Hi!

I received a 2 night stay coupon for the Buxton Inn in Granville, Ohio as a Christmas present from my parents in 2002. The Buxton Inn is noted for having resident ghosts. The original owner, Major Buxton, had a cat named after him that was always running around. Children have reported seeing the cat still wandering the Inn. Another ghost, the Lady in Blue, lived in room 7 but died in room 9, which happens to be decorated in blue. Our room reservation was for room 9. My girlfriend and I stayed there January 24th & 25th this past winter. Granville is an old Victorian town that looks as if it were plucked from the past and placed right in the middle of modern society. The owners quit advertising the ghostly qualities awhile back to keep from hurting potential business. The Buxton Inn does a good deal of business hosting parties, business seminars, and catering to high profile clientele. For those interested in ghost hunting, staff will only talk on the subject after being approached by inquiring guests. Upon arriving from a late start friday afternoon on the 24th, we found our room to be on the second floor of the main Inn building. The Inn faces south, and our room was on the south side facing north overlooking a small courtyard, accessible from either steps leading up from the parking lot onto the balcony or from the upstairs hall off of the balcony on the east end. The afternoon was spent unpacking and touring the main areas of the Inn. There in the main lobby on a bookshelf were copies of Haunted Ohio III, which featured an article on the haunted Inn. This way regular clientele could be made aware of the Inn's past discreetly. The female employees wear blue Victorian dresses with the white lacy overlay typically found on maids' clothing. The Buxton Inn is comprised of several mansions that are interconnected by large garden pathways within a city block. Each room has its own theme or color name. Some rooms are used as small dining halls, each with its own color theme. We decided to try to spend as much time as possible at the Inn to try to observe any paranormal activity. We ate supper in one of the larger dining halls downstairs. Our waiter was outfitted in Victorian style clothing. We inquired as to his knowledge or experiences involving the Inn's resident ghosts. He stated he had only worked here a few months last year when he had his only experience, on Halloween night, at that. He was finishing up for the evening bussing the tables in the dining room next door when he noticed a lump under the tablecloth once it had been cleared off. He lifted up the tablecloth, only to find nothing under it. He laid the cloth back down, and the lump reappeared. Under the tablecloth is a table skirt, with a thick rubber pad sandwiched in between to keep glasses from tipping over if the tablecloth would get pulled or wrinkled. He started to get mad at the lump when all of a sudden the rubber mat began spinning under the tablecloth. He left the room at this point and made up his mind to never go in there, whether to seat people or to go in by himself after hours. After dinner we retired to our room, hoping to catch the Lady in Blue in her room. The room is comprised of 2 separate rooms, each with a double bed and dressers. On the east wall of the north room is the bathroom. The south room is the master bedroom, with dressers, chairs, a tv, and a mini refrigerator. We decided to sleep in that room, the bed the Lady in Blue supposedly died in. We laid down to watch tv. We left a small candelabra lamp on in the bathroom to act as a night light, since the small supplied night light was inefficient due to being partially obscured by a nightstand. From where we were laying, you could see the bathroom light reflected in the tv, which was facing NW on a dresser w/a large mirror sitting by the SE corner of the bed. I got up and used the bathroom. A short time later, my girlfriend noticed that the light in the bathroom was no longer reflected in the tv. She asked me if I had accidentally turned the light out on my way back to bed. I told her no, I had left it on. I got up and checked to see if it was off. The bottom of the light had a twist switch, and it was left in the on position (it took 2 twists to turn it back on). Apparently the Lady in Blue didn't want her light left on. However, she left it alone the rest of our stay. We eventually fell asleep. My girlfriend woke me up later around 11 pm after she heard a serving cart being wheeled down the balcony outside our room. I got up and opened the front door, only to find nothing on the balcony as expected. The next morning we asked the lady working the front lobby if there was a party last night next to our room. She said the dining room next to us was being used (there is nothing to the other side of us, we are the last unit on the west end), but that all of the staff would have been done cleaning and gone by 10 pm. We walked around outside to explore the grounds. We ran into the next town to grab lunch and pick up a few things. As we were leaving the Inn we happened to look up at our room from the parking lot and noticed the curtain had been pulled back on the left side, as if someone was looking out at us. When we returned we inquired further into the previous night's incidents. We stopped to check our room out, and the curtain was pulled shut again. The staff asked us if we had met the husband and wife who were good friends with the