Slippery Noodle Inn

The oldest bar in Indiana, established in 1850. Originally called the Tremont House, the building has served as a roadhouse, bordello, Underground Railroad station, and blues venue over its 170+ year history.

The Slippery Noodle Inn at 372 South Meridian Street is Indiana's oldest continuously operating bar in its original building, founded in 1850 as the Tremont House. The building has lived many lives in nearly two centuries: a roadhouse, a German social club known as the Concordia House and later the Germania House, a boarding house, a brothel, and since 1963 under the Yeagy family, one of the premier blues venues in the Midwest with live music seven nights a week. The building served as a stop on the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, with its basement believed to have hidden freedom seekers who would then catch a train north. During Prohibition, the John Dillinger and Al Brady gangs used the back building for target practice, and bullet slugs from their sessions remain embedded in the basement walls to this day -- though whether the targets were always inanimate remains an open question.

During its brothel era, a violent death occurred that planted the seed for the haunting. Two customers fought over one of the women, and one was killed, with the bloody knife left on the bar. This victim is believed to be the shadowy cowboy-like figure that staff and patrons encounter throughout the building. But he is far from alone. The second floor, which housed the brothel, is home to the spirit of the former Madam, who psychic Gary Spivy identified during an investigation when she communicated her identity to his group. Sarah, one of the working girls believed to have been killed by a client, appears as a shadow figure on the upper floor, and the spirits of other former sex workers are said to open and close doors and target male visitors with their presence.

In the basement, a spirit known as George, a former building caretaker, appears to workers in his overalls, sometimes whispering in their ears while they deliver kegs. His appearances are startling enough that some delivery workers have refused to return. An escaped enslaved person is said to occupy a hidden room that was used during Underground Railroad operations, generating cold spots and an eerie, uneasy feeling in that section of the basement. Psychic Gary Spivy reported seeing a spiritual hand protruding from the basement floor during his visit.

The Yeagy family has owned the Slippery Noodle since 1963, and Brian Yeagy began conducting official haunted tours in October 2020, taking groups through the normally closed basement and upstairs hotel areas. The Food Network named it the most haunted restaurant in Indiana. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the original Tremont House signage remains painted on the north exterior, a reminder that even the name on the building cannot keep up with the spirits inside it.