Devou Park’s Gravity Hill 

Has gravity in Covington gone haywire? On Ridgeway Court in Devou Park, it’s said that if you stop at the second telephone pole, put your car in neutral and take your foot off the brake, your car will roll uphill. While the phenomenon seems supernatural, it’s actually just an optical illusion. Gravity hills, like the one in Covington, are created by an obstructed horizon, which makes it difficult to determine the slope of a surface. So, it may appear the slope goes upward when you’re still really just working with the force of gravity and not the force of the paranormal. Ridgeway Court, Covington.

The Golden Lamb Restaurant & Hotel

It would make sense that Ohio’s oldest hotel is also one of its most haunted. Lebanon’s The Golden Lamb opened in 1803 and over the course of more than 220 years has played host to countless residents and travelers, some of whom, it seems, never really left. The inn and restaurant are believed to be haunted by Sarah Stubbs, who moved into the inn, which her uncle ran at the time, with her family after her father’s death. While Sarah lived well into her 70s, it’s said that her spirit presents as a little girl. It’s also possible this spirit is Eliza Clay, the daughter of Henry Clay, who died from a fever at the inn in 1825 when she was just 12. The Golden Lamb is also home to the spirit of a gaunt, older man, believed to be either Sarah’s uncle, Albert Stubbs; Ohio Supreme Court judge Charles R. Sherman, who died at the inn from typhoid fever; or Ohio politician Clement Vallandigham. Whoever he may be, guests have reported the smell of cigar smoke when he’s around and have seen him gazing out of a window. 27 S. Broadway St., Lebanon.

The Carneal House

Covington’s Licking Riverside Historic District is marked by old mansions and a sometimes eerie, Southern Gothic atmosphere. The oldest home in the area is the Carneal House, a Federal-style mansion believed to be designed and built by one of Covington’s founders, Thomas Carneal, around 1815. It’s also believed the mansion is home to a phantom known as “the Lady in Grey.” Urban legend says this spirit is that of a young woman who committed suicide in the home after being rejected for a dance by Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette during a ball. Haunted happenings in the home include heavy footsteps, slamming doors, sudden drops in temperature and a rocking chair that has been known to sway back and forth independently. It’s important to note that Lafayette likely never even visited the Carneal House. But if you do stroll past the home at twilight, you never know: you may just catch a glimpse of a woman in a gray chiffon dress. 405 E. Second St., Covington.

Buffalo Ridge 

Buffalo Ridge may just appear to be another windy, forest-lined road on the West Side of Cincinnati, but it’s more the local legends that make it a good place to go ghost hunting. One legend is that the road used to be home to the Buffalo Ridge Crematorium, where Satanic rituals were held and bodies meant for cremation were tossed out into the woods and into a nearby lake before God himself smote the building. These tall-tale tellers would point to ruins in the woods (which are no longer there), said to be part of the crematorium, as evidence. But, like with a lot of things, the truth is a lot less intriguing. A crematorium was never constructed along Buffalo Ridge, but what was built there was part of an observatory that was abandoned due to lack of funding. However, as Creepy Cincinnati notes, materials from a building destroyed by a fire that killed several people were used to construct the observatory, so — if you believe in ghosts and negative energy — it’s still possible those woods along the road are haunted. Another legend of Buffalo Ridge states that if you drove down the road at night near Mitchell Memorial Forest, you would be chased off by a dark vehicle. (Author’s Note: As a former bored teenager from the West Side who has been on Buffalo Ridge many times, I call bullshit on this one.) Near Mitchell Memorial Forest (5401 Zion Road, Miami Township).

