1905 Jacobethan Revival mansion in Bexley by architect Frank Packard, built for former Columbus Mayor Robert Hutchins Jeffrey — donated to the city in 1941 and now a public event venue with documented but partly-folkloric haunting reports.
165 N Parkview Avenue, Bexley, OH 43209
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Jeffrey Park surrounding the mansion is a free public park. Mansion interior is rentable as event space (up to 175 guests).
Access
Wheelchair OK
Public park grounds; mansion event spaces with some historic-building limitations
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1905 · Frank Packard Jacobethan Revival Design · Built for Columbus's Youngest Mayor (Robert H. Jeffrey) · Donated to City of Bexley 1941 · Anchors 34-Acre Jeffrey Park
Robert Hutchins Jeffrey became Mayor of Columbus in 1903 at age 29, the youngest in the city's history at the time. After three years in office he returned to the family firm — the Jeffrey Manufacturing Company — where he remained for the rest of his career. The mansion at 165 N Parkview was built in 1905 to a design by Columbus architect Frank Packard, working in the Jacobethan Revival style.
Jeffrey's wife Alice Kilbourne Jeffrey died in the home in 1922 after an illness lasting several months — a documented death recorded by the Bexley Historical Society. Robert Jeffrey had long since moved out by the time he died in 1961 at Grant Hospital in Columbus.
The Jeffrey family donated the mansion and the surrounding 34-acre estate to the City of Bexley in 1941. The mansion now serves as a public event venue with two main event spaces (accommodating up to 175 guests), and the surrounding park includes tennis courts, a pool, and a Memorial Shelter House. The Jeffrey Mansion historical marker (HMdb #201226) and the Bexley Historical Society both publish institutional history on the building.
Bexley itself is a separately incorporated city fully surrounded by Columbus, which is why some Columbus-area sources list the mansion under Columbus.
Sources
The Bexley Public Library's 2020 blog post 'Is Jeffrey Mansion Haunted?' is the definitive local-history examination of the mansion's haunted reputation, and it deliberately separates documented events from folklore.
The 'witch with white hair' tradition originates with children in the 1970s who reported a woman with white hair, outlined by light in a second-floor window, who would open the window and call out to them in a scratchy voice. The library's research identifies her as Violet Ketner, who with her husband John served as live-in caretaker of the mansion for nearly two decades — a real person whose presence is the basis for the 'witch' legend.
Additional traditions hold that Robert Jeffrey hanged himself in the home (treated by the library blog and HMdb historical marker as unverified — Jeffrey actually died in 1961 at Grant Hospital and had moved out long before) and that a young woman was murdered on the third floor (also unverified). Robert Jeffrey's wife Alice Kilbourne Jeffrey did die at the home in 1922, after a several-month illness — this is the documented death that some legends partially graft onto.
Ghost Hunters of the Eastern United States (gheus.wordpress.com, 2023) report additional phenomena: cheerful, unexplained whistling in a second-floor hallway, sensed presences in the rear staircase, and cold spots. Because much of the haunting tradition demonstrably traces to a documentable living person (Ketner) and to legends not supported by the public-historical record, the mansion is a particularly clean case of how regional ghost lore is built.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Walk the 34-acre Jeffrey Park between Parkview Avenue and Alum Creek. The mansion's Jacobethan Revival exterior — designed by Frank Packard in 1905 — anchors the park. A historical marker on-site (HMdb #201226) covers the Jeffrey family's role in Bexley and Columbus civic history.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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