HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
A shuttered 1905 Carnegie library where staff reported a girl on the staircase and a man named Henry
725 Green Street, Parkersburg, WV
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Currently closed to the public; exterior view only from Green Street
Access
Accessibility not stated
Downtown sidewalk; building interior not open
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1905 · Carnegie library architecture · National Register of Historic Places (1982) · Largest used bookstore in West Virginia
The Carnegie Library at 725 Green Street opened in 1905, funded by a $34,000 grant from Andrew Carnegie toward the construction of a public library for Parkersburg. The two-story, L-shaped brick building was designed in the Classical Revival style, with gray stone detailing, Doric columns, glass floors and a spiral staircase inside. It served as the city's library into the mid-1970s.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 8, 1982. In December 1985 it reopened as Trans-Allegheny Books, which operated as what local accounts called the largest used bookstore in West Virginia. The store filled the former reading rooms and stacks with secondhand volumes and ran for roughly a quarter century before closing in 2010.
After the bookstore closed, the building sat largely vacant. It was put up for sale by auction in early 2021. As of recent reporting it remains closed to the public, and visitors see only the exterior from Green Street. The Carnegie name and the iron-and-wood staircase that figures in the building's ghost stories both date to its original library construction.
Sources
The hauntings attached to the building belong mostly to its bookstore era, when staff and customers spent long days among the stacks. The most-repeated account describes a young girl, perhaps eight years old, in a white bonnet, seen sitting on the wooden staircase between the first and second floors.
A second figure is described as an older gentleman in a derby hat and brown jacket, reported on the second floor; visiting psychics are said to have offered the name Henry for him. Neither figure is tied in the local accounts to a documented death in the building, and the stories should be read as bookstore-era folklore rather than verified events.
Other reports collected by regional paranormal writers and a 2016 local newspaper feature include disembodied footsteps, shadows at the edges of rooms, erratic lighting, and books said to fall or move on their own. Some accounts add a resident cat or two among the shelves. With the building now closed, these stories survive through the people who worked there and the writers who recorded them while Trans-Allegheny Books was still open.
Notable Entities
The building is closed to the public, but its 1905 Classical Revival exterior — gray stone detailing, Doric columns — can be seen from the sidewalk on Green Street in downtown Parkersburg. The interior, where the used bookstore operated until 2010, is not accessible.
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