Some Swear They Can See a Body in this Abandoned Southern Indiana Apartment Building Being Demolished
The building you're looking at is the Riverview Tower in New Albany, Indiana, right across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky. The abandoned apartment building recently met the wrecking ball. Someone captured a photo of the demolition and shared it on Facebook. Immediately comments began that there was a body or spirit seen in an upper-floor window.
The Riverview Towers were owned by the city's housing authority. The decision to tear it down in 2022 came, WDRB reports, as
Just 26 people are left living in the New Albany Housing Authority's largest building.
The near 50-year-old building has had a slew of problems in recent years including an electrical fire in 2018.
"We've had significant fires here. We've had water damage here. We do have some ground contamination that we're dealing with too," said New Albany Housing Authority Director David Duggins. "It's just time."
The demo job began in October with a photo appearing on the Abandoned and Forgotten Indiana Facebook group. (Note: Due to Facebook's regulations, we can't embed the photo here, jump on over to Facebook to view it.)
Very quickly, comments began appearing as people were noticing something eerie in the photo:
I swear it looks like there's someone looking out of one of the upper floor windows. No, I'm not being silly. I'll have to view it on a larger screen.
Below the bottom left hand side under windows…what is that? Looks like a body flopped over the ledge.
could be a ghost or trapped spirit
I have to agree. Look on the right side, fourth floor down from the top.
Could be. Or could be pareidolia, the effect of making a meaningful image out of something random - like seeing Abe Lincoln in a slice of toast.
The image in question, while it does take on a vaguely familiar form, appears also to be the same brown color seen just to the right which could be insulation or cabinetry.
A real spirit or not, it's a good reminder that old buildings may retain something of the many lives that have passed through them.
New Albany is indeed one of the oldest cities in Indiana and the largest city in the state prior to the Civil War - these are the oldest cities in the nation including its namesake, Albany, New York: