Franklin Castle is an eerie structure of dark and foreboding stone that has long been considered a spooky place by architects and the general public alike. There are over thirty rooms in the castle's four stories and the roof is designed in steep gables that give the place a gothic air. Secret passages honeycomb the house and sliding panels hide the doorways to these hidden corridors. It is said that a thirteen-year-old girl was once murdered in one of these hallways by her uncle because he believed her to be insane. In the front tower, it is rumored that a bloody ax murder once took place and it was here that one of the former owners found a secret cabinet that contained human bones. The Deputy coroner of Cleveland, Dr. Lester Adelson, who examined the bones shortly after they were found in January 1975, judged them to be of someone who had been dead for a very, very long time. Did they date back to the years of the original owners of the house?

It is hard to separate fact from fiction at Franklin Castle but we do know that a German immigrant named Hannes Tiedemann built the gothic-looking mansion in 1865. Tiedemann was a former barrel-maker and wholesale grocer who had gone into banking. This new source of wealth allowed him to spare no expense in building the house and though he soon moved in with his wife, Luise, life in the mansion was never really happy. During the next two decades every single member of the Tiedemann family died while living in the house, including his wife and all four of the Tiedemann children. Tiedemann himself died in 1908, suddenly stricken while walking in the park one day. It is believed that he suffered a massive stroke. Rumors state that his ghost has been seen in the short distance between the Castle and Riverside Cemetery where the Tiedemanns are buried, as if forever looking for a way back to where his spirit is drawn.







Tiedemann's death did not end the speculation about strange events in the house however. One of the bloody tales was told about a hidden passage that extended beyond the castle’s ballroom. It was here that Tiedemann allegedly killed his niece by hanging her from one of the exposed rafters. The stories say that she was insane and that he killed her to put her out of her misery. Tiedemann is also said to have murdered a young servant girl on her wedding day because she rejected his advances. Another version of the story says that the woman who was killed was Tiedemann’s mistress, a woman named Rachel. She accidentally strangled to death in the house after Tiedemann tied her up and gagged her after learning that she wanted to marry another man. It’s possible that Rachel’s spirit is the resident "woman in black" who has been seen lurking around the old tower. Former residents say that they have heard the sound of a woman choking in this room.





Secret rooms and passages do exist inside the castle, although it is not known how many. Hannes Tiedemann supposedly used a secret room to store the bodies of his dead children, and killed his niece in a hidden passage by the ballroom. It is also believed that there is an underground tunnel that extends to Lake Erie. However, those who say they have been in the tunnel note that it ends at some point before the lake. An old still was found in one hidden room by a later homeowner, giving rise to speculation that the house was also used as a speakeasy during Prohibition and that the tunnel was used to run booze out of the castle. A mysterious “cemented-over area” was recently found in the floor of the backyard carriage house, which is original to the property.


The house was sold to the German Democratic Socialist Party in 1913, who owned it right up through 1968 (not to be confused with the National Socialist, or Nazi party, whom careless storytellers often confuse with one another). They used the house for meetings and parties, with local spying activity said to be conducted from many of the secret rooms. The wildest rumor involved the mass political assassination of perhaps twenty members during a purge in the 1920s. However, during the time of their residence, the house was mainly unoccupied. It is believed that they may have rented out a portion of the house however, as a Cleveland nurse recalled several years ago that she had cared for an ailing attorney in the castle in the early 1930's. She remembered being terrified at night by the sound of a small child crying. More than forty years later, she told a reporter that she "would never set foot in that house again."


In January of 1968, James Romano, his wife, and six children moved into the house. Mrs. Romano had always been fascinated with the mansion and planned to open a restaurant there, but she quickly changed her mind. On the very day that the family moved in, she sent her children upstairs to play. A little while later, they came back downstairs and asked if they could have a cookie for their new friend, a little girl who was upstairs crying. Mrs. Romano followed the children back upstairs, but found no little girl. This happened a number of times, leading many to wonder if the "ghost children" might be the spirits of the Tiedemann children who died in the early 1880's. Mrs. Romano reported hearing organ music in the house, even though the family did not own one. She also heard footsteps in the hallways, creaking stairs, voices and the sound of glass clinking on the third floor. The Romanos finally consulted a Catholic priest about the house. He declined to do an exorcism of the place, but told them that he sensed an evil presence in the house and that they should leave. Rumors told that the ghostly children who interacted with the Romano children even warned of an impending death.



By September of 1974, the Romano’s had finally had enough. They sold the castle to Sam Muscatello, who planned to turn the place into a church, but instead, after learning of the building's shady past, started offering guided tours of the house. He also had problems with ghostly visitors in the mansion, with houseguests often encountering strange sounds, vanishing objects and the eerie woman in black. One visitor is reputed to have fled the building in terror. Objects were witnessed to move of their own accord, and a ceiling light would sometimes start turning in bizarre circular motions for no apparent reason. One woman even complained of feeling like she was being choked in the tower room. Strangely, she had no idea of the legend concerning that room and the death of Tiedemann’s mistress.






A young girl is said to haunt the 4th floor ballroom. She may be the ghost of young Rachel, or Tiedemann's niece. In the ballroom, it is said that a large blood stain still appears on the marble floor, even though it was replaced about 30 years ago. In 1999, the ballroom was damaged in a fire and is currently being renovated. One wonders if this bloodstain will come back after the work is done. Stories also exist of over a dozen or more children’s skeletons which were found in the 1970s in a sealed room, perhaps medical specimens owned by the doctor who once resided in the Castle, but these cannot be substantiated.






A local newspaper boy claimed that when he knocked on the door, a voice told him to "come in." Once inside the foyer, he saw an apparition of a woman in white, who glided down the staircase and disappeared through a closed door. Many have heard voices of children (often crying), and have seen faces that seem to suddenly materialize in the woodwork. Others say that doors open and shut on their own, and have seen fog or ectoplasm form inside the rooms. Voices coming from the walls, and "cold spots", have also been reported. Some say the ghost of Tiedemann himself can sometimes be seen at the park where he died, looking to hitch a ride back home to his castle.


Muscatello's interest in the history of the house led him to start searching for the secret panels and passages installed by the Tiedemann's. It was he who made the gruesome discovery of the skeleton behind the panel in the tower room. This discovery apparently had a strange effect on Muscatello as he started becoming sick and lost over thirty pounds in a few weeks. He was never very successful at turning the place into a tourist attraction and eventually sold the place. Over the next 30 years the building had a succession of at least five different owners, including a doctor and a former Cleveland Police chief, all of whom rarely stayed in the house for more than a year or two.





While many aspects of the stories are true - including the deaths of the Tiedemann children and wife, and the discovery of a skeleton - most could not be verified. There is no reason to believe that the deaths of the Tiedemann children, wife, and mother were anything other than natural. The fact that Hannes may not have been the warmest person in public does not lead to the conclusion that he was a murderer. Cultural stereotypes most probably led to the same legends involving the German Socialist party's occupation of the castle. Perhaps part of the appeal of the castle has to do with its secrecy. Very few people have actually been inside the castle, leaving only one's imagination to guide them.

Huge sums of money have recently been spent in restoration efforts. The original blueprints to the house were eventually tracked down, including some of the Tiedemann furniture, and even the original key to the front door, which still worked. Today the Castle is in the midst of a complete restoration and is currently owned by a private social club, who hope to re-open the place within the next year or two, after restoring this historic landmark to its former "glory."