Listen in the Dark, It's More Fun That Way!
Weekly Spooky
Weekly Spooky
Your Source for Terror Tales Every Wednesday!
Sept. 10, 2026

Bihl Manor: Supernatural Folklore Behind Ohio's Cursed House | Thursday Thrills

Bihl Manor: Supernatural Folklore Behind Ohio's Cursed House | Thursday Thrills

Key Takeaways

  • Bihl Manor, located at 1213 Buckland Avenue in Fremont, Ohio, is the chilling subject of HGTV's special 'A Very Haunted Renovation'.
  • Host Henrique Couto leads listeners on a floor-by-floor investigation, separating documented history from eerie local folklore.
  • Reported paranormal phenomena include a man spotted at an empty second-floor window, a red-haired boy on the stairs, and children's laughter in the attic.
  • First-floor disturbances involve active rocking chairs in Daisy's room, slamming pocket doors, and a piano that seemingly plays by itself.
  • The basement introduces darker legends, including entities known as 'The Bitter' and 'The Scratcher', adding a layer of dread to the historic home.

Just as HGTV prepares to open Bihl Manor for A Very Haunted Renovation, Thursday Thrills visits the reputedly haunted house at 1213 Buckland Avenue in Fremont, Ohio. Henrique Couto traces the turn-of-the-century manor from the Bihl family and piano-shop owner Jerome Bihl through Clarence and Daisy Wolfe, funeral viewings, reported deaths inside the home, its later years as a Lucas County children's group residence, and its transformation into an overnight paranormal investigation site.

Then we walk the house floor by floor: Daisy's active room, a piano said to play alone, the red-haired boy on the staircase, children laughing in the attic, running shadow figures, the man in the upstairs window, and the basement presences known as the Bitter and the Scratcher. Along the way, we separate documented history from local legend, question the uncertain story of a boy's death, and examine the newer Lizzie and Alvie Bihl lore used by the HGTV series.

An eerie Ohio ghost story for fans of haunted houses, paranormal investigations, local folklore, creepy history, Halloween podcasts, and real places with legends that refuse to stay quiet.

๐ŸŽง LISTEN NOW and subscribe for spine-tingling horror stories every week!

๐ŸŽ‰ Unlock exclusive bonus episodes and support the show on Patreon!
๐Ÿ‘‰ WeeklySpooky.com/Join

๐Ÿ“ฌ Contact Us / Submit Your Horror Story!


๐ŸŽต Music by Ray Mattis ๐Ÿ‘‰ Check out Rayโ€™s incredible work here !
๐Ÿ‘จโ€๐Ÿ’ผ Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Bobbletopia.com
๐ŸŽฅ Produced by: Daniel Wilder
๐ŸŒ Explore more terrifying tales at: WeeklySpooky.com

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Bihl Manor located?

Bihl Manor is located at 1213 Buckland Avenue in Fremont, Ohio, directly across from Spiegel Grove, the historic estate of President Rutherford B. Hayes.

What TV show is featuring Bihl Manor?

Bihl Manor is featured on HGTV's 'A Very Haunted Renovation', where six designers spend 41 days renovating the reputedly haunted house.

What paranormal activities have been reported at Bihl Manor?

Visitors and investigators have reported sighting a man in an empty second-floor window, a red-haired boy on the staircase, moving shadow figures, items being thrown in Daisy's room, and physical sensations like a cold finger tracing down a back in the basement.

Who are 'The Bitter' and 'The Scratcher'?

'The Bitter' and 'The Scratcher' are modern names given to alleged malevolent presences in the Bihl Manor basement, which some visitors blame for physical scratches and bites.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:01.070 --> 00:00:07.669
The simplest story about Bill Manor begins outside the house.

2
00:00:08.519 --> 00:00:12.939
A former neighbor remembers seeing a man standing at an

3
00:00:13.060 --> 00:00:20.519
upstairs window. The house, she later learned, was empty. That

4
00:00:20.620 --> 00:00:25.019
is all the report needs. A figure, a window, an

5
00:00:25.179 --> 00:00:31.949
empty room behind him. From the sidewalk, the arrangement feels... Average.

