The Dark Monk and the Dogs: Sedamsville Rectory

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

The Sedamsville Rectory sits in a steep, quiet corner of Cincinnati, Ohio, and it has the kind of reputation that arrives before the building does. A Gothic revival clergy house attached to the parish of St. Aloysius, it has spent the last two decades better known for shadow figures and scratched arms than for anything to do with the church that built it. What follows separates the little that is documented from the much larger body of reported experience that has grown up around the place.

Sedamsville Rectory at a Glance

• Location: the Sedamsville neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, 45204
• Original purpose: a rectory housing clergy of St. Aloysius Church
• Construction: commonly given as 1871 to 1873
• Later use: a shelter connected with abused animals
• Television: investigated for the Travel Channel series Ghost Adventures in 2012
• Status: privately owned

A House Built for the Clergy of St. Aloysius

The rectory was never a church in its own right. It was a residence, the place where the priests serving St. Aloysius lived, ate and slept, and its architecture reflects that double life: plain and functional in its bones, but dressed in the heavy Gothic revival vocabulary that Catholic parishes favored in the Victorian era. Steep gables, dark woodwork and narrow upper rooms make a building that photographs as sinister and was designed as nothing of the kind.

One thing worth flagging for anyone researching the place: the construction date is not told the same way twice. The rectory is often described as an early 19th century building, while the figure most frequently repeated is 1871 to 1873. The later range fits the architecture and the parish context far better. Where a haunted building has two birthdays, the earlier one is usually the one that has drifted, and it is a reminder that much of what circulates about Sedamsville has been copied from retelling to retelling rather than checked.

The Animals and the Rectory’s Second Life

After the clergy left, the building’s most talked about chapter involves animals. It is described as having served as a sanctuary for abused animals, and in the ghost lore that grew from it, as a place where animals suffered. Those are two different stories, and the accounts that circulate blur them. What matters for the haunting narrative is that the second version is the one investigators repeat, because it supplies the explanation for the sounds people say they hear in the lower rooms.

That is how a great deal of paranormal folklore is built. A verifiable fragment of a building’s use gets attached to an unexplained noise, and the noise then becomes evidence for a darker reading of the fragment. It does not mean nobody heard anything. It does mean the story about why should be held loosely.

What People Say Happens Inside

Every account below is anecdotal. No claim here has been demonstrated, and the rectory has not been shown to be haunted. These are the things visitors and investigating teams consistently describe:

• Dogs that are not there. Howling, whining and whispering sounds attributed to the animals said to have suffered in the building.
• A dark, robed figure. Reported as a shadowy shape resembling a monk, usually seen at the edge of a room or a doorway and usually described as oppressive rather than merely visible.
• Voices that answer. Disembodied speech, including responses that investigators have taken as intelligent replies to spoken questions.
• Physical contact. Pushes, touches and scratches, the most commonly repeated claim from overnight investigations and the one most often cited as the reason people leave early.
• Apparitions of priests and children. Figures resembling former clergy, plus reports of children, alongside fleeting movement in empty rooms.

The scratching claims deserve a note of caution. In a decayed 19th century building full of nails, splintered trim, low doorways and unlit stairs, people who spend a night moving around in the dark will collect marks. That does not settle the question, but it is the first explanation any honest investigator should rule out.

How Ghost Adventures Made Sedamsville Famous

The rectory was a locally known curiosity before television arrived. The 2012 Ghost Adventures episode on the Travel Channel changed its scale, giving the dark figure and the animal cries a national audience and turning a neglected Cincinnati clergy house into a fixture on lists of Ohio’s most haunted buildings. Almost everything now repeated about Sedamsville can be traced downstream of that broadcast, which is worth keeping in mind when the same handful of details appear in account after account.

Visiting Sedamsville Rectory

This is private property. The rectory has changed hands over the years and is currently privately owned, and there is no casual walk-in access. Anyone hoping to get inside needs the owner’s permission, and that permission is theirs to withhold without explanation.

What you can do is look. The building stands in a residential pocket of Sedamsville, and it can be seen and photographed from the public street. Do that quietly, stay off the lot, and remember that the neighbors live here and did not sign up for a stream of visitors. Never trespass on property that is not yours without permission. Ghost hunting can be dangerous, so use caution, respect posted rules, and follow all local laws.

Address: 639 Steiner Avenue

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