Wendy Rose Gould

Wander into Indianapolis’s coffee house and you might get more than a cup of joe. In addition to being one of the city’s favorite cafes, it’s also the most haunted.

“Several customers, employees and visitors have reported the presence of a ghost in the back rooms of Lazy Daze,” explains Alan E. Hunter, paranormal expert and author of “Irvington Haunts.” “Apparently, this ghost likes to haunt the single restroom in the rear of the establishment.”

The homey coffee shop lies on the East side of Indianapolis in a quaint district called Irvington, which is well known for its haunted buildings, homes and streets. “Haunted Irvington” walking tours take participants past the homes of Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon and murderer D.C. Stephenson and past a restaurant reportedly haunted by gangster John Dillinger.

The coffee shop is nestled inside of The Irving Theate, a building established in 1913. Though it no longer operates as a theater, the patrons, baristas and owner of Lazy Daze (and those who live in the above apartments) have plenty ghostly tales to tell, including the apparition’s affinity for chess.
According to Hunter, the Lazy Daze ghost has the ability to sound like a man or a woman and often whispers the question, “What are you doing?” Owner Jeff Coppinger has had many strange experiences in the front of the shop as well.

“One morning I was opening up the coffee house, getting the place ready and straightened up for business,” Coppinger tells Asylum. “I put the chess pieces on to the playing table and then went to the back room for a little bit. I came back to the front office and noticed that all the chess pieces had moved.”

Visit the coffee shop today and you’ll find that those pieces are no longer sitting out.

“I keep them put up now,” said Coppinger. “If anyone wants to play with them, they can ask.”

Despite the ghostly spirits, Lazy Daze has regularly been voted the best coffee house in the city since its establishment in 2003. Besides, “Lazy Daze ghosts are friendly and are not known to purposefully frighten anyone who visits or works there,” insists Hunter.

This was taken from asylum.com and is copyright by the articles owner

Fire Lt. Kevin Linhart stands in a hallway Friday near where a ghost reportedly was seen at Frankfort Fire Protection District Station 3 in Green Garden Township.

In the vast open spaces of rural Green Garden Township, the wind whips wickedly and the nights are eerily dark. The only structures on this empty stretch of LaGrange Road are the Frankfort Fire Protection District’s station and training facility and Fawn Landscaping across the road.

So what would bring a television crew out here in the middle of the night? Ghostly apparitions, shadowy figures and things that sing or go bump — in the night. Many believe the fire station – a former lawn implement shop – is haunted.

Firefighters aren’t the sort to be easily alarmed, but they admit there have been many unexplainable effects, events, even comings and goings. Some are more amused than alarmed, but most now are believers that there is “something going on” out there at Station 3.

The station will be featured on A&E’s new “Paranormal Cops” show, to air at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday and 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Lt. Todd Hamm worked at this station a long time.

“I used to see things going in and out of the ambulance – shadowy things,” he said.

One night, a couple of years ago, there was a dark-clothed, blackish figure that walked right in front of him while he was watching TV alone at night after everyone else had gone to bed.

“I was taken aback. I was going to yell, but I didn’t want to wake anyone up,” Hamm said.

There were other “things,” too, that he tried to put out of his mind, such as footsteps upstairs in the attic.

“Yeah, there’s some stuff out there. We just try to co-exist with whatever is going on,” he said.

Sightings by firefighters over the past year or so include a tall blue shadow in the hallway, an angry cowboy and several silhouettes and shadowy figures going by doors or windows and standing over their beds at night.

According to Assistant Fire Chief Bob Wilson, the Will County Ghost Hunters Society was called in several months ago. Its investigation claimed that the ambulance was haunted and that there is an angry cowboy out there, among other spirits. When A&E called, Wilson initially thought it was a “joke.”

Firefighter George Schwass never believed the stories until he saw the blue, shadowy apparition in the hallway one night. He thought it was his lieutenant, the only other person on duty that night, but he later learned the lieutenant was not walking the halls at 3 a.m.

“It’s a pole barn. With a little bit of wind, it creaks,” firefighter Joe Odette said, as if he could dismiss these paranormal events. “It’s on everyone’s mind. I never used to believe this stuff.”