current owner. We said no, and were told we should since they were ghosthunters, too. Their daughter and her boyfriend were supposed to be in that night and we were told it was in our best interest to meet them. They also said that most employees are superstitious. One cook calls her husband at night and keeps him on her cellphone whenever she has to go back into the basement where the kitchen is so that he will know if something should happen to her. Late that afternoon around 4 pm we decided to take a nap so that we could get up that evening and ghost hunt all night. I was laying on the east side of the bed facing the east wall on my left side w/my left arm sticking straight out in front of me (the double Victorian beds are a bit narrow compared to my king size waterbed at home). The east edge of the bed was right next to the doorway leading into the room. I thought to myself, "if she comes into this room, she's almost going to have to walk right through my arm since it sticks out so far." It seemed like I had just fallen asleep when I suddenly felt a cold chill go from the base of my neck down my spine. I thought, "she's here. Something just walked into the room." I was too scared at first to move or open my eyes. I could have sworn my girlfriend nudged me and said "she's here!" I thought to myself, "I know, I know!" I tried to force myself to roll over and look behind me. I couldn't move. I then got mad at myself for wanting a chance like this so bad and then not being able to look at it now that it had happened. I opened my right eye and saw a reflection in the tv of a female dressed just like the female employees, standing on Tracy's side of the bed near the foot, looking towards the tv and folding laundry on the bed. She had short hair and I could see her right arm and how the sleeve bloused just above the elbow. I tried to look as far right as I could w/my right eye without having to move my head, and everytime I did it I could see her reflection in the tv duck down and towards the front of the bed, as if she didn't want me to see her straight on. I made up my mind I needed to roll over and look now or miss my chance forever. I counted in my head "one, two, three!" and rolled to my right, throwing all of my weight into my right elbow to help me roll over. As I did so, I elbowed Tracy and woke her up. I felt like I just woke up, too. At the same instant, the ghost and the cold chill down my back disappeared. I asked her if she just saw the ghost. She asked me what I was talking about and said no. She said she never tried to wake me up, that I had woke her up just now. I explained to her what just happened. Obviously we couldn't sleep anymore so we decided to get up. It was now about 4:30 pm. We couldn't wait to talk to the staff about what happened for confirmation of the experience. We thought we would try the Tavern for dinner, since it was just right below the main lobby. When the waiter brought us our menus, I had to ask about the Lady in Blue. I described what I saw to him and he told me that I wasn't imagining things, that I had seen her. Up until now I didn't have any preconceived notions about what to expect or what the Lady in Blue looked like when she was alive. The waiter said the Lady in Blue is known for making herself known to people through dreams, that people rarely saw her straight on while awake. The waiter told us he had a few run-ins with ghosts since he began working here. The Tavern is an old block construction, with dim red indirect lighting. As you enter the Tavern, located under the lobby and front hallway of the Inn, the steps take you south into the middle of the room. On your left are a few tables. The walls are lined with booths. In the middle of the east wall is a fireplace, illuminated by two indirect red lamps. On the west side of the room is a bar that runs the length of the wall. The waiter was manning the bar one night when business was slow. He usually reads books or magazines to occupy his time between customers. He happened to look over at the fireplace in time to see one of the red lamps bend down towards the floor and then back up towards the top of the fireplace. He went over and tried pulling on the light, only to find that it supported his weight without budging. Another night while business was slow he was reading when he sensed someone coming down the stairs. He watched the end of the stairs out of the corner of his eye and saw a female dressed in blue. He assumed it was one of the employees coming down to access the wine cellar located under the stairs. He looked up to acknowledge her presence, only to find no one there. It was the Lady in Blue. He told us the best time to ghost hunt was at 1 am, that most people set their clocks for that time. We finished eating and decided to try to get more sleep back in our room. My girlfriend was now afraid to go anywhere alone. We were able to sleep undisturbed, but overslept our alarm. I had made it a point to double-check that it was set correctly, but upon waking a short time later found it to be turned off. Was someone making sure we knew she was still there? We headed out of our room. Looking over the balcony to the east we saw a couple in the hallway downstairs using a videocamera. We figured it was the couple we were looking for. We tried to access the balcony but it was locked. We were told it would be unlocked so we could access the Inn after-hours. We had to go around to the