THE STORY
Reported Haunting
The Majestic Theatre is known locally for reports of ghostly apparitions and unexplained activity. Staff and performers have reported shadow figures, phantom footsteps, mysterious voices, and strange occurrences backstage.
The Majestic Theatre, formerly the Masonic Opera House, was built in 1853 on the site of Chillicothe’s first bank, which burned down. In 1918 when a Spanish flu epidemic hit nearby Camp Sherman, the theater became a makeshift morgue and autopsy site. It is said that the soldiers’ spilled blood was pumped into the alley, still called Blood Alley today. The theater is said to be haunted by apparitions and foggy shapes, and it is said that once during a performance, a dead body apparated on the stage. The apparition of a man in a dark suit and top hat floats down an aisle, and a little girl runs through the dressing rooms. Milton Berle, Sophie Tucker and Laurel and Hardy all have performed here in the theater’s past.