing her on the Mezzanine level and the Hall of Mirrors.
Cincinnati’s history, and ghostly mysteries, is older than the 20th century. The Taft Museum of Art, home to notable Cincinnatians including Nicholas Longworth and Anna and Charles Taft, is also home to its share of ghost stories. On the internet, that repository of accurate information, you’ll find plenty of tales of wandering apparitions and even poltergeist-like activity in the gift shop.
Reader, I worked at the Taft. While I didn’t experience terror in the gift shop or Scooby Doo-esque following eyes, I have a tale to tell.
The attic at the Taft, which was once the servants’ quarters, is now used for storage. Holiday decorations and other seldom needed items are kept there. On the rare occasions when you need something, you pop up, grab what you came for, and head back down the steps.
One night after leaving an event, I saw a light on in the attic. I called a colleague and asked her to remind Security to turn it off – They had obviously left it on during a routine walk-through.
She said the attic isn’t part of their usual Security check. No one had been up there.
They hadn’t turned on the light.
. . .
Insert gif of Carrie Bradshaw blinking.
For a Halloween program at the Taft, we hosted local paranormal investigators who offered tours of the house, complete with electromagnetic field (EMF) meters. One of the investigators told me a lot of what the EMF meters pick up are readings from electrical outlets. They said that’s often the simple explanations for ghostly activity in old buildings like the Taft. As we walked through the museum at the end of the night they demonstrated with the EMF.
Except in one spot.
On the stairs in the old house, by a portrait of Nicholas Longworth, the EMF reader was going crazy. But there was no outlet under the painting. The wall had didn’t have an outlet on the other side of the wall. The reasonable explanation didn’t work in this situation.
One of the most allegedly haunted buildings in Cincinnati is Music Hall. Longtime employees have shared numerous ghost stories over the years, and the building was once featured on an episode of Ghost Hunters.
The Friends of Music Hall offer the story of John Engst, a former night watchman who heard music one night during his usual rounds. But there was no concert or rehearsal happening.
“I re-entered the elevator and closed the doors. The music was still there. I opened the rear of the elevator, entered the adjoining hall, no sound. Returning to the elevator to proceed to Corbett Tower and closed it up, the music was as beautiful as ever,” he reported.
If you’d like to explore just how haunted Music Hall really is, you can join the Friends of Music Hall for a Ghost Tour with the Cincinnati Research and Paranormal Studies on Nov. 18.
For a tour that will bring the stories of the long dead to life, look no further than American Legacy Tours. Their Queen City is Haunted Tour promises to uncover “stories of grisly murders, ghastly deaths and other disturbing tales” from Cincinnati's past. Centered in Over-the-Rhine, the tour includes ghost stories about Music Hall and finding the truth about the “Witch of Washington Park.”
The Halloween tours are booked. However, tours are available on Nov. 5, which is Guy Fawkes Day. That’s a scary date, too, especially if you’re a member of British parliament in 1605.
–Tricia Suit