Majestic Theatre

The Majestic Theatre in Chillicothe, one of America's oldest continuously operating theaters (opened 1853), served as a temporary morgue during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic at Camp Sherman, with bodies embalmed on stage and fluids draining into what locals call Blood Alley. Paranormal investigators have captured EVP recordings in the basement dressing rooms, including a voice identifying itself as "Lawrence Baker."

Body fluids from the embalming ran into the alley. The neighbors started calling it Blood Alley, and the name stuck. In the fall of 1918, when the Spanish flu tore through Camp Sherman just outside Chillicothe, the Majestic Theatre on 2nd Street became a temporary morgue. Camp Sherman was one of the largest military training camps in the country, and the flu hit it hard: roughly 5,600 cases in October alone, nearly 1,200 dead by the time the epidemic passed. The camp's own facilities couldn't keep up. Bodies were stacked in the theatre's basement dressing rooms while they waited for the stage, which had been converted into an embalming station. Wagons carried the processed dead back through town to the railroad, funeral hymns playing as they went.

The theatre was already old by then. Originally called the Masonic Opera House, it opened in 1853, making it one of the oldest continuously operating theaters in the United States. The building had hosted vaudeville, silent films, political rallies, and community events for over sixty years before it became a place where soldiers were laid out in rows.

The ghost stories started not long after. Actors performing on the same stage where bodies were once embalmed report seeing a soldier lying motionless in the lights, then gone. A man in a dark suit and top hat has been seen drifting down the center aisle, floating a few feet above the current floor level, right about where the old floor used to be before renovations. A little girl runs through the backstage dressing rooms. Performers have looked up at the control booth window to see someone staring down at them when the booth is empty. Clapping comes from the balcony when nobody is sitting there.

The Ohio Exploration Society investigated on August 11, 2006, with a team of eight led by founder Jason Robinson. They captured five EVP recordings during the night. The most striking came from the star dressing room: a faint whisper saying "Help me." In the old boiler room, they recorded a deep voice that identified itself: "Lawrence Baker is who I am." A whispery voice in another part of the basement said "Get out." Their TriField Natural EM Meter picked up electromagnetic fluctuations in the unused boiler room, and they noted cooler temperatures in areas with no ventilation explanation. In the ballroom, the team repeatedly heard sounds like objects falling from the ceiling with nothing visible to account for them.

The theatre went through a major renovation in the 1990s that modernized the sound and lighting systems while preserving the original architectural details, including the ornate wooden trim and plush seating. It's now run as a nonprofit hosting live performances, film screenings, and (naturally) ghost hunts. The Haunted Majestic Ghost Hunt is an annual fundraiser where amateur investigators can bring their own equipment and explore the basement, the ballroom, and the dressing rooms where the dead once waited.

The star dressing room across from the backstage stairway gets the most reports. It's a small space, easy to fill with your own anxiety, but the consistency of the accounts is notable. People who have never heard of the 1918 morgue describe feeling unwelcome there specifically. The "Help me" EVP came from that exact room.