Once upon a time… back in the 1800’s, when Franklin boulevard was lined with giant elm trees and stately mansions of the wealthy, it was called the “Millionaires’ Row”. Right after German immigrant Johannes Tiedemann of Süderau bought ‘Bachelor’s Hall from Alonzo Wolverton in 1865, the home became the scene of several fatalities. Whilst some attribute what happened here to sheer terrible luck, others feel that more sinister forces must have been at play.
However, this was just the beginning of Franklin Castle’s adventures and you have just stepped across the threshold into another dimension. A quiet world of gaslights, horse-drawn carriages, wonder, and Love.
1860 | The First House
The Wolvertons, four brothers from Ontario, moved to Cleveland to attend school whilst they were still in their teens. They built a two-story traditional wooden house that soon became known as the Bachelor’s Hall.
Bachelor’s Hall was the merrier den you could find in Ohio! Lessons in culture and love were experienced during these innocent days… but then came the dark times. The Wolvertons enlist as grenadiers with the Union Army at the onset of the Civil War. Only two will survive.
When Alonzo Wolverton came back to lake Erie from the bloodiest and most heartbreaking battle of the Secession war, he was but a mere shadow of his former carefree and joyful self. The return to the now empty house, without his young cheerful brothers, was too heavy for him to bear. In letters to his sister, written in utter desolation and despair, he recalls himself surrounded by a vast plain of bodies, without an inch of free ground to step on. Those southern soldiers were mostly kids, the last “cannon flesh” in the reserves of a desperate army. Some castle dwellers have reported visions of southern army soldiers galloping away in faded blue uniform rags and falling, falling… could the ruins of the old Bachelor’s den beneath the surface be still inhabited by unappeased ghost soldiers stalking the young Wolverton grenadiers in search for revenge, so far up North?
1865 | A man with a dream
German immigrants Hannes and Louise Tiedemann purchase Bachelor’s Den from Alonzo Wolverton. Hospitable German immigrants, they shared the home with other homeless Germans who had similarly made the journey to America, fleeing Schleswig-Holstein during the Danish war. They had six children in total though only August, Emma, and Dora will survive infancy.
After fate continues to strike in the old wooden house, including the mysterious and sudden death of 15 years old Emma in January of 1881, Johannes and his family move to their summer home in Lakewood. During that summer, he will have the first vision of building a castle.
His decision is taken. as a sort of “exorcism” he tears down and buries the remains of Bachelor’s den as well as the secret underground tunnel that runs under the garden, into the carriage house and of which some traces are still visible on the lower part of the carriage house’s north side on Vine street. He then calls in the greatest American architects of his time, Cudell and Richardson, to draft and cast their illuminated spell under the influence of ancient esoteric formulas following the Golden Number which practice goes back to Greek and Roman times. Inspirations and invocations for the castle’s shape and proportions are directly sourced at the original lair of the Tiedemanns in the barren countryside of Northern Germany.
It would take several years of planning and another two years of construction before moving into what is now known as Franklin Castle. Meanwhile tragedy would strike again when the Tiedeman children and his own mother, Wibke, die within a short span of time. It must be said in truth, that most deaths in the family happened elsewhere and not in the castle itself and what a curse on that family ! In 1895, after Louise’s sudden death, Johannes is left to fend for himself. He travels back to his hometown of Süderau, and a year later, returns to the castle with his new wife of faith unknown. In 1897, he permanently moves to his summer home in Lakewood. The deaths of Dora and August Tiedemann in 1906, followed by the patriarch’s own death in 1908, mark the end of the Tiedemann era.
It is important to note that the Tiedeman family’s history is one shrouded in mystery, and whose past is so entangled with myth and truth that it defies easy dissection. It is here where the legend of the Franklin Castle begins.
1921 | The Prohibition Era
After being occupied by a widow from Virginia and a prominent local physician, the Franklin Castle is sold to a German singing ( and dancing ) society called Bildungsverein Eintracht, who gather at the castle for meetings and performances. It is also at this time that the house is used to produce illegal liquor. A whiskey still would be found in a hidden room of the basement two decades later, behind a sealed panel in the wall.
1967 | The Romano Family
The house is purchased by the Romano family. After persisting tales of strange happenings for more than 50 years, reports of the haunting of the Franklin Castle are made public for the first time.
1975 | Human Bones found
While knocking down a wall in January 1975, Sam Muscatello makes the grim discovery of a partial human skeleton concealed in a void within the castle walls of the second floor. Muscatello was using the house as a Universalist Church at the time. At first, it was rumoured that the new owner had placed them there to attract attention for his ghost walks in the property. Years later, it turned out that this wasn’t true.
