Читать книгу Cincinnati Haunted Handbook - Jeff Morris - Страница 22

directions

From I-75, take the I-74 West exit. From I-74, take the Colerain Avenue exit. At the end of the exit ramp, turn right onto Colerain Avenue. Wesleyan Cemetery will be on your right. The entrance is off Colerain.

history

In September of 1900, there was a fire at the Salvation Army orphanage on Front Street in downtown Cincinnati which was not only used to house orphans but was used as a kind of daycare center for the children of working parents in the area who could not afford any other kind of daycare. Some sort of gas leak caused an explosion that ignited the first floor of the orphanage. The children and workers were trapped on the third floor without any kind of fire escape or way out. Some people from the surrounding area were able to rescue a handful of the children from the burning building, but both workers, a man who tried to rush in to rescue his son and daughter, and six children died in the fire.

The children were buried in Wesleyan Cemetery underneath a Salvation Army flag and a small white marble headstone. In recent years, the cemetery has decayed into a rather terrible state. Headstones were piled up haphazardly near trees. Some trees completely swallowed headstones into their trunks. Mausoleums were broken open. In the past couple of years, though, attempts have been made to restore the cemetery.

ghost story

A caretaker at the cemetery is convinced that several ghost children haunt the grounds. Even though the gates are closed at six p.m., the caretaker will sometimes hear children playing in the cemetery late into the night. He will look for these children and watch them run behind tombstones and then mysteriously disappear. He will hear laughter and children’s voices, but he is never able to find anyone in the cemetery.

Sometimes the caretaker or passersby will hear children screaming from inside the cemetery, or they will see dark shadowy figures walking through the grounds at night. No one is ever found.

visiting

The cemetery is open to the public all day, and it is rarely busy. At six p.m., however, the gates close, and there is no way to access the cemetery. The house of the caretaker stands inside the gates. Even if you just wanted to stand outside the fence and look for shadowy figures at night, you could be in some danger. The neighborhood is not the safest in town, so you probably don’t want to be standing out on the street at night, especially with expensive equipment.