The Best Years of Your Afterlife

The history of Wood County stretches back over a hundred years. Some of its most memorable stories and items can be found at the Wood County Historical Muesum. Among the many historical buildings located on the grounds is the site own simply as the Lunatic House. Once when the area was used to care for the mentally sick and unstable, the Lunatic House was where the most dangerous and aggressive patients were kept.

The old Lunatic House, dating back to the early days of settlement in Wood County

The treatment of the patients there was not the best. “This place was pretty bad for some of the people who lived in here,” said Dick Gollen, a long time volunteer at the muesum and expert on local folklore and stories. “Men were being chained to the walls for long periods of time if they were too loud or reckless. And that usually made things worse.” Every small cell there had thick bars on the windows, some of which are still there to this day.

There are several ghost stories and legends connected to the house. Right next to the building is a small open field that contains a garden grown by the staff of the muesum. This area has had several reported instances of children’s laughter and voices being heard. One story told by Mr. Gollen involved these bizzare voices. One volunteer, working in the Lunatic house one day, heard the sounds of children playing in the field right outside the house’s window. When he looked out, there was no one around. He ran out to investigate and still found no signs of any children. THe man asked the other volunteers working on the grounds, but they had not seen or heard anything. And no children were there that day.

The area reportedly haunted by the voices of children right outside the Lunatic House

The building itself is very quiet and cold. Despite its recent renovations, most of the building is still original and quite old. Any breeze makes the whole building creek and moan. That, combined with the sites dark history, give the building a very creepy feeling. If any place in the world was ever going to be haunted, it would be a place like this.

Mr. Gollen had to stop several times during the interview to calm himself down. The building makes him very uncomfortable and uneasy. This man served in the US military for 25 years and, since his retirement, has explored many haunted and spooky places throughout northern Ohio. Yet with all the experience, this tough man is openly scared of this building. The feeling in it is that a dread, and it can certainly has an effect on you.

The building as no identified or named ghosts, but there have been sightings of several different spirits. The Lunatic House was once investigated by a local ghost hunting group. According to Gollen, a black form that could not be idenified moved through the building with the group inside. There was no sign of an animal or person besides the group, making them wonder just what the black form was.

The old stairway and hallway in the back are some of the places the black form was spotted

The Wood County Historical Museum is a great place to visit, with a lot of history and stories for those who are interested. And when you do visit, make sure you stop by the Lunatic House. You may not run into a ghost, but you will get the feeling of dread that the men who were once held there must of felt. And that is just as terrifying as any ghost encounter.

While Alice of Old Campus may be the most famous ghost on Bowling Green’s camapus, Amanda of Chi Omega house is pretty famous herself. The ghost of a former house sister, Amanda haunts the soroity house located next to the Student Union and has become a major tradition for the women who live in the house today.

The Chi Omega house where Amanda the Ghost haunts sisters to this day.

While the details of the story have changed slightly over the years, but for certain Amanda was a sister of the Greek house who had long wanted to join a soroity. One night, some say during a very intense hashing event, there was an accident involving a train moving on the tracks and the girl was tragically killed. However, it seems that Amanda wanted to join the house so badly that even after her death, she stuck around.

Today, in the house is a room with a small sign that says “Amanda’s Room.” The room is thought to have been the woman’s room while she was still alive. Items seem to always go missing or get lost in the room, especially for the sisters who live in the room.

According to the stories, Amanda still feels like part of the family and doesn’t let anyone forget it. Besides stealing and moving the occasional object, the ghost has also become a tradition for the house. Each year, the women make a composite photo of all the girls in the house that year. And each year, a small area is left empty for Amanda. One year, the class of 1987, did not follow this tradition and the photo almost routinely ends up on the floor, possibly knocked down by an invisible hand of an angry spirit who just wants to be accepted by the girls of the soroity.

Once known for being one of the most haunted buildings in Wood County, the Potter House has faded into history since its destruction by fire in 2003. Not much seems to remain of it, and there is nothing really to investigate since the ghosts had appeared to disappear along with the houses demise.
But some have kept the memory of the house and its Hauntings alive.

A story posted on UnsolvedMysteries.com tells the story of the Potter house leading up the the fire-

It certainly looked like a haunted house in its day- Photo by Roze L. for DeadOhio.com

“There isn’t a Potter House anymore–not since late 2003, when someone set fire to the abandoned building at the corner of Potter Road, where the house gets its bane from, and Route 6. If half the local stories are true, then it wasn’t the worst crime this piece of property has seen.”

“The last family to occupy the house was named Minton. They lived there in the 1970s when, according to Bowling Green legend, the father murdered his wife and kids before killing himself. The spirits of the unfortunate Minton family never left their home, and the place was uninhabitable from then on.”

“Whether angry or just desperate, the entities haunting the Potter House were quite violent and unpredictable. Even a single night spent there revealed why the place remained unsellable. This is what they said: Stairs creaked as if someone was coming down when no one should be there. Objects flew through the air and smashed against walls–especially in the kitchen, where the cabinets had a habit of flying open on their own. Voices spoke to the late night visitor–usually the mournful voice of the mother.”

“Perhaps most frightening of all, looking out through an upstairs window was known to show you a figure, completely black, heading from the field toward the house. Definitely not a place to visit on your own.”

