Rhenier House – 2007 - Paranormal Bad Boys

THE RHEINAUER HOUSE

The Paranormal Bad Boys Archive

HAUNTED RATING

The Rheinauer House
Ocala, Florida
Built in: 1891

HISTORY

This Victorian Queen Anne style house was built in 1891 and is named the “Rheinauer House”. The property originally occupied one-half acre, and extended to Southeast Second Street to the rear. There was a separate kitchen and a carriage house on the back of the property. Charles and Emma Rheinauer bought the home in 1895, and it remained in the family until 1942. Mr. Rheinauer originally immigrated from Germany, and moved here from Thomasville, Georgia in 1880. He opened a dry goods store on the downtown square named Rheinauers with his brothers, which remained in business for 117 years. Mr. Charles Rheinauer was also the president of the LaCriola Cigar Company, vice president of the Ocala Iron & Manufacturing Works, founder of the Ocala Board of Trade (later known as the Chamber of Commerce), director of the Merchants National Bank, and became mayor of Ocala in 1906.

RUMORS

Rumor has it that this location sits on part of an old battleground from the third Seminole war. How much of that is true is beyond us. However, like the adjoining Scott house, we spent ample time and many weekends investigating the location.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I first visited this location in 2007, and the feeling of warmth from this place made me feel like I was at home. The interior design, the staff and the ambience truly set the stage. It was inviting and truly beautiful in its own way. It captured a moment in time long gone, a far more simpler time. However, I will say that looks are truly deceiving for this place held a violent past, and the spirits from that past still haunts it. We returned numerous times over the years to this location as it always beckoned us back. Yet we could never say, that it was as haunted as the adjoining Scott house in any way.

INTERESTING FINDS

The house was far different than that of the Scott house, there was a mix of different other worldly energies. Such as that emitting from a young girl spirit, as well of a murdered man. He was rumored to have been stabbed to death in the old rear stairways. Another ghost that was known to haunt this home, the Scott house and other homes in the area was the woman in white. She was an elegant woman, dressed in a victorian white dress and matching bonnet.

Rumor states that she was either a nurse from the Seminole war, or a wife of a soldier who may have died there. It was rumored, that she was seen at night walking the hallways. There was also claims that she had appeared in different homes in that area, and would leave a lingering scent of perfume behind. We did experience the phantom smells, and I personally saw her walk in front of my bed at night within the dark lit room. It was an experience I will never forget.