front door, which was also locked. We finally got the couple's attention. They had been expecting us. They explained they were doing stationary videotaping into one of the dining rooms from the hallway. What happens is an area is picked out and taped for an hour or more. While viewing the recording live, nothing out of the ordinary can be seen. However, upon playback, white balls of light, known as orbs, can be seen to appear and move about sporadically if there are spirits present. After finishing up videotaping the dining room, they offered to take us on a grand tour behind the scenes. We couldn't wait! Towards the back of the main Inn, downstairs, is the main wine cellar just south of the kitchen. The hallway leading to the cellar is lined with photographs of the Lady in Blue when she was alive, the original owners of the Inn, and several newspaper articles and photographs of alleged sightings in the Inn throughout the years. Most guests would never get a chance to see these. I felt privileged. We steered clear of the actual kitchen area so as not to interfere with the staff's daily preparations. We headed back upstairs and I wanted to ask the lady on duty at the front desk if she knew of any incidents involving the Lady in Blue. As soon as I said "the Lady in Blue," the chandelier in the front hallway next to us blew out and I got an ice cold chill down my spine in the same instant. I asked if anybody had just felt an ice cold chill down their spines. They all said no. The lady at the front desk said she didn't know of any incidents and politely left us to check on the fuses. She came back a few minutes later to say that power had been knocked out to half of the Inn. She replaced the fuse and everything was OK. We found out from talking to the couple that activity could be discovered anywhere in the Inn, but that we might increase our chances by checking out either room 7, room 9, or the Tavern. We decided on the Tavern since we were right there. They asked us if we would want to try a Ouija board for communication. I told them we had used them before, but my girlfriend was the only one who had had any luck with them. We never even thought to bring ours. I have a Ouija board and a magic circle. They said they would have to run into town to get one quick. We agreed, and hung out in the lobby until they came back 1/2 hour later. We went down into the Tavern, and set up a table just SE of the staircase. We placed the Ouija board in the middle, and took white votive candles from the other tables and placed one on each corner of the table for mood lighting. The only other lighting down here at night comes from a lighted bar countertop behind the bar where the drinks and glasses are stored, along with an exit light at the bottom of the staircase just behind our table. We placed their videocamera on the bar behind our table aimed back at us to hopefully catch anything we might conjure up. Supposedly when you use a Ouija board, in order to try to ward off evil spirits from entering the board, you always start by doing three clockwise circles around the board with the planchette, essentially casting a circle of protection, and when you are done with the board you sign off the same way, or supposedly the last spirit in the board will be trapped inside, bringing you bad luck until you release it. It didn't take us long to contact a spirit. This was the first time I had ever had the board work. For you skeptics, I know what you're thinking. How could I be sure it wasn't one of us wanting to play a trick on someone else, especially since we had just met the other couple that night. Trust me, I am just as skeptical as the next person. We all began accusing each other of moving the planchette, and everyone denied they were moving it. If you have never used a Ouija board before, it can be awkward to use at first. Everyone places two fingers of each hand on the planchette's edge. You keep your arms off the table so that you have the slightest pressure on the planchette. If you don't have strong arms, it can become tiring quickly. You could tell if someone accidentally pushed too hard on the planchette because it would kind of drag or move slowly and roughly. When a spirit was answering, it would move very quickly and never snagged on the board. Afterwards, I asked my girlfriend when we were alone if she thought the other couple had made any of the answers up. She said no, that her and her sister used to use a Ouija board all the time when they were younger and that is how the Ouija board works. The planchette literally pulled you along for the ride. The first spirit we contacted was 59 when they passed of natural causes. The Inn originally was a stagecoach station which was only the Tavern. It's cold block walls housed the stagecoach hands' sleeping quarters. They used to sleep on bales of straw at night, and was the area's main means of travel in the beginning. The stagecoach station was expanded on later to include the Inn, eventually doing away with the stagecoach station as travel improved. The second spirit worked in '47 in the stagecoach station, and passed away from natural causes. He hangs around the Inn to look after it since he spent most of his adult life working there. The next spirit was an evil one, that refused to answer our questions properly, if at all. We politely asked it to leave, that we only wished to talk to good spirits, and it left. We attempted to make contact with