The Ghost of Henry House

It began in the late 1830's with a carpenter named Robert Warner Henry. Robert purchased 125 acres of land in what is now Parma Hts and proceeded to construct a comfortable two story dream house for his bride. As years went by, the house was filled with children, relatives, visitors and even escaped slaves who were hidden in the home's stone cellar on their way through the Underground Railroad that led to freedom in Canada. Years passed and the house fell out of ownership of the Henry's around the turn of the century. Subsequent owners of Henry House nevertheless had their fair share of visitors, however. Judge and Mrs. Horace Vokun complained of not being able to keep help for more than a few weeks. "When a girl makes up the beds in the morning and goes back to those rooms an hour later, the covers are all rumpled up. When you put a pot on the stove to boil, likely as not you'll come back to find the heat turned off.". Even today, while the house still stands, it has been converted to a business. Employees find themselves trying to explain latched doors opening and closing, toilets flushing themselves and the frequent and powerful odor of fresh apples. The "Apple Lady", as she has been dubbed, has been explained as most likely being the ghost of Robert Henry's departed wife, Frances, who enjoyed long carriage rides through the nearby apple orchards that covered their property years ago. "She loved to play pranks on people", her granddaughter explained. "You know, when we first bought this place, we thought about calling a priest to have it exorcised", the current owner remarked, "But we decided against it. The Apple Lady is happy here. This is her house and we want her to stay as long as she chooses."