Dayton Ghost Walk

Friday, October 30th Travis and I decided to take a ghost walk of Dayton. We have done ghost walks in San Diego, CA and Nottingham, England. We've tried to do this in towns where this is offered. We were slightly disappointed because this walk was more a historic tour, than filled with ghost stories.

We did arrive late because we couldn't figure out where to park! BTW, on the weekends the meters are free downtown.

The moon for our walk:

One of the historians talking: He gave us some information on the story behind The Ballad of John Mcafee. Then we led us to the stairs of the old courthouse where President Lincoln had visited Dayton 150 years ago. You can read about it here. In the square are plaques of all the presidents that had visited Dayton. As we walked around downtown we heard stories of cemeteries being moved so confused ghosts are lurking around and of how a guy entombed his murdered wife in the floor of the Dayton Daily News building (which happened to the neighbor of one of the people on the tour that night). They also told us of of the terracotta ornamented buildings. And how in the old days if buildings were made of stone it was meant as a sign of the city's richness. Instead of stone, Dayton used terracotta...cheaper with the same look. Downtown had recent reconstruction of some of the deteriorated ornamentation.

The man who was in charge of building the Dayton Daily News building made it fancy with the terracotta. People thought a bank was opening up, so they felt silly showing up on opening day with deposits in their hands.

Dayton Daily News building: It is said that the original owner still haunts his office.

Terracotta ornamentation up close:

Supposedly this site use to be a theater with dancing ladies. When the church was built one wall was left up from the theater. Some claim that if you walk in the church humming or thinking of a song you'll hear the ladies dancing.

We just took this picture for fun: We overheard one lady in the group say to her friend, "Remember the time we walked passed the Dayton Chess Club and I said who would be nerdy enough to go there and we saw your friend in there!" We laughed at that!

Our other guide:

It was a fun walk, but not very ghost like. They could have made up stories for entertainment purposes! They do tons of research and it can be found on the Dayton History website.