Fans of architecture, history and the paranormal gathered last week for tours to see the House of Wills, once the largest Black funeral home in Ohio.
The building, at 2491 E. 55th St., is well known for its grand facade and as the former home of one of Central’s most prominent families. Now, it is gaining a reputation in some circles as a haunted house.
Eric Freeman, the current owner, gives tours of the House of Wills every Halloween.
Freeman said he opens the home to tours on rare occasions. “I know that most people in the city are curious, at minimum, about what’s going on,” he said. “I also do it so that people can see the work that’s being done” to renovate the building.
Repeat tour guest Chris Clardy said she had been in the building about six years ago. Since then, Freeman has done “an immense amount of work,” she said.
The Greco-Roman auditorium
The 42-room house was built around 1900. It served as a German singing hall, a Masonic hall, a hospital, and home to the Cleveland Hebrew Institute before it was purchased by Wills and refurbished as a funeral home in 1941. Known for its distinctive pink color, the building was also used as a gathering place for civil rights meetings. The funeral home closed in 2005. Freeman bought the building for $20,000 in 2010.
Freeman began his most recent tours in the main auditorium of the House of Wills, where he spoke about J. Walter Wills Sr., the home’s most famous occupant.
Wills Sr. was a successful Black entrepreneur based in the Central community and a founder of the Cleveland NAACP.
“Mr. Wills used this as his base to try to help his community and the neighborhood and try to make things better for people,” Freeman explained to tour guests. There are “lots of stories of him being overly generous with people who didn’t have enough money for the funerals. I have access to all of his notes, and he had great plans for his neighborhood.”
Freeman said he’d like to one day set up a room in the house dedicated as a museum to Wills.
The Egyptian Room
The tour wound through to a room designed in Egyptian motifs. Those were “all the rage at the time” when Wills purchased and re-styled the home, Freeman said. There’s even a sarcophagus on display.
The Cloud Room
“The Cloud Room” in the basement was the casket showroom for the House of Wills. Prior to Wills owning the home, the Masons used the room for ceremonies. And, according to Freeman, it may have been a speakeasy during Prohibition. The dramatic flared architecture represents clouds in heaven, with a scalloped ceiling designed to collect and amplify energy.
Tour guest Brendan Shinosky saw other attendees with electromagnetic frequency [EMF] readers searching for paranormal activity. He said he noticed the equipment “going wild” in a section of the Cloud Room.
“The hair on my arms immediately stood up,” he said.
But is it actually haunted?
Freeman has received pushback from the community and the city about his ongoing restoration project. Ghost-hunting television shows and paranormal investigators have visited. Some even refused to come back.
“When the ghost shows come in,” said Freeman, “I tell them, what you’re going to get is exactly what you expect to get, but the house is going to amplify that. I think [that’s] a byproduct of it being…built to store, harness and amplify energy.”
Tour assistant Sara Pratt said she loves that Freeman wants to bring the building back to life. “This is and was a big part of the community,” Pratt said, “and now it’s becoming a staple in the spooky community.”