Est. 1890 · Civil War memorial building · Former Pickaway County library · Community theater since 1967
Memorial Hall in Circleville was constructed in the 1890s as a memorial to Pickaway County's Civil War soldiers. Over the following century the building also housed the public library and served as an armory before becoming the home of the Roundtown Players.
The Roundtown Players company grew out of a 1960s effort by local amateur actors to raise funds for Berger Hospital. After several years of successful benefit performances, the participants organized an ongoing community theater company. The first formally produced Roundtown Players show was William Inge's Picnic, staged in the barn at the Pickaway Country Club in August 1967. The company now operates regular seasons in Memorial Hall.
Sources
- https://roundtownplayers.org/history/
- https://ohio.org/things-to-do/destinations/roundtown-players-theatre
- https://www.circlevilleherald.com/news/haunted-circleville/article_1d6767db-8ffe-5b75-ab53-8f8315127646.html
Footsteps on upper floorsApparition in mirrorsCold spots
Roundtown Players members and Memorial Hall staff have reported sounds of someone pacing the upper floors when no one is present and have described a figure called Charlie, said to peer out of the building's mirrors at the eyes of the person looking in. A frequently retold account, repeated in the Circleville Herald and across Ohio paranormal sites, has a dog reacting in such terror to the building that it had to be removed.
The Ohio Exploration Society and other Pickaway County paranormal writing describe a Civil War-era figure occasionally reflected in the mirrors at Memorial Hall, a connection that aligns with the building's original purpose as a Civil War memorial.