Throughout the years, several ghost stories regarding Sinclair Community College being haunted have emerged, primarily being the Tartan Marketplace, Building 13 and Blair Hall Theatre.
To investigate, the Clarion spoke with Curt Dalton, local historian and founder of daytonhistorybooks.com, Chris Woodyard, author of the ‘Haunted Ohio’ series, as well as individuals from the Theatre department who have experienced the hauntings first-hand.
“When you have ghosts, so many stories just can be, something comes up that explains it,” Woodyard said. “They make something up or they speculate on something and then think it might cover the facts, but nobody really knows.”
Woodyard said her sources told her elevators would move by themselves, figures would appear, and voices could be heard. Cat meowing could be heard in the walls as well.
“The elevators would move by themselves, sometimes you’d hear people talking. Cats, that’s an interesting point; when the place was being built, the legend is — I don’t know if it’s true — one of the workers didn’t like cats that were prowling around, there were a lot of feral cats, and he lured them into the concrete forum with scraps and poured concrete on them,” Woodyard said. “So they were walled up in the walls and supposedly you could hear these cats meowing, [my source] said you could hear it as plain as he and I were talking. Sometimes he said he could hear two people dancing back and forth on the stage and that might have to do with the fact that Sinclair was built on or near the Red Light district of Dayton.”
She added that on the third floor of Building 7, her source said doors would slam and voices could be heard with no one around, along with a passing glimpse of a figure.
“One of the former ghosts that was there was the former head of security,” Woodyard said. “He died in the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire … the watchmen saw him get off the elevator and go into his office and he had died the week before. The chief’s office was locked, the office was empty and he showed up for months after that and nobody was particularly surprised, because he was quite the dedicated worker and spent most of his time on the campus. Night watchmen saw him walk through the wall into the cafeteria. He touched one of the guys on the shoulder and told him that he was alright and didn’t need to worry about him anymore.”
Tartan Marketplace
Woodyard said part of Sinclair was haunted due part of campus being built over a hanging field.
“Where Sinclair stands overlaps with the hanging field,” Woodyard said.
According to Dalton, the hanging took place after a man in the 1880s had an affair with another woman, then killed his wife.
He said the man then fled Ohio, only to later return later for his daughter. He was caught, but managed to escape and flee the state again.
However, he returned to the area a second time for his daughter, only to result in being captured once more.
The second time, he did not manage to escape.
He stayed imprisoned and was sentenced to a hanging in the field where the Tartan Marketplace now stands.
On the day of his hanging, several citizens of Dayton gathered to watch his death take place. Onlookers said he showed no signs of struggling and later found a poem in his prison cell regarding the crime he committed.
Dalton said the poem has become a ballad that has been recorded and sang by various artists.
“You could hear the heavy fire doors in the cafeteria being shut, even though no one was there, and then the elevator would arrive and it’d pop open and you would think someone’s going to come out and nobody did,” Woodyard said.
Building 13
Woodyard said Building 13 is said to be haunted due to the 1913 flood by a ghost named Joshua.
“I spoke to a member of security and she said that she and some other officers actually chased this ghost, and he went through a wall,” Woodyard said. “She described him as an older man
Evidence of Joshua’s haunting came from a security guard who wishes to remain who once saw a fully clothed, older man walking through Building 13. The Dayton Police arrived to help with a building search. When the security guard caught sight of him, he said he disappeared through a wall.
“’Three of us saw it, I couldn’t believe it,’” she said. “I said, ‘did you see where he went?’ and [the security guard] said ‘I saw where he went and I’m not going to talk about it; you’re not going to get me into this building again.’”
She said the theory behind why the Building 13 ghost is named Joshua comes from a time when a lab technician printed a document out, only to receive a paper with JOSHUA written in bold, all-caps letters.
“It wasn’t on her computer screen when she was printing the document,” Woodyard said. “Maybe somebody was playing a prank. Computer stuff, you never know.”
She added that there’s a theory that the man got him arm ripped off and died when the building was still a printing press.
She said she was also told of a man with a mule, but isn’t sure where that ghost story originates from.
“Supposedly, there was a railroad roundhouse there, others think he might have died in the 1913 flood,” she said. “Secretaries have seen him, old man in overalls.”
Blair Hall
The Theatre department at Sinclair Community College has lovingly named the spirit in Blair Hall, Hamlet.
Chair of the Theatre and Dance department, Gina Neuerer, said that her encounters with the spirit have all been positive.
“I have a belief in those who have passed on coming back to communicate with us,” she said.
Since the 1980s, Neuerer has been at Sinclair, both as a student and staff member who is accustomed to hearing the stories of ghosts and spirits around campus.
“You know over the years, I’ve heard so many stories,” she said. “Because I am not a ghost hunter and I just believe in sprits and have experienced them, I don’t have a need to go look at where the ghosts come from, or whose spirit something is.”
The common stories throughout the years suggest feeling a presence in the theatre, seeing something and hearing noises.
Neuerer explained that in the theatre it is common to be working late at night with maybe one or two other people while you are fatigued.
“I’m not disbelieving a spirit in there, I do believe in it — but I also do believe that sometimes we freak ourselves out,” she said. “In theatre, there are all kinds of hideaways, alcoves, places connected here and there where noises come from, so you hear noises in there all the time — sometimes you can explain them, sometimes you cannot.”
Neuerer said that generally the noises heard coming from within the theater do not bother her, but when alone, she sees something that is unexplainable.
“It wasn’t until I was in the theatre by myself and I felt that I visibly saw something and thought, ‘yeah this is for real,’” she said.
She said as a lighting designer, she has to work alone on occasion. It is then when the spirit likes to come out.
“When you’re doing lighting, the theatre is plunged in darkness, so when you’re sitting behind the light board the entire space is filled with blackness — that’s the atmosphere,” she said. “On more than one occasion when I am at the light board and the lights behind me are on, a shadow crosses in front of it.”
Neuerer said unless a person had walked in front of the light, a shadow would not cross it.
“So, I’m in the theatre by myself and I have always chalked that up as Hamlet telling me, ‘it’s late you should go home now,’” she said. “I believe in it, I believe that something passed in front of that light, but let’s say a moth. A moth is not going to put a shadow that big across the stage — something put a shadow across the stage.”
She said that a certain eerie feeling is normal when you are by yourself in a dark room, but she does not see the encounter with Hamlet as negative.
“I’ve never been afraid of the ghost or fear the ghost is trying to harm me,” Neuerer said. “It’s just, ‘oh hey, hi Hamlet how are you — okay you’re right I should go home.’”
Neuerer said that the theatre department shares and talks amongst each other about the spirit if they believe they have had an encounter.
“Anytime any of us think we have experienced the Blair Hall ghost, we share it with each other and compare,” she said. “Things like, ‘oh you were just hearing things,’ or ‘oh that seems real,’ or ‘wow I would have been scared.’”
Neuerer said Hamlet only seems to come out at night.
“I personally have never had an encounter during the day time or when the theatre is crowded,” she said. “In my head our ghost is a shy one and comes out at night, it doesn’t care to scare a house full of people — we don’t have a phantom of the opera.”
Woodyard said she has visited Sinclair before, but didn’t notice anything. She said that may be because the campus is crowded, adding that she senses more paranormal activity when the surroundings are quiet.
She said it also may be hard to imagine Sinclair being haunted because the buildings are modern. However, she said modern buildings can be just as haunted as older buildings, sometimes due to where it’s built.
“That’s one thing I don’t understand about this business,” she said. “Why some things stick around and others don’t.”
For more information, visit hauntedohiobooks.com.