From: "Jamie-Andrea Yanak" (jamieyanak@multiverse.com)
To: obiwan@ghosts.org
Subject: Franklin Castle
Date: Sun, 30 May 1999 16:44:16 -0400
A little update on Franklin Castle in Cleveland, Ohio.
It was recently purchased by Michelle Heimburger, a native Clevelander who has been living in San Fransisco for the last few years. Heimburger made a lot of money when the YAHOO! stock she owned went through the roof. She had wanted to live in Franklin Castle since she was five years old, when one day driving with her family on Cleveland's West side she saw the house, and told her father she would like to live there one day.
Her father informed her a couple of months ago that the house was for sale, and she bought it. She moved in about a month ago. She still spends a lot of time in California, but when not in town she has freinds of hers that stay in the house and watch it for her. Heimburger's intention is to restore the home to as close as it's original condition as possible, and use it as her primary residence. She plans on doing most of the work herself.
The interior of the house is in suprisingly good shape. The plumbing and electrical need to be repaired but the structure itself is fine. Even the intricate and beautiful wood paneling and trim that covers the interior of the home is in mostly immaculate condition. It is in need of a lot of painting and cleaning, but otherwise remarkably well preserved. Her father is presently carefully searching the backyard carriage house for the entrance of a tunnel leading to the lakefront that is supposed to be there: A leftover from the days of the Underground Railroad.
A few secret passageways have been re-discovered, but so far none of them have led to anywhere.
On May 30th 1999 Heimburger held a "Castle Warming Party" under the Full-Moon for friends and family to check out her new home. A grunge band played throughout the evening in the "haunted" fourth floor ballroom, while hundreds of candles set up for light illuminated the rest of the interior of the house for the several hundred guests who attended. No ghosts were spotted, though motorists driving down Cleveland's Franklin Blvd where greeted by partiers waving sparklers from the front lawn of the home, and other revelers travelled through secret passage ways to enjoy a view of the sunset from the castle's roof, turrets and balconies.
However the night preceeding the party, a guest staying in the home overnight fled in terror at 3:00AM when he began hearing strange sounds, including a baby crying. Heimburger has herself spent about a month living in the home, but says she hasn't heard or seen anything YET that she hasn't been able explain logically.
I covered the party event as a photographer for a west coast paper, and carefully checked all my negatives: No (bummer) ghosts showed up on any of my shots, though my camera was acting unexplainably funny at certain times during the evening (really, honest!)
Camels & Cocktails,
Jamie
Jamie-Andrea Yanak jamieyanak@multiverse.com
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This page (http://www.ghosts.org/castleupdate.html) last updated April 3, 2005.