It’s not really Halloween if you don’t explore a haunted place (or more), right? Well, here in Owensboro, we’ve got an amazing lineup of haunted schools, auditoriums, battlefields, coffee shops…even a graveyard.
These sights range from light-hearted fun to fairly scary, so if you want the more light-hearted experience, we’d recommend not venturing into any cemeteries at night.
From stories of a ghost that pushes people down the basement stairs to the mysterious “Lady in White” that haunts the RiverPark Center, there are a lot of fun places with storied pasts to explore if you’re into the supernatural or paranormal realm of things.
Haunts of Owensboro Walking Tours
Owner David Wolfe II has been sharing the city’s local hauntings since 2007. You’ll hit a handful of the haunted places on this list by taking Wolfe’s walking tour. During this 1.5-hour tour, Wolfe engages his audience with not only stories, but enthusiasm. One of his creepiest stories involved a couple that lived above The Crème Coffee House on the second floor.
“That second floor is so haunted, literally, they could put it on a movie or a documentary itself,” he’s said.
That building first opened in the 1800s. Originally a music store, the current coffee shop has been using the upstairs floor as a rental space. On the very first night of the first tenant’s stay, Wolfe said, the girl experienced the front door opening and shutting on its own, as well as a series of “clomping footsteps” walking from the first floor to the second. Upstairs in her living room, Wolfe said the young girl heard the sound of someone sitting down on a squeaking couch cushion in her studio apartment.
She was so scared she called the cops. Then she moved out. A second person moved in, experienced the same series of hauntings as the first girl, and moved out too. She documented her experience and submitted it to Wolfe, who said it was legit.
Other haunted places on Wolfe’s tour were the front lawn of the Daviess County Courthouse and the Famous Bistro on 2nd Street.
Owensboro Museum of Science and History
The building that houses the OMFA in downtown Owensboro has a lot of history, and reports of sinks turning on and off on their own just adds to the mysteriousness. There are also stories about a young man who loves playing in the “shadow room.” Sometimes, they say, his shadow sticks around.
Ghostly Productions Building
Located at 203 West 4th Street, this building houses a local business focused on all things scary, but the really scary thing about this haunt are the reports of “multiple sounds” that can be heard, ranging from loud knocking to doors opening out of nowhere.
The Campbell Club Building
Now called The Cupola Club, this restaurant at 521 Frederica Street has been referred to as one of the most haunted places in Kentucky. One of the most popular ghost stories from the club involves Chef Matt Weafer, who told Wolfe that he noticed a pretty young lady sitting and peering out the front window of the building. He asked fellow staff members about her and, when they went to talk to her, she was gone. Vanished into the night. Others have shared similar stories about the same location.
Theatre Workshop of Owensboro
Wolfe has called TWO “one of the most haunted sites in western Kentucky.” According to legend, there are five spirits haunting the Old Trinity Centre (now TWO). Many people have reported seeing a young lady who allegedly took her own life by hanging herself in the shower. As the story goes, when a priest walked into the church and saw her corpse, he took his own life in the basement because he was so haunted by the image.
To this day, reports of lights constantly flickering on and off, the sound of a ringing bell (where there no longer is a bell) and cold drafts that come out of nowhere are often made. Even scarier, you want to be cautious standing in front of the basement because you might get pushed down the stairs. Many others have in the past…
Ben Hawes Park
According to local legend, a girl was burned at the stake for witchcraft in the 1700s, and now, she meanders (or floats?) through the very woods in which she was killed. It’s true what they say about Ben Hawes…it’s hauntingly beautiful.
Civil War site in Deanefield, Near the Daviess/Ohio County line
Anytime you can hear shots fired in the middle of the night at a former Civil War site, it’s pretty much a guarantee the place is haunted. The place to check is located at Highway 1414, where confederate soldiers hid from the Yankees behind a small cliff. Rumor is, the Yankees found those soldiers and…you guessed it. They killed them. On nights when the moon is full, you can hear gunshots, sounds of laughter, a fire crackling and horses galloping. I’m no expert, but that sounds haunted enough to me.
Owensboro Catholic Middle School
From “mysterious red stains” on the floor to reports of creepy laughter, screams and doors flying open, it feels safe to say there’s something peculiar happening at OCMS. Does that mean it’s haunted? Yep, pretty much.
The Turley Building
The Turley building, located at the corner of 2nd and Daviess streets, used to house the International Bluegrass Music Museum. Now, it’s rumored to house ghosts. The Turley building was built in 1873 and RiverPark Center Executive Director Rich Jorn told the Messenger-Inquirer that it’s one of the five most haunted buildings in Owensboro.
Sheriff Brad Youngman told KET a story about the Turley Building a few years back, claiming that when he was a detective for the Owensboro Police Department, he investigated a claim of alarms going off inside. While he and his team were searching and looking over security footage, one of the officers saw a shadow figure float across the screen. After that, Youngman and his team began hearing noises coming from the control room where the alarms were located. The sounds, they realized, were coming from the elevator.
This particular elevator only worked when being summoned from one of the floors above. With guns out, Youngman and his team watched as the elevator dropped from the third floor, to the second, and finally, to the first. The doors opened but, of course, there was nobody there. However, the officers said they felt a cold rush of air from inside that “made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.”
The RiverPark Center
At RPC, you’ve got your classic, “Woman jumps from a catwalk into the Ohio River to her death” haunted building story. This happened in 1927. So, it’s more than a little weird that, 100 years later, you can see a woman in white—water dripping from her clothes—walking over the edge of the catwalk to the river below.
Former Executive Director Rich Jorn said he used to hear music at a certain spot in the RPC lobby when he was closing up for the night. He said it was very faint, but that it happened about 30% of the time he was locking up.
The Miller House
The spirit of a little girl is rumored to haunt the local eatery and loves to play with a ball she bounces up and down the restaurant’s wooden staircase. I mean, she doesn’t sound like a malevolent spirit, per se, but creepy is an understatement.
Elmwood Cemetery
Some people call Elmwood the most haunted cemetery in Kentucky. It’s very beautiful in the daytime, but at night is when it belongs to those who reside there. It’s been reported that the ghost of Rainey Bethea–the last person to be executed in the entire United States–haunts “Potter’s Field,” where Bethea is buried at an unmarked grave. Allegedly, the ghost has been spotted crying into its own hands. Others have reported being touched or grabbed as they walked past gravestones throughout the cemetery. Nobody has been harmed at Elmwood Cemetery, and you can even learn about some of the hauntings by taking the Voices of Elmwood tour.