All states / Ohio
Explore 52 haunted places in Ohio. Read ghost stories, local history, source notes, and visiting information in the PHASM Haunted Atlas.
Newark, Ohio · Prison
Paranormal accounts at the old Licking County Jail include footsteps on an empty second floor, a woman’s scream from the fourth floor and recordings interpreted as a voice giving the name Carl. PANICd collects these reports alongside the jail’s violent history; the recorded name does not establish the speaker’s identity.
Valley View, Ohio · Other
A modern Ohio road-trip account says Sophie Sarnacki, associated with an earlier tavern across the street, is believed to visit Lockkeepers. The tale follows her presence into the current restaurant rather than confining it to the earlier business. It is a local haunting tradition, not evidence that the buildings are the same physical site.
Madison, Ohio · Other
Madison Seminary’s folklore names a presence called Sarah, heard as a childlike voice in a room filled with visitors’ toys. Haunted US also describes a pale, long-dressed apparition identified as Civil War spy Elizabeth Stiles in Wittenmyer Cottage. Other visitors report conversations without visible speakers and doors banging in the old complex.
Chillicothe, Ohio · Theater
Ohio Exploration Society records a girl appearing around the Majestic’s dressing rooms and a man seen at the height of an earlier stage floor. Performers also describe someone looking down through an empty control-booth window. Disembodied cries and drifting haze accompany the theatre’s long-running backstage stories.
Mansfield, Ohio · Other
The Mansfield Fire Museum’s own haunted-tour page recounts a truck’s side mirror moving while an employee watched, noises when only one person was present, flickering lights and shadow figures. Its collection of firefighting equipment and a coffin formerly used at the reformatory are sometimes offered as explanations for the reported activity.
near Zaleski, Ohio · Road or bridge
On an Ohio rail trail, Moonville’s brick tunnel preserves a railway ghost story centered on a moving lantern. Nineteenth-century newspaper material reproduced by a modern researcher gives the tradition unusual depth. The trail welcomes paranormal investigators during public hours, with a permit required for late-night visits.
Dayton, Ohio · Other
Aviation folklore at the Air Force museum attaches experiences to individual aircraft, including a figure apparently operating switches in the Hopalong helicopter and voices around Black Mariah. Our Haunted Travels recounts those stories. The museum’s public-affairs office told Cleveland 19 that no ghost sightings had been officially documented and no physical evidence supported the claim.
Mansfield, Ohio · Prison
The enormous Gothic-styled reformatory in Mansfield is linked to voices, unexplained activity and booked paranormal explorations.
Toledo, Ohio · Hotel
Oliver House’s haunted reputation includes figures linked by paranormal guide Chris Bores to the building’s nineteenth-century occupants. In a 13abc interview, he described encounters with a woman waiting after her husband left for war and another woman he believes was a murdered servant. These identities and histories are Bores’s interpretations.
Gallipolis, Ohio · Historic house
Our House Museum’s reported sounds echo its former tavern life: footsteps in the front hallway and a woman singing upstairs where the ballroom stood. Folklorist Jannette Quackenbush identifies another supposed resident as tavern builder Henry Cushing, whose ghost is said to remain in the preserved house.
Put-in-Bay, Ohio · Hotel
The Park Hotel’s best-known presence is the Governess, said to linger near children and Room 14 after a fatal fall on the stairs. Island tourism accounts describe another figure looking from Room 17 and haunting the Winter Bar, while other guests report old-fashioned music without a visible source.
Middletown, Ohio · Other
Poasttown owner and former pupil Darrell Whisman told WCPO that he hears desks scraping upstairs, children’s footsteps and voices when only he and his wife are present. The school’s evidence page includes recordings interpreted as a little girl speaking and security-camera incidents attributed to an unseen presence. The former school is now privately controlled.
Newbury, Ohio · Hotel
Punderson Manor’s original rooms are associated with abrupt cold spots, figures that vanish and children heard in empty corridors. Cleveland Magazine records an employee story of a lumberjack-like figure hanging in the dining room and a different apparition resembling Theodore Roosevelt, supposedly waiting for his rocking chair to be returned.
Mansfield, Ohio · Theater
Historian Timothy Brian McKee collected a Renaissance Theatre account from a woman named Leta: during a 1930s matinee, she noticed an anxious young woman in the balcony and later heard intense sobbing behind her. Turning around, she found no one there. Other theatre lore places a figure near the ballroom corridor and projection booth.
Painesville, Ohio · Hotel
Rider’s Inn embraces stories of former occupants still appearing in its rooms, particularly Suzanne, a wife of the historic innkeeper. Ohio tourism recounts a woman in nightclothes opening the door for arriving guests and a Civil War-era soldier seen waving from a window.
Cincinnati, Ohio · Other
Former Sedamsville Rectory tenants promoted stories of unexplained voices, moving doors and hostile presences, leading to paranormal television appearances. WCPO’s reporting also found a former resident who experienced nothing unusual and an exorcist who disputed the impression created by television editing. The site’s haunted reputation is documented, but actively contested.
Put-in-Bay, Ohio · Other
South Bass Island Lighthouse is linked to reports of footsteps, banging doors and unexplained sounds. Ohio tourism connects the folklore to Sam Anderson’s death near the lighthouse in 1898. The tragedy is historical context for the reputation, while claims that his restless presence remains are local legend.
Medina, Ohio · Hotel
A Medina County District Library genealogy post collects Spitzer House stories of a servant girl seen in Anna’s Room, male voices in the dining room and a piano playing without a visible pianist. Other accounts describe a stern man in Ceilan’s Room, doors closing and gentle taps from an unseen source.
Hanoverton, Ohio · Hotel
Spread Eagle Tavern’s own room description identifies Olivina, the Lady in the Window, as its resident ghost and connects her with the third-floor Jefferson Room. The inn’s tradition ties her to a fatal personal tragedy in that room; it presents the ghost as part of the experience of staying in the historic building.
Cincinnati, Ohio · Natural landmark
The Spring House Gazebo’s reported woman in black is identified in Cincinnati lore as Imogene Remus, killed near the gazebo in 1927. Stories place her at the structure and nearby Mirror Lake, looking toward the water. Local reporting recounts the murder as the historical event around which the apparition tradition developed.
Willoughby Hills, Ohio · Other
Squire’s Castle carries a legend that its owner’s wife died after being frightened inside the building and still wanders the shell. Cleveland Historical directly corrects that origin story: she died elsewhere years after the property was sold. The real gatehouse nevertheless remains a recognizable setting for persistent ghost folklore. Use the haunting as a corrected local legend; do not repeat the death-in-castle story as history.
Marietta, Ohio · Other
At the Anchorage, also known as Putnam Villa, ghost stories focus on Eliza Putnam, for whom the mansion was built, and on David Putnam. A Lost & Found Ohio investigation account identifies both as supposed lingering residents. The house’s later life as a retirement home contributes further layers to its paranormal reputation.
Athens, Ohio · Hospital
At the former Athens asylum, Ohio Exploration Society investigators describe darting shadows, figures appearing in mirrors and a woman in yellow in a hallway. Margaret Schilling’s death and the stain left where her body was found underpin the best-known local story, but the reported apparitions remain separate from the documented death.
Columbus, Ohio · Historic house
James Thurber’s own experience of unexplained sounds inspired his comic story about a ghost entering the family home. The museum’s current account records lights behaving strangely, pets reacting to unseen presences and a visitor’s description of a resistant, web-like feeling across a doorway. It explicitly says Thurber’s own ghost is unconfirmed.