a little girl that haunted the Tavern, but she wouldn't answer us. People have been known to see her appear in front of the bar at the north end and walk south, disappearing as she walks through the wall. A few times during our seance the light on the videocamera would shut off, only to start working again once we turned it back on. Someone there wanted to play with us without using the board. We moved the camera to a different outlet each time, to no avail. (We did this because by this time of night the battery on the camera needed charged, so we were forced to keep it plugged in to work). The camera would continue to film but the light would shut off. I tried to contact the cat, but didn't have any luck. I have never heard of contacting animals before, but in my readings of near-death experiences have found accounts of people meeting up with their pets when they momentarily pass on. Since the board works by a spirit using their energy and yours to answer questions, I figured that an animal could use it, since they weren't needing to actually speak verbally. The table was set up to point in each direction of the compass (no significance). I was seated facing SW, my girlfriend was to my left facing NW, and Matt was across from me with Shelly off to my right. While we were attempting to make contact with anymore spirits, Shelly commented about how cold it had suddenly become. I noticed it, too. I was comfortable before but now it was chilly. Everyone was freezing. My girlfriend then noticed just north of the bar in the NW corner was a gray fog up towards the ceiling. In this corner of the room is an outside door with steps leading up and into the courtyard, with a tornado shelter door cover on top of the stairway like you find in older homes. To the right of the door is an ice machine. As we all looked towards the fog, the ice machine started going spastic, constantly kicking on and off, all the while the room kept getting colder. We all started getting scared that something evil had entered the room or become mad at us inquiring with the Ouija board. After sitting through this for a few minutes we decided to call it quits before something bad happened. The whole room had a bad, uneasy feeling about it. We tried one last time to make contact with the board and agreed to head up to the Lady in Blue's room to see if we could contact her there. By now it was around 5 am. We asked to speak to the Lady in Blue if she was there. She answered us. We found out that she really visited me earlier, that I hadn't just dreamed her. She was there and caused the power outage when I mentioned her name at the front desk. She was there watching us when we were down in the Tavern but chose not to speak to us then. I asked if the cat was there and she said no. The little girl was in the Tavern with us and when I asked how she died the planchette moved over the sun symbol. There isn't much of an instruction booklet for the Ouija board, and it didn't explain the symbols of the sun and moon on the board. The Lady in Blue passed away of natural causes in room 9. She continues to hang around the Inn to look after it to make sure it is taken care of and not changed. She appeared to be happy with the restorations that had taken place over the years. The current owners were intent on making sure the Inn was restored to its original beauty and kept in good condition. We decided to let her go for the night. The couple said their good-byes and headed home. We traded numbers for future ghost hunts. A few minutes later we got to thinking, they didn't repeat the circle of protection to release the spirit. We caught them right before they left the parking lot and they said they would wait and release the Lady in Blue once they got home a few minutes later, just in case there was any validity to bad luck from keeping a spirit stored in the board. We viewed the videotape from down in the Tavern while we were still downstairs, and you could see white orbs appear in midair and drop down into the board right before we would start communicating with a new spirit, and the orb would reappear up out of the board showing the old spirit leaving the board. You couldn't see any of this with the naked eye as it happened, it would only show up on tape. It was obvious what it was. On the rest of the footage there was never any fuzzy picture or distortion like these white orbs besides the time that they were doing the stationary filming upstairs in the dining room at the beginning of the evening. It is very impressive footage to view. If I wouldn't have experienced these things myself, I wouldn't have believed it if someone else stood there and told me these things happened to them, even though I believe in the paranormal. Seeing is believing. I got more out of my stay than I had ever hoped for. I recently got in contact with Matt and Shelly again and found out some interesting news. The first night we were there they went outside and took pictures of the different statues in the gardens. In one of the pictures of the statue of David, there is what appears to be a face in the upper right hand corner of the picture. Matt said he hadn't had any time to analyses it yet and wanted to blow it up to take a closer look. After everything else that took place, this doesn't surprise me a bit. I can't wait to see what he finds out. If anyone would like to investigate this place for themselves, it is definitely worth the time and money.