6
00:00:32.810 --> 00:00:39.759
You're outside. Whatever she saw was inside. But windows work

7
00:00:39.810 --> 00:00:44.299
both ways. Once you step through the door, the stories

8
00:00:44.380 --> 00:00:49.060
don't stay at that window. They wait at the stair landing,

9
00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:55.020
move through the first floor rooms, and turn physical below ground.

10
00:00:56.560 --> 00:01:11.319
At Bill Manor, every staircase... changes the rules. This is

11
00:01:11.480 --> 00:01:16.420
Thursday Thrills, a quick weekly ride into the creepy stories,

12
00:01:16.500 --> 00:01:21.120
haunted places, weird obsessions, and eerie little corners of the

13
00:01:21.180 --> 00:01:27.060
world worth talking about. I'm Enrique Couto, and tonight we're

14
00:01:27.099 --> 00:01:33.519
going inside Bill Manor. in Fremont, Ohio. That's right. My

15
00:01:33.579 --> 00:01:38.439
native state is always full of surprises. And this one

16
00:01:38.840 --> 00:01:44.689
is going national. Five days from right now, HGTV is

17
00:01:44.780 --> 00:01:50.870
scheduled to premiere a very haunted renovation, sending six designers

18
00:01:50.969 --> 00:01:58.469
into this house for 41 days. So, before the premiere drops...

19
00:01:58.760 --> 00:02:02.420
Let's take a look and figure out, does Bill Manor

20
00:02:02.500 --> 00:02:07.819
have one haunting, or has every floor gathered its own?

21
00:02:08.819 --> 00:02:14.879
Get your flashlight ready. We're taking the stairs. Bill Manor

22
00:02:14.979 --> 00:02:21.539
stands at 1213 Buckland Avenue, across from Spiegel Grove, the

23
00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:27.289
estate of President Rutherford B. Hayes. Inside are not only rooms,

24
00:02:27.409 --> 00:02:33.370
but A broad foyer, four sets of pocket doors, a

25
00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:38.550
back staircase, a finished walk-up attic, and a full basement.

26
00:02:39.750 --> 00:02:45.110
In daylight, those are all selling points. After dark, the

27
00:02:45.189 --> 00:02:48.849
back stairs mean footsteps do not have to use the

28
00:02:48.889 --> 00:02:54.569
same route as you do. Even the house has two birthdays.

29
00:02:55.270 --> 00:03:00.969
The manor's history says... 1890s modern real estate records say

30
00:03:00.969 --> 00:03:06.189
1912 so let's call it turn of the century and

31
00:03:06.270 --> 00:03:09.990
keep on moving although by the way this today is

32
00:03:10.050 --> 00:03:12.909
my birthday by the way I just turned 40 so

33
00:03:13.430 --> 00:03:16.310
you should wish me a happy birthday or subscribe on

34
00:03:16.370 --> 00:03:19.789
patreon or send me an email at weeklyspooky at gmail.com

35
00:03:19.849 --> 00:03:24.229
and make me feel a little special anyway If the

36
00:03:24.289 --> 00:03:27.189
house will not settle on a birthday of its own,

37
00:03:27.849 --> 00:03:31.550
I'm not going to argue with it after dark. A

38
00:03:31.590 --> 00:03:36.120
Hayes Library catalog places a Bill residence at Buckland and

39
00:03:36.180 --> 00:03:42.379
Hayes Avenue, and records show a Bill musical merchandise business.

40
00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:47.310
The manor adds that Jerome Bill ran a piano shop.