But he’s heard so many tales. And then one night he was leaving on an ambulance call, and as his colleague turned back to close the huge overhead door, it suddenly closed – by itself.

“I think there’s something here – I just don’t see it,” he said.

Firefighter Tom Warszalek said he welcomes and believes in spiritual activity but, sadly, never has witnessed it.

“I would love to see it,” he said. “I like ghosts. I don’t want them to be mad at us. I don’t want to be freaked out.”

He also believes some things are more plausible than “floating ghosts.”

Like the doors that Mike Illarde heard opening and closing when no one was there or the radio that mysteriously went off and sent a signal to the dispatch center.

“I don’t know if this place is haunted. It could be. Anything is possible,” Warszalek said.

Firefighters have been told these are not evil spirits, said Wilson, who always has heard the guys talking but never has seen an occurrence for himself.

“They’re freaking me out. I’m not saying I believe it or not. One way or another, let’s prove it, right or wrong. You never know,” he said.

Will A&E’s show provide such proof? The show’s investigators and film crew did not share much of what – if anything – they discovered at the fire station. Hopefully there will be no emergency calls Tuesday night so firefighters can tune in.

Will it put Frankfort on ghost hunters’ maps or make the firefighters appear foolish?

Most of them seem to be having fun with all this ghostly attention. Lt. Kevin Linhart is excited about the show, even though he’s a bit skeptical.

“I told the (TV people) they were wasting their time,” he said. There could be spirits, he reasoned – after all, unfortunately, people have died in these ambulances and there have been fatal car accidents in the area. And who knows about the life and death of the previous owner?

“I’ve heard they are friendly spirits. I just wish they would do some work around here,” Linhart said.

This was taken from The Herald-News and is copyright by the articles owner

Mists at Stickinghall

Stories of ghostly encounters in Sicklinghall and the surrounding area are still coming in to the Wetherby News.

Since the spooky experience of Warid Miah, the Wetherby restaurateur who saw a man in the road and felt a hand grab him around the neck as he drove out of the village, was reported, current and former residents have been recounting their own stories.

This week, Dorothy Pelter contacted the Wetherby News after reading Denise Nottingham’s account of living at the Clap Gate Inn during the late 1960s and 1970s.

Mrs Pelter said: “We lived opposite the Clap Gate Inn in the late 1970s. Our house used to be a smithy at one time.

“If the pub was 500 years old, the cottage must be. We excavated and put the damp proof course in and they dug all the floors out. We built a large kitchen and lounge and a bedroom above at the end. My daughter Jacqueline slept in an old bedroom that was like a cabin. I believe somebody who was at sea had taken the cottage before us and it was like a bunk bed in there.

“When I woke up one night, there was an old lady’s head with a bonnet on just standing at the foot of the bed. It was the first week we moved in. It was only once and I just forgot it. My husband said, ‘No, you didn’t see that’. But it brought it back when I read the Wetherby News. Miss Nottingham was in the pub when we first moved in, but then a chap called Ted moved in and took over.

“My daughter worked for extra money at Linton Springs and they all said a ghost used to walk the corridors. She thought our house was ever so spooky.”

Mrs Pelter left Sicklinghall in the late 1980s and now lives in Scarcroft, but said she is still interested in hearing other accounts of supernatural experiences in the area.

This article was found on the Phantoms and Monsters web site.

Over the years, theatre staff have reported strange and unexplained disturbances, along with a few sightings of Martha. It’s believed the theatre is haunted because a tombstone bearing the name “Martha” was discovered after the excavation of the King Edward Avenue site’s original building, which once housed Eastern Wesleyan Methodist Church.

Wednesday night, Ottawa firefighters arrived at the theatre and found no evidence of a break-in or fire. The fire alarm is in a backstage staircase where, years ago, Martha’s partially broken tombstone was unearthed.

The plot thickens, as Wednesday’s false fire alarm came 39 years to the day after a devastating blaze

destroyed the original theatre building.

“It sent a shiver up my spine when I heard the news,” said stage manager Jim Hogan.

