Ghost stories have been around for ages, passed down from generation to generation. Every town has a ghost story. Some are far-fetched, while others can seem plausible. Columbus is no exception, claiming home to dozens of allegedly haunted houses.
Matt Hancharick/The LanternThurber House, in downtown Columbus, sits atop the ashes of the Ohio Lunatic Asylum and is said to be haunted.
One of Columbus’ most historic homes lays claim to a resident ghost, with two stories behind the haunting.
A fire on Nov. 17, 1868 caused the Ohio Lunatic Asylum to burn to the ground and is thought to have cost seven people their lives. The Thurber House now sits atop its ashes.
The other story involves a man who received a phone call from a stranger, who told him if he went home from work early he would hear his wife committing adultery.
The man came home early and, upon hearing his wife’s unfaithfulness, ran upstairs and shot himself in a second floor room.
Famed author and cartoonist James Thurber lived in the house in the early 20th Century. He documented an encounter with a ghost one night when he was upstairs getting ready for bed.
As the story goes, Thurber was in his bathroom when he heard heavy footsteps downstairs. Frightened, he woke his brother. Together, they walked to the foot of the stairs where Thurber called out to the person.
As soon as Thurber spoke, heavy footsteps were heard running up the stairs. Thurbers’ brother was terrified and ran back to his room and shut the door, leaving Thurber to face the footsteps alone. Thurber waited to confront the person as the footsteps came closer, but no one could be seen. Thurber waited until the footsteps were at the top of the stairs, then slammed the door shut.
Meg Brown, manager of children’s programming at Thurber House, acknowledged many strange events have happened at the house. She said a writer staying in the Thurber House encountered something strange last summer.
“She went to play her radio and she would be in one room and the radio would either turn off, turn on or change channels,” Brown said.
Matt Hancharick/The LanternThe Greater Columbus Antique Mall, located near the Brewery District, has reported many kinds of paranormal activity.
This building is host to much alleged paranormal activity.
The antique store used to be a funeral home and an Elks Club lounge, but Patty Altevogt has owned the Greater Columbus Antique Mall for many years.
Strange occurrences are normal in this antique heaven. So much so that Altevogt said four paranormal teams have examined the store.
Altevogt said the talk of paranormal activity started when she gave a woman a tour of the store. In the basement the woman said she met a man standing with his arm on her, comforting her. She described him to Altevogt perfectly. In Altevogt’s office, there is an old photo of a man standing in front of a funeral home – the same building that now houses the antique mall. The man in the photo was the same that the woman saw.
Altevogt said she used to have many night break-ins at her store, so she installed glass breakers, a system of alarms that record at the onset of loud noise.
Although she said break-ins are a thing of the past, the glass breakers are tripped some nights.
“It sounded like glass breaking and coffee cups rolling across the floor. And I would come in and there wouldn’t be anything out of place,” Altevogt said.
When the store closes at night, the last employee flips off the power at a circuit breaker in the middle of the building. Altevogt said when she and employees flip the breakers and round a corner to exit the store, they feel a presence to their left. No one has the nerve to look to their left and most take off running, she said.
Other alleged paranormal guests include “a lot of children in the attic,” Altevogt said. Paranormal groups spend much time in the attic, attempting to communicate with them. Altevogt said a priest who rents antique space upstairs claims to carry on conversations with the deceased children.
A long wooden bench is allegedly home to two old ladies who can sometimes be heard carrying on conversations with one another.
Altevogt said employees reported being touched.
One college student said he saw two orbs pass through a hallway and out a door.
Altevogt said another employee was closing the store when he turned a corner and saw a man in a cape walking away from him.
When the employee yelled to the man, he sped up and vanished into thin air.
The employee quit the same night.
Matt Hancharick/The LanternThe Fort Hayes military post dates back to the 1800s. There have been reports of dead soldiers haunting the buildings on the campus, which is now home to the Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center.
The Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center sits on the campus of the former Fort Hayes military post.
Dan Mushalko is the general manager of WCBE, a radio station on the campus of the former Fort Hayes.
He said Fort Hayes was created during the Civil War as a training camp for a large number of Ohio volunteers for the Union army.
Mushalko said accidents were commonplace at the training camp, making for great ghost stories.
“You’re going to have a lot of people dying just while they’re being trained,” Mushalko said.
The Fort Hayes Shot Tower was the first building constructed on the military complex, and many stories originate from the building.
When the campus was being renovated years ago, a military veteran was assigned duty in the shot tower.
One night at the shot tower, the veteran was awakened by a figure standing near him. The figure motioned for the veteran to follow him and together they went up to the attic.
The stranger pointed to support beams in the attic where people had written their names in chalk, dating back to the 1800s. When the veteran looked up from the writing, the figure had disappeared.
The next day the veteran went upstairs to make sure he hadn’t imagine the whole encounter. Sure enough, he found the names at the exact spot the apparition had pointed.
After Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, his body was shown at major cities on the way to his burial in Illinois.
When his body was shown in Columbus, cannons at Fort Hayes were fired every hour in salute, said former Fort Hayes teacher Doreen Uhas-Sauer.
One of the cannons overheated and exploded, killing a soldier named Nicholas Hartzel.
It is rumored that Hartzel courting the general’s daughter, and the general, who disapproved of the relationship, knowingly sent him to man the overheated cannon.
People often claim they hear cannons being fired periodically on campus, and they credit it to Hartzel.
Mushalko said most of the stories he knows can be explained by natural occurrences.
Matt Hancharick can be reached at [email protected]
