Many of Cleveland's dearly departed haunt the Forest City to this day. A spirit lingers in the ballroom, and a little girl cries on the third floor of Franklin Castle, the most haunted site in the city. The man in the green hat will not leave the stage at the Palace Theater. Chief Joc-O-Sot still wanders Erie Street Cemetery centuries after his death, unable to rest in his grave, while a phantom in full Civil War uniform paces inside the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument.
In this fascinating book, authors Beth A. Richards and Chuck L. Gove of Haunted Cleveland Ghost Tours share the chilling tales of the city's spectral past.
Many of Cleveland's dearly departed haunt the Forest City to this day. A spirit lingers in the ballroom, and a little girl cries on the third floor of Franklin Castle, the most haunted site in the city. The man in the green hat will not leave the stage at the Palace Theater. Chief Joc-O-Sot still wanders Erie Street Cemetery centuries after his death, unable to rest in his grave, while a phantom in full Civil War uniform paces inside the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument.
In this fascinating book, authors Beth A. Richards and Chuck L. Gove of Haunted Cleveland Ghost Tours share the chilling tales of the city's spectral past.
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Overview
Many of Cleveland's dearly departed haunt the Forest City to this day. A spirit lingers in the ballroom, and a little girl cries on the third floor of Franklin Castle, the most haunted site in the city. The man in the green hat will not leave the stage at the Palace Theater. Chief Joc-O-Sot still wanders Erie Street Cemetery centuries after his death, unable to rest in his grave, while a phantom in full Civil War uniform paces inside the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument.
In this fascinating book, authors Beth A. Richards and Chuck L. Gove of Haunted Cleveland Ghost Tours share the chilling tales of the city's spectral past.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781625854865 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The History Press |
| Publication date: | 10/20/2018 |
| Series: | Haunted America |
| Sold by: | OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED - EBKS |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 131 |
| File size: | 4 MB |
About the Author
Chuck L. Gove is the founder of Haunted Cleveland Ghost Tours and has over a decade of paranormal researching experience and of conducting Haunted Cleveland Ghost Tours. Chuck is also a detective with the Cleveland Homicide Unit and has been with the Cleveland Police Department for over twenty years. He is a member of the Cleveland Police Historical Society and the Western Reserve Cleveland Firemen Museum and Education Center. Chuck is an avid local history enthusiast.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Franklin Castle
Looming over Franklin Boulevard on Cleveland's near west side is a house that can only be described as a castle. Legend says it is the most haunted house in Cleveland. Franklin Castle was built for wholesale grocer Hannes Tiedemann. The Tiedemann family resided at this address from 1866 through 1895, but this house was not built until 1881. It was designed by the architectural firm Cudell & Richardson, the most prominent firm in Cleveland at the time, and is the only private residence the firm ever designed. This massive sandstone Queen Anne – style home, complete with a corner tower, a fourth-floor ballroom, a wine cellar and about thirty rooms, was home to Hannes; his wife, Luise; his mother; and the rest of his growing family from 1881 through 1895.
Hannes Tiedemann was a partner in the wholesale grocery Weideman & Tiedemann beginning in 1864. He sold out in 1871, and in 1883, he became founder and vice-president of the Savings Loan & Trust Company.
The Tiedemanns enjoyed the first few years in the house, and their family began to grow. They had a son, August, and a daughter, Emma. They lost three other children in infancy. Tragedy struck on January 15, 1891, when they lost Emma; she is believed to have died due to complications with diabetes. Hannes's mother, Wiebeka, passed away shortly after Emma, and it is believed she died of natural causes. During this time, Luise Tiedemann was understandably grief-stricken, and Hannes began to add hidden rooms to the home and other decorating touches to help alleviate his wife's grief, although there are others who say that Mrs. Tiedemann began to concentrate on the house and add hidden rooms and passages so she could avoid her overbearing husband.
