Marietta Castle
Some old mansions just look haunted, but this Midwestern ‘castle’ has the ghosts to back it up
Paranormal Claims
at Marietta Castle
- Shadow figures are seen in the windows
- The attic door has been held closed by unseen forces
- Cold spots are reported throughout the mansion
- Apparitions have been seen in the house
- Phantom hands have touched and flicked visitors
- Disembodied voices and moans have been heard
A Midwestern Palace:
History of Marietta Castle
Take a drive down 4th Street in Marietta, Ohio, and not that much will stand out at first. But this run-of-the-mill Midwestern neighborhood has one property that towers above the rest.
Marietta Castle lives up to its name with an imposing, church-like brick facade and a central tower complete with decorative battlements.
Now a history museum, Marietta Castle tells the stories of families who once lived in the mansion. Additionally, the museum holds numerous other history-focused programs.
But no true castle is complete without a few ghosts. And Marietta Castle purportedly has a few specters lingering in its walls.
Timeline of Marietta Castle's History
Swipe or use timeline points to see Marietta Castle through the years
1855
In 1855, Marietta attorney Melvin C. Clarke started work on his one-of-a-kind dream home. With the help of local architect John Slocomb, Clarke designed a true Midwestern castle. After he purchased a double lot at what was then the outskirts of town, his ‘castle’ quickly sprang to life. Clarke’s mansion loomed over everyone who passed by, and its imposing figure was soon the talk of the town. But despite Clarke’s significant investment in building the house, he didn’t live in it for long.
1858
In 1858, Clarke sold his castle to John Newton, a local businessman involved in the Marietta Bucket Factory. Newton’s family enjoyed the castle’s expanse for much longer. Newton lived in the home until his death in 1886. After Newton, E.W. Nye, publisher of The Marietta Gazette, bought the home. He had precious little time to enjoy it though, as Nye died following a seizure in 1887. Despite this, the home would remain in the Nye family for generations to come.
1906
Lucy Nye, E.W.’s daughter, inherited the home after her father’s death. She and her husband, Theodore Davis, enjoyed the castle’s luxuries through to the end of the 19th century. Their two daughters, Jessie and Grace, got to grow up in one of Marietta’s finest homes. On June 6, 1906, Grace got married in the house, and afterwards moved to Colorado with her new husband. Jessie continued to live with her family in the castle through adulthood.
1917
Theodore died in 1917, leaving only Lucy and Jessie Nye as Marietta Castle’s regular residents. When Lucy died in 1931, Jessie inherited the massive estate. She lived a reclusive, largely solitary life in the castle until her death in 1974. As Jessie had no children, the home passed to Grace’s children, who quickly sold the home to the Bosley family. Leslie Stewart Bosley and his sister Berwyn bought the castle in hopes of restoring it. They worked quickly, but the initial restoration process would take almost twenty years.
1991
Leslie Stewart Bosley died in 1991. He willed the historic mansion to the Betsey Mills Corporation for use as a historical asset in Marietta. The corporation then made additional restorations before opening the home to the public in 1994. Marietta Castle has been a treasured local museum ever since. And while it’s no longer a private residence, the ghosts of some of the castle’s former owners may still call it home.
Is Marietta Castle Haunted?
One of the most common paranormal claims at Marietta Castle is the appearance of shadowy apparitions. Most of these reports focus on one figure in particular: a woman in a long, early-1900s dress walking through the mansion’s halls.
Those who have spotted her say she resembles photographs of Jessie, Lucy Nye’s daughter and longtime resident of the castle.
She appears so often, passersby sometimes even see Jessie’s apparition watching them from the windows.
The Many Voices of Marietta Castle
While Jessie is the well-known phantom in Marietta Castle, nobody is sure just how many ghosts allegedly haunt it. The mansion has become a hotbed of all sorts of activity, suggesting multiple unknown spirits keep Jessie company.
Disembodied voices, both male and female, are commonly reported throughout the house.
Ghostly moans and grunts have also been heard at times. The reports say these noises sound like they’re from someone in pain or exceptionally upset.
Cold Spots in the Castle
Marietta Castle is also well-known for sudden, unexplainable temperature drops throughout the house. These cold spots drift throughout the mansion, and disappear just as quickly as they appear. Additionally, the ghosts in Marietta Castle may also get a bit physical with some visitors.
At least one tour guide has been accosted by unseen hands while in the castle, being slapped and flicked by a ghostly force. This type of activity isn’t known to happen often, but nobody exactly knows what will set the castle’s phantoms off.
A True Tower of Terror
One of Marietta Castle’s most interesting paranormal tales involves the home’s attic. The story goes that one day, a group of volunteers at the museum went up there to get a view of town from the tower. When they tried going back downstairs, they found the attic door locked from the outside.
It took a passerby hearing their calls from the windows for them to finally get out. Strangely, when someone went to unlock the door, they found the attic had never been locked at all. Marietta Castle’s supernatural forces merely held it closed by force.
Marietta’s Mysterious Museum
While Marietta Castle stays focused on its museum operations today, they make their ghost stories a centerpiece. The castle hosts ghost tours around October each year, exploring all the paranormal lore the unique mansion has to offer.
And if one exceptionally haunted mansion isn’t enough for you, Marietta has another spooky manor to offer.
When John Slocomb started work as a premier architect in Marietta, it’s unlikely he wanted ‘haunted mansions’ to be his specialty. But, Slocomb’s work produced two famously phantasmic manors in Marietta: Marietta Castle and Anchorage House. Anchorage is another well-known local mansion that also offers tours and paranormal explorations.
Perhaps, in time, even more haunted manors will be found around the city. It seems that, for mansions in Marietta, Ohio, if you build it, ghosts will come.
