Art Deco Gothic-arch botanical conservatory built in 1933 in Eden Park; staff report a small girl in an orange dress nicknamed 'Sandi' appearing after closing.
1501 Eden Park Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45202
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Modest admission; check official site for current rates and seasonal show pricing.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved paths inside conservatory; humid tropical and desert rooms.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1933 · 1933 Art Deco / Gothic-arch botanical conservatory by Rapp & Meacham · Replaced the 1894 Eden Park Greenhouse on the same site · Renamed in 1937 for Park Commissioner Irwin M. Krohn (served 1912-1948) · Restored by Lord & Burnham after a 1966 hailstorm with aluminum-framed glass
Krohn Conservatory sits on the bluffs of Eden Park overlooking the Ohio River and downtown Cincinnati. The current building, designed in the Art Deco style with Gothic-arch glass framing by the firm Rapp & Meacham, opened in 1933 and replaced smaller greenhouses that had stood in Eden Park since 1894. When it opened, it was simply called the Eden Park Greenhouse; in 1937, the Park Board renamed it for Irwin M. Krohn, who had served as a Cincinnati Park Commissioner from 1912 to 1948 and was a longtime advocate of the city's park system.
A severe hailstorm in 1966 shattered much of the original glass and damaged the wooden sashes. The greenhouse firm Lord & Burnham led the restoration, replacing the wooden framing with durable aluminum while keeping the building's distinctive Gothic-arched silhouette intact. That repair work allowed Krohn to remain in continuous public use for nearly a century.
The building functions as both a public conservatory and a working botanical collection, housing more than 3,500 plant species across themed rooms — tropical, desert, orchid, and palm — along with seasonal floral shows such as the long-running spring Butterfly Show. The facility is owned and operated by the Cincinnati Park Board and is rented for weddings and private events when not open to the public.
Krohn's broader civic role is tied to the history of the Cincinnati Parks system itself: the conservatory's renaming for Krohn was part of a wider mid-century effort to memorialize the commissioners who built and held together the park network during the city's industrial era.
Sources
The Krohn ghost story is unusual because it is told in part by the City of Cincinnati itself. On the official Cincinnati Parks website, a Halloween-season post titled '4 Scary Cincinnati Parks to visit before Halloween' attributes the conservatory's haunting to Manager Mark House. According to that source, House describes a recurring after-hours figure that staff have come to call 'Sandi' — a small girl, said to be about six years old, who appears in an orange dress and occasionally startles employees once the public has left for the night (Cincinnati Parks; Scary Cincinnati).
The same official telling notes additional reports of spirits 'lurking around the boiler room' in the basement of the conservatory, where staff describe a heavier, less child-like presence. Activity is consistently described as concentrated in the closed-to-the-public hours, particularly during late evening maintenance or seasonal show installations, rather than during the busy daytime visitor hours.
Local paranormal writers covering Cincinnati hauntings (Scary Cincinnati) repeat the 'Sandi' story without identifying a documented historical child connected to the site — the conservatory itself was built in 1933 on parkland, not over a residence or institution. The legend appears to be a staff-corridor story that has been embraced by the Parks Department as part of the conservatory's seasonal storytelling, rather than a claim tied to a specific named historical death.
Notable Entities
Self-guided walk through tropical, desert, and orchid rooms with seasonal floral shows. Note: the reported apparition is an after-hours phenomenon — daytime visitors are unlikely to encounter it.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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