Rumors persist that Reno County Museum is haunted

By Cleary Percy
Staff writer
Email: thehutchinsoncollegian@gmail.com

Although the modern Reno County Museum opened in 1986, the museum complex in the heart of Hutchinson has a rich-and spooky history that stretches all the way back to the 1910s.

There’s a good chance that if you grew up in or around Hutchinson, you made a visit to the Reno County Museum at some point in your childhood.

The museum, which was organized by the Reno County historical society in 1960, relocated to Haven in 1968 after first opening its doors in 1963.

It would return to Hutchinson that same year, where it has been since.

The museum’s complex in downtown Hutchinson combines two buildings – the Rosemont building, built in 1913, and the Kline Insurance building, completed in 1918.

Both buildings are rife with historical lore. The Rosemont building, which until the late 1970s was an apartment building, has had its fair share of … instances.

In 1923, a janitor for the building suffered a heart attack and died on site.

In 1945, a resident tried to shoot himself twice in the apartment; he would later die from his wounds in the hospital a month later.

If these weren’t creepy enough, a body was found in the apartment on Nov. 11, 1958.

After the residency “closed” in 1979, it was rumored that vagrants – or people that wander from place to place as beggars – inhabited the Rosemont building.

In 1985, the building was purchased to house the Reno County Museum.

On the other hand, the Kline Insurance building has had a less eerie history since its construction.

The building would house the Great American Life Insurance Company, and in the 1930s would also house KWBW and KWBG radio.

It would be purchased by Kline Insurance in the mid 1960s, then vacated in 1985, making way for it to be incorporated into the Reno County Museum along with the Rosemont building.

The buildings are joined together by a bridge.

Ever since 1986, the building has become a hub for Reno County history buffs, and a place for parents to take their kids with the Museum having a Kansas-themed play area.

It’s also been notable for supernatural activity since that time as well. The museum has plenty of urban legends.

What is an urban legend? Oxford dictionary defines it as a humorous or horrific story or piece of information circulated as though true, especially one purporting to involve someone vaguely related or known to the teller.

An employee in the 1990s reported facing the storage doorway and seeing a demonic face in the window of the door to the storage area.

In the 2000s and 2010s, multiple employees reported seeing a little run through a room called the Blue Room, laughing.

In 2007, an employee reported that they locked up the museum at the end of the day and felt a “shoosing” of air go by her. She described the experience as if “demons of hell” were rushing by her.

In 2010, an employee that was outside in the museum courtyard saw a little girl staring down at her from the curved window above the entrance. No one should have been in the museum at this time.

In 2016, an employee reported that they were alone one night and heard male voices, but saw no one.

An employee in 2017 recalls being alone in his office, when nobody else was in the building. He heard “doors opening and closing on the upper floors.”

The next logical step, you would think, is to ask-

Is the Reno County Museum haunted?

It might be something you have to go and find out for yourself.

Views: 356