The Senecaville witch hat house as it was known to many, or the round house as it was known as by some locals to the area, was constructed sometime prior to 1900, though most any record of it seems to have been wiped clear. The beautiful home once stood tall overlooking the road from a corner in Senecaville in Guernsey County Ohio.

Many former residents of this house have talked about it across various forums on the Internet, and remember it remaining a beautiful, well-loved home throughout the 1960s, and even into the 1970s. Unfortunately, over the years following, the home was less and less cared for, and had begun to fall apart. In the most recent years before its final destruction, the home was obscured by vines and trees that had taken over the home, blocking almost any sight of the home in the spring and summer months into early autumn. The best time of year to catch a view of the house was late autumn and winter.

The home was well known by locals, and loved by many. One woman that grew up here recalled her days as a young girl, saying that she felt like a princess with her bedroom in the circular turret. Another person who grew up down the street remembers spending many days outside of the house fishing in the creek beside the home.

The home has mostly become a main subject in stories passed between people over the years, becoming sort of an urban legend. People have shared stories about witches that used to live here, performing witchcraft. There have been stories of people going into this home late at night, but never coming out. After the home was abandoned, people started to come up with even more of these stories, and the home had gained quite a reputation for being haunted.

Some of these stories had started before the home was abandoned, after a girl named Amanda, who lived in the home and worked at the local town deli, fell at work, hit her head on the soda machine and died. People had claimed that it was some sort of spiritual presence working against her for practicing witchcraft with her family in the home, though I think that’s just a ridiculous story people have come up with, simply because the home resembles a witch’s hat.

I thought the home was beautiful to walk through, even in its collapsed, decaying state, and am so sad that it no longer stands, and that nothing could be done to save it. I would be lying though, if I said I didn’t feel some kind of eerie presence there. Do I think it had anything to do with witches? No. 

Ghost hunters and explorers spent years visiting this house as it had continued to collapse, with many stating that they had seen or heard strange things.

The land was forfeited in 2020 to the county, and continued to collapse rapidly for the next two years. The house was demolished earlier this year in 2022, after so many decades of being loved, followed by a slow collapse into the Earth.

Thanks for checking out Architectural Afterlife! If you enjoyed this post, you may enjoy checking out these other interesting places in Ohio.