Sedamsville Rectory

On a narrow street in one of Cincinnati's smallest and most overlooked neighborhoods, a four-level rectory sits on a hillside above the Ohio River, holding inside its six thousand square feet of space a concentration of dark history that has made it one of the most investigated paranormal locations in the state. The Sedamsville Rectory at 639 Steiner Avenue has been featured on the Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures, the SyFy Channel's Haunted Collector, and the Biography Channel's My Ghost Story, and was voted the number one fan favorite episode during the Travel Channel's 2015 Halloween marathon. The attention is not accidental. The building's history involves violent death, alleged abuse, and a period of abandonment during which the basement reportedly housed something far worse than neglect.

Sedamsville itself was established in 1795 by Colonel Cornelius Sedam, a Revolutionary War veteran who moved to the area to help build Fort Washington. The neighborhood grew along the banks of the Ohio River and the railroad line, becoming a hub for manufacturing and river commerce. By the late nineteenth century, the community's booming German Catholic population led to the founding of Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish in 1878. The Gothic Revival church was dedicated on May 5, 1889, perched high on a hill overlooking the neighborhood. According to a booklet published by the parish for its centennial, the rectory was built in 1891 to house the priests serving the growing congregation. The building is a substantial structure with a parlor, living room, library, formal dining room, kitchen, and bathroom on the first floor, servant's quarters accessible by a back staircase on the second floor, additional rooms on the third floor, and a basement that would later take on its own grim reputation.

Sedamsville prospered into the early twentieth century, with over a hundred businesses operating along River Road. Residents could take the streetcar into Cincinnati or the ferry across to Kentucky. But the catastrophic Ohio River flood of 1937, combined with the ongoing Depression, devastated the commercial district. Many businesses never rebuilt. The widening of River Road further isolated the neighborhood. Our Lady of Perpetual Help's school closed in 1976 and merged with Holy Family parish in East Price Hill. When the church itself closed in 1989, the remaining parishioners joined Holy Family as well. The church was stripped of its sacred items and the properties were sold. In 1995, John Klosterman purchased the church and rectory from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

The rectory's paranormal reputation is anchored by several distinct threads of history. The most widely identified spirit is Father Donald MacLeod, who authored The History of Roman Catholicism in North America and resided at the rectory in the late 1800s. Father MacLeod was struck and killed by a train in Sedamsville while on his way to provide comfort to a seriously ill woman. Since his death, locals and parishioners have reported seeing his apparition walking along the street near the building or beside the railroad tracks. Inside the rectory, visitors have reported seeing the figure of a clergyman in the hallways. Adding to the building's burden are two separate deaths documented on the street directly in front of the rectory—a man found dead at one time, and a child found with a noose around its neck at another. The circumstances of these deaths are not well documented, but the proximity to the building has drawn them into its haunting narrative.

The darkest chapter of the rectory's history involves two distinct periods of alleged abuse. The building is rumored to have housed a priest who abused and molested children during its years of church operation. Separately, during a period in the 1980s when the rectory sat vacant after the church closed, the basement was reportedly used to operate a dog fighting ring. The convergence of these two forms of cruelty—against children and against animals—has led investigators and visitors to describe the energy inside the building as not merely haunted but aggressively malevolent. The sounds of dogs growling and barking have been reported in the basement when no animals are present. Visitors have described being scratched, bitten, pushed, and shoved by unseen forces. A child-like entity has been encountered in the building, but when approached, it reportedly growls rather than speaks, leading some investigators to suspect it may not be what it appears.

A shadowy figure described as a dark monk has been reported moving through the halls. The smell of sulfur—commonly associated in paranormal research with demonic or deeply negative presences—has been noted by former tenants. One ghost hunter received a scratch down his back in the shape of a cross during an investigation. When the current owners brought salvaged books and a Monet reproduction into the building from a vandalized neighboring house, the rectory reportedly erupted with growling, whispering, a slamming door upstairs, the sound of a woman crying, and a sudden darkening of the interior light.

The Midwest Preservation Society began renovations of the rectory in March 2011, and it was during this restoration work that the building gained its widest attention. Workers reported eerie mists and shadows visible under the doors of empty rooms. The Ghost Adventures investigation in 2012 captured evidence that deepened the rectory's reputation as one of the most aggressive haunts in the Midwest. Paranormal teams that have investigated the site report shadow figures, intelligent responses to questions during EVP sessions, physical contact from unseen entities, and doors that open and close without explanation.

Today the Sedamsville Rectory remains privately owned and continues to undergo restoration. The neighborhood around it is small and quiet—known primarily as the birthplace of Pete Rose and for the rectory itself. The church still stands on the hill above. The railroad tracks still run nearby. And the building at 639 Steiner Avenue continues to draw investigators and visitors who describe it in terms that most haunted locations never earn—not just active, not just unsettling, but a place where the accumulated weight of suffering seems to push back against anyone who enters.