Bootleggers and Spies: Oh my! Bildungsverein Eintracht Club's Residency in Franklin Castle

In celebration of The Wandering Oddball’s 1st anniversary, we revisit Franklin Castle as there is more to discuss. Last year, I gave you a full scope of the Tiedemann family and some minor details about notable owners, but I have yet to discuss Franklin Castle’s most extended residence. 

Bildungsverein Eintracht Club

The same year Hannes Teidemenn moved out of Franklin Castle, a German singing society was formed in Cleveland in 1897.

This German social club would purchase Franklin Castle to serve as a place for gatherings. In 1921, Shirkey's family, who had lived there for several years, sold Franklin Castle to the Taylor Wagg Company. It would be known as the Bildungsverein Eintracht Club. The windows were also painted white to maintain privacy. Franklin Castle also received electricity for the first time. Caged doors were also installed on the stair landings.

Booze in the Walls

Prohibition started in 1920, outlawing the sale of alcoholic beverages. It caused some businesses to decline (*cough* Luna Park) while others found ways to make a profit still. When the castle was purchased, it underwent an interior overhaul. On the third floor, walls were knocked down where Hanne’s Teideman’s bed and sitting rooms were to make way for a bar. The first floor of the house would store the still liquor. 

Rumors of Franklin Castle spurred about secret tunnels going under the house from Whiskey Island to smuggle alcohol. There is no evidence of tunnels and to add to the fact, a little girl whose parents lived in Franklin Castle for a year as caretakers would often play with her friend in the carriage house. According to her, neither she nor her friend saw any tunnels. The closest thing to a tunnel, and someone could have confused them for tunnels, was the pits in the carriage house. The carriage house was used as a garage to repair cars, and pits were used to work on the undersides of the vehicles. During the German club’s occupancy, it was converted to a gymnasium for members. She also recounted that people would enter the side door of Franklin Castle and never the front door.

Uh oh! There might be Communist Spies in these walls!

Around this time, World War 1 was fresh in everyone's memory and Germans faced scrutiny during World War 2. It would even spur more unsavory rumors of Franklin Castle having Nazi spies conducting secret executions. People had wild imaginations. 

In 1949, a vice chairman in Luca County, Ohio, named William Cummings, would be brought before a court accusing a German social group of conspiring to revolt against Americans. 

The Eintracht Club was accused of being communist and one of their other locations was secretly holding communist schools. The location was called Eintracht Farm, where Edward Chaka, a foundry worker, claimed to be used as a children’s fresh air camp and communist meetings were utterly false. 

The End of the Bildungsverein Eintracht Club

In 1968, Franklin Castle was sold to the Romanos, the next owners. The other location, Eintracht Farms, was also sold. The group reorganized as the Bildungsverein Eintracht Club before finally disbanding in 1993.

Post-German Club Occupancy 

If you think I forgot to bring up a ghost story or two, well……, there were not many accounts of ghost activities or sightings. A couple of people resided in the house when their families were caretakers. Other than the house being creaky, it was not haunted. The noises were just chalked up to its old structure. One person who reportedly died on the premises was gardener Jacob Enz, making him the third person to pass in Franklin Castle. 

The Bildungsverein Eintracht Club would go on to be Franklin Castle’s longest-serving owners, occupying it for forty-six years. In the next story, we discuss the Romano family, which brought the paranormal attention to Franklin Castle. 

If you want to read more about Franklin Castle I highly recommend Haunted Franklin Castle. It goes into more detail about the history. 

Source 

Krejci, William G., Myers, John H. (2017). Haunted Franklin Castle.

    Charleston, SC: Haunted America