Inside the abandoned house. Photo by Roze L. for DeadOhio.com

“Today the barn and storage sheds are all that’s left on the property. They surround a cellar pit filled with charred beams and rotted pieces of the haunted house that once stood here. The outbuildings are used by some farmer to store his equipment, so the land is obviously still attended to by someone. Whether or not the violent ghosts of the Potter House still linger on the spot is anyone’s guess.”

Several of the ghosts on Bowling Green State’s campus are quite famous, including Alice of the Theaters and Amanda of the the Chi Omega. But there are other ghost in school as well. In Kohl Hall, there is the very active and mischievous ghost name Joey. Not just content with sneaking around and scaring people, Joey likes to play with the residents that live in the dormitory.

The old doorway of Kohl Hall

Lauren Downey lives in the hall and almost immediately began to deal with the ghost.

“A ghost first came to me a few weeks into the first semester,” Downey said. “It was in my room – that’s Kohl 352 – when my iPod player’s radio turned on. Someone has to both turn on the iPod player and switch it to FM. My roommate and I weren’t even close. It was Joey, the Kohl Hall ghost.” Downey said at first she didn’t like listening to the myth.

“I’m sort of a wuss when it comes to ghost stories,” Downey said. “Since everything was happening in my room, I tuned out the stories.”

The game room during the day. Spooky.

Sophomore Brittany Murphy lives in Kohl and has heard the stories quite a bit.

“It’s said that before Kohl Hall, there was a bakery here,” Murphy said. “Joey’s family owned it. He went into the bread oven and was cooked to death. They buried him in the ground. Years later, Kohl Hall was built on top of that grave.” Joey is not a mean or dangerous ghost, Murphy said.

“He was young when he died; so he just likes to play,” Murphy said. “He plays tricks and messes with radios and TVs. I think he cut my iPod player cord last year.”

Joey seems to have an affinity toward iPod players. Maybe he is just trying to keep up with the times.

The new section of Kohl Hall that was built years after the original part. Maybe Joey is just catching up on time lost

Today is the most haunted day of the year. Some legends and stories say that on this day, the veil between the world of the dead and the world of the living is at its thinniest.

Here are Bowling Green, its no different. There is a lot of history on campus. Wondering around the Oak Ridge Cemetary, right in the middle of BGSU’s campus, you can feel all the history of the people buried there. Some graves date back to the early 1800’s. Several soldiers killed during the Civil War are buried there, along with families spaning generations.

BG's Oak Ridge Cemetary. On Halloween, could the dead return to wonder around these grounds?

Today, Halloween is among the most popular holidays in the United States and around the world. Now, I was unable to carry out my investigation of Alice on this most haunted of days, but I’ll keep you all updated on that process. But I can’t let Halloween go by uncelebrated here. And so enjoy the video and sing along if you know the words. Happy Halloween!

Video- This is Halloween!

There are a lot of shows out there about ghost hunting. The obvious example is the show “Ghost Hunters,” but there are countless other shows with the same idea. Even fiction shows like “Supernatural” show people going out and looking for ghost.

But investigating ghosts and the paranormal isn’t just something for TV stars. Anyone can do it. It doesn’t cost too much and there are more ghost stories and haunted areas out there than one can imagine. Besides my own investigations of the Bowling Green’s ghosts and urban legends, I will be posting videos, papers and the occasional personal interview with people experienced in the supernatural to help you get started on your own.

Lets start with famous ghost hunter Richard Felix and the equipment you’ll need-

Ghost Hunting Equipment

Just remember, when you do head out for investigations, don’t break the law, or do anything to put yourself or others in danger.

On Bowling Green’s campus, there are quite a number of reported ghosts. None as famous as Alice, the ghost of a former student said to haunt the two theaters in BG’s Old Campus section. Her tale has been told in newspaper articles and told countless times between students, especially those involved in theater.

There are several variations to the story, but the basics remain the same: Alice was a theater student at BG back in the 1920’s and she was in love with the theater. However while she was attending school, her life came to a tragic end. Some say she died in a car accident and others say it was a stage accident in the old theater itself. Whatever actually happened, Alice died but her love for the theater kept her around.

University Hall in Old Campus, where Alice continues to haunt the old theaters inside.

Today, the legend of Alice continues. She is said to cause pranks and accidents to shows if the actors are not doing well or if the actors are disrespectul. This has led to a tradition that every person in the theater department follows, the invitation. Before every show, the director or manager must step up on stage alone and personally invite Alice to watch the show. If this tradition is not carried out, then bad things are destined to happen during the show’s performance.

The Grand staircase in Old Campus that leads right to the entrance of the Eva Maria St. Theater.

For more information, check back on Monday to read about my investigation of the two theaters and the people who have dealt with Alice before.

College campuses are amazing places. There are so many different people coming and going that sometimes it is easy to lose yourself. And sometimes, it seems people lose themselves here for a lot longer than just four years. Ask Alice, the ghost who haunts the two theaters of Bowling Green State University Or Amanda the ghost of a former Sister who wonders around the Chi Omega Soroity House to this day. Or the ghost of the unknown Professor who protects women in BG’s Old Campus at night from teasing men.

There are more ghosts, haunts and urban legends around Bowling Green, Ohio than most people whould think. and as a result, most people just drive by on I-75, missing the history and stories of the area. This blog will follow and collect those stories, and the stories of people who have seen these mysteries first-hand.