1982 | A Historical Landmark
In 1982, the castle was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
1985 | Michael DeVinko
After showing interest in the property for a few years, Judy Garland’s last husband, Michael DeVinko – aka Mickey Deans – purchases the Franklin Castle. Under his ownership, the house would be submitted to a magnificent maximalist rehaul and many a wild party was had.
1999 | The Castle On Fire
In the Summer of 1999, the Franklin Castle is sold to Michelle Heimburger, who begins important transformations under architect Robert Maschke. That same year, in November, the house is broken into and set on fire by an arsonist, causing extensive damage to the structure and destroying the fourth-floor ballroom as well as most wooden floors. The fire prompted a response from the local fire departments. Upon arrival, they discovered a man who had seemingly wandered in from the streets and set small fires in a few of the rooms, with a large fire in the basement. Although he apparently had no ties to the property, when questioned about his motives, he simply stated: “I had to burn down the castle because it is pure evil.”
2000 | The Phoenix, The Sleeping Beauty and the Spell
In 2000, a traditional slate roof is fortunately completed but for the next 11 years, the Franklin Castle would sit boarded up and agonising in an advanced state of disrepair following blind vandalism and incursions by juvenile delinquents in search for saturday night thrills and dubious initiation rituals.
Like Ronald deFeo’s experience at the infamous Amityville House, paranormal researchers claim that Franklin Castle is permeated with “something” that may alter a person’s state of mind. From our personal experience and that of most of our friends and acquaintances, the alteration happens both ways ; it can be negative or positive, depending on the state of mind and deep nature of our visitors. We noticed a wonderful increase in energies and creative inspiration in brave characters with a proper sense of humour whereas we saw a worsening of negative inclinations in people that have been struggling with changing moods or melancholy. It seems to us that the house acts as an energetic amplifier. Uplifting and good but only to those in good faith. Beware then, if you come to the castle with ill intentions of a negative mind…
2012 | Kitt and Pascal
Beat templars from an international musical scene playing rare 45rpm vinyl from the 50s and 60s, the current owners initially visited Ohio from the old world in search for obscure garage band records but oddly side-tracked and got fascinated into rescuing the Franklin Castle in extremis at a time when official demolition by the City was pending on the condemned property. Believing in preserving the old ways from being abused – to cite the motto of the New Orleans Ponderosa Stomp – they treated this ancient historical landmark with respect, mended its wounds with infinite Faith to bring it back from the grave. The restoration of Franklin Castle took 9 years, one brick and window frame at a time.
2017 | A Work of Love
Rescued from outrage, arson, gutting and boarding-up in funeral attire, the genius loci gratefully gives back a lot of energy to those who enter. The castle has been observed to act as an energy amplifier over the past years. Many visitors have reported feeling recharged, full of creativity and hope as a result of some kind of magnetic power emanating from within.
Now | Are you Experienced
Is it possible for a house to have a soul, you may ask. Not really, nevertheless it could still contain remnants of its past. A form of energy. Sometimes more. A lot more. In terms of paranormal phenomena, the Franklin Castle is undoubtedly very active. This is not surprising given the sheer number of human souls from all walks of life who passed through the castle over the centuries ; entrepreneurs, smugglers, southern slaves on the run, die Deutsche Sozialisten – a German socialist party – celebrities, mediums, priests, witches, musicians and old world aristocrats… And everyone leaves something behind. Sometimes it is objects left in the attic, sometimes it is their dreams, or their music. And every now and then, darkness. At times when Franklin Castle was vacant and silent for years, spirits settled into the old corridors, dark halls and chambers to dwell ; and stay.
Tomorrow | The Museum & the Folk Lore
This portal is for all Franklin Castle Friends to enjoy and many more stories remain to be told. Explore the Ballroom for various types of gatherings. To see the castle for yourself, take the “Shaken, not Stirred” Tour. For a day, pretend to be King or Queen or go deep into the basements and listen for Paranormal activity in the walls. If you dare, you can even Stay the Night. But more than anything else, it’s our joy to have you here…
Eternally | The Architecture
This magnificent mansion was completed in 1883. It is a testament to the creative talents of the architectural firm Cudell and Richardson.
In appearance, Franklin Castle is a victorian stone house from the front and sides, yet the rear of the structure has a modern design with tall, narrow windows in the fashion of the first industrial buildings, sharp and stilishly minimalistic. A sizable carriage house, repurposed from a barn that had been in the rose garden since the 1860s, was erected at the same time as the castle. Because it is out of sight from the public and concealed behind the castle, few people know about it.
The castle is located in the Ohio City district of Cleveland’s Franklin boulevard which was once regarded as Cleveland’s most prestigious residential avenues. With more than fifteen rooms -not including secret chambers- sixty windows, double brick walls with a an air insulation cavity in between and a solidly keyed-in stone facade, this castle-mothership could endure a space launch like some kind of medieval rocket travelling through time and land in any other dimension !
It is reported to be the most haunted house in Ohio.