Old St. Joseph's Hospital Investigation

Father Joseph L. Bihn along with Sister M. Ludmilla Schmidt and Sister M. Antonia Adams founded St. Joseph Hospital in a Lorain house in 1892 for children who required immediate medical care and who could not make the long trip to Cleveland, where the nearest hospital was located.

In 1916 a new hospital was constructed to meet the growing population.
In 1950 a larger modern facility was constructed directly behind and attached to the older building.

In 1993 St. Joseph Hospital merged with Lorain Community Hospital. St. Joseph Hospital officially closed its doors in 1997 and relocated to a new, more modern facility and became known as Mercy Regional Medical center.

Sadly, the original 1916 building was demolished In October 2015 due to among other things its unsafe condition.

Since 1997 the hospital building was used for several different businesses, including a hospice center, nursing college, county & State offices and a VA center, but it would never serve the community as a hospital again.

The hospital is 100,000 square feet and about 90% of the building is open to private investigations including all of the patient floors, ER, cafeteria, kitchen, Chapel, ICU/CCU, old morgue, old psych ward, hospice wing, labor & delivery, surgical, VA Center and Medical Building. But Kaczmarek swears that it is much larger than that. People and investigators are not allowed to roam the building by themselves in fear of them becoming disorientated and lost. One gentleman on a ghost hunt after finishing an EVP session found that the group had left him and he was all alone in the building. It took the Fire Department nearly twenty minutes to locate and retrieve him.

Unfortunately many undesirables have gained access to the hospital via broken windows and kicking down doors. They have destroyed and vandalized a lot of the hospital. In fact, during our investigation, several broke in and were later apprehended by tour guides who turned them over to the local police.

Located at: 1800 Livingston Ave., Lorain, OH 44052

Hauntings: Many current maintenance workers don’t enjoy being in the building by themselves even in broad daylight. Reports of doors slamming and the appearance of ghostly apparitions have been experienced by many. Some former employees claim to have seen full-bodied apparitions even when the hospital was still open.

During ghost hunts in the building a number of investigators have experienced doors rattling and slamming, disembodied voices, footsteps, EVPs, shadow figures and full bodied apparitions.

Meeting Room on the 1^st floor: a visitor heard some giggling and turned to find two boys that ran off. He gave chase and they disappeared into a room and could not be located. An apparition dressed in black and white has been seen poking around corners. Teddy Bear trigger objects often alert here and one team even got a “thank you” on their digital recorder after reviewing their evidence.

Emergency Room: A slithering snake-like thing has been seen on the ground. Many years ago, a guy died in a motorcycle accident that had a snake tattooed on his arm. A psychic guide started calling the apparition “Snake”. He apparently likes women and gets up close and personal with them.

Allegedly a portal of emotion seen in this room on the back wall has been encountered by people in the past. Some have felt the emotions of things that have happened in the ER in the past.

Surgical Suites: People have been slapped here in the past on their heads. Others have felt a chill in the air and what feels like someone holding your hand. A little boy possibly named Jacob has been seen near the chairs and runs through the hallway. He is described as approximately six-years-old. Psychics in the past have described seeing a face inside of the room that the boy had disappeared into. This room was used in the past as a Meeting Room. The sound of water running has been heard near the Nurse’s Station and cupboards open and close by themselves.

Psych Ward on the 2^nd Floor: The floor is also home to Addiction Recovery, Hospice, VA, Rehab and Labor and Delivery.

Hospice area: Near the Nurse’s Station, visitors have described the sound of the defunct elevator running and the “ding” of the elevator reaching the desired floor. The elevators don’t work; in fact there is no power to the building. Other reports include shadow figures in the hallway, doors slamming.

Reflection Room 306: A shadow figure has been seen peeking out of this room, stepping out before vanishing. A past investigator got strange words through the Ovilus like “get out.” Failing to heed the warning, the investigator walked over towards a phone jack and felt like he was on fire. There were red rashes off over his body and the Burn Unit was right above on another floor.

Reports of women moaning and screaming have been reported. An investigator named Eric who used to work at Mansfield Reformatory said his 17-year-old daughter was abused by words coming from an Ovilus. He said, “Knock it off you dick!” About that same time he got a text from his wife saying that the garage door just opened. After she checked, it was now closed.

There is a lot of paranormal activity at the T-intersection.

