Hannah House

An 1858 Italianate mansion built by state legislator Alexander Hannah, who used it as an Underground Railroad station. The 24-room home on a hill above South Madison Avenue holds some heavy history.

The Hannah House is a 24-room Italianate mansion built in 1858 by Alexander Moore Hannah, a prosperous businessman and former California Gold Rush prospector who served the Indianapolis Southside community as sheriff, postmaster, Circuit Court clerk, and member of the Indiana General Assembly. Hannah owned 240 acres of farmland and operated the Indianapolis-Southport Toll Road that crossed his property from 1860 until his death in 1895. He married Elizabeth Jackson in 1872, and the couple experienced devastating tragedy when their only child, also named Elizabeth, was stillborn on March 16, 1875. The infant was buried in an unmarked plot between her parents' graves at Crown Hill Cemetery.

The most famous legend claims the Hannah House served as a stop on the Underground Railroad, and that a group of escaped enslaved people hiding in the cellar accidentally knocked over an oil lamp, starting a fire that killed them. According to the story, Hannah buried the charred bodies in the basement's dirt floor to avoid retribution for harboring fugitives. However, historians at the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis have explicitly identified this as an insensitive urban myth with no supporting evidence. No documentation exists to substantiate that Hannah participated in the Underground Railroad or that his home was connected to it. What we do know is that Hannah was a Quaker and abolitionist whose property was located away from prying eyes, facts that likely fueled the legend. Neighbors have reported the discovery of partially collapsed tunnels whose trajectory would indicate an association with the property, adding to the mystery.

The documented hauntings began in the 1960s when John and Gladys O'Brien rented the house and operated an antique business from it. They reported the temperature dropping without explanation, foul smells, flying spoons, doors and wall hangings moving on their own, and voices echoing through rooms with nobody in them. Multiple visitors have reported the sickening smell of rotting flesh in the first bedroom at the top of the stairs. A self-rocking chair on the front porch has been corroborated by multiple witnesses who observed it moving with no wind or vibration to explain it. A man in a black suit has been seen walking the upstairs hall -- most people think it's Alexander Hannah himself -- while a woman appears near a second-floor window and a ghostly presence described as a baby or small child is felt in the upper bedrooms, tied to the Hannahs' stillborn daughter.

In the basement, investigators have reported being grabbed on the forearm by an unseen hand, and visitors describe a child-like presence bumping into them in upstairs rooms. Figures have been observed on the north-side balcony and in windows by passersby on Madison Avenue. The Paranormal Meet and Greet has held annual investigations at the Hannah House since 2008, and the mansion now offers overnight paranormal investigations from 9 PM to 5 AM. The property was purchased in 1899 by German immigrant and Civil War veteran Roman Oehler, and it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 as the Hannah-Oehler-Elder House.