Currently in private ownership, it previously functioned as a school, hospital, and as housing for the families of those killed in the American Civil War.

In 1891, the building was sold to the women's branch of the Grand Army of the Republic, and housed veteran nurses and female family members of fallen soldiers, for whom no provisions had been made following the defeat of the confederacy.

[2] On June 30, 1962, the Ohio Department of Mental Hygiene and Corrections took over ownership of the building and evicted the widows still living at the property.

[1] The property passed into private ownership in 1993, and remains on the National Register of Historic Places.

[2] The initial Ad placed by the city when they sold Madison Seminary read: May Be Haunted.

[1] Since then the building has been the sight of numerous ghost hunts and has featured on Destination Fear and Most Terrifying Places in America.