Rumors ran rampant that Hannes was not going to win the husband of the year award. It was common knowledge that Hannes carried on with the servants and possibly other ladies with shady pasts. There were even stories that Hannes strangled one of the servants when she informed him she was going to be married. The servant girl was believed to be named Rachel, and she is the spirit that people have heard choking in the turret room. She is also referred to as the "Lady in Black." It is also said that Hannes hung a girl in the rafters of the ballroom for sexual promiscuity. Rumor had it that Hannes caught the young girl in bed with his grandson. Another story of this incident is that the young lady had some mental issues, and Hannes felt he should put her out of her misery.
When Luise passed away from liver trouble in 1895, Hannes was left all alone in this magnificent home. He sold the house in 1896 and moved to another grand home on Lake Road with his new bride, Henriette, a young waitress he had met at a German resort. The marriage did not last long. They divorced, and Hannes Tiedemann passed away alone after suffering a massive stroke in 1908.
The house was sold to the Mulhauser family and was then sold again and became the headquarters to the German American League of Culture. There are rumors that this group was not what it seemed and that it actually murdered some members in one of the hidden rooms, although there is no proof of this occurring. There are no stories of paranormal happenings at this time.
In 1968, the Romano family purchased the house with a view to turning it into a bed-and-breakfast. Their tenure in the house only lasted until 1974, and this is when the stories of strange happenings started. Sam Muscatello bought the castle with the dream of turning it into a church. Sam became aware of the house's history and began to take people on tours of the house. He sold the house to a doctor, who in turn sold it to Cleveland police chief Richard Hongisto. Hongisto and his wife only lasted in the castle for one year before selling it to George Micerta. Micerta had not heard of the house's haunted history; he bought it just because he fell in love with its architecture. He became aware of the strange stories about his home shortly after he moved in, and he also began conducting tours of the house and encouraged people to write down in a journal any strange occurrences they encountered while in the house. In March 1982, Franklin Castle was put on the National Register of Historic Places. The amazing history and architecture of Franklin Castle was to be preserved.
Micerta claimed he had no encounters in the house, but in 1984, he sold it to Michael "Mickey" DeVinko. Mickey DeVinko, Judy Garland's fifth husband, began restoration of the house, going so far as to find the original blueprints and front door key, which still worked. He even located some of the original furniture. DeVinko was very comfortable in the house; he felt that none of the spirits bothered him because he was restoring the house for them. He put the house back on the market, and it was sold in 1999. The new owner, Michelle Heimberger, continued to work on the house, but unfortunately, there was a fire that caused extensive damage to the ballroom and roof.
For a time after that, a developer tried to continue the restoration with the idea of turning the castle into a private club called the Franklin Castle Club. This idea eventually died out when the carriage house caught on fire in March 2011. The house was again put on the market and sold to a woman interested in living in the ballroom and turning the lower floors into an art gallery, according to the rumor mill. There has been extensive work done and hopefully more to follow.
There are no reports of ghost activity until 1968, when the Romano family took over the house. Those reports began almost immediately, with the children asking their mother if they could take a cookie upstairs to the little girl, who some say is Emma, because they felt bad she was crying so hard. Mrs. Romano heard organ music in the house, even though the organ had been removed years before. She heard conversations taking place in empty rooms, perhaps echoes of long-ago occupants of the house? Finally, the Romano's parish priest convinced them to leave, as he felt there was something wrong in the house. He felt that most of the activity was directed at Mrs. Romano, that maybe Luise Tiedemann was reaching out to her, and he felt it was better for the family if they left.
During one of the many renovation periods, it was reported that human bones, those of a baby, were found in one of the hidden rooms, which, to some, confirmed the reports of a baby's cry being heard in the house. It also brought into question the doctor who had once lived in the house. Almost immediately, he became a sinister figure in the history of the house, with people speculating that he had been performing unspeakable experiments there.
When tours were being done in the house during the 1970s, one tour guide reported that a secret passage way kept popping open. The particular passageway was rumored to have hidden a still during Prohibition. Apparently, the spirits wanted some other spirits recognized in the house. This fits with the rumor that at one time there was a secret tunnel that led from Franklin Castle to a home located behind the house and then another tunnel leading to Lake Erie. These tunnels were said to be used to smuggle bootleg liquor.
