More than Just Shows at the Rohs Opera House

Location: Rohs Opera House; Cynthiana, KY

Date: June 17, 2011

         Since obtaining satellite TV a few months ago, we’ve gained several new channels and with them, several new ghostly shows to watch. After watching such a show on the Biography channel we found a couple of haunted locations in Kentucky we wanted to check out. The first of those locations was the Rohs Opera House located in charming downtown Cynthiana. The opera house dates back to the 1870s and reportedly has at least four resident spirits: an older man, a “lady in white,” and two children. While we were in town we decided to stay just a block away at the Seldon Renaker Inn, which is also believed to be haunted. Sadly, we didn’t have any ghostly experiences there, but it was a charming place with lovely innkeepers.

        Our hunt at the opera house was very productive, however. We had a wide array of personal experiences, ranging from seeing white shapes and shadows move to people being touched. Early on in the night something touched John’s arm and his body became very cold while he and my mom, Beverly, were sitting in the stairwell where the Lady in White is most often seen. Later on my mom and my dad, Don, went to sit in the stairwell for a while and he was pinched on the leg, causing goosebumps all over his body.  We also captured many orb photos, one of which contained a red orb. We’ve only encountered one red orb before in all of our investigations, so we tend to think a little more of those than we do the plain white or translucent ones. Still, though, an orb is an orb, and they’re hard to use as solid evidence.

John snapped this from the balcony while the little girl was
 playing with our flashlight downstairs.

        Thankfully, though, we did get some other activity that led us to believe the place was indeed haunted. During our tour of the place before we began our investigation, our guide told us that many other investigation groups as well as himself and the other owners have good luck communicating with the spirits using flashlights. For us that method has become pretty useful on our past few hunts, so we were glad to try it again. Maybe an hour after we began, my mom and I went to sit in the auditorium while the guys were in the opera room. We were hoping to see or talk to the two children who are most often encountered in the aisles or stage of the theater. After placing a flashlight in the aisle near our seats, we began asking questions (see video below) and received several answers. Among other things we found out we were talking to a little girl who was less than 5 years old and that she likes to play with the little boy who lives in the theater too. When my dad came downstairs to see what we were doing, he placed his flashlight in the floor near ours to see if the little boy would like to play with it or if the little girl would like it better since it was purple and the one we were using was gray. Even though the flashlights were identical in make and operation, the little girl persistently answered us using the gray one, even when we switched where the two lights were sitting on the floor.  Several hours later we returned to the theater auditorium and used the flashlights to once again talk to the little girl. Our favorite encounter with her that time around was when she indicated that she would like us to return to the opera house again someday.

        My parents also had luck with the flashlight method in the stairwell when my dad was touched. While the lady in white didn’t answer any direct questions, she did turn it on and off upon request several times. My dad also picked up a strange “hmm” on his audio recorder while talking to the Lady in White, but it didn’t transfer over on the computer well enough to be heard. The "hmm" was a very fitting response since Don had been warning the Lady  about a group of investigators coming through in a few weeks who are known for violent and antagonistic methods of getting responses. It seemed as though she was acknowledging and considering his statement. Our favorite EVP from the night also occurred with the Lady in White in the stairwell, but it was captured earlier on after the Lady had touched John’s arm. While my mom and John were discussing him getting touched, my mom commented that she hoped the lady had answered some of their questions for the audio recorder. It seems the lady didn’t want to be caught on tape, though, because ironically she said “don’t” in a soft but plain whisper. Our other audio evidence from the night occurred in the opera room itself. We were all standing around talking about where we were each going next when we were interrupted by a loud whistle. It was loud enough that we all actually heard it over our talking, and thankfully the recorder was going to capture it too.

       While we were sad we didn’t actually get to see the Lady in White appear on the stairwell or see the little boy dart across the stage, we did walk away with a fair amount of evidence. And if nothing else, we know that at least one of the spirits would be glad if we returned to investigate the Rohs Opera House again someday.

Hayley.