Franklin Castle: Ohio’s Most Haunted House
Christopher Busta-Peck/Wikimedia CommonsFranklin Castle was allegedly the site of a number of gory events.
Considered the most haunted house in Ohio, Franklin Castle is a strong contender for the most haunted house in America, too. And for years, its grand turrets and stone façade masked terrible tragedies.
In 1881, German immigrant Hannes Tiedemann built Franklin Castle in Cleveland for himself and his family. However, not long after they moved in, Tiedemann’s teenage daughter died of diabetes. Then his mother died. Soon, three more children died. And finally, Tiedemann’s wife, Louise, died in 1895. Shortly after that, Tiedemann himself left the house.
But this series of tragedies led some to speculate that Tiedemann had more than bad luck. Before long, rumors spread about what had really happened behind Franklin Castle’s ornate walls.
The darkest of the rumors claims that Tiedemann hanged his teenage daughter and killed the others. Human bones were even found in the house in 1975, but most believe that the current owner planted them to drum up publicity for ghost tours.
Tim Evanson/FlickrFranklin Castle is privately owned today, but ghost tours sometimes stop outside.
Today, Franklin Castle is home to many purported ghost sightings. People have claimed to see a “girl in white” wandering the halls, allegedly the ghost of Tiedemann’s daughter. Others say they’ve seen Louise Tiedemann staring down at the street from a window. The room where she died is known as the “cold room.”
Franklin Castle is allegedly so haunted that several paranormal teams have visited it to investigate.
“Franklin Castle is unlike any other,” explained Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures investigator Zak Bagans. “You can come here, open the door, walk inside and begin having experiences like that.”
He and his team claimed that something pushed them, and they recorded a ghostly voice that muttered: “Feels like… kill you.”
Certainly one of Ohio’s most haunted places, the Franklin Castle may also be one of the most haunted houses in America. Though visitors can only see it from the street, you may still catch a glimpse of Louise Tiedemann from the window.
