Experience haunted Indy on new tour
Halloween is once a year, but Indy is haunted all year long.
The Indianapolis Museum of Art and Indy Fun Tours have teamed up to take "chill seekers” on a trolley and walking tour of spooky spots in the city and on IMA’s campus.
The tours start June 30 and will be offered on the last Thursday of every month until September. During October the IMA and Indy Fun Tours plan on offering the tour more often.
Each tour will depart at 7 p.m. from 111 W. Maryland St. and will glide past stops including the former Central Indiana Hospital for the Insane and the Slippery Noodle Inn.
The tours' trolley will arrive at the IMA around 7:30 p.m. From there, guests will be guided through the Clowes Pavilion and the museum's African, Mediterranean, American and European art exhibits. The tour will end at the IMA's historic Lilly House, which was where the idea of the tour began.
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Megan Oldfather, IMA’s tourism sales coordinator, started planning the tour after security guards showed her mysterious video footage of a ghostly apparition in the Lilly House.
Oldfather doesn't want to spoil the tour by divulging the tape's specific contents, but Tom McIntosh, the general manager of Indy Fun Tours, has seen the footage.
“It will open your mind when you watch this video. It is that good,” he said.
The video will be shown at the end of the tour in the spot where it was captured.
The more Oldfather investigated the footage, the more information she collected from IMA staff members about other supernatural experiences. She compiled the stories to create the tour, all while coordinating with McIntosh to add a citywide element to the event.
Here are a few of the terrifying tales you can expect to hear if you manage to grab haunted tour tickets (which can be found at Indy Fun Tours' website).
HANNAH HOUSE
What is now a popular spot for ghost seekers used to be a stop for fleeing slaves seeking refuge on their journey north.
One night a group of slaves died when an overturned gas lamp caused a fire where they slept. Alexander Hannah, the owner of the house, secretly buried their bodies in his basement for fear of being penalized for his role in the Underground Railroad.
His actions also sealed the slaves’ fate, McIntosh said. Now, their souls are locked in the Hannah House forever, only escaping in the form of legend when the hundreds of people who have claimed to see them tell their stories.
Where: 3801 Madison Ave.
THE SLIPPERY NOODLE INN
The Slippery Noodle has had many names over the years, but mostly it's been known as haunted.
Similar to the Hannah House, one of its most famous ghostly guests is linked to the building’s time as a stop on the Underground Railroad. One of the Slippery Noodle’s famous ghostly residents has been spotted over 100 times, McIntosh said. The ghost never speaks, but he does sing. Those who have heard him reported catching the word “Canada,” possibly a guiding call to slaves heading north.
The Slippery Noodle also used to be a brothel. One man stabbed another in the building as they fought over a prostitute. The murderer left the bloody weapon on the bar. The man who was killed isn’t said to be one of the Slippery Noodle’s ghosts, but another apparition of a woman is thought to be one of the brothel’s prostitutes.
“She’s still working the Noodle,” McIntosh said.
Another ghost, a cowboy, has been spotted at the bar.
These tales, combined with gun slugs embedded in the building’s lower east wall and old meat hooks in the basement, has made the Slippery Noodle an eerie attraction for visiting celebrities and Indy residents.
Where: 372 S Meridian St.
CLOWES PAVILION
The Clowes Pavilion is one of the most unique areas of the IMA, Oldfather said. Not just because of its water fountain, but the stories surrounding a wooden bust of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia.
Motion detectors have gone off in the area the bust inhabits. When security guards have swept the area, they haven’t found anything. Jingling noises, however, seem to emanate from Adrian’s bust.
Adrian’s story, chronicled on the website for the Orthodox Church of America, is not a happy one.
After converting to Christianity in the 300s in Turkey, he was killed, but not before his hands and legs were broken on an anvil.
Before his death, however, Adrian was in charge of a praetorium, a name for the headquarters of a military. He watched while Christians imprisoned at the praetorium endured torture. The experience inspired him to adopt his prisoners' faith. Because of this, he is the patron saint of guards, possibly hinting at why he teases the ones who work at the IMA.
He isn’t the only ghostly resident of the Clowes Pavilion, however. Two other spirits are said to prowl its floors.
Where: Indianapolis Museum of Art, 4000 Michigan Road
Call IndyStar reporter Danielle Grady at (317) 444-6152. Follow her on Twitter: @dgrady1222.