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Tours offer chance at ghost hunting

Guests can explore the Warren County Historical Society to determine if paranormal exists.

PAT AUCKERMAN/AP Glendower Mansion in Lebanon

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By Eric Robinette, Staff Writer Updated 7:16 PM Friday, April 16, 2010

LEBANON — The paranormal is in evidence at Warren County historical sites.

At least that’s what the Warren County Historical Society’s Ghosts in the Museums tours next week aim to show. One of them will be at 7 p.m. April 23 at the Glendower Mansion at 105 Cincinnati Ave. The other will be at 7 p.m. April 24 at Harmon Hall on 105 S. Broadway St.

In both tours, guests will be able to use equipment such as infrared cameras and electromagnetic detectors to determine if paranormal activity exists at the sites, said Victoria Tappy, Warren County Historical Society director. Such activity has been reported in both locations by paranormal investigators, Tappy said.

Stories of ghosts have swirled around Lebanon for centuries, with sightings at The Golden Lamb inn, among other places. So perhaps it was no surprise that paranormal investigators have called Tappy over the years, wanting to investigate the sites.

At first, Tappy demurred, particularly when it came to Glendower Mansion, where “everything is sacrosanct,” she said. But last year, she relented.

“I said they can come over here to Harmon Hall and I gave them the history,” she said, explaining that it was originally built as a gym that opened in 1913.

“I let them come in and locked them in overnight with their cameras and meters,” Tappy said.

There were two paranormal groups doing investigations. When the second of them was finished, “they were pretty bug-eyed,” Tappy said — so much so, apparently, that they never came back.

The first team, based in Cincinnati, is called the Spiritual Historians Of Paranormal Evidence Society, and will help conduct the ghost tours next week. Their methodology is not to look specifically for ghosts, but to record what they see and hear and try to explain it, said DeShane Watkins, the founder of the group.

“We supply the instruments and show how to look for electromagnetic spikes,” said Watkins, who said the group tries to provide three explanations for findings: scientific, skeptical and paranormal.

Whatever the case, the team has detected signs ranging from disembodied voices to strange electromagnetic fields at both locations. Even their dogs don’t like Lebanon much.

“We had a K-9 unit that’s uncomfortable going into certain locations,” Watkins said.

One of the most popular spots for paranormal activity in Harmon Hall is an area around two fiberglass cows, where the meters light up frequently, Tappy said. As it happens, just adjacent to that spot is a death mask, or a facial mold made at the time of death, of John McLean — the founder of the Western Star newspaper who died in 1861.

Tickets for each tour cost $45 per person and must be purchased in advance no later than April 21. Tours are limited to 12 guests, and participants must be at least 12 years old. Call (513) 932-1817 for more details.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.