LOCATION:

Squire's Castle is located in Willoughby Hills, part of the Cleveland Metroparks.

Directions: Take 90 East to 91 South, left on 6th, then right on River Road. Turn off at Squire's Castle picnic area.

Address: North Chagrin Reservation, Cleveland Metro Parks System, Cleveland, Ohio 44144.

DESCRIPTION:

Squire's Castle is nothing but a stone shell of its former self, meant to be the gate house to a grand British-style castle manor to be built for Feargus B. Squire, who was a British-born Standard Oil executive, working for Standard Oil, with offices in downtown Cleveland. The gate house sat on Squire's large 525 acre estate, way out in the country where Mr. Squire was planning to build a glorious castle mansion, patterned after the grand estates in England, bringing a reminder of home to Cleveland.

This once lovely 1890 three story gate house with a basement was built of stone, with tiffany glass, carved mouldings and elaborate European furniture and fixtures adorning the rooms. There was a living room, a hunting room for his animal head trophies, several bedrooms and a basement, making this house a nice place for a weekend retreat. They also vacationed here at times in the summer months.

HISTORY:

After poor Mrs. Squire lost her mind at the gate house, Mr. Squire lost interest in building his English castle, and sold the entire property in 1922. Eventually, the entire estate was bought by the city of Cleveland, and made into a metropark in 1925. By then, the gate house was in ruins, but the city preserved what was left. It is used for the occasional event, and open for people to just walk through the first floor, as the 2nd & 3rd floor and roof are long gone, and the basement was filled in with cement.

HISTORY OF MANIFESTATIONS:

Feargus B Squire was married to a very "nervous woman" who wasn't very strong in the mental health department.

Her stays at the gate house were torturous for her. She was scared of the quiet, the animal sounds of the country and wasn't able to sleep. Eventually, she went over the line mentally from being semi-sane to being considered insane. The legend said that one night she was so terrified that she tripped over an animal trophy in the trophy room and died when she fell into a rope hanging down to the basement, breaking her neck.

On the web-site, cleveland.about.com, it is reported there that she didn't actually die in the gate house, but she did loose her mind there, and died at a young age.

In the 1960's and '70's, strange people started to hang out at this park, and used the castle and surrounding area for some of their shady events.

Biker gangs, devil worshipers, & others doing animal sacrifices frequented this area.

There were quite a few suicides which happened in the woods and area of the castle over the years.

MANIFESTATIONS:

Possible candidates: Poor Mrs. Squire? Or a soul dead by suicide? Some spirit conjured up by devil worship?

An apparition of an anxious woman has been seen throughout the years, peering out the 2nd floor window, shining a lantern.

An erie red glow of a lantern has been seen moving from window to window on what was the 2nd floor and on the first floor.

Anguished screams of a woman are heard at night.

Apparitions have been seen wandering the grounds.

Orbs have been photographed just outside the castle and in the woods nearby.

STILL HAUNTED?

Yes Indeed.

But by whom? Lots of candidates, but no proof to determine who are the restless ones; just evidence that they are there.

SOURCES INCLUDE: tripod.com * horrorfind.com * cleveland.about.com * unexplained-mysteries.com
Haunted Places: THE NATIONAL DIRECTORY, By William Dennis Hauk, The Penguin Group, 2002