Classic Columbus Ghost Stories: At Elevator Brewing Co., a Woman Scorned

If you're grabbing dinner and a beer at Elevator Brewing Co. as the snow begins to fall this winter, you'll want to check outside the back door of the High Street establishment: You just might see some footprints.

Legend has it that during the early 1900s, Col. Randolph Pritchard-known for being a womanizer-was standing near the back of Bott Brothers Buffet & Billiards when a woman swooped in and plunged a dagger into his chest. Pritchard died instantly, says Doreen Uhas-Sauer, education and outreach coordinator for the Columbus Landmarks Foundation.

"They went running out for her and couldn't find her," Uhas-Sauer says. "There were carriage tracks and her footsteps were in the snow, and she was barefoot. Columbus had a pretty healthy prostitution habit. She had been, in essence, the scorned woman."

Folks say that when it snows, the scorned woman's footsteps will appear, but lead to nowhere. And, for a long time, there was a sculpture of her toward the front of the bar, which has since disappeared. "There's a moral to the story," Uhas-Sauer says. "You don't scorn a woman."