On May 12, 2019 we traveled to Toledo, Ohio for a paranormal conference. While we were there, we wanted to lookup some of the reported haunted locations throughout the town and one place that made the list was the Pythian Castle.
Although the paranormal claims for this location were very limited on the Internet since the building has actually set vacant since 1974, the history of the building and of course the buzz word of "secret society" peaked our curiosity to at least allocate some time during our trip and go down and do a drive-by of the location. I'm mean, who wouldn't go and check out a building that reportedly looks like a castle and was built by secret fraternal organization. Especially since you just spent most of the day listening to a talk by Jeff Mudget the Great-Great grandson of H.H. Holmes.
The building is located at: 125-199 N Ontario St. Toledo , OH 43604.
Information we found about the building (and some information found recently) discuss the building being renovated. The renovation began in 2016, but definitely still had some roofing issues when we drove by in 2019.
Unfortunately we do not have any more personal experiences at the location, since this was a drive-by visit, but we did some research the research behind the organization and these buildings is quite interesting..
The Knights of Pythias is a fraternal organization and secret society founded in Washington, D.C., on February 19, 1864. The Knights of Pythias is the first fraternal organization to receive a charter under an act of the United States Congress. It was founded by Justus H. Rathbone, who had been inspired by a play by the Irish poet John Banim about the legend of Damon and Pythias. This legend illustrates the ideals of loyalty, honor, and friendship that are the center of the order.
The order had over 2,000 lodges in the United States and around the world, with a total membership of over 50,000 in 2003. Some lodges meet in structures referred to as Pythian Castles.
We are not quite sure why they considered the Knight of Pythias a "secret society", just based on the following photograph that we found in Wikipedia showing the group from Toledo marching in a parade.
We did put together a video about the different locations that we visited while on this trip. If you are looking through our blog site here, you may see this video multiple times since it does discuss six different locations.
It was an interesting experience to find the building and to read about some of the history of the building through posts that others have made on the Internet and Facebook. Just the design and architecture alone makes it stand out and look like it would be extremely active.
If we ever go back to Toledo again (most likely will), we will have to drive-by again and check on the renovation status. We would love to have the opportunity to actually stop and go inside...
