Off-campus housing holds some haunts of its own along with the spooky stories from on-campus buildings. Credit: Courtesy of Ally Boyd | For The Lantern
For all the craziness 2020 has brought, it’s little surprise at this point even something as mundane to Ohio State students as off-campus housing holds some haunts of its own.
Students have deliberated over Ohio State’s spookiest sites for years. Does Olive Branch Jones, a librarian who has been seen wandering Thompson Library’s basement since she died in 1933, take the cake? Perhaps the award goes to Oxley Hall, which, according to a Lantern article from 1990, houses the ghost of a woman who died within the walls of Ohio State’s first female residence hall. Or maybe the honor goes to a collection of off-campus spirits who tried to steal a student’s late night snack.
Eric Kaiser, a 2019 Ohio State alumnus, said he and four other roommates lived in a house near Indianola and East 13th avenues beginning their sophomore year. As soon as he moved into the house, Kaiser said he and his roommates noticed a carving in his bedroom: “RIP” next to someone’s name.
A few weeks later, Kaiser said he and his roommates started noticing strange noises. He described it as whispering and said it sounded like someone left the television on in another room.
“This would go on and on,” Kaiser said. “Every time this happened, we would walk upstairs and grab whatever we could, because we didn’t know if it was actually a person in the apartment or what. And every time, there’s nothing. No one in the apartment.”
Kaiser recalled a particularly strange occurrence with a hungry spirit.
“People don’t really believe it, but I was making pizza rolls and as I went to put ranch on the plate for the pizza rolls, the plate shot across the counter. Just probably a few feet away from me,” Kaiser said.
In the same vein of similarly strange events, Matt Halas, a fourth-year in logistics and Spanish, said he and his roommates may have a restless spirit haunting their Iuka Ravine Historic District residence. His interactions with the paranormal began when they found belongings of a deceased Ruth Novak in their basement. After some digging, they discovered Novak not only lived in the house from 1932 to 1965 — she died there.
“We hear running up and down the stairs, even though there might be a couple of us home and no one was outside of their room,” Halas said.
Halas said he and his roommates haven’t reached out to the landlord about Novak’s trinkets. He said they wanted to leave her clothes, candle-holders and kitchen utensils alone.
“As long as we’re not disturbed, we won’t touch it, we won’t disturb anything. Kind of like a mutual respect. We don’t want any bad omens,” Halas said.
Unlike Halas and his roommates, who still hear footsteps to this day, Kaiser said after a home visit from a coworker interested in spirits and the paranormal, they no longer noticed anything strange.
Kaiser said his coworker lit candles, burned sage and did a tarot card reading before acknowledging that she felt a presence. Once she got to his room, Kaiser said she shivered and told him the presence was especially strong.
“Obviously all my roommates are laughing at me and they’re like, ‘Well good luck with that,’” Kaiser said. “When she was done with that, she said she talked to the spirits and that they just wanted to be recognized that they were there. They weren’t there to harm us.”
Although Kaiser said he didn’t have any unusual occurrences after that — and the apartment he lived in has since been completely renovated — anyone living around Indianola and East 13th avenues can only benefit themselves and their midnight snacks by saying a cautionary “I recognize you.”
