|
History: I could not locate much historical information about the Sedamsville Rectory. The current owners, the Midwest Preservation Society who began renovations of the Rectory in March 2011, only say that the Rectory was built over 120 years ago and is one of four buildings once belonging to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church. The Rectory housed the priests that served the community. There is some historical information concerning Our Lady of Perpetual Help which sits abandoned next to the Rectory.
The Claims: The Sedamsville Rectory is in my old home town of western Cincinnati. Growing up I had never heard any stories about the place and was surprised when we had an opportunity to ghost hunt there. During the tour we were told that most of the ‘ghostly happenings’ consisted of screams and moans coming from the basement and a second floor bedroom, occasional sightings of shadows on the stairs and in the ‘chapel’ room, doors slamming – just the ‘normal’ creepy stuff. We were also told that two priests died in the home due to natural causes. That being said…..we were all very surprised at the claims of dog fighting and other illegal gambling operations taking place at the Rectory as depicted in recent television programs. We were in the Rectory prior to the filming of those shows and we did not see any evidence of dog fighting. Nor was that mentioned to us when we were given the history of the place. A couple of the shows shot pictures of clawed up doors and door frames. That is not what we saw during our investigation. In fact the Rectory doors and woodwork were in very good condition. The place was clean and well-maintained. It was not in use for several years and it is possible that some gambling took place there during that time. We just did not see any evidence of dogs on the premises. Our Findings: During the investigation we also visited the abandoned Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church next door. It is in very bad condition and in need of repair. Although we did not catch photographic evidence we did capture some class A EVPs in both the Rectory and Church. We also had some personal experiences – we heard the doors slamming and a noisy party on the first floor even though no one was there. Who’s haunting the Sedamsville Rectory? We’re not sure but we’re betting it’s not the dogs! |