Dunham Recreation Center Complex 

The land that we know today as the Dunham Recreation Center Complex used to be the site of the first municipal tuberculosis hospital in the United States, and an eerie feeling still hangs over the area where the arts center is today. According to records from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Medicine, in 1879, Cincinnati Hospital (now UC Health) bought what was then the Guerley Farm in order to relocate its smallpox isolation house. A hospital was constructed on the farmland and named Branch Hospital for Contagious Diseases. Almost 20 years later, the branch hospital saw the transfer of 15 tuberculosis patients from the main hospital, transforming it into a space to care for victims of TB. As tuberculosis cases grew, so did the hospital campus. More buildings to house patients were added, as were lodging for nurses and doctors; sleeping porches, which doctors at the time thought helped improve TB symptoms; an occupational therapy building; and a preventorium and school for children of TB patients. But what is perhaps the creepiest aspect of Dunham isn’t that it used to be a hospital for victims of what, at the time, was a very deadly disease, but rather what lies underneath all the buildings to this day. Former recreation center employee Kenny Riddell told WCPO in 2015 that the disease was too advanced to be treated by the time many patients sought care, and Dunham was the place to go to die. To keep patient morale up, he said, the bodies would be removed from the hospital via underground tunnels that led to an incinerator where they would be cremated and their belongings would be burned. The tunnels still exist today, but they’re not accessible to the public and some parts are entirely sealed off. But if you spend enough time in the arts center, one of the last remaining buildings from the hospital era, recreation center employees say you may just see something…or someone. 1945 Dunham Way, Westwood.

Price Hill’s Potter’s Field 

We can’t talk about Dunham without mentioning the historic potter’s field just up the road from it, which may be part of the reason that land was chosen to become a hospital for the fatally ill. Historically, a potter’s field was the name for any grave site meant to house the remains of poor or unclaimed people. The Price Hill potter’s field was used as a cemetery for Cincinnati’s poor, transients and criminals from 1849 to 1981. It’s believed that upward of 20,000 people were haphazardly laid to rest there, although it’s impossible to guess an accurate number. The site was used until it became so crowded that graves were dug to a depth reportedly as shallow as 18 inches. The newly deceased were stacked on a previous generation, and the oldest part of the site contains three layers of bodies. Years of neglect and overgrowth hide many unmarked graves or markers with the barest of details, but a plaque along Guerley Road identifies where it stands. You can read more about the potter’s field and the people trying to identify and honor those buried there here. 4700 Guerley Road, West Price Hill.

Spring House Gazebo 

Eden Park’s Moorish-style Spring House Gazebo was just a beautiful landmark until a fateful day in 1927 when notorious Cincinnati bootlegger George Remus shot and killed his wife, Imogene, there during a messy (to put it mildly) divorce. Now, Imogene’s ghost is said to haunt the gazebo and nearby Mirror Lake, likely unable to rest because George was acquitted of her murder, despite it happening in broad daylight in front of witnesses. Eden Park, 950 Eden Park Drive, Walnut Hills.

Darby-Lee Cemetery 

West Siders, you may have heard of Fiddlers Green Road, but have you heard the legend of Fiddler’s Green? It goes back to the Darby-Lee family of Delhi Township, members of which are buried in a small graveyard at the top of Bender Mountain — the only known, remaining family cemetery in Delhi. Patriarch of the family Henry Darby was rumored to have been a conductor on the Underground Railroad. The legend of Fiddler’s Green goes that he would sit up on the ridge of his property overlooking the Ohio River into Kentucky. When it was safe for those fleeing enslavement to cross the river and come up the ridge to his home, Darby would light a lantern with a green flame and play his fiddle. On some nights now, you can supposedly see an otherworldly green glow from the cemetery and hear the strains from a fiddle being played nearby. Can be accessed from the Bender Mountain Trail, 6320-6468 Bender Road, Delhi Township.

Taft Museum of Art 

Before the Taft Museum of Art was a museum, it was home to some of Cincinnati’s most prominent residents, including the Sinton and Taft families. It’s rumored that Charles Taft and his wife, Anna Sinton Taft, never left, staying behind to keep watch over their art collection. Employees and visitors have said they felt watched while in the museum, heard their names called out and experienced items flying off the gift shop shelves. 316 Pike St., Downtown.

