If you want to do some ghost hunting this Halloween, here is a definitive guide of the most haunted places in and around our city. Dayton has a lot of interesting history; some of it on the sinister side.
The old Dayton Daily News building
Dayton Daily News was originally headquartered in a building on the corner of 4th and Ludlow. It was built in 1910 but was tragically partially demolished in 2013 by mistake. Due to issues with ownership, the remainder of the building has been hanging in limbo ever since. The historic site has an equally troubled past.
In 1989 a man named Ted Sinks killed his wife and encased her body in concrete on the seventh floor of the building. Sinks was a maintenance supervisor for DDN and his wife Judy was a clerical worker for the newspaper’s circulation department. Sinks died in 2016 after spending almost 30 years in prison. Employees were reportedly relieved when the newspaper moved to a new location because of Judy’s ghost. The building had also been rumored to be haunted by founder Gov. James M. Cox, who had been seen working in the third-floor library and his former office.
The Amber Rose
The Amber Rose is a restaurant in north Dayton that specializes in Eastern European food. It was built in 1910 by a man named Sigmund Ksiezopolsk. He ran a general store and deli downstairs and his family lived upstairs until the 1980s, when Elinor Sluzas bought the building to open a restaurant. The Amber Rose opened in 1990 after a portion of the building had to be rebuilt due to a fire. According to author Chris Woodyard in her book series “Haunted Ohio”, Sluzas said her employees saw a girl with long black hair in the restaurant’s attic window. One of Ksiezopolsk’s daughters told Sulzas that the ghost was her sister Genevieve who died in 1983. She spent most of her time in the attic of the building growing up. Objects are known to move around and fall off shelves in the restaurant, and customers have reported seeing people in the bathroom mirrors that aren’t there when they turn around.
Stivers School for the Arts
Stivers is a middle school and high school located in east Dayton. It was built in 1908 and is the oldest operating Dayton Public School. Students have long heard the story of Mary Tyler who taught at the school in the 1920s. Tyler liked to swim in the pool that was located in the building’s basement; her body was found there after she drowned. Legend has it that she was romantically involved with a student at the time, which was somehow linked to her mysterious death. The Stivers pool is no more and it now sits abandoned under the photography class’ darkroom. What better place to see a ghost?
The Ridge Avenue Bridge
According to a series of articles written in 1990 by Roz Young (who graduated from Stivers) for the Dayton Daily News, the body of a woman named Bessie Little was found in the Stillwater River (a tributary of the Great Miami) on Sept. 2, 1896. The young woman was pregnant and unmarried, a huge scandal at the time, and it was believed that she had committed suicide. Little’s parents had kicked her out upon discovering she was pregnant and told her to not come back until she had married her lover Albert Franz. In late August, Franz picked Little up from the Dayton boarding house where she was staying to take her on a buggy ride, but Little never came back. Her body had two gunshot wounds in the head and Franz was sentenced to death for her murder. In 1897 he became the fourth man to die by electric chair in Ohio. The bridge became known as Bessie LIttle Bridge and is thought to be haunted by the young woman’s ghost. In September of 2015, the bridge was rebuilt, exactly 119 years after her untimely death.
The Witch’s Tower
This stone structure, known as the the Witch’s Tower or Frankenstein’s Castle, is located in Hills and Dales Metropark. It was built in 1941 and people were able to climb up the tower’s spiral staircase to see views of the nearby country club. However, it was closed in 1967 after a tragic incident occurred there. Two Bellbrook teenagers took cover in the tower one night during a thunderstorm. The tower was struck by lightning and one of the teenagers, 16-year-old Peggy Harmeson, was killed. Rumor has it that the burnt image of the girl was forever etched onto the inside of the tower walls. This is impossible to confirm as the tower has been sealed off ever since. You can still view the outside of the tower if you’re brave enough to take a hike through Hills and Dales Metropark.
Woodland Cemetery
It will probably come as no surprise that Woodland Cemetery is on this list. It was founded in 1841 and is now home to some of Dayton’s most famous residents, including the Wright Brothers, Erma Bombeck, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. However, one of the most well-known residents of Woodland is not a famous author or inventor but a little boy. 5-year old Johnny Morehouse was the son of a cobbler in Dayton in the 1860s. A canal used to run through the center of Dayton where Patterson Boulevard is now. One day Johnny and his dog were playing by the canal when he accidentally fell in. The dog pulled Johnny out of the water but he had already drowned. Legend has it that the dog wouldn’t leave Johnny’s grave after his burial, and you can see both the dog and the boy memorialized in his headstone. it is customary for visitors to leave toys and trinkets on the grave. Some people say if you hold your hand in front of the stone dog’s nose, you can feel its warm breath.
Patterson Homestead
Another historical building in Dayton is Patterson Homestead which dates back to 1816. It was the home of Colonel Robert Patterson of the influential Patterson family. The house is now a historical landmark and is open for tours. People have reported seeing Colonel Patterson wandering the house in his Revolutionary War uniform. Take a tour and see for yourself.
The Victoria Theater
The Victoria Theater in Downtown Dayton was built in 1866. It has seen many performers in the 155 years that it’s been open. The building survived a fire three years after it opened, withstood damages in the Great Flood of 1913, and another fire in 1918. There is a legend that one night before going on stage, an actress disappeared and was never seen again. It is thought that she was murdered and carried out of the theater in a trunk. The ghost became known as “Vicky” and people have reported smelling her rosy perfume in the theater’s lobby. See a show at the Victoria Theater and you might see a ghost as well.
Sinclair Community College
Our school’s Dayton campus is also known to be one of the most haunted places in Dayton. The Blair Hall Theatre has long been known to house ghosts, and the campus is rumored to have been built on Dayton’s old hanging grounds. Students have reported hearing ghostly voices and music. Keep an eye out for ghosts this semester and have a happy Halloween!
Rachel Rosen
Reporter/Social Media Coordinator