An 1854 Pennsylvania-style farmhouse in George Rogers Clark Park where farmer Daniel Hertzler was shot dead by robbers in October 1867—his murder still unsolved.
930 S Tecumseh Rd, Springfield, OH 45506
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Daytime tours during summer season free or by nominal donation; annual Night of Historical Haunting event priced separately
Access
Limited Access
1850s farmhouse with period features; limited accessibility in historic structure
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1854 · Site of unsolved 1867 robbery-murder of Daniel Hertzler · Example of Pennsylvania-style bank house architecture in Ohio · Listed on the National Register of Historic Places · Operated as museum by National Trail Parks and Recreation District
Daniel Hertzler built the Pennsylvania-style bank house that bears his name around 1854 on farmland that would later become part of Clark County's George Rogers Clark Park. The structure—which sits about three miles west of Springfield on what is now South Tecumseh Road—reflects the building conventions Hertzler brought with him from a Pennsylvania background: a two-story stone construction set into a slope to allow direct basement-level access from the downhill side.
On October 10, 1867, Hertzler was shot to death inside his home. The motive, established by investigators at the time, was robbery: word had circulated that Hertzler kept a significant amount of cash on the property. Two suspects were taken into custody in the aftermath of the killing. Both subsequently escaped from the Clark County jail and were never recaptured. The murder went officially unsolved, and has remained so.
The property was eventually absorbed into the park system. The National Trail Parks and Recreation District now operates the house as a museum, offering summer tours led by costumed interpreters and an annual fall event—A Night of Historical Haunting—that draws on Hertzler's story to frame an evening of historical theater. The Wikipedia article on the Daniel Hertzler House provides the most complete publicly available summary of the property's documented history.
Sources
The haunted reputation of the Hertzler House is inseparable from the known facts of the 1867 murder. Hertzler was killed in the home he built, by men who came looking for money they believed he kept there. The killers escaped and were never brought to justice. That combination—violent death, unresolved crime, perpetrators never caught—has made the property a natural anchor for ghost tradition in the Springfield area.
Visitors and guides have reported a sense of presence in the farmhouse, particularly in the ground-floor rooms. The accounts are informal and largely anecdotal, filtered through the costumed interpretation that frames every guided tour. The NTPRD has leaned into the murder narrative deliberately: the Night of Historical Haunting event uses the Hertzler killing as its dramatic spine, with interpreters recreating the household's final day.
The Touring Ohio website notes the ghost association directly in its entry on the museum, citing Hertzler's murder as the source of the haunting tradition. No independent paranormal investigation record has been published for the site.
Notable Entities
Costumed interpreters from the National Trail Parks and Recreation District lead tours of the preserved 1854 farmhouse, recreating life on the Hertzler property before Daniel Hertzler's October 1867 murder. Open Sundays 1–3 p.m., June through August, and by appointment.
An annual fall event at George Rogers Clark Park featuring the haunted Hertzler House, a wagon ride through the park, and historical reenactors portraying period figures. Offered by NTPRD each October.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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