HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
A 29-room Underground Railroad mansion investigated on Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, and Ghost Brothers.
12150 Main Street, Trinway, OH 43842
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Daylight tours are free; public ghost hunts are $45 per person (18+); flashlight tours priced separately.
Access
Limited Access
A multi-story 19th-century mansion with stairs; grounds include uneven historic outbuildings.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1856 · Documented Underground Railroad station operated by George W. and Edward Adams · Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 1979 (#79001913) · Ohio Underground Railroad Association-recognized site
George Willison Adams was born in 1799 in Fauquier County, Virginia, the youngest of thirteen children. His father, George Beal Adams, freed the enslaved people he held on the family's Virginia plantation and relocated the family to southeastern Ohio in 1808. The younger Adams became one of the region's most prominent businessmen: he operated a flouring mill on the Ohio and Erie Canal, eventually held roughly 14,500 acres of land, served in the Ohio General Assembly, led the Steubenville and Indiana Railroad, and directed construction of the Cincinnati and Muskingum Valley Railroad. He also paid for a suspension bridge across the Muskingum River near Dresden.
In 1856, Adams completed a 29-room mansion at Trinway, just north of Dresden. He and his brother Edward ran an Underground Railroad station out of their milling and shipping operation: boats carrying the company's flour to New Orleans reportedly returned north with runaway enslaved people concealed beneath the decks, and the mansion, along with company warehouses and a boat yard, is documented as part of the network of safe houses that moved freedom seekers toward Canada. Adams's record on slavery was not uncomplicated -- in 1856 he also donated to the American Colonization Society, which promoted resettling free Black Americans in Africa.
Adams died in 1879 and is buried in Dresden Cemetery. Prospect Place was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. It is now owned and operated by the nonprofit G. W. Adams Educational Center, which runs public tours and paranormal events at the property.
Sources
Prospect Place has drawn paranormal investigators since at least the 2000s, and the G. W. Adams Educational Center now runs the mansion's ghost-hunt program itself, marketing the tour as covering the property's 'paranormal hot-spots.' The Syfy series 'Ghost Hunters' investigated the property in April 2008; the Travel Channel's 'Ghost Adventures' followed in January 2010; and 'Ghost Brothers,' also on Travel Channel, filmed an episode in April 2016. Across the three productions, investigators and guests have reported shadow figures, unexplained footsteps on the mansion's stairs and upper floors, and EVP recordings captured during overnight sessions.
No specific death or tragedy at the property is documented as the source of the activity; the mansion's reputation rests instead on the volume and consistency of investigator reports across more than a decade of organized paranormal tourism. The nonprofit that owns the building treats the ghost-hunt program as a preservation fundraiser alongside its historical mission, running both free daytime history tours and paid overnight investigations most weekends during the regular season.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Self-guided access to the 29-room mansion and grounds, open free of charge every Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4pm, March through November. On-site staff are available to answer questions about G.W. Adams, the estate's Underground Railroad history, and its architecture.
An overnight paranormal investigation open to the public, 18 and older. Gates open at 6pm with a guided history-and-hot-spots tour at 7pm, followed by open investigation time until 2am. Limited to the first 20 paid participants; prepaid reservations required.
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