41
00:03:48.189 --> 00:03:52.729
Keep that detail tucked under your hat for just a minute. Later,

42
00:03:52.789 --> 00:03:56.310
the house plays a note of its own, not proof,

43
00:03:56.449 --> 00:04:01.550
but an excellent rhythm. By the time that lone key

44
00:04:01.689 --> 00:04:06.789
sounds in the dark, the house has already supplied its

45
00:04:06.969 --> 00:04:13.530
own backstory. The house later passed to Clarence and Daisy Wolfe,

46
00:04:14.270 --> 00:04:19.060
according to the manor's own history. Friends and relatives sometimes

47
00:04:19.139 --> 00:04:23.970
held funeral viewings and memorial services there. It wasn't a

48
00:04:24.050 --> 00:04:26.970
funeral home, that was a thing people used to do,

49
00:04:27.069 --> 00:04:30.370
hence why it was called a parlor. Of course, as

50
00:04:30.449 --> 00:04:33.730
time went on, we turned on that tradition by calling

51
00:04:33.790 --> 00:04:37.689
that space the living room, which is kind of harsh

52
00:04:37.730 --> 00:04:41.810
toward the dead, but I digress. It was something more

53
00:04:42.029 --> 00:04:45.870
intimate that we're talking about, a private home that occasionally

54
00:04:45.930 --> 00:04:51.490
became the room where a family said goodbye. The manor's

55
00:04:51.589 --> 00:04:58.470
telling also puts Clarence's death inside in 1942 and Daisy's

56
00:04:58.529 --> 00:05:06.100
in a bedroom in 1966. I couldn't independently confirm either death,

57
00:05:06.759 --> 00:05:12.470
and neither one gets promoted to A ghost origin, per se. Still,

58
00:05:13.250 --> 00:05:16.889
enter an old parlor, knowing a family may once have

59
00:05:16.949 --> 00:05:21.310
gathered there to say goodbye, and the room doesn't need

60
00:05:21.449 --> 00:05:27.389
a sheet-covered apparition yelling boo. One empty chair is all

61
00:05:27.430 --> 00:05:33.009
you need. Now, climb to the second floor and return

62
00:05:33.610 --> 00:05:39.879
to that very window. The former neighbor's account is frighteningly ordinary.

63
00:05:40.829 --> 00:05:45.439
She didn't describe a glowing skeleton or a face pressed

64
00:05:45.540 --> 00:05:52.540
violently against the glass. She remembered a man upstairs, standing there,

65
00:05:53.379 --> 00:05:59.420
looking out, then learning no one was supposed to be

66
00:06:00.019 --> 00:06:06.089
in the house. Bill Manor's website says other visitors have

67
00:06:06.230 --> 00:06:11.779
also reported a man at a second floor window. On

68
00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:18.240
that same level, it collects stories of running shadows, shapes

69
00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:26.209
peeking around corners, voices without visible speakers, and heavy footsteps.

70
00:06:27.430 --> 00:06:35.839
Old windows reflect. Headlights move. Branches throw human shapes across glass.

71
00:06:36.540 --> 00:06:41.240
A long hallway can turn one moving shadow into three.

72
00:06:42.279 --> 00:06:46.850
Any of those could explain it. But none tells us

73
00:06:47.550 --> 00:06:54.589
what she saw exactly. The image survives because it asks

74
00:06:54.769 --> 00:06:59.790
almost nothing of any of us. Look up. See a

75
00:06:59.870 --> 00:07:05.689
person where a person could be. Learn that room was empty.

76
00:07:06.740 --> 00:07:12.300
Then decide whether the figure was trapped inside or simply

77
00:07:13.139 --> 00:07:19.779
watching the street below. The staircase has its own resident

78
00:07:19.839 --> 00:07:23.620
in the manor's folklore. Visitors are said to have seen

79
00:07:23.699 --> 00:07:27.920
a young boy with red hair standing on the landing.

