‘Scariest House in America’ may be in Dayton, according to HGTV

This home is Dayton will be featured on an oct. 11, 2024 episode of "Scariest House in America" on HGTV, hosted by comedian Retta. CREDIT: HGTV

This home is Dayton will be featured on an oct. 11, 2024 episode of "Scariest House in America" on HGTV, hosted by comedian Retta. CREDIT: HGTV

A home in the Dayton area that may be haunted will be featured in an episode of “Scariest House in America,” a spinoff of HGTV’s “Ugliest House in America” television show.

The host of the show, Retta, travels to three “scary” Midwest-region homes in the episode. The owners are vying for the chance at a $150,000 makeover by designer Alison Victoria of the HGTV show “Windy City Rehab.”

“It’s between a haunted house with deathly decor, a home full of ghosts with a terrifying basement and a church surrounded by graves,” according to a news release from HGTV.

The Dayton-area home is the church.

“Not sure how I got roped into this,” said Retta. “I don’t do scary. I don’t like to be scared. I don’t like scary movies. Halloween is my least favorite holiday but here we are.”

Regions spotlighted in the four episodes of the show are the “Spooky South,” “Nightmare Northeast” and “Mysterious Midwest.”

Retta tours properties that owners say are “haunted by scary stories and hair-raising sights.”

The private home in the Dayton area that Retta tours is a former Harrison Twp. church in a cemetery owned for 6 years by friends named Jess and Brandon. It was built in 1885 and it sat vacant for many years.

The pair called it “spooky” and is working on repairing the building. The episode shows the building’s basement where Sunday School classes once were conducted.

There is also a kitchen in the basement, but because of it’s scary vibe, Jess built a version of a kitchen upstairs.

In the episode, Retta jokingly says the building has “kill room after kill room.” She called the building the “Highway House the Lord Left.”

“Scariest House in America” is a four-episode series airing Fridays beginning Oct. 4. See more on the former church building and property during the episode that airs at 9 p.m. Oct. 11 on HGTV.

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