Haunted History Columbus:The Old North Graveyard…Columbus, Ohio
October is almost over and I haven’t done one, single local ghost story. I’m slipping! I’m sorry y’all. Better late than never I guess. Maybe I’ll throw a story out there every now and then year round. So what better day to squeeze at least one story in the blog. I’m pretty sure you all are familiar with The North Market located between The Short North and Downtown Columbus. I don’t go to The North Market as much as I used to, but I still love to visit. I usually walk around at least twice before I finally decide what I want to eat and/or buy; if I didn’t go there for a specific reason. If you’ve been to The North Market or anywhere around that area…maybe somewhere on Front Street, maybe the Nationwide Arena, Bareburger, or even The Convention Center. If you’ve been to any of those places…well, just wait for it!
Soooooo…once upon a time; long, long ago…there was this graveyard. Not just any graveyard, but one of the first and at the time largest cemetery’s in Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1813, land for the “The North Graveyard” was established. The location would fall in between Spruce, Wall, Front and High Streets. Vine Street didn’t exist at the time. So just picture it…located right on top of where The North Market and other surrounding stores, restaurants and other entertainment venues are currently located. Some of which I named in the previous paragraph. From the beginning, The North Graveyard was said to have been a restless place. Activity had always been detected there from both the living and the dead. It would become a popular place for grave diggers looking to see what types of treasures that they could find from the deceased. The North Graveyard was intentionally built to bury the bodies of casualties from the War of 1812. Later it would become the burial spot for the Ohio Penitentiary that was located right around the corner. Due to the number of growing deaths at the time, mainly from cholera and other plague; The North Graveyard became home to large mass graves. This meant that you could have as many body’s in one hole as they could fit in there. This is where they would bury people who died from these diseases together in one gravesite. However, in the mid 1800’s there became high demand for other development in the area…including Goodale Park and Union Station. This would ultimately force the relocation of The North Graveyard and it’s “residents.”
In the 1870’s the newly created Green Lawn Cemetery would become home to most of the bodies from The North Graveyard. Most! At the time, all of the body relocations were thought to have been completed by the end of the 1880s. While development and building on the land that used to be home to The North, builders and workers found out the creepy way that there were still bodies buried in The North Graveyard, now known as The Old North Graveyard. This was at a time when all of the bodies were supposed to have been moved to other surrounding graveyards such as Greenlawn and Union cemeteries. To this day it’s believed that they’re still a lot of bodies buried under that entire area…possibly hundreds. The North Market is believed to have the most bodies still buried underground because that’s where most of the mass graves were supposedly located.
Many have said that they’ve encountered ghosts and strange activity at The North Market. Especially workers, guards and night crews in the area. People even claim to see apparitions of people dressed in clothes of the 1800’s era. One person reported that while their car was parked on Vine Street right next to The North Market, started shaking once they got in the car. There have been many other reported activities of strange behavior, border lining on paranormal behavior in that area. Grant it…it’s not surprising because that area, like most of the city, has so much rich history. Regardless if you believe in this type of thing or not…it’s still creepy to think that we could be constantly walking, driving, eating, clubbing, working and whatever else over a ton of dead bodies. I mean they’re already pissed for being buried that way with absolutely no respect, just tossed in a grave; but also for having their final resting place constantly disturbed. Hell…I’d be pissed too. So what do you think about all of this? I find it creepy and weird, but I’m sure it’s not uncommon at all. Who knows what’s under us?
