Franklin Castle (Hannes Tiedemann House)

Last night, on Groundhog Day, we toured the Franklin Castle located at 4308 Franklin Boulevard in Cleveland, OH.

As a preface to my review of the tour, I want to state that being born on Friday the 13th and having worked in a funeral home, I do not feel fearful of the dead, nor do I believe in superstitions. I do believe in spirits, both good and evil, and probably a mix of both, zooming around us. But I am not one of the people that you'd consider a 'ghost chaser'. I scare easily (just ask my husband and kids!) and am afraid of the dark. But I do love visiting cemeteries and learning about haunted places.

All of that being said, I was born and raised on the West side of Cleveland, and have been aware of the Franklin Castle for as long as I can remember. As a kid, we would drive by this 4-story stone mansion often. As a new driver, I recall going with some friends to scope it out. At that time, you could not go inside, but we sat out front in my parent's minivan and watched the windows to see if there was any movement inside; we'd all heard that it was haunted. Haunted by who, we weren't sure. It was the late 1980s, and back then we weren't Googling things yet. Stories were passed by word of mouth mostly, on the news, or in our local paper 'The Cleveland Plain Dealer'. We'd heard about infants and small children who died in the house, bones being found there. Nobody knew for sure who was haunting it, though stories floated around. Alas, we saw no signs of life, or afterlife, on any occasion.

Fast forward to the present time, February 2023. Since you can Google things today, I'll leave that to you because there are loads of details to learn about the history of this beautiful, yet ominous-looking place online. As for what we learned in person last night: I don't want to spoil it by sharing too much. I'll simply note that our delightful tour guide Jens (pronounced 'yens') warmly welcomed us through the iron gate around 5:45pm, and we did not conclude the tour until after 8:00pm. For over two hours, he led our group from dark room to even darker room, up and down through all four floors (basement to attic), while talking about the past residents, mixing oxblood paint, hidden panels, walking us onto and off of stone balconies, allowing us to take a photo by the black mirror, sharing details of one raging fire, some underground tunnels, and showing us a glorious ballroom. There were areas we could take photos, and areas where pictures were off-limits. Like I wrote, I don't want to spoil it by sharing too much. If you are curious, definitely go and experience it for yourself. It is well worth the money spent. In addition to the paid tour, they offer overnight stays.

I plan to go back again, maybe next year on Groundhog Day to see the progress of the continued restorations and learn more about the paranormal monitoring that has been taking place. There won't ever be any overnight stays for this gal though! I don't have the constitution for that. While I did not see any poltergeists, I do believe the place is haunted. My spine was tingling throughout the entire experience. Thanks to Jens for the warm welcome to his castle. It far exceeded my expectations!