Following are the most haunted places in Columbus, Ohio, where cursed buildings and abandoned ruins hide a chilling past. These locations are known for paranormal sightings, eerie whispers, and a sense of dread that clings to those who dare venture too close after sunset.
Alpha Omicron Pi House
: "Legend has it that years ago, when the house was owned by another sorority, a sister jumped into Mirror Lake as an Ohio State tradition for Michigan Weekend. She was intoxicated and broke her neck. Her sisters took her back to the sorority house and placed her in her bed, afraid they would get in trouble for being drunk if they took her to the hospital. She died in the room and is said to open the closet doors and move things in the room. In other rooms, girls have said that they have heard the sound of bed springs, but no one will be sitting or laying on the bed. Her name is believe to be Mary-Ellen."
The Air and Space Museum
: "Haunted by the pilots of the old planes. Security guards hear planes start up at night and some have seen ghosts lurking around the museum during their night shift."
Briggs High School
: "Teachers claim to hear weird noises coming from the music room in the school. Apparitions walk through the halls at after school hours. Sometimes classroom desks moved without any explanation."
Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery
: "Many of these soldiers who died were buried in the prison cemetery and it is here that the "Lady in Gray" still walks and leaves gifts of flowers behind usually on the grave of a unknown soldier. She is said to be a young woman who wears a gray suit in the style of the Civil War era. She walks through the cemetery with her head bowed and appears to be weeping. She has been seen walking directly through trees and through the iron cemetery gates. In the summer of 1988, during a Civil War re-enactment, many of the people present heard the sounds of a woman crying. There was no woman present but the weeping sounds were unmistakable. It was believed to have been Lady in Gray, still grieving over the loss of some forgotten soldier."
Children's Hospital
: "The hospital is belived to be built over a grave yard, and if you go to the park at night time, you can feel things and you might see something."
Columbus State Community College
: "The ghosts that haunt it are there because the school was built directly on top of a Catholic cemetery. It is a few blocks away from Kelton house, mentioned above."
Fort Hayes Metropolitan High School
: "The school is partly built in remaining buildings of a civil war camp. Many of the old buildings still remain and are used for classes. One building was a hospital and it is home to many roaming spirits! People have heard the cries of dying and injured, spirits have been seen walking the halls dressed in old nurses uniforms and some soldiers roam it too. Another building is called "The Shot Tower" and it is home to numerous spirits. It was a tower to make ammunition during the Civil War. Many people lost their lives in the building, by accident, suicide, murder. Some students report they can not go to the top floor out of fear of what they feel is up there. The science building was once the mess hall and students have said one foggy mornings soldiers can be seen carrying their chow from the building and fading out of sight in the field across from the building. In the new buildings of the school, lockers have been said to open and close while the halls are empty. Footsteps are often heard in the stairwells at odd times. Many students say if they are in the halls during classes when the halls are empty, they feel like they are being followed or watched. There is more to the buildings and the fields at Ft Hayes."
Greenlawn Cemetery
: "is a site of multiple hauntings. The main mausoleum is haunted, as are a lot of the graves in the main cemetery."
Kelton House
: "the ghost of Grace Bird Kelton is seen in this house."
Mirror Lake
: "There is a ghost of a jogger who was killed there. If you sit on the east side and face west a cold breeze comes through and the lake goes perfectly calm and then on the northwest side you see the apparition of a spirit in a jogging suit who keeps turning around as though he was followed."
Mirror Lake
: "Ohio State - There was a student who drowned in Mirror Lake at Ohio State University back in the sixties. Every once in a while at night, there are sounds of water splashing and a guy screaming...but there is no one there."
Nationwide Arena
: "Site of the Ohio State Pen - built where the old pen used to be when the pen was there many people sighted & heard things that were not meant to be seen or heard examples: 1. old cafeteria used to be place where hangings occurred before it was cafeteria, even though there were broken windows to let in traffic noise upon entering the building was dead silent 2. the electro shock therapy room has noises and is extremely cold now it seems as the nationwide arena area is cursed - 12 yr. old girl hit in head by hockey puck at game dies as well as other freak accidents resulting in deaths."
Old Governor's Mansion
: "the ghost of a black woman dress in old fashion type clothes has been seen here."
Ohio State University
: "Alpha Delta Pi Sorority - According to some girls in that house, a girl in another sorority got sick and died in the house years ago. Since then the ADPi sorority moved into the house and the hauntings began. The girls claim to see a girl walking down hallways, looking out windows, and looking back at them in reflections in the mirrors. Visitors to the house claim to have seen chandeliers mysteriously moving and have heard strange sounds."
St. Pius X School
: "The men''s restroom is very cold in the left stall. The feel of being watched is present."
Wallahalla
: "It''s said that years ago [I''ve heard both the 1800''s and the 1960''s] a man murdered his wife and daughter in a house on Wallahalla. If you drive down the road at night and go under the bridge, you can see the reflection of the wife and daughter in the water [to the right of the road]. After you go under the bridge, the road very VERY gradually but if you take your foot off of the gas and break, not only do you not slow down, you don''t even keep even. You speed up. - November 2003 update:In addition to what is already posted, he then committed suicide by hanging himself off the bridge, and supposedly, if you drive under the bridge at midnight, you''ll see the shadow or apparition of his ghost swinging from the bridge."
Walnut Knolls
: "There have been stories of a woman getting decapitated on the 3rd floor, children drowning in the pool (now filled in), and hearing people walking in the attic (has been blocked off for years). This apartment was a Mental Hospital back in the 40''s and 50''s. Many see lights on, in vacant apartments. And one specific ghost "George" who likes to throw shampoo bottles at the residents, stories say that this ghost was an old patient."