80
00:07:28.790 --> 00:07:32.319
The same figure is also reported in the attic, where

81
00:07:32.399 --> 00:07:39.720
people describe children's laughter and heavier shuffling overhead. The landing

82
00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:43.430
is broad enough for a seating area. It should be

83
00:07:43.490 --> 00:07:48.949
the house's place to pause. The legend turns the pause

84
00:07:49.029 --> 00:07:55.800
into a risky activity. The address later served as a

85
00:07:55.939 --> 00:08:01.319
Lucas County Children's Residence. A surviving newspaper clipping places the

86
00:08:01.399 --> 00:08:07.509
service center right here. Real children lived in county care,

87
00:08:07.589 --> 00:08:13.329
but no reliable record ties the red-haired figure to any

88
00:08:13.870 --> 00:08:19.589
one of them. So we leave him unnamed, exactly where

89
00:08:19.709 --> 00:08:25.480
visitors place him, standing on the landing without inventing a

90
00:08:25.639 --> 00:08:31.930
tragedy just to make him scarier. The uncertainty belongs there too,

91
00:08:32.570 --> 00:08:37.879
halfway between one floor and the next. A landing is

92
00:08:37.929 --> 00:08:43.460
supposed to be a neutral territory, the bit between floors,

93
00:08:43.580 --> 00:08:47.720
but if a figure is waiting there, the route up

94
00:08:47.799 --> 00:08:52.399
and the route down are both open, and neither one

95
00:08:52.519 --> 00:08:56.210
takes you away from him. Above the landing is the

96
00:08:56.259 --> 00:09:01.970
walk-up attic, below it, is the second floor hall, joists

97
00:09:02.090 --> 00:09:06.600
and ducts can send footsteps into the wrong room, while

98
00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:11.100
a famous story can train the eye toward the landing.

99
00:09:12.200 --> 00:09:17.500
Both are fine explanations, but neither makes that pause between

100
00:09:17.639 --> 00:09:22.870
floors feel any safer in the dark. After all, a

101
00:09:23.090 --> 00:09:28.909
map tells you where to look, and ghosts are... terrible

102
00:09:29.590 --> 00:09:34.820
at staying on their marks. Come back to the first floor,

103
00:09:35.340 --> 00:09:41.320
where the haunting becomes less visual and more domestic. The

104
00:09:41.340 --> 00:09:46.580
manor's website puts voices across the first floor. Daisy's room

105
00:09:46.659 --> 00:09:52.879
gets special attention. Visitors say objects have fallen or been

106
00:09:53.019 --> 00:09:59.970
thrown from a rocking chair. Elsewhere come Footsteps. Sudden slams.

107
00:10:00.519 --> 00:10:06.000
and voices heard as a man or children. A chair,

108
00:10:06.779 --> 00:10:12.440
a closing door, somebody speaking from the next room. These

109
00:10:12.600 --> 00:10:18.139
are ordinary household signals. That's why they work so well

110
00:10:18.990 --> 00:10:23.200
in a ghost story. A roar from the walls announces

111
00:10:23.259 --> 00:10:28.950
a monster. A footstep says someone is home. Stand in

112
00:10:28.990 --> 00:10:32.590
the first floor dark and the fear is not that

113
00:10:32.629 --> 00:10:38.889
the house feels empty. It's that the house sounds busy.

114
00:10:40.289 --> 00:10:44.240
Four sets of pocket doors let rooms open into one

115
00:10:44.299 --> 00:10:49.679
another or seal them apart. In the manor's nighttime vocabulary,

116
00:10:50.320 --> 00:10:54.720
A slam does not merely make noise. It changes the

117
00:10:54.799 --> 00:11:00.669
floor plan all around you. Then there is the piano

118
00:11:01.450 --> 00:11:07.710
kept near the garage. Investigators have reported hearing keys when

119
00:11:07.789 --> 00:11:12.970
nobody was playing. The Bill family's music connection turns that

120
00:11:13.110 --> 00:11:18.250
sound into a neat little circle. A house once connected

121
00:11:18.269 --> 00:11:24.389
to selling music, now remembered for producing one note too many.

122
00:11:25.740 --> 00:11:30.580
Maybe old mechanisms shift. Maybe a sound from the street

123
00:11:30.659 --> 00:11:36.659
lands in the wrong place. Maybe someone is very committed

124
00:11:37.460 --> 00:11:45.019
to practicing their scales. And then the stairs keep going down.

