HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
An 1892 opera house and town hall in McConnelsville, Ohio, now used for live theater and paranormal investigations
15 W Main St, McConnelsville, OH 43756
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Theater ticket prices vary by show; private paranormal investigations run $399 for up to 10 guests, plus $40 per additional person
Access
Wheelchair OK
Three-story historic building; main floor and auditorium are accessible, catwalk and sub-basement require stairs
Equipment
Photos OK
Combined municipal government offices and a performance hall under one roof · Among the first buildings in Morgan County wired for electric light · Featured on Travel Channel's Portals to Hell (2019)
McConnelsville broke ground on the Twin City Opera House on October 20, 1889, hiring architect H.C. Lindsay to design a three-story building that would serve two purposes at once: a working town hall with municipal offices and a full performance auditorium with a stage, ballroom, and tower. The building opened May 28, 1892, with a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. Promoters had billed the opera house as the first building in Morgan County lit by electricity, but the town's generating plant failed that evening, and much of the opening-night crowd left in the dark before the show.
The opera house kept pace with changing entertainment technology through the early 20th century. A silent-film projection system was installed in 1913, the same year the building's elevated position on Main Street kept it above a major regional flood that damaged lower-lying storefronts. Sound pictures arrived in 1936 after a renovation added the equipment needed to show talkies alongside the venue's live bookings.
The building continued as McConnelsville's combined civic and performance space for most of the 20th century. A hidden stairway, sealed off from public use, was rediscovered during electrical work in the 1980s. The Twin City Opera House still operates today as a nonprofit community theater, running a regular season of plays and concerts in the same auditorium where The Mikado opened in 1892.
Sources
The opera house's current operators run organized paranormal investigations built around years of guest and staff accounts rather than a single origin story. Eric Glosser, a retired police officer who has spent years documenting activity in the building, has profiled 14 distinct presences and argues the building holds more than one "portal," a claim he made on the 2019 Travel Channel episode of Portals to Hell.
The most consistently reported presence is nicknamed Elizabeth, described as a playful, responsive energy centered on the catwalk above the stage and the sub-basement below it; investigators report flashlight responses and toy-related activity in these areas. A second recurring account describes a figure resembling a longtime usher, remembered locally as Everett Miller, seen and heard continuing his rounds through the aisles of the auditorium.
Over 300 EVP recordings have reportedly been logged at the venue across various investigations, along with accounts of drapes closing on their own and objects shifting position. The building's operators describe these as recurring guest and investigator reports rather than verified events, and frame each account as "reported" without claiming certainty about its cause.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
The restored 1892 opera house hosts a regular season of community theater, concerts, and touring acts in its original auditorium, which doubled as McConnelsville's town hall when the building opened.
An after-hours investigation of the opera house's auditorium, catwalk, and sub-basement, run under the Haunted Twin City Opera House trade name of Midwest Haunted Experiences LLC for groups of up to 10. Featured on Travel Channel's Portals to Hell in 2019.
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Concordia, KS
Colonel Napoleon Bonaparte Brown, a Concordia banker, broke ground on the theater in April 1906 and hired Kansas City architect Carl Boller to design it. His son, Earl Van Dorn Brown, supervised construction after touring more than thirty opera houses for ideas. The theater opened September 17, 1907. Brown died in 1910; Earl died about four months later. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, the building was restored to its original appearance and reopened in 1980.
Lancaster, NY
The Lancaster Opera House was built in 1897 in Lancaster, New York, designed by architect George J. Metzger as a combined town hall and music hall. After decades of use as a community anchor — including serving as a food distribution center during the Depression and a parachute-packing facility during World War II — it fell into disuse before a volunteer nonprofit reopened it on September 20, 1981.
Cripple Creek, CO
The Butte Theater on Bennett Avenue is a historic Cripple Creek opera house rebuilt after the April 1896 fires that devastated the city. Associated with the Imperial Casino, it has operated as a performance venue for more than a century and is reportedly haunted by a ghost named Jack, linked to the nearby fire department.