Hello Friends,
After our first Haunted Columbus experience, Autumn was eager to attend another one. I was definitely intrigued by some of the other tours they offered, but then COVID 19 hit. When things began opening up again, she diligently kept checking their website to see what their precautions were, and if and when they would be doing tours. She texted me saying they were doing a Hallowed Halls of Horror Tour at Ohio State. As a huge Ohio State fan, I freaked out and said of course I would do this one. I agreed to do this tour because:
1. Each tour has a limit of how people can attend.
2. We'd be outside the entire time, so social distancing wouldn't be an issue.
After parking in one of the two parking garages on campus by the Ohio Union, we were instructed by the email sent out to meet in front of Hayes Hall on the Oval. Our tour guide informed us that there was only one other group signed up and obviously we had to wear our masks. (He wore a face shield the entire tour.) He gave us the history of Hayes Hall and we learned about how it was named after Rutherford B. Hayes and originally the building housed the ROTC students. Like my previous ghost tour post, I will not give away details, but the story with this building is that the ghost of Rutherford B. Hayes himself used to let in the ROTC students who had snuck out at night while they all thought he must be the janitor.
Our next stop was Hopkins Hall which is one of the art buildings on campus. We heard about a young woman who had gotten stuck alone overnight in the elevator until security arrived in the morning and got her out. She was said to not be mentally okay after the incident, and unfortunately ended up dying in a car accident a few months later. She is said to haunt that building, and that she leaves her handprints on the concrete pillars outside that they have never been able to paint over or remove. On our second walk-through after dark, this was the only building that had any type of energy. We couldn't go in any buildings on this tour since the majority of campus was shut down, but when we walked up to the front doors, I almost took a step back. It was the weirdest feeling. Not a negative feeling, but definitely very uncomfortable and almost sad. It increased as I walked closer to the handprint to examine it. I almost put my hand up to it just to look at the size and see what it felt like against the concrete, but the odd energy spooked me enough to not do it.
We walked to the next building which was Bricker Hall and learned about the history of that building. I was intrigued by the creepy looking doors on the outside and was surprised that during renovations they had left those doors alone on each side of the main entrance since they're unusable. The long story short of this building, is that there is a man dressed from the early 1900's that can be seen sitting in the lobby smoking a pipe at night. (On our second walk-through after the tour, we unfortunately saw nothing.)
Before we stopped in front of the library, our guide pointed out toward the North and South Towers that are dorms on campus near Ohio Stadium. He talked about how Jeffrey Dahmer had briefly attended Ohio State for a semester and lived in the North Tower on the 5th floor. He hadn't killed anyone at this point, it was almost immediately after he dropped out and went back home. However, they ended up turning his dorm room into a utility closet after some students complained of weird feelings or energy in that room.
Now for William Oxley Thompson Library. As a bookworm, I am in love with this library. It is five floors and absolutely gorgeous. We heard about how the librarians and students who work in the library during the year, don't want to work alone at night on the 3rd floor. Apparently there is a woman from the 1800's in a black dress who walks the floor and will "charge" at people.
While enjoying the sunset and breeze at Mirror Lake, we heard about tragedies of drunk students jumping headfirst into the lake (which is only about 6 feet deep) and breaking their necks. We also heard about a woman who is rumored to be the Ohio State's former President's wife from the early 1900's that can be seen skating on the lake in the early mornings. As we faced Pomerene Hall across the lake, we heard about The Woman in Pink who seems to be from the late 1800's and wears a pink ballgown from when the hall used to be ballroom. She can be seen looking over the lake at night. (On our second walk-through, we did not see her.)
We briefly stopped in front of Oxley Hall that used to be a women's dorm. After a suicide on the 3rd floor and a potential murder incident in the attic, parents were calling and complaining about their daughters saying they were hearing things and seeing things in the building and in the courtyard. The university quietly decided to change the building into offices and classrooms, but it is said that at midnight in December a light can be seen from one room on the 3rd floor.
One of our last stops was Orton Hall which is easily the most ominous building on the Oval. It's part classrooms and part museum. The museum has a lot of odd things inside, and I was highly disappointed that we couldn't go in because that building just oozed creepiness. It is said that the owner that the building is named after used to read in the tower by lantern, and you can see a flickering lantern at night. (On our second walk-through, I literally sat on a bench and watched that tower to no avail.)
Final thoughts. I love these tours. While doing ghost tours you learn so much history and you don't even realize it. I was disappointed that this tour was during the day. It was 7pm in the summer, so it was still light out the entire tour. We ended up going to eat dinner and coming back for a night walk-through to see if we could experience anything. Other than Hopkins Hall, there wasn't any other energy or experiences we had like in the previous tour downtown. I think if we were able to go inside some of these buildings, it definitely would've been a different story. Not getting to go inside was a bit of letdown, but I understood. Our tour guide this time was a little awkward and a tad bit annoying. He was a journalist and talked a lot about his research and his articles that had done on these topics. You can't help but think it's a little biased. Overall, I will definitely continue to do these tours here and there within Ohio, and as soon as this virus is over, I'd like to venture outside of the state for some ghost tours. Here is the link to their site in case you are interested in checking out some tours. ☺
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