The Oliver House

Toledo's oldest commercial building opened as a 171-room hotel in 1859, served as a Spanish-American War hospital, and sits on a Native American burial site uncovered during 1990s renovations. The Captain (a soldier in full uniform) watches pool games upstairs, the Lady in Green glides down the second-floor staircase, and boot steps from unseen soldiers echo on the stairs.

During a 1994 renovation of the Oliver House in Toledo, workers uncovered a Native American burial site in the basement. Local tribal leaders performed a sage and tobacco ceremony to rebury the remains and calm the spirits. The ghosts, it seems, had other plans.

Major William Oliver fought at Fort Meigs during the War of 1812 and later commissioned architect Isaiah Rogers to design what would become Toledo's grandest hotel. Construction took seven years and required over 1.25 million bricks. When the Oliver House opened in 1859, it had 171 rooms, each with running water, gaslights, and a fireplace, with views overlooking a park and the Maumee River. Abraham Lincoln reportedly stayed here while visiting for a funeral during his presidency.

The building's second act was grimmer. During the Spanish-American War in 1898, wounded soldiers arrived by train and were treated on the second floor, which became a makeshift hospital. The basement likely served as a morgue. By the late 1800s the hotel had become a boarding house. During the Great Depression it operated as a flophouse, a period locals associate with "desperation, fights, and murder."

Jim and Pat Appold bought the building in 1990 and began restoring it. That's when the burial site turned up, and that's when the activity reportedly intensified.

The most frequently seen ghost is the Captain, described as a jovial figure in full military uniform. He favors the Pool Room upstairs and the Private Dining Room (the former hotel lobby). Staff and guests have seen him watching pool games, and one description calls him a "spectral sports fan" cheering on players from the corner. Creaking floorboards, doors opening and closing on their own, and sudden cold drafts follow him through the building.

The Lady in Green is more elegant. She wears a long emerald gown from the late 1800s or early 1900s and glides down the second-floor staircase. Nobody has identified her.

A third presence is harder to see but easy to hear. Heavy boot steps echo behind late-night workers climbing the stairs, but no one is there when they turn around. Staff associate this one with the Spanish-American War soldiers treated on the second floor.

Ghost investigator Chris Bores has documented additional spirits, including a woman whose husband left her to join the war and a Black servant he believes was murdered in the late 1800s. Using a device that generates words from ambient energy, Bores received "malicious" and "highway" during one session. He concluded the servant "was murdered in a malicious way and then snuck out through a highway of tunnels out to the bay." The building does have a bricked-over tunnel in the basement that once connected to the Maumee River, used as part of the Underground Railroad to transport escaped enslaved people to Canada.

The Oliver House is the oldest commercial building in Toledo still in use. Today it houses Maumee Bay Brewing Company and several other pubs. They hold an annual ghost ceremony and offer tours. The building at 27 Broadway is 166 years old, built on a burial ground, used as a hospital and a morgue, connected to the river by a tunnel, and serving craft beer in the basement where the bodies were kept.