Taft Museum of Art

The Taft Museum of Art occupies an 1820 Cincinnati mansion where three generations of wealthy residents lived and died. Staff report objects flying off gift shop shelves, a woman in a pink gown (believed to be Anna Sinton Taft), phantom baby cries near the dining room, and visitors being tapped on the shoulder in empty galleries.

A gift shop employee at the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati told a visitor that things had been "flying off the shelves" lately and that staff working nights had seen "full blown apparitions." The museum sits in a Federal-style mansion built in 1820, and three generations of wealthy Cincinnatians lived and died inside it before it became a gallery.

Martin Baum, one of Cincinnati's wealthiest early residents, built the house at 316 Pike Street. After Baum lost his fortune, the property passed through several owners before David Sinton purchased it. Sinton was an Irish-born pig iron industrialist who became the richest man in Ohio. He died in the house on August 31, 1900, leaving roughly $20 million to his daughter Anna.

Anna had married Charles Phelps Taft in 1873. Charles was the half-brother of President William Howard Taft, and the couple spent over fifty years in the mansion, filling it with an extraordinary art collection: Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Turner, Goya. When Charles died in 1929, Anna donated $5 million to the University of Cincinnati in his memory and then left the house and everything in it to the city. She died the following year. The museum opened in 1932.

The ghosts, staff believe, are Anna and David Sinton.

Anna reportedly appears wearing a long pink gown. Museum employee Jason has heard the sound of a baby crying near the dining room before public hours, the sound filtering down the staircase from the upper floors. Nobody has identified whose baby it might be.

Visitors have reported being tapped on the shoulder in empty galleries. People hear their names called in rooms where they're standing alone. A student named Nia visited with a group and said a friend was physically pushed out of one room, and the group heard "big stomping footsteps" following them through the wedding room.

A visitor named Erin described getting suddenly ill inside the museum: chest pressure, lightheadedness, rapid battery drain on her phone and camera despite both being fully charged. She photographed a Christmas window display and later noticed what she believed was a face resembling David Sinton in the reflection.

Another visitor, identified only as A. Noyd, was alone with her daughter in the restroom when a voice said "mom." Her daughter hadn't spoken.

The museum's daytime atmosphere gives nothing away. The collection is legitimately world-class (the Duncanson murals in the entry hall alone are worth the trip). The building is clean, well-lit, and professionally maintained. Whatever happens here happens mostly after hours, when the galleries are locked and the staff are alone with the art and whoever else is in the house.

The Tafts gave Cincinnati their home, their art, and their money. Staff think Anna and her father stayed behind to keep an eye on all of it.