The Old Downtown YMCA

Is Marion’s now defunct downtown YMCA haunted? Given the terrible and senseless crime that took place there in the 70s, it certainly seems to be a possibility. Even more tantalizing, in early 2011 the now-defunct ghost hunting group Eerie Paranormal spent that night there and gathered some compelling evidence to support this rumor. Read all about it in Haunted Marion, Ohio!

Update: In April of 2012, another local ghost hunting group, Spirit Hunters of Ohio, investigated the downtown YMCA. Of the many photos they took, two stand out:

An ethereal shape hovers over the track on the third floor – the floor where a murder took place 1974.
Group member Kathy Miers says that everyone in her group was accounted for when she took this picture of what appears to be a shadowy figure in the far corner.
This is the same photo as above but with the brightness and contrast adjusted. Here the figure is much better defined.

14 thoughts on “The Old Downtown YMCA

  1. I used to work out at the old YMCA daily. After my workouts I loved to play racquet ball to wind down. I used to get this feeling I was being watched all the time while playing when no was else was around, and my hair on my arms and neck would stand up like crazy. I remember one time I was walking out of one of the racquet ball courts into the little hallway before the basketball courts. In that hallway I saw two things that changed my opinion on ghosts. The first time, I saw a blurred man in a red baseball cap standing in the corner as I turned the S-like corner from the racquetball to the basketball courts. I had forgotten my towel and went back to get it and the guy was gone. But there was nowhere he could’ve gone – no squeaky shoe noises. Just gone. The second time was in the same little hall between the basketball and racquetball courts. I saw a black shadow person walk /float very fast toward me and almost through me as I was going into the racquet court. Again, no one was there. I never once had any sightings on the track though, but they did have those windows that looked down on the courts from the track. Personally, I don’t know what I saw. I just know I saw something…and more than once

  2. How do I get a copy of the ad that was in the newspaper about the stabbing at the old Marion Ohio YMCA? I have tried everything! Was the man who was killed named McDaniel? I want to know more about this story.

    1. Hi Gary,

      If you live in the Marion area, go to the Ohio Reading Room of the Marion Public Library. They have old editions of the Marion Star on microfilm. The above clipping is from August 22, 1974.

  3. I used to play basketball there a lot, ride the exercise bike by the indoor track and walk/run on the indoor track there during my Sophomore, Junior, and Senior years of High School, but I never had any paranormal experiences there……Thank God!

  4. I know the person who owns the building now. It’s creepy in the basketball court. If you’re by yourself, you feel like you’re being watched from above.

  5. I worked there for ten years in maintenance department. I can tell you that we had one other death in the time I worked there. A woman died in the women’s fitness center, so we had two ghosts there, but she didn’t do too much. 1:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. was a busy time for them. I worked with another man, and on camera we saw the door to the running track opening and closing on its own. The man who died in ‘70 was very active. He came downstairs one time and scared me. I told him get his ass upstairs. At 2 a.m. that morning I went upstairs, and he got mad and slammed the door at the end running track. I went downstairs and left him alone. He was always making noises, slamming doors, knocking things over – trying to scare me. I was there 4-5 month ago, and I believe they are still there and will always be there.

  6. Well, if the ghost is of Ronald David, he changed. He was thin and the sweetest person ever. He was my uncle – senseless murder!

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