The house was built in 1865 by architects Cudell & Richardson for Hannes Tiedemann, a German immigrant.
On January 16, 1881, 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, 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. 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. 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 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. Ownership of the castle has changed frequently in the past thirty years. In 1999 a vagrant set a fire
which badly damaged the castle. Soure -Wikipedia
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We were lucky enough to get a tour,
along with 35 other lucky people. The owner, Charles Milsaps gave a tour and went into detail of each room and some of the
activity associated with the room. We weren't able to take anything inside the castle except a digital camera, which was explained
to us reason being Charles was working out a deal with either A&E or Home and Garden network to do ghost hunts.
The castle was almost down to the bare walls and is in need of major repairs. It has a new roof on it but didn't keep the
birds out. I personally wasn't impressed with it but that could be just the let down from expecting more activity.
We didn't encounter any ghosts or
anything freaky but Charles Milsaps is a great host. I would like to thank George from G.H.O.S.T.S for inviting me.
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