The Haunted House (circled in black in the Sanborn map below) was on the southeast corner of Thirteenth and Madison. The house sat a ways back from Madison and close to Thirteenth.
A description of the Haunted House appeared in the following Toledo Blade article by Dan Palmer in 1937.
Of course, people were talking about the Haunted House long before Palmer’s article. Here’s an article from 1919 providing the “real story” of the Haunted House, apparently published after a contributor submitted, something else.
Back to the Beginning…
Before it was 1209 Madison Street it was 233 Madison Street. . Research shows James M. Comstock, , was one of the first residents of the house.
In it’s early days the address for the haunted house was 233 Madison Street. It later became 1209 Madison Street, and the street was later renamed Madison Avenue. The house was likely built in the mid-1860s and James M. Comstock, an “early settler of Toledo” who arrived in 1836, appears to have been the homes first resident. Clark Auchard and his wife resided there in the 1870s, into the 1880s. It was noted as the Keeley Institute in the 1895 Sanborn Maps. It may have also been the seedy Riverview House, suggested by a few Toledo Blade articles.
James Comstock died on July 7, 1870. In 1871 real estate agent Clark Auchard, his wife Lucy and daughter Alice, were living in the home.
Clark Auchard died in July 27, 1887, however his widow Lucy continued to live at the residence, with boarders.
In 1892 Lucy was living at a different address in Toledo. Newspaper articles suggest Lucy Auchard sold 1209 Madison to Toledo businessmen Morrison W. Young and Francis D. Swayne. Morrison Young (and his father Samuel Young) owned the property at 1309 Madison which was sold to make way for the Main Post Office (Jefferson Center). Lucy Auchard died January 26, 1907. Her daughter Alice died in 1929.
The Haunted House
It appears that between 1890 and 1902 the big house at 1209 Madison Street became the Haunted House. City directories don’t show anyone living there during that time. As noted in Dan Palmer’s article (above) the place became a “dreary abode hidden behind tangles trees and overgrown bushes.”
In 1901 it appears the property had been sold to Josiah H. Bellows who was looking to build an apartment building at the location.
Perhaps is took a while for the deal to go through, as this article appears in 1902, almost a year later.
It appears Josiah Bellows didn’t hold onto the property long, as noted in the clipping below. The property was sold to “Harry W. Leeper and wife.”
Perhaps being run out by ghosts, the Leeper’s sold the Haunted House in 1905 to Carl and Lyman Spitzer.
Former “Most Prestigious Home in Toledo” Destroyed by Fire
Was the Haunted House also the the Riverview House?
If so, then from about 1896 to 1901 Frank Beissel of Detroit was using 1209 Madison Street as a seedy lodging house known as the Riverview House.
