Oxford News

HAMILTON — Dan and Jan Graham have their own ghost story to add to their historic neighborhood's haunting lore.

In March about a year after the Grahams moved into their Dayton Street home, strange things started happening.

Jan Graham said she saw an orb of white light in the upstairs hallway in the middle of the night on three or four occasions. Later, her husband said he heard a series of three unexplainable knocks after going to bed one night. The following morning, the door to the third story attic, which Jan Graham said is always securely latched, was open.

To add to the unsettling move in, a neighbor walking by told the Grahams that he keeps seeing a woman wearing a nightgown standing in their third floor window.

The mysterious happenings prompted the Graham's to call Victor Paruta, a Cincinnati-based psychic who has investigated hauntings in several homes in the Dayton Lane Historic Area.

Paruta recently visited the home and walked through each of the rooms.

There is a ghost in the house, Paruta said, but it's of a young boy, about 8 or 9 years old, who is "quite loving and playful."

"The boy had such a nice life in that house, he did not want to leave," Paruta said. "The house is indeed haunted. But it's not always like in the movies where you have these nasty spirits. In this case it was quite the opposite."

Dan Graham said Paruta also sensed a woman with the letter "L" associated with her. Graham said the first woman who lived in the house was someone named "Ella," and she might be the woman who was seen in the attic window.

"I watch ghost shows and the hair stands on the back of my neck. But I'm OK with that — with a nice ghost," Dan Graham said.

Jan Graham agreed. She said Paruta's findings were "comforting and intriguing."

"I enjoyed his visit. I thought it was fascinating, eerie at times. It was an amazing experience," she said.

The Graham home, which was used as a funeral home from 1927 to 1938, was added this year to the Ghost Walks of Dayton Lane tour.

Paruta has investigated several homes on the tour and Dave Loeffler, a resident and Dayton Lane Historic Area board member, said many of Paruta's findings have been verified through researching historical documents.

Paruta said it's not unusual for a historic neighborhood to have a lot of haunted houses.

"Houses tend to take on the energy of any material possession that someone owns and will take on the energy of the people who lived there," Paruta said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2122 or rwilson@coxohio.com.