The eerie sensations of doors opening and closing on their own, strange noises drifting through hallways and the presence of unseen beings are all too familiar for some of Ohio University's Greek houses.
Legends of haunted buildings and ghostly inhabitants abound in the Athens area, with many of the legends centered on fraternity and sorority chapter houses.
The Sigma Phi Epsilon house at 24 E. Washington St. is home to one of the most notorious of Athens' ghosts, Nicodemus.
Legend has it that the house, one of the oldest in Athens, served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. When area citizens realized the house hid escaped slaves, they raided it. They only found one slave in the house, though.
That slave was Nicodemus. He was hiding in a secret passageway (which has since been boarded up) and fled to the basement when he heard the search party. However, Nicodemus was found, shot and dragged dead from the house.
Although there is no documentation to fully support this legend, John Kachuba, former OU professor and author of Ghosthunting Ohio, believes the events are plausible.
It seems likely a lot of that kind of activity happened along the Ohio River with slave catchers
Kachuba said. It's very probable because several homes in the area were used for the Underground Railroad.
The building has housed several fraternities and sororities throughout the years, many of which have experienced strange activities that they attribute to the ghost of Nicodemus.
In the early 1970s, the Zeta Tau Alpha sisters had a bevy of experiences with the mysterious inhabitant of 24 E. Washington. Whining and scratching noises were heard from a closet that appeared to have a sealed-off passage, doors would fly open, and some girls even claimed to feel Nicodemus touch them, according to an article in the Fall 1973 issue of Athens Magazine.
Unexplainable activity in the house has continued throughout the years as it passed from the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority to the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority and now to the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, convincing many of the residents that the house is indeed haunted.
There has always been a theory of it being haunted - the story's been passed on for a really long time so I would say it's pretty authentic said Josh Kalaman, a senior studying history. A lot of things check out about it. I've actually done research about it and found websites that say the house is haunted.
While living at the house during his sophomore year, Kalaman himself had a run in with Nicodemus.
There was an incident where I was laying there and several times someone pulled the sheets off of me
Kalaman said. It was about 5:00 in the morning on like a Tuesday
so no one else was in the room.
Kalaman, who was sleeping in a lofted bed, said the unseen instigator continued pulling the sheets off of him several times that night.
The SigEp brothers have had several other experiences with what they believe to be the ghost of Nicodemus.
Every now and then lights will flicker
and sometimes an Xbox will turn on and sign into a profile
Kalaman said. People talk about stuff being moved on their shelves and doors slamming
too.
The brothers continue to have ghostly experiences, but they do not feel endangered by Nicodemus, Kalaman said.
I don't feel threatened at all. Sometimes if you go downstairs late at night you get kind of an uneasy feeling
but no one feels threatened
Kalaman said. And we always joke that
'Oh