“We never had a false alarm at the theatre. We had one actual alarm that we triggered ourselves when we overloaded the green room and the heat sensor went off, but we never had a fire alarm go off when nobody was in the building.”

“The (old) theatre burned down on July 1, 1970, before midnight, so it’s such a coincidence,” said John Muggleton, the theatre’s director of marketing and communications, who arrived at the site after receiving a call from the alarm company.

He said a few people were in the building earlier on Canada Day, but the theatre had been closed following a performance Sunday night.

Martha’s identity has long been a mystery to the Ottawa Little Theatre, said Muggleton.

“The story goes that, when it was a church, there was a small theatre group called Under the Stairs Players. They wanted a bigger performance space, so they excavated the walls of the foundation of the church, and when they were knocking out the walls a tombstone came through the earth. The only name on it was Martha.”

The building was a Methodist church from 1873 to 1928, then home to the Ottawa Drama League. It was formed in 1913 and was a forerunner to the Ottawa Little Theatre.

The theatre staged plays in the stone and frame building until 1970, when fire swept through and destroyed it. A fundraising campaign was launched and a new building was erected on the same site.

The cause of the 1970 fire was never determined, said Muggleton.

Hogan has never seen the ghostly Martha, although he’s been inside the theatre when strange things have occurred.

“I was there late one night by myself working the sound cues for a show, I think it was back in 1985,” he said.

He was in the sound and light booth, high up in the ceiling of the hall. The booth is reachable by a corrugated aluminum walkway and anyone coming to the booth could be heard, he said.

“I heard the sound of someone running down the walkway. I first thought someone was trying to scare me, so I called out and nobody answered.”

Hogan looked around, saw no one, and then again heard the sound of footsteps, which whizzed right past him.

“I’m not an easily spooked person, but from that point I left the building, and I didn’t even go back to the booth.”

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It doesn’t look at all haunted. In fact, it looks positively welcoming – and yet, the hotel ghost is well known in these parts.

The reception has plush, comfy sofas decked out in Latin writing and gilded mirrors above the open fireplace. But there is something in the air that says “This place has a history.” An eerie chill breezes past every so often. You get the feeling that Fernie Castle has something to tell.

Manager Neil Blackburn isn’t the least bit perturbed by the fact he works in haunted hotel. But then, he’s used to it – prior to this job he worked at Dryburgh Abbey Hotel, where a Grey Lady was a well-documented visitor. This time, it’s a Green Lady who sometimes crosses his path.

“If there is anything it will stay out of the way,” he says. “I do believe. I just haven’t seen anything as yet…but I know one day I’ll bang into a ghost!”

The castle is in the parish of Monimail and was built in the late 1530s, although its foundations date back even further to at least the 11th century.

“The original castle contained a stone-vaulted keep area, a first floor which contained living and dining areas and The Great Hall, and various other rooms above that,” says Neil, signalling to the stone keep which is now the bar. “The Victorian extension was added later, but when I don’t know.”

There is a similar lack of evidence when it comes to the Lady in Green. No one knows who she was or why she chose Fernie as her haunting ground.

Neil says: “The Lady in Green was reputed to have been fleeing with her lover and was hidden on the third floor.” Why? “Not sure, perhaps her father was storming the castle. She panicked and from three floors up, she fell to her death. Apparently she haunts the West Tower and sometimes appears in guests’ bedrooms with a sad expression.

“The last sighting of the Lady in Green was nearly two years ago, although recent guests have reported ‘feelings’ on the west side of the building – one boy accused his mother of poking him in the back when she wasn’t.

“What I’d really like to do is to start searching previous plans and historical documents and find out the history.”

The History of Fernie Castle

The ancient Castle of Fernie was first recorded in 1353 when it belonged to the Earl of Fife – Duncan the 13th. the family of Fernie held the lands as early as the 15th century – Walter Fernie being dead before1496. In 1527 Andrew Fernie obtained a charter erecting Fernie into a free barony and he conferred the life-rent on his wife, Barbara Logane. Their son succeeded in 1551 and he sold it to William Fernie of Foxtoun 1582.

