Room 9, an Opera Singer and Her Cat: the Buxton Inn

Reviewed by Josh N · Updated August 27, 2026 · How we verify

Five separate houses in Granville, Ohio, sit under one name, and the Buxton Inn has been feeding and lodging travellers from the largest of them since 1812. It is one of the oldest inns in the state, and it has operated as a tavern and inn almost continuously for more than two centuries. It is also one of the more persistently reported haunted addresses in central Ohio, with staff and guests describing a former owner, a nineteenth century major, and a cat that answers to neither.

Orientation Before You Book

• Built: 1812, by Orrin Granger, originally called “The Tavern”
• Rooms: 25 lodging rooms spread across five houses
• Layout: an L-shaped main house with a courtyard, plus four unconnected guest houses
• Listed: added to the National Register of Historic Places on 26 December 1972
• Recent history: closed for months after a kitchen fire in October 2022; put up for sale in September 2024

The Tavern, the Dilley House, then Buxton

Orrin Granger’s building opened in 1812 as a tavern and doubled as the local post office, which in a young Ohio settlement made it the place where news and travellers arrived together. It changed hands and identities more than once. James W. Dilley bought it in 1858 and renamed it The Dilley House. The name that stuck came in 1865, when Major Horton Buxton purchased the property and put his own on the sign.

Buxton held it until his death in 1934, a tenure of nearly seventy years under one name. Local lore also holds that the inn’s basement contains a secret tunnel connected to the Underground Railroad, and some accounts say the inn sheltered people fleeing slavery. That is tradition rather than documented record, and it should be read as such.

Bonnie Bounell, Room 9 and a Cat Named After the Major

The figure most closely tied to the inn’s ghost stories arrived as its owner rather than its guest. Ethel “Bonnie” Bounell, an opera singer, took over after Buxton died in 1934. She lived on the premises in Room 9 with her cat, which she named Major Buxton, and she stayed there until her own death in 1960. Nell Schoeller, who had supported Bonnie, took the inn on next.

Bounell is the reason Room 9 carries the reputation it does, and she is the presence guests most often claim to encounter. Granville tradition calls her the Lady in Blue.

Forty-Two Years of the Orrs

By the early 1970s the inn needed rescuing. Local preservationists Orville and Audrey Orr bought it in 1972 and set about refurbishing the building; the National Register listing followed on 26 December of that same year. Their restoration was substantial in commercial terms as well as architectural ones, expanding the operation from three guest rooms to a twenty-room inn with a restaurant, a bar and wine storage.

The Orrs held the property for 42 years. In 2014 Robert Schilling and his two daughters bought it and continued the work, enlarging and opening up the lobby and upgrading the lighting and restrooms.

The 2022 Kitchen Fire

In October 2022 an electrical problem started a fire in the kitchen. Nobody was killed, but the damage was serious: broken doors, soot through the building, damaged ceilings, and a closure lasting several months. The repairs turned into a wider renovation, taking in several guest rooms and 14 bathrooms, new walls, and refurbishment of the rooms and the restaurant. In September 2024 the Buxton Inn was put up for sale.

What Guests and Staff Say Happens Here

None of what follows is documented event. It is a body of consistent reporting from people who have worked in or stayed at the building, and it is worth treating as testimony rather than evidence.

The inn is said to be haunted by former staff, former owners and former guests. The recurring reports are of figures moving through the halls and appearing in guest rooms, and of lights being interfered with, switched on or off with nobody near them. Three presences are named again and again: Bonnie Bounell, who died in Room 9; her cat, Major Buxton; and Major Horton Buxton himself.

Longstanding local versions of the stories add detail the record cannot confirm. Major Buxton is said to announce himself with the smell of cigar smoke. Bounell, the Lady in Blue, is reported most often in and around her old living quarters in Room 9. Ghostly cats are described in the old tavern rooms, and guests report footsteps, disembodied voices and sudden cold drafts. It is fair to note that a wooden building from 1812 with a floor made visibly uneven by two hundred years of wear will produce footsteps, drafts and noises entirely on its own.

Presidents, an Author and a Cellist

The guest book claims are part of the inn’s identity, though the inn itself frames many of them as rumour. Presidents William H. Harrison, Abraham Lincoln and William McKinley are all said to have stayed; Harrison was a friend of Orrin Granger, which makes his visit the most plausible of the three. Harriet Beecher Stowe is named among the guests, as are the cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the actresses Jennifer Garner, Dixie Carter and Cameron Diaz.

Staying at the Buxton Inn

This is a working inn and restaurant, not an attraction, and the easiest way to spend time in the building is to book a room or eat there. Check-in is in the main house, which also holds the restaurant and bar and displays photographs of the inn through the decades. The other four houses hold guest rooms only and are not connected to one another, so ask when booking if being in the historic main house matters to you, and ask about Room 9 specifically if that is what you have come for.

One practical warning: the inn was listed for sale in September 2024, and its recent history includes a months-long closure after the kitchen fire. Confirm directly that it is open and taking bookings before travelling. Whatever the current ownership, other people are paying to sleep here, so keep any ghost hunting quiet, out of the corridors at night, and away from doors that are not yours.

Sources

• National Archives NextGen Catalog (Archives (official))
• Rooms & Suites
• The Buxton Inn, a landmark and historic gem in downtown Granville, is for sale
• The history of The Buxton Inn: Is it really haunted?
• Granville's Buxton Inn changes hands
• Wikipedia: Buxton Inn

Address: 313 East Broadway

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