The Athenaeum

A Romanesque Revival cultural center built in 1893 as Das Deutsche Haus (The German House). The building houses a theater, gymnasium, biergarten, and offices. Investigated by the TV show Ghost Hunters in 2019.

The Athenaeum, originally Das Deutsche Haus, was built in two phases beginning in 1893 as the cultural heart of Indianapolis's booming German immigrant community. Designed by architects Bernard Vonnegut -- grandfather of author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. -- and Arthur Bohn in the German Renaissance Revival style, the building features decorated stepped gables, a steeply pitched hip roof, a three-story brick tower with a curved mansard roof and spire, limestone banding, and Jugendstil art-glass windows. The east wing opened in 1893 and the west wing, completed in 1898, added a ballroom, auditorium, a large bowling alley, a biergarten, gymnasium, and clubrooms for the turnverein athletic movement. Anti-German sentiment during World War I forced the name change from Das Deutsche Haus to The Athenaeum. The building briefly served as a college, then hosted the Indiana Repertory Theatre before that company moved to the Indiana Theatre in 1980. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2016.

The Athenaeum is considered one of the most haunted buildings in Indiana, with 14 documented paranormal hotspots and at least seven identified spirits. The most active ghost is known as Henry, a young man who haunts the third floor. Henry turns lights on and off, knocks on closed doors and closes open ones, and appears briefly out of the corner of people's eyes before vanishing. Staff have learned to simply acknowledge him and continue working.

The most tragic spirit is Dr. Helene Knabe, a pioneering German immigrant who was born in Prussia in 1875 and emigrated to Indianapolis in 1896 because Prussian medical schools banned women. She graduated from the Medical College of Indiana in 1904 and became the first female state deputy health officer at the Indiana State Board of Health. Knabe taught sports medicine at the Athenaeum when it briefly operated as a college, and lived in the nearby Delaware Flats apartments. On October 23, 1911, her laboratory assistant found her dead in her room with her throat slit. Police initially declared it suicide despite the absence of a weapon and the presence of a bloody fingerprint. Coroner Dr. Charles Durham ruled it a homicide. A group of her fellow female doctors hired private detective Harry Webster, who worked for two years to bring suspects Craig and Ragsdale to justice, but charges were dropped. The murder remains unsolved. Her ghost reportedly walks the halls as if heading to her next class, and the Ghost Hunters television crew identified her presence during a 2019 investigation using data loggers that registered pressure changes in her active areas.

In the Rathskeller Restaurant, patrons and employees encounter Jolly Verner, a jovial entity who seems to enjoy the social atmosphere. A ghostly couple has been seen dancing through the ballroom, moving directly through tables and chairs. A facilities manager once witnessed a man and woman enter the locked theater, only to find no one there when he went to check. Ghostly children are heard giggling in various rooms. Grandma's Attic, a storage space for costumes and props, is considered the building's paranormal epicenter, where visiting investigators regularly capture EVPs and some have found the phenomena too intense, leaving investigations mid-session. During the 2019 Ghost Hunters episode, an exercise bike in the gym inexplicably powered on and displayed the word "Los" -- German for "Go" -- and an employee reported witnessing a woman in a white gown appearing to levitate in the gymnasium.