A newspaper delivery boy claimed that one morning when he was delivering the paper, a woman in white, whom many believe to be Mrs. Tiedemann, floated through the front door toward him. Many people have seen and heard a woman in black choking in the turret room; she is believed to be a servant girl, Rachel, allegedly strangled by Hannes Tiedemann. There have also been numerous sightings of a young girl, believed to be Emma Tiedemann, standing at the upstairs windows. I actually had a guest on one of the tours who grew up around Franklin Boulevard and saw this little girl in the windows on many occasions on her way home from school.
Chuck has always felt a special connection to the castle due to the fact that when he was a small child his mother and aunt belonged to the Cleveland German Mannerchor Club and went to weekly events at Franklin Castle. Chuck's mom's favorite event was the annual Christmas party that was held in the castle's ballroom, and she took Chuck with her every year. Mrs. Gove said it was the social event of the year, very memorable, but Chuck does not remember a single time that she took him there. Despite his vivid childhood memories, the castle memories elude him. In fact, his first memory of the inside of the castle is from 2000, when we were invited in for a private tour.
We had taken our tour to the castle previously, but our guests could only have a sidewalk view. Every year, I would say that I know the castle is amazing, but I am not sure that I would even go in if I had the chance. It just seemed terrifying to me. But when Chuck and I got the call to come for a tour, we literally dropped everything to get over there. When we got there, we were so excited, and then when we got to the side door, I thought, Do I really want to go inside? The resounding answer was, Yes, are you crazy? You have a chance to go inside, don't blow it! The most amazing thing was that I felt very welcome inside the house, and it didn't seem scary to me at all. Chuck and I just stood and stared like two kids in a candy store and then began our tour.
We were lucky enough to meet the developer and use the castle on a number of our Haunted Cleveland Ghost Tours, and we had many interesting photos taken and a handful of experiences during our time there. One story that the developer told us before we started our tours was this: he had gone into the castle one day and noticed that all the utility lights were out. He went to the circuit box that was located back by the furnace in the area of the house most destroyed by the fire, so needless to say, it was very dirty and everything was covered in soot. He flipped the breaker, and the lights came back on, and then he sneezed. When he turned around, sitting on a soot-covered workbench was a blindingly white handkerchief. He picked it up, thanked whomever or whatever had left it for him and left the house. He put it on the dashboard of his car, and when he went back to get it out of his car, it had disappeared.
In the 1970s, radio host John Webster came to do a special Halloween show from the castle. He stated that as he was walking through the castle, he was carrying his tape recorder on a strap around his shoulder, and as he headed up the front staircase, it was ripped from his arm and thrown down the stairs. He continued on to do his broadcast, and when they listened to the playback of the show, they could hear a sinister laugh throughout the broadcast. The scary part is that they did not hear it during the actual broadcast, only on the playback.
I also heard another story about a TV show that came to spend the night in the castle and do a show about the haunting. This was a local morning news show called The Morning Exchange. The crew came in the night before to start filming in the hope they could pick up some video evidence of the spirits that live here, and they did. One of the cameramen didn't make it through the night after he was filming in a back room on the first floor and the ceiling light fixture began to swirl around in ever widening circles all on its own. He was kind of all right with it until it suddenly stopped and began to go in the other direction. That is when he hightailed it to the door and never came back.
Chuck and I were lucky enough to be invited to spend the night in the castle; it was to be in conjunction with a local morning radio show on Halloween. We arrived at midnight and walked all around the castle, filming as we went, and we finally settled down to sleep around 2:00 a.m. in the turret room, which, I found out later, was where the Tiedemann family laid out their dead. We knew that the radio setup technicians would get there around 4:00 a.m. to get things going.
The developer and I fell asleep pretty quickly, but Chuck had a harder time, and just when he started dozing off, he heard a man and woman conversing softly in the hallway off the room. Wondering what the developer and I were talking about, Chuck got up and headed to the hallway. In doing so, he suddenly realized that I wasn't talking — he had stepped over me. The developer also wasn't talking, as he was sound asleep a couple feet away, and no one else was in the house. As the hair on the back of his neck stood up, he realized that we were still alone, so, doing what any intelligent person in that situation would do, he pulled his sleeping bag over his face and tried desperately to pretend it hadn't happened.
