| Squire's Castle |
| Maureen and Bryan in the trophy room/library |
| Side door that leads into the area where the kitchen once was |
| Outside of one of the tower rooms |
| The open walkway |
| Denise and Maureen getting ready for our night in the "castle" |
| The focus of our investigation... Squire's Castle |
| Nestled in the North Chagrin Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks in Willoughby Hills, Ohio is Squire's Castle. Built sometime in the 1890s by Standard Oil Company founder, Feargus B. Squire. It was intended to be the gatekeeper's house for the country estate that he was planning to build. Fergus bought 525 acres of land, however, he never completed building the estate. His wife, Rebecca, didn't like the country and refused to live there. Using the place occasionally as a summer home, Rebecca was said to become restless, often roaming the house at night with a lantern. Eventually Feargus sold the house and land, and in 1925 the Cleveland Metroparks purchased the property. As part of the park, Squire's Castle is still open to the public. Most of the building still has a roof, however the upper level no longer has a floor. The interior is empty and with no doors or windows it is open to the elements. Sadly it had been a victim to vandalism, but now there are few signs of that left. Squire's Castle has gained a notable reputation of being haunted. The most common story is that Squire's wife, Rebecca, haunts the place. There is an urban legend that states during one of her late night walks she tripped and fell in the house's library/trophy room, breaking her neck and dieing where she fell. But, in actuality she died in 1929 in Wickliffe, Ohio, years after they sold the property. Even so, they still say that her ghost can be seen wandering through the house at night and her lantern glow is seen through the windows. |
| This is one of those places that we had been wanting to investigate for some time. But, we were just never able to work it into our schedule. Luckily enough, we were finally able to do it in May 2009. Working with the Cleveland Metro Parks we made all of the necessary arrangements for our evening. Heading up the investigation was Tom, as usual, along with Bryan, Denise and Maureen. We set up our infrared cameras in the library/trophy room, former kitchen area, the central "tower" and former living areas. Unfortunately our plans to set up outside the castle shooting the windows was ruined by the occasional drizzle. This was our first opportunity to test out our new motion activated infrared camera. As always, we tried to mix things up during the investigation, even breaking off and working just in two's in the castle. One of our main focuses would be for EVP. The conditions for EVP were great, since it was quiet here. There is no electricity, so we didn't need to concern ourselves with any false EMF readings - the background EMF was normal. We were able to run our cameras off of our portable powerpack (a worthwhile investment.) Even though we did not have any personal experiences, or capture any potential evidence of paranormal activity, we cannot rule out the possibility that there could be some type of activity here. If Squire's Castle is truly haunted, it would seem very unlikely that it would be the ghost of Rebecca Squire. Could it be someone, or something else? Perhaps. |
| Looking at where the upper floors once were |
| Tom inside the central part of the castle |
| Gotta love the Gothic architecture |
| Looking into the former dining/kitchen area |
| There's no roof to this part anymore |
| No upper floors anymore |
| There they are holding up the walls again! |