125
00:11:52.659 --> 00:11:57.919
If you enjoy these quick trips through haunted places, strange folklore,

126
00:11:58.059 --> 00:12:04.279
and houses with more personality than the listing admitted, subscribe

127
00:12:04.350 --> 00:12:08.330
to Weekly Spooky on your favorite podcast app so you

128
00:12:08.389 --> 00:12:12.149
never miss a Thursday thrill every week. And of course,

129
00:12:12.269 --> 00:12:16.830
as Halloween is approaching ever so quickly, we have something

130
00:12:16.929 --> 00:12:19.860
scary for you to listen to every single day of

131
00:12:19.889 --> 00:12:24.059
the week. So make sure you're subscribed and send this

132
00:12:24.200 --> 00:12:28.490
episode to the person who would happily investigate Bill Manor

133
00:12:29.110 --> 00:12:33.990
in your life, provided you head into the basement first.

134
00:12:36.429 --> 00:12:40.850
The basement is where Bill Manor stops giving its reports

135
00:12:40.950 --> 00:12:47.049
human faces and starts giving them warning labels. The property's

136
00:12:47.169 --> 00:12:53.139
current website calls two alleged presences, The Bitter and The Scratcher.

137
00:12:54.539 --> 00:13:00.269
Those are modern names inside the manor's paranormal lore, not

138
00:13:00.490 --> 00:13:06.750
identities recovered from old records. Visitors have reportedly blamed them

139
00:13:06.870 --> 00:13:14.620
for bites and scratches. Investigators also report radio fragments and

140
00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:21.679
equipment responses, the usual electric campfire. None of it proves

141
00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:27.049
a haunting, but the basement's strongest story needs no batteries

142
00:13:27.129 --> 00:13:31.409
to function. If you go down with a flashlight, most

143
00:13:31.470 --> 00:13:38.250
of the room disappears beyond one small circle. The stairway

144
00:13:38.330 --> 00:13:43.360
becomes the only obvious route out, and every cold patch

145
00:13:43.460 --> 00:13:50.230
arrives from somewhere your beam is not pointed to. In

146
00:13:50.250 --> 00:13:56.580
the HGTV preview, co-owner Heather describes going downstairs and feeling

147
00:13:56.629 --> 00:14:01.159
what she called a cold finger tracing from her neck

148
00:14:01.919 --> 00:14:07.919
down her back. Not a full apparition or a voice

149
00:14:08.059 --> 00:14:13.269
from the furnace. One narrow line of cold moving through

150
00:14:13.370 --> 00:14:18.570
the exact space where she couldn't see. Could it have

151
00:14:18.610 --> 00:14:25.620
been a draft? an exposed edge, or nerves. Of course,

152
00:14:26.299 --> 00:14:32.250
but none of those possibilities make turning around any more pleasant.

153
00:14:33.590 --> 00:14:39.230
That report completes the house's downward change. At the window,

154
00:14:39.570 --> 00:14:44.669
something may watch. On the landing, something may wait. Wait.

155
00:14:45.899 --> 00:14:50.879
In Daisy's room, something may sound as though it belongs there.

156
00:14:51.740 --> 00:14:57.610
Below all of them, something reaches back. And this is

157
00:14:57.690 --> 00:15:02.929
where the renovation becomes part of the haunting. Six designers

158
00:15:03.009 --> 00:15:07.269
are about to walk into that floor plan with tape measures,

159
00:15:07.429 --> 00:15:13.230
paint swatches, and 31 days on the clock. Every room

160
00:15:13.309 --> 00:15:18.440
they redesign will give the old story a brand new stage.

161
00:15:19.440 --> 00:15:24.340
On Tuesday, September 15th, a very haunted renovation is scheduled

162
00:15:24.360 --> 00:15:29.299
to put Bill Manor on HGTV, with Anna Camp hosting

163
00:15:30.700 --> 00:15:37.980
and $ 50, 000 at stake. Plus, presumably, first choice of bedroom nightlight.