Sir Michael Balfour of Balfour or Burleigh, died in 1619, leaving an only daughter, Margaret, who married Robert Arnot, younger of Newton. He assumed the name of Balfour, and sat in Parliament as second Lord Balfour of Burleigh.
His youngest daughter married her cousin, the last Arnot of Fernie, and on extinction of that line the property of Wester Fernie fell to Lady Arnot’s eldest brother John who succeeded as third Lord Balfour. His estate was forfeited to the Crown because his second son was concerned in the Rebellion of 1715.

The ancient Castle of Fernie was first recorded in 1353 when it belonged to the Earl of Fife – Duncan the 13th. the family of Fernie held the lands as early as the 15th century – Walter Fernie being dead before1496. In 1527 Andrew Fernie obtained a charter erecting Fernie into a free barony and he conferred the life-rent on his wife, Barbara Logane. Their son succeeded in 1551 and he sold it to William Fernie of Foxtoun 1582.

His eldest son, Arthur Balfour, remained attached to the house of Harrower, and George 1 granted to him and his five brothers the lands and barony of Western Fernie in 1720. Arthur died in 1746 leaving three sons who succeeded to the estate consecutively. John Balfour of Fernie became heir male in 1757 of the Lords Balfour of Burleigh , but he died without issue in 1795. He was succeeded by his only surviving brother, Francis who died in 1818. In 1854 the grandson Major Francis Balfour, claimed the title of Lord Balfour of Burleigh, but the house of Lords on the reveal of attainder 1869, ajudged that dignity to Alexander Hugh Bruce of Kennet, who was the descendant in the female line of Robert, fourth Lord Balfour. The duties of Forester of Falkland and Constable of Cupar were associated with the Barony of Fernie.[ad#news-articles-bottom-ads]

Besides prostitutes, there appears to be a tip-giving entity and a young girl who lived at the old hotel are among those who haunt Miss Molly’s.

In 2008, the Texas Paranormal Advanced Research Team (TEXPART) investigated reports of the haunting. During their investigation, one team member reported having “a couple of hairs” pulled from the back of his head. Another reported feeling his neck being touched. All investigators had some type of physical contact to report.

Witnesses have reported seeing shadows, lights turning on and off with no explanation, cold spots, full-bodied apparitions, and the smell of perfume. Item’s have come up missing only to later reappear and doors left unlocked can’t be opened, as if they are being blocked by an unseen force.

Spirits from an intelligent haunting are able to make their presence known in physical ways, whether it be slamming doors, making strange sounds, or being vocal. If it shows itself, it will look the same as it did in life.

Haunted History of Miss Molly’s

Located in the middle of the Fort Worth Stockyards, Miss Molly’s is the oldest Bed and Breakfast in Fort Worth. Established as a boarding house in 1910 and called the Palace Rooms, it went through the prohibition period being called The Oasis and later as a Bordello in the 1940’s when it was called the Gayatte Hotel. Miss Molly’s is just old enough to have caught a glimpse of the Wild West and all of the time period of America’s speak-easy and bordello days. Its long history as a boarding house has included a vast number of residents. Apparently, some have decided to extend their stay. Perhaps the large amount of antiques and period pieces in the hotel remind them of the bawdy times that they shared there.

The seven themed rooms in the hotel all share stories of paranormal activity, with the Cattlemen’s and Cowboy rooms having some of the more famous sightings of apparitions. Visitations have also occurred in the current owner’s private room’s number eight and nine of a young girl, who is considered a former tenant of the hotel. Most of the sightings have involved the former working girls from the hotel’s days as a bordello.

The phenomena at Miss Molly’s includes full bodied apparitions, unexplained scents, items disappearing and reappearing, toilets flushing on their own, lights turning on and off, cold spots, unlocked doors refusing to open, and a variety of unidentified but entertaining sounds. According to the current owner, Dawn Street-Boyd, one housekeeper quit because she kept finding coins in rooms even though there had been no guests in that room and she had just finished cleaning only to return and find the coins where she had just cleaned.

Miss Molly’s has been visited by a number of paranormal investigation groups and is listed with Texas Christian University’s paranormal activity class, which makes regular visits to record the phenomena. Copies of unusual photos and tape recordings, as well as statements of the investigators and results are kept prominently in the common living area.