When the radio hosts and crew showed up to start the live show, they decided it would be funny to play a trick on me and bring out a Ouija board. I had told one of the hosts that I hate Ouija boards and will not be in a room where one is being used. When they got started, I went outside. They asked a question of the board and lost their live feed to the station, both the back up and the regular one. They regained the feed and continued to ask questions, but then they again lost the feed. Just as they regained it, there was a loud crashing noise upstairs, and they wisely decided to stop using the Ouija board.
I had my own experience at the castle on one of our tours. I was standing in the backyard sharing stories about the castle with some of our guests. They were standing in front of me in a semicircle, when all of a sudden I was pushed from behind, not terribly hard but enough to get my attention and move me forward a step or two. At first I thought I had been bumped into by another guest, but the look of shock on the faces of the people I was talking to was enough to tell me that whatever had pushed me couldn't be seen.
We did a tour for a local radio station one year, and as a surprise we arranged for them to go into Franklin Castle. They were so excited, but as the tour went on, their excitement turned into uneasiness. Chuck was walking behind the tour, and he said for some reason the floorboards started moving, basically bouncing up and down. We had been in the castle many times, and even though the house was in a state of disrepair, the floors were still quite solid, and this had never happened on any of our other tours. Apparently the spirits inside the castle did not appreciate a late-night visit. Chuck said the people in front of him turned around and told him to stop making the floor move because it wasn't funny, and he tried to tell them it wasn't him, but they weren't buying it. I never heard anyone complain of this activity again on any of our other tours, so maybe the spirits didn't get the response they wanted.
One night while getting ready to take a group inside for their tour, I found myself talking to the developer's mother, a very down-to-earth lady, and she said, "Hey Beth, I have a story for you. We were up in the ballroom talking about the plans for the castle, and we started down the stairs and something put its hand on my shoulder and gave me a little shove, not enough to push me down, just enough to get my attention." She told me then that she told her son that maybe whoever was still in the house didn't care for the plans he had for it.
On another tour of Franklin Castle, I had taken the group down to the cellar, and we were standing in the servants' area by the hidden staircase for the front door. This room also had a fireplace in it, and hanging above the fireplace was a mirror. People were busy snapping pictures all around the room and getting a million orbs in each photo. I felt bad, but I had to tell them that the orbs were probably just dust. However, there was one photo that caught my eye. In the corner of the mirror, there was a smoky figure that resembled a dog or a wolf. This room had nothing on the walls that resembled anything like what was in the picture. There was no mist or smoke of any kind visible to the naked eye that could form this figure, so I could only stare at the picture and move slowly away from the mirror.
Chuck stopped in and was talking with the construction crew. He told the man in charge about some of the experiences we had had in the house, and the man turned to the crew and told one of the guys to come over and tell Chuck about his experiences. The young man told Chuck that he had been working in the ballroom when all of a sudden a brick flew across the room and almost hit him. This happened to him twice while in the ballroom. Perhaps the spirit of the young lady who is reported to have been hanged in the ballroom found the constant activity annoying.
Is Franklin Castle cursed? Is Franklin Castle haunted? I can't be sure of either. I can only tell you the history and legends that surround it and hope that whatever lives in there approves of what
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Haunted Cleveland"
by .
Copyright © 2015 Chuck L. Gove and Beth A. Richards.
Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements,
Introduction,
1. Franklin Castle,
2. Riverside Cemetery,
3. The County Archive Building/Robert Russell Rhodes Mansion,
4. Midwest Railway Preservation Society,
5. The Powerhouse,
6. Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument,
7. USS Cod,
8. Erie Street Cemetery,
9. The Cleveland Police Museum,
10. Playhouse Square,
11. Grays Armory,
12. The Cleveland Agora,
13. Squire's Castle,
14. Fairport Harbor Marine Museum and Lighthouse,
15. Around the Town Ghosts,
Conclusion,
Glossary of Terms,
Sources,
About the Authors,