Labor & Delivery: A very unique domed ceiling proceeds your way to this area of the hospital. Many hear and see things in this area but please be respectful. A female investigator got very sick and vomited several times by the Nurses Station near the Psych Ward and the double doors. She had to be taken to the starting point. Later she was fine.

Cafeteria Area: Near the Administration Office is a boarded up area where the original hospital used to be. It was torn down. Some visitor in the past saw what looked like an angel with wings that glided across the hall into another section. During an EVP session, one of the tour guides claimed to have heard the responses before playing them back.

Loud bangs are heard and the sound of people talking is common here. Sometime in the past, a psychic saw a patient with an IV in the Kitchen area. It was thought to be a Doctor Kishman that wandered all around the hospital while he was a cancer patient. He was the former coroner.

Objects have been thrown at people near the serving area and EVPs are commonplace. Something or someone pushed a visitor near a trash can. It is in this area the stick figures are often seen with SLS cameras and other devices.

ICU/CCU: The area 10 cubicle is very active and sometimes negative. A lot of people have died in this room. Apparitions are seen running down the hall. Lights above Nurse’s Stations turned on then off. Lights have been seen flashing in the hallways.

A former patient named Agatha is often heard walking back and forth with her walker. She liked to play Gin Rummy.

During one investigation in the past, a light bulb came on in this area and the entire hospital is without any power! A little girl was seen and there is a report of a person actually feeling her hold her hand.

Near the Stress Test and nearby patient rooms, figures have been seen. When numbering these patient rooms, they purposely skipped the Number 13. Still other reports of small shadow figures that have been seen in the adjoining hallways.

The Ghost Research Society investigated Old St. Joseph's Hospital April 28, 2018. Team members included: Kathie Para and Dale Kaczmarek. This was a public event sponsored by Dave Juliano and Haunted Explorations.

Equipment setup: No equipment was set up and only handheld equipment was carried around from floor to floor and used, such as: Ovilus X, Mini-Portal, X-Cam SLS device, Tri-Field Natural EM Meter, Melmeter with proximity probe, REM Epod, digital tape recorders and camcorders, digital cameras and K-II meters.

Experiments performed: Ovilus X and Mini-Portal sessions were conducted in the 1^st floor surgical suites, Emergency Room, Room 128, Room 306 “Reflection Room”, 3^rd floor Dayroom and the Cafeteria area.

Personal experiences:

Kathie Para: Dale Kaczmarek and I were able to investigate this location as a public event. However, the building is massive and the fifty or so people who were attending were divided up into groups of 10 to 12. The four groups spent time rotating to four different areas of the building and we never ran into any of the other groups. In addition, after we got the tour of each area we were free to set off by ourselves. This was pretty much the atmosphere of a private investigation.

The first 1 ½ hours were spent in the Emergency Room and surgical areas. We did a short EVP session in an operating room and heard a loud noise we couldn’t explain. Also upon review of my audio I heard faint “beeping” sounds, much like a monitor’s alarm. The ER was pretty active and we got several relevant responses out of the Ovilus X and Mini-Portal. We actually got alerted by a spirit that some unauthorized teenagers had gotten into the building about the same time we got notified by the guys who were on guard outside of the exact same thing! They were caught and arrested. We never knew they were there because the building is so big but this spirit knew.

Next we went to the third floor’s psych ward, labor and delivery and hospice. One of the women in our group became physically sick to her stomach here and had to leave. Once again we got some interesting responses from the Ovilus X and some K-II activity for the first time.

The kitchen/cafeteria was pretty active. Firstly, every picture I took in there came out blurry. I did everything I could think of to check for a reasonable explanation. We checked my settings to make sure I didn’t accidentally change them and I checked my lens for fog or any debris. I just could not take a clear picture in spite of having no issues before entering the cafeteria. As soon as we left that area my pictures were clear as could be. Very strange. Dale was getting stick figures with the SLS X-cam, mostly little ones that appeared to be dancing. Unfortunately, the camera kept shutting down. This happened five or six times before he just gave up. Later we found out this also has happened to another investigator exactly. Little figure appearing to dance and the camera shutting down repeatedly in the same location. Very weird. Doing an EVP session, which several of the others joined us, we were getting some great responses from the Ovilus X. The K-II meter was reacting like crazy during this time. It appears we were communicating with a patient. One of the guys in our group started to feel his heart racing and just a minute or two later one of our guides started getting bad chest pains. It appeared as if this spirit was projecting his pain on these two. Our guide with the chest pains turned away from us and the pain stopped but as soon as she faced the circle we were in it would start again. After a few minutes symptoms subsided for both of these people. I found this scary.

