Travel Channel filming haunted Youngstown house

YOUNGSTOWN

A crew from the Travel Channel’s paranormal show “The Dead Files” is in Youngstown filming an episode about a house that may be haunted, city officials say.

The crew arrived a few days ago and will be in the city for about a week filming for the TV show that airs new episodes at 10 p.m. Fridays. The series premiered in September 2011.

Desma Simon, a show producer in Youngstown for this episode, declined Thursday to comment to The Vindicator, saying it is Travel Channel policy not to discuss the show while filming.

The city’s board of control Thursday approved a request from the show to film a segment Saturday outside the former Republic Rubber Co. – later known as Republic Hose Manufacturing Co. – on Albert Street. The business manufactured tires, hoses and other rubber products from 1901 until it closed in 1989. That property is owned by the city, said Anthony Donofrio, deputy law director.

Permission was needed because the property is closed, he said.

“It’s pretty hazardous with a lot of rubble and pits where they had underground tunnels,” Donofrio said.

The episode likely is about a dead former executive at the rubber business who supposedly is haunting a house in the city.

In an email sent to ownership of The Vindicator, Anissa Douglass, a Travel Channel producer, requested the use of 12 of the newspaper’s articles dating back to 1892 for the episode.

Read more of the background in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.