St. Francis Seraph’s Crypt 

Underneath the altar of St. Francis Seraph in Over-the-Rhine lies a crypt where some of Cincinnati’s earliest settlers rest. In 1819, Cincinnati’s first Catholic church, Christ Church, was built on that spot along with a cemetery. When work began to construct the then-new St. Francis Seraph in 1858, the cemetery was demolished and the bodies were moved into the crypt. It was only accessible to the friary who lived there — until recently, that is. If you dare, you can go beneath the altar to the crypt on the American Legacy Tours’ Ultimate Queen City Underground tour.

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Cincinnati’s Abandoned Subway Tunnels 

Cincinnatians often speak of our legendary abandoned subway tunnels so reverently that they’re almost mythical. The reality is more a sad, doomed-from-the-start tale of inflation, poor budgeting and litigation. Real work on the subway began in 1920, but inflation following World War I had raised the costs of construction and caused a shortage of materials (wow, this sounds familiar), so the city planned to raise funds to complete the subway later. However, funds ran out in 1927 and, by that time, the subway construction was causing the foundations of buildings along its route to crack, so then came the lawsuits, which are scary enough. There were several attempts to complete the subway in later years, but it wasn’t meant to be. The project was scrapped in 1948 and is now used to house a water main and optical fiber cables. It’s also a popular, albeit spooky, urban exploration spot.

Lick Road 

A ghost named Amy supposedly haunts this secluded road in Colerain Township after having been murdered by her boyfriend. Legend says if you walk in the woods near the bridge where Amy may have been killed, you can hear footsteps behind you. You may also spot an apparition of Amy, or, if you drive down to the cul-de-sac at the end of the road at night, you can hear a woman scream from the fields beyond. Near the Richardson Forest Preserve, 4000 W. Kemper Road, Colerain Township.

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Cody Road Bridge 

Is the Cody Road railroad bridge haunted by a woman killed in a fire, trying to alert people to the blaze? Maybe it’s haunted by another woman who was killed by a train? According to Creepy Cincinnati, it’s neither, and those tall tales were made up by those who made moonshine near the train tracks during Prohibition to keep people away. But even if the legends aren’t true, the way the rusted, old bridge that cuts above narrow, secluded Cody Road is ominous and still gives out a strong “KEEP AWAY” energy. Cody Road near Carol Ann Lane, Independence.

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Bobby Mackey’s 

Bobby Mackey’s ghosts are legendary around here, and the former building was enough to earn it its creepy reputation. The squat, warehouse-like honky tonk sat on the outskirts of the more residential areas of Newport, with not much else around it. But the most hair-raising part of Bobby Mackey’s was the supposed stories that happened within the walls of all the former buildings, from Satanic activity at the former slaughterhouse on the site, to mobster intimidation, to a murder-suicide that involved a young pregnant woman named Johanna killing her father, who supposedly killed her lover, before taking her own life. Some also said the gateway to hell was in the basement of the most recent building, where you would have found the remaining slaughterhouse well. Bobby Mackey himself says he’s skeptical of the ghost stories, but many others have reported paranormal activity happening at the bar, and the Travel Channel’s show Ghost Adventures even came out to investigate. The bar’s building has been demolished and is scheduled to be rebuilt, so we’ll have to see if the ghosts decide to hang around. 44 Licking Pike, Wilder.

Mt. Notre Dame High School 

You don’t get to be one of the oldest schools in Greater Cincinnati — and the oldest all-girls school — without becoming at least a little spooky. Mt. Notre Dame High School’s darkest piece of history reportedly happened in the ‘40s when a student is said to have committed suicide on the third floor. Now, all the ghostly activity seems to happen on that same floor. Most of the time, the activity involves one of two things: The first one occurs when students come to class in the morning. They discover that all the lockers on the third floor have somehow opened by themselves. The second is that all the lights on the third floor will somehow turn on by themselves during the night.

Original Source: https://www.citybeat.com/arts/21-of-the-spookiest-places-in-greater-cincinnati-citybeat/