We ended our investigation in the Intensive Care Unit and Cardiac Care Unit. I felt off kilter in one of the ICU cubicles as did a couple of others. My K-II meter was pretty active in the ICU nurse’s station. At this point we were pretty tired and cold and didn’t investigate this area as thoroughly as we would have liked.

I found this building to be very active and will make it a point to return again.

Dale Kaczmarek: I found this to be an amazingly large, active and interesting location. The investigation was run pretty much the same way that Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum did. The investigators were broken up into smaller, manageable groups and after given the history and hauntings at each stop, we were free to investigate anywhere on the floor we wished. This gave us a unique opportunity of obtaining a quiet area to conduct our EVP sessions.

I believe the most active area for the Ovilus X was in the Emergency Room. A lot of interesting responses came through and it appeared that the device had even detected some vandals that had broken into the building. We did get some names that came through the Ovilus X in dictionary mode such as Paula, Gregg Will, Edison, Tina and daddy.

The X-Cam SLS Device was pretty much quiet until we reached the basement Cafeteria where it clearly showed a couple of stick figures apparently dancing on some garbage cans. This was the same area that others using a similar device had also captured evidence. My device kept shutting down and I eventually gave up further recorders. I though perhaps it was due to the cold but later found out that another investigator’s device also shut down several times in that same area. It was also in this area that all of Para’s digital pictures came out blurry. I examined the camera in an attempt to come up with a natural explanation but could not find one. During our next floor, her camera worked perfectly normal.

A few words came through the Ovilus X that never came through before like, nana, potential, poltergeist, minachi and saliran which Google describes as historically, surnames evolved as a way to sort people into groups - by occupation, place of origin, clan affiliation, patronage, parentage, adoption, and even physical characteristics (like red hair).

Evidence collected:

Cafeteria kitchen something st joseph.MPG – while conducting an Ovilus X session in dictionary mode in the Cafeteria, a question was asked, “Can you pop something in the oven for us?” The Ovilus responded with, “Something.”

Get out here st joseph.MPG – while conducting an Ovilus X session in phonetic mode in the Cafeteria, the device said, “Get out here.”

Get out st joseph.MPG – while conducting an Ovilus X session in phonetic mode in the Emergency Room, the device said, “Get out.”

Nearby noise st joseph.MPG – while conducting an EVP session on the 1^st floor in one of the surgical suites, a nearby noise was heard by both investigators and it wasn’t one of them making the noise.

One st joseph.MPG – while deploying the X-Cam SLS device in the Cafeteria several stick figures were seen apparently dancing on a trash can while two other, very small figures were also seen.

Response st joseph.MPG – while conducting a Mini-Portal session in the Cafeteria, a direct response was collected to a question just asked.

Some entered st joseph.MPG – while conducting an Ovilus X session in dictionary mode in the Emergency Room, the device spoke two words, “Some” followed by “Entered.” (It was discovered within a few minutes that some juveniles had broken into the building, hence “Some entered.)

They are out st joseph.MPG – while conducting an Ovilus X session in phonetic mode in the Emergency Room, a question was asked, “Where are the boys?” (Referring to those juveniles that had broken into the hospital.) The device responded with, “They are out.” (We soon discovered via 2-way radio that police had escorted them out of the building.)

Tina st joseph.MPG – while conducting an Ovilus X session in dictionary mode in a large Dayroom on the 3^rd floor, a question was asked, “Can you tell us if there is actually anyone in this room and, if so, can you tell me your first name?” Before the question was finished, the Ovilus X responded with, “Tina.”

Conclusions: This was another truly amazing location! It was so large yet the groups were well behaved and very little contamination was heard during EVP sessions. It could have been a bit warmer outside. Actually Kaczmarek didn’t get chilled until we were at our last stop in the ICU/CCU. At that time the cold had finally caught up with me and I didn’t feel much like investigating anymore. I did take some pictures and attempt a session with the X-Cam SLS device.

This building was slated for a sale which could have effectively ended all paranormal investigations in the future. That sale was temporarily delayed at least until next year sometime so if anyone is still interested in investigating as a group or a private event, please contact Dave Juliano via Facebook or at his page Haunted Explorations or via his excellent website: http://www.theshadowlands.net.