164
00:15:39.269 --> 00:15:44.029
The premiere uses Lizzie and Alvy Beale as inspiration for

165
00:15:44.570 --> 00:15:51.590
Sleeping Quarters, but HGTV calls them rumored spirits. And that

166
00:15:51.730 --> 00:15:57.389
is some solid TV network legalese, because available public sources

167
00:15:57.490 --> 00:16:03.750
don't establish them as apparitions or people who died in

168
00:16:03.809 --> 00:16:07.669
the house. But that doesn't spoil the fun, not if

169
00:16:07.710 --> 00:16:11.889
you don't let it. It allows us to watch folklore

170
00:16:12.049 --> 00:16:16.919
acquire name tags. It is television, after all. Set up

171
00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:21.019
to make us feel suspense and a little fun fear

172
00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:26.539
before the paint has even dried. The renovation creates a

173
00:16:27.279 --> 00:16:32.360
delightful test. If a door stops slamming after its frame

174
00:16:32.460 --> 00:16:39.600
is repaired, was that maintenance or an eviction? Every hammer

175
00:16:39.659 --> 00:16:42.820
blow will give the manor a new sound while every

176
00:16:42.899 --> 00:16:48.179
repaired hinge takes one old excuse off the playing board.

177
00:16:49.820 --> 00:16:54.399
Fresh plaster can change a room, but it cannot repaint

178
00:16:54.519 --> 00:17:00.980
the story already attached to it. So, does Bill Manor

179
00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:06.000
have one haunting or has every floor managed to gather

180
00:17:06.059 --> 00:17:10.150
its own? No floor gives us proof, and no figure

181
00:17:10.230 --> 00:17:15.130
gives us a trustworthy name. What the stories give us

182
00:17:15.430 --> 00:17:22.240
is one remarkably tidy, haunted floor plan. Walk it once more,

183
00:17:22.839 --> 00:17:27.160
laughter and shuffling above, a red-haired figure on the landing,

184
00:17:27.279 --> 00:17:32.140
a chair that will not keep its objects. One piano key,

185
00:17:32.799 --> 00:17:38.329
with no player, then a cold line down the back. below.

186
00:17:40.410 --> 00:17:44.369
The map is the house's real trick. Once you know it,

187
00:17:44.789 --> 00:17:50.710
every noise arrives with a caption. Maybe expectation writes many

188
00:17:50.769 --> 00:17:55.460
of those captions. Maybe an old house is simply very

189
00:17:55.579 --> 00:18:00.059
good at giving each fear exactly the room it needs.

190
00:18:00.859 --> 00:18:04.880
The series can brighten the walls, repair the frames, quiet

191
00:18:04.940 --> 00:18:09.910
the hinges, and change every color but it can't move

192
00:18:09.970 --> 00:18:13.859
the staircase it can't take the basement out from under

193
00:18:13.920 --> 00:18:18.480
you and it can't turn that second floor window away

194
00:18:18.599 --> 00:18:24.329
from the street across the street the upstairs glass will

195
00:18:24.369 --> 00:18:29.349
reflect whatever light remains if a figure takes his place

196
00:18:29.450 --> 00:18:33.849
behind it the renovation will have changed the room but

197
00:18:33.910 --> 00:18:39.329
not the view I'm Enrique Couto, and this has been

198
00:18:39.470 --> 00:18:44.750
Thursday Thrills. Drive safe, keep your headlights on, and if

199
00:18:44.789 --> 00:18:47.690
you look up and find someone looking back from a

200
00:18:47.750 --> 00:18:53.710
house that you know for certain is empty, don't wait

201
00:18:53.769 --> 00:18:58.859
around to see whether he waves. See you next time.

202
00:19:00.299 --> 00:19:08.519
Come back tomorrow for more fear. Until then, lock your doors.

203
00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:11.769
As if that will help.