The hotel situated above Fort Worth’s Star Café takes visitors up a staircase to another era, period furnishings, furniture, and a number of stories about unexplained happenings provided with first hand accounts by the owner. Miss Molly’s is considered one of the most haunted properties in Fort Worth and one of the most active paranormal sites in Texas.

And while New York is not one of the many cities known for their fabulous ghost tours, you can still find a few good ones. In the West Village, the best way to do a tour is with beer. So I recently took part in a haunted pub tour — orchestrated by a friend of mine in celebration of her 30th birthday.

The group of us met in front of a Starbucks before the sun went down and were greeted by a man in a top, long black cape and a cane. He was a tour guide from Ghosts of New York but he was ready to have a few beers, too. From the moment we shook his hand, he had stories for us about places in the immediate vicinity.

First Stop

The first official stop was in front of one of the city’s most romantic restaurants: One If By Land, Two If By Sea. The restaurant was once the carriage house of infamous Vice President Aaron Burr. According to our guide, Burr still hangs out there along with his daughter (who was lost at sea) and an unidentified man who some believe to be one of Burr’s servants. Burr’s daughter sometimes steals women’s earrings and supposedly once pushed someone down the stairs.

The restaurant is a little too expensive for a group like ours, so we headed to the Barrow Street Ale House right next door. Our guide revealed that he enjoyed Blue Moon and, being in an American history kind of mood, I ordered myself a Yuengling, a beer brewed by the oldest, continually operating brewery in the US.

Second Stop

For our second stop, we had a choice: we could head to Marie’s Crisis and hunt for some ghosts in the piano bar where show tunes are favored or we could go to Jekyll & Hyde for a bit of a kitschy haunted theme. Jekyll & Hyde won the duel. And, yes, it was kitschy but it was also fun. A group of us even opted to take shots from giant (fake) syringes. I chased it with a Brooklyn Lager from Brooklyn Brewery.

Final Stop

Our final stop of the night was White Horse Tavern, a bar famous for its dead clientele. As the story goes, Dylan Thomas loved this bar and he spent many a night here. He used to turn the tables sideways to make it easier for him to write while he sipped his drink. But one night, Thomas entered that bar and before he left, he’d downed 18 shots of whiskey before heading home — and dying.

The legend says that Thomas still haunts the bar but does nothing more than move around the tables after closing. So we headed to the bar and I ordered up a pint of Anchor Steam Beer — which is always good. Eventually we ended up back at the Barrow Street Ale House to round up the night.

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Heritage Farm

The following was taken from the Paranormal News Web-site

Three weeks ago, an Ohio team of paranormal researchers conducted a five-hour investigation at Brunswick’s Heritage Farm on Laurel Road. In addition to the main house, built in 1850, the team also hunted for spirits in the farm’s outbuildings, which include a barn, garage, corn crib, equipment shed, chicken house, milk house and granary.

The team used a variety of devices, including video cameras, digital cameras, audio recorders, K-2 meters, EMF detectors, radiation meters and ghost radios, during the investigation in an effort to capture evidence of anything paranormal. The team has spent the past three weeks analyzing that material and revealed its findings Sunday.

From the second they set foot inside the Heritage Farm house around dusk May 9, three psychic/sensitives and seven investigators representing the Ohio Reaserchers of Banded Spirits could feel that they weren’t alone.

“There’s definitely a lot of emotion going on inside there,” psychic Ashley Peshek said, pointing to the farm house. “It’s mostly calm, cozy feelings, but you can tell there was a lot of hard work that went on here, mixed with quite a bit of worry.”

Because the farm house has since been converted into a museum containing numerous artifacts from several of Brunswick’s founding families, the psychics agreed it was difficult for them to determine whether the presence they were picking up on was attached to the house itself or the objects inside.

“Either way, there’s something still here,” said sensitive Debbie Andres.

It turns out they were right — at least, according to their instruments.

After three weeks of analyzing countless hours of video and voice recordings, along with hundreds of still photographs taken during the nighttime investigation, the O.R.B.S. team has uncovered what they believe is substantial evidence proving that spirits — possibly including those of the city’s forefathers — may still be lingering at the farm.

“Actