Haunted Medina County - Lisa Rienerth

Time to resurrect Lisa's excellent blog!

But don't forget, this Saturday at the Brunswick Library, the Genealogy Slam!

Since Halloween is here, it is time for some ghost stories. Let's visit a few places in Medina County to help you get into the spirit (pun intended) of this spooky holiday!

MEDINA 


The Corkscrew Saloon – 811 W. Liberty Street, Medina

This Victorian Home has had many names in the past 130 years. It is said that Nelson Burnham built the house for his daughter, Nell, in the late 1800's and was known as the Burnham Home. It is said to be the 2nd oldest building standing in Medina. The interior of the house was arranged at the direction of Mrs. Burnham herself who desired the structure to be one of convenience. Through the years it has had many names…The Homestead Restaurant, Great Expectations, Penny’s Poorhouse and it is now The Corkscrew Saloon. The spirits seemed to start making themselves known when it was Penny’s Poorhouse. Penny Codarini, the former owner, was always happy to talk about the haunting and felt that they must be children, due to the prankish types of incidents. Her and her husband experienced moved furniture, missing items, someone walking up and down the stairs and she even heard her name being called. Many patrons said they saw ghostly apparitions and one of the waitresses even saw a white cat that mysteriously disappeared when she went to get it out from under one of the tables. The new owners are not as open to talking about the hauntings, but some of the wait staff have a few tales to tell. The last time I was there I heard this story…They were setting up one of the upper rooms for a private dinner party. The table was all set with napkins and silverware and when the server came back up to make sure nothing was forgotten the silverware was all a mess and salt was spread all over the table….Like Penny said…Childish Pranks!


Medina Library – 210 S. Broadway, Medina

The Franklin Sylvester Room

The Medina Library has a century long history of serving the community. The original library was built on its current site with funds donated by Franklin Sylvester and opened in 1907. Unfortunately, Mr. Sylvester passed away in May of 1907, without getting to see his library completed. In his will, he left the library an additional $4,000 and stated that the library was always to remain named the Franklin Sylvester Library. However, the library is now known as the Medina Library…not the Franklin Sylvester Library. This may be upsetting to Franklin. However, even though his name is no longer used as the name of the library, it is the name of the library’s local history room. You can see Mr. Sylvester’s portrait as you enter the room. Mr. Sylvester’s presence has been felt by a few people in this room and some have seen a figure of a tall, dark man.

 The 1907 Room 

This room is the original part of the library. When a local ghost hunter group did a program here at the library a group of people went into the 1907 room. They were able to get responses to questions on a lighted meter. It seems that a young man may be in this room. While watching the responses on the meter a loud bang was heard as if someone had kicked the wood paneling. Others have felt a “presence” in this room…come and see if you do.

Robby’s Voice Recovery Center F.K.A. The Medina Steak House & Saloon – 538 W. Liberty

Harrison Blake built the building in 1858 as a stagecoach stop. It is also said that it was used as an underground railroad stop. Over the years the building changed hands and provided different services. It went from being a hotel to a brothel, a bookie joint to a grocery store, and a saloon to a steakhouse. Anna is one of the ghosts who haunt this restaurant. She is said to have died in the late 1890's. She is a friendly and helpful spirit. Some say that when a fire broke out on the second floor, Anna helped to contain the fire and saved the building. There are beams in the attic that still show the scars of this fire. Frank Curtiss is the other ghost. He died there Christmas Eve, 1922. It is not certain, but he may be the gentleman who hung himself in the upper hallway. There may even be another ghost, possibly Anna’s sister. She is known only as “M”. The former employees say that the ghosts weren’t mean, just mischievous. Silverware ended up being switched around on the tables, a plate on the wall got turned over, and sometimes spirits were seen walking through the building. Only time will tell if the new occupants will have anything to add to this history.

Spitzer House Bed & Breakfast – 504 W. Liberty

Built in 1890 by Ceilan Milo Spitzer, it is haunted by several ghosts. There are two haunted rooms in particular. One of the haunted rooms is called Ceilan’s Room and the second one is called Anna’s room. It is in Anna’s room that a ghost of a servant girl appears on a regular basis. The dining room is also said to be haunted. The voices of two men can be heard there. Other incidences include hearing the piano play, lights turning on and off, slamming doors and light touches and taps from an invisible source.

The Spitzer House stairway...see the fingers sticking through the railing

LIVERPOOL

Cry Baby Bridge – Abbeyville Road

There are two bridges on Abbeyville Road.

One is a small bridge over a small creek.The other is a large train bridge. Both of these bridges have been identified as the Cry Baby Bridge.

Whichever one it is, it is said to be haunted. The story goes that in the 1950’s a young girl threw her baby off the bridge in an effort to hide her pregnancy. Supposedly if you park under or on the bridge (depending on which bridge you are referring to) and turn off your car it will not start again until it is pushed from beneath or off the bridge. It is also reported that you can hear a baby crying whenever it is a silent night.



