The Franklin Castle

This is the Franklin Castle located in Cleveland, Ohio, This place is said to be very haunted though back in the mid 1970's it was a great home to... more

by R A W M

Title

The Franklin Castle

Artist

R A W M

Medium

Photograph

Description

This is the Franklin Castle located in Cleveland, Ohio, This place is said to be very haunted though back in the mid 1970's it was a great home to get together with friends.

The house was built in 1881 by architects Cudell & Richardson for Hannes Tiedemann, a German immigrant.[4] On January 15, 1891, Tiedemann's fifteen-year-old daughter Emma succumbed to diabetes. The house saw its second death not long afterwards when Tiedemann's elderly mother, Wiebeka, died. During the next three years the Tiedemanns would bury three more children, giving rise to speculation that there was more to the deaths than met the eye.

To distract his wife, Luise, from these tragedies, Tiedemann began extensive construction on the home, adding a ballroom which runs the length of the house in the fourth floor of the manor. Also during this building, turrets and gargoyles were added to the edifice's facade, giving the house an even more pronounced "castle" appearance.

It is rumored that there were hidden rooms and passageways that were used for bootlegging during Prohibition. Though rumored, none of these rooms or passageways exist other than a small stairway used by servants from the kitchen to the front door.

Luise Tiedemann died from a liver disease on March 24, 1895, at the age of fifty-seven. Hannes sold the house to the Mullhauser family, and by 1908 he and the entire Tiedemann family were dead,[5] leaving no one to inherit his considerable personal wealth.

Rumors of crimes committed in the house by Tiedemann (including sexual indiscretions and murder) have contributed to Franklin Castle's reputation as a haunted house.
Middle years

The house remained largely unoccupied until January 1968, when James Romano, his wife, and six children settled in the long abandoned building. The Romano family reported several encounters with ghosts in their new home, and attempted exorcisms and even had a now defunct ghost-hunting group (the Northeast Ohio Psychical Research Society) investigate the castle. By 1974, the Romanos decided to leave the house, and sold it to Sam Muscatello, who planned to turn the castle into a church.[6] To raise money for the church, tours and overnight stays at the castle were offered.

In early 1984, Michael DeVinko purchased Franklin Castle and almost immediately started making major renovations to the house. Over the next ten years, DeVinko spent close to one million dollars renovating the Castle, even going so far as to track down some of the original furnishings for the Castle. Despite all this, DeVinko still decided to move out and put the house up for sale in 1994.
Recent history

Ownership of the castle has changed hands frequently in the past thirty years. In 1999 a vagrant set a fire which badly damaged the castle.[7] The carriage house was damaged in a March 2011 fire.[8]

In 2004 there were rumors that the Franklin Castle was going to be completely renovated and turned into the Franklin Castle Club.[9] As of 2006, the entire club was proven to be a complete sham, no repairs had ever been made, and the pictures on the website were all either close-up shots of individual architecture, or pictures stolen from other websites.[10] No work had ever been done, no memberships had ever been sold, and there is also some evidence that the Castle had been used to shoot some pornography.[11]

Franklin Castle will be on the market again as of September 2010. The city gave a 30-day condemnation window for repairs to be done or to make a request for more time. Charles Milsaps has one last chance to buy the property after his promises of renovation. Construction and lumber companies have filed liens for bills Mr. Milsaps didn't pay, as well as back taxes.

Mr. Milsaps has been ordered by the current owner's lawyer to stop giving tours of the property.[12]

It was announced in July 2011 that the Franklin Castle had been rezoned to allow it to become a 3 family dwelling, and that a sale was pending.[13]

The Franklin Castle was purchased in 2011 for $260,000 by a European tapestry artist.[14] A permit for residential exterior alterations was issued by the city in February, 2012.[15] Local new sources have reported that the buyer intends to convert the building into three family home and dwelling two of the spaces.

Uploaded

October 31st, 2013