SECTION VI schools and public buildings
Anderson High School
Grace E. Hunt School
Miamitown Elementary School
Mother of Mercy High School
Mount Notre Dame High School
Norwood Middle School
Oak Hills High School
Peabody Hall at Miami University
Rapid Run Middle School
Old Reily High School
St. Xavier High School
Taylor High School
Western Hills High School
Cincinnati Job Corps
Hooven Firehouse
Mt. Saint Joseph Motherhouse
Satan’s Hollow
Cincinnati Subway
Westwood Town Hall
Appendix 1: Chapters Organized Geographically
Appendix 2: Daytripping (or in this case, Nighttripping)
Appendix 3: Paranormal Investigation Groups
About the Authors
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
So many people out there helped to make this book possible. Since there is such an eclectic and vast number of locations, histories, and ghosts in this book, it was necessary to speak with a large number of people and to use a variety of resources to bring all of this together. I would like to start by thanking all of those people whose names I have forgotten and those people whose names I never had the chance to get. Without these people, this book would not have come to be, and I apologize profusely to those who helped me that I have left out of this section.
This being said, there are many other people who helped me with the book whose names I do have. Some of these people, I simply and fortunately remembered to record their names, and others I have the privilege and honor to call my friends. The following list of people are ghost researchers, business owners, and other people who have lived in this haunted city who have helped me acquire both ghost stories and history from many of these locations. Many of the ghost researchers and investigators from this list were actually kind enough to write blurbs about their own paranormal experiences, and they did not ask for anything in return: Michele Hale, Matt Hoskins, Noah Carlisle, Sarah McEvoy, Helen Ryan, Chris Maggard, Christel Brooks, Melinda Smith, Nick Sakelos, Diane Bachman, Scott Santangelo, Jeff Craig, Joedy Cook, Garett Merk, Lisa Edwards, Tristan Goins, Diane Ward, Jennifer Adams, Sgt. Ron Reckers, Sir Fred.
Beyond these people, there are several organizations that aided immensely in the research necessary for this book: Whitewater Township Historical Society, Delhi Historical Society, Indian Hill Historical Society, Liberty Township Historical Society, Cincinnati Historical Society, Public Libraries of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Butler County Historical Society, Mt. Healthy Historical Society, the Knights of the Golden Trail, Cincinnati Paranormal, Cincinnati Regional Association for Paranormal Studies, Southern Ohio Apparition Researchers, Northern Kentucky Paranormal Society, Tri State Paranormal of Northern Kentucky, Paranormal Researchers of Northern Kentucky, Tristate Paranormal and Oddities Observation Practitioners.
Further, there are several people who I would like to mention individually for the contributions they made to this book.
I would like to thank Rick Fenbers and Ray Lykins for their contributions to the chapter on Satan’s Hollow. When I was working on my first book with my brother, we spent countless hours researching the city of Blue Ash, looking for any clue to the location of this old tunnel system. We found nothing and had all but given up the search when we learned from Rick and Ray that they had finally found it. It is due to the adventurous nature of Rick and Ray from Cincinnati Regional Association for Paranormal Studies that this chapter has made its way into this book. They should be considered an inspiration to all of those potential paranormal explorers in this city and around the world.
Next, I would like to thank Joy Naylor. Not only is Joy a close friend of mine, but she is responsible for many of the ghost stories in the book, especially those stories from the Indian Hill and Norwood areas of town. I approached her one day asking for any ghost stories she knew from the city, and she began listing them off faster than I could write them down. It is entirely due to her that many of the stories from Indian Hill, Hyde Park, Norwood, and Milford wound up in this book. She was always anxious to help all she could, and she deserves my sincere gratitude.
Next, I would like to thank Jack Heffron, my publisher. Without him, this book would still likely be little more than notes and ideas. When I pitched the idea for the book to him, he was immediately excited about it and has championed it throughout its development. Jack has helped carry this book from its inception to where it is today and more importantly has fought for it, unwilling to let the idea die at any stage. In more ways than one, this is his book.
Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family who helped keep me sane throughout the countless hours of work that went into this book, especially my wife, Amy, who picked up my slack at home while I was out photographing, researching, and writing.
INTRODUCTION
MY TWO GREATEST INTERESTS ARE, first, the paranormal and, second, history. The reason I have placed these two fields of study in this order is because, essentially, this is the order that they became my top interests. In 2005, I lived near a road in Cincinnati that was reputed to be haunted. I cannot explain in great detail why this rumor excited me so much beyond the fact that it seemed to be something completely unexplored in my own mind. For me, ghosts were the stuff of horror movies and television shows. When I heard that there was supposedly some real paranormal entity within walking distance from my house, I was very excited. I probably drove down that road hundreds of times hoping to experience something paranormal. Though I never did, I kept going back again and again. It did not matter that I had not seen anything. Other people had, so the possibility was there that I could.
Through my interest in this road, I began to learn that there were many haunted places all over the city. My brother Mike and I would take little paranormal road trips at night, visiting these haunted locations in hopes of somehow running into a ghost. As we began to explore these places, we became more and more interested in the ghost stories themselves. The stories were great, and the possibility that there was really a ghost at these places was exciting, but we decided to look further into the stories themselves. We wanted to see if there was any truth in them—not so much in the ghosts but in the history of what happened at these locations and the reasons that, perhaps, ghosts lurked there among the living. This is where my interest in history was born. As my brother and I started to uncover the history of these haunted locations, the history of the city itself came to life for us. Therefore, I guess I owe thanks to the ghosts of Cincinnati for teaching me so much about this city’s history.
The ghost stories and the histories of these locations make up a major part of this book, which I feel they definitely should. The ghost stories are more interesting with a historical background, and the reason that any of these locations are in this book is that they are haunted. That being said, this book also contains a couple of other facets that I have not really seen in other ghost books. The locations, histories, and ghost stories are quite interesting in themselves, but this book also offers the opportunity to visit these locations. Each chapter includes detailed directions on how to get to these places and descriptions of how to visit them. All the directions begin from downtown Cincinnati to give you a common place to start your road trips.
When my brother and I were looking for these haunted locations, we would have been thrilled to have a manual to explain how to find them. I cannot even estimate the number of hours we spent looking