The Witches Ball – Myrtle Hill Cemetery

There are two legends associated with this grave site. The first one is that there was a witch who practiced witchcraft near Myrtle Hill and was stoned by the townspeople. The second story is that there was an insane woman who poisoned her family and threw them down a well. In either case, it is said she is buried beneath the ball and some say that she was buried standing up. They say that the ball is warm when it is cold outside and cold when it is hot outside. It also is said that snow and leaves will never fall on the tombstone. Others have reported an eerie feeling of being watched while standing near the marker. The marker is actually just a unique stone marking the final resting place for the Stoskopf family.


WADSWORTH

River Styx Railroad Bridge

On March 22, 1899, Railroad Engineer Alexander Logan ran Train No. 5 along the Erie Railroad near the River Styx Bridge, traveling at nearly 80 mph. He would never meet his destination. The engine mysteriously jumped its tracks, turned over and crushed the engineer to death. No one knows what caused the train to derail, but most agree that Logan’s heroic decision to stay on the train and steer the engine saved the lives of others on board. Witnesses say that when Logan’s body was later recovered, his hand was still clutched to the throttle. Two weeks before this tragic accident, Logan confided to his colleagues that he believed he would die on that engine. Since the fatal accident, strange events have been reported on and near the River Styx Bridge. Just a few months later a local doctor and his friend witnessed a phantom train plunge from the bridge covered in flames. They said they actually heard the passengers screaming. However, when they reached the bridge to help, the train was gone. Some have been foolish enough to walk the trestle and were cut into pieces from on-coming trains and the bridge has been the site of some suicides. In addition, a strange fog has been seen to suddenly appear, and there have been a high number of car accidents on River Styx Road below the bridge, involving people who claimed to have seen something falling from the bridge. Are all of these strange incidents related to the 1899 train disaster? Or is there something much older and sinister at work here?


River Styx Cemetery –  River Styx Road

Locals say that they have sighted a ghost on multiple occasions at this cemetery. At around the turn of the century, a few residents supplemented their income by robbing local graves and selling the corpses to medical schools in Cleveland. Grave robbing became such a problem that the folks in River Styx started burying their dead in out-of-town cemeteries. One family even constructed an above-ground stone vault at River Styx cemetery in an effort to thwart would-be thieves. On the property is the abandoned underground vault built into the side of a hill and barred by a rusty metal gate.

**I went to this cemetery to get some photographs for this display. I had planned on entering the cemetery to take pictures, but got an uneasy feeling, and I couldn’t seem to talk myself into going past the wrought iron gate and into the cemetery. The whole time I was there it felt as if I was being watched. The brave person that I am…I quickly took my pictures and left.



HINCKLEY

Hinckley Historical Society f.k.a. The Hinckley Library – 1634 Center Road

This 1845 home belonged to Vernon Stouffer, founder of the Stouffer food corporation. It became a public library in 1973, and during renovations several staff members reported ghostly manifestations. The apparitions of a young woman in an old-fashioned blue dress and a man in a hat were seen on the stairway. A workman encountered a ghostly figure on the basement stairs. Others have felt strange presences on the upper floors and witnessed poltergeist effects, such as books being thrown off the shelves. It has been suggested that the ghosts are Orlando Wilcox and his daughter Rebecca, who lived in a cabin on the site during the Civil War.


SPENCER

Spencer Cemetery - East Main Street, Spencer

Spencer Cemetery is just east of the town center. Strange things are reported there from time to time--chiefly the bizarre sight of an actual, metal, real-world lantern floating free in the air as if held by invisible hands. According to local stories people have approached the lantern and passed their hands above, beneath, and around it, finding no strings or apparent trickery of any kind. Sometimes a smaller lantern is seen floating near the original.



These are just a few of the spooky places in Medina County. If you want to find more you can always check out one of the Haunted Ohio books by Chris Woodyard, at the library. Medina County is usually mentioned at least once in this series.

If you think your house is haunted and want to know who may be haunting it, sign up for my program, "Who Is Haunting Your House?". I am teaching how to research the history of your home and past owners. The program is October 31st at 7:00 p.m. at the Medina Library in the Community Room A.  If you have any questions about the program or you want to sign up for it, give me a call at 330-725-0588 x 2030 or click on the program link above.

FYI: Fellow librarian, Dan Halohan, wanted to know, if the Burnham House is the second oldest house in Medina, "What is the first?" which sent Lisa and I scrambling to find out. From going on the historic home tours, I knew that there is a house on Wadsworth Road that was built in the 1840's. With a little more digging we found a undated newspaper article (probably from the 1980's) that claimed that the Sillet House at 345 East Smith Road was the oldest house in Medina. Local antique dealer, Ross Trump, claimed that the house was built around 1840 but no later than 1845.
Further research revealed the house at 510 Wadsworth Road was built in 1848. If these dates are right, the Burnham House (AKA The Corkscrew Saloon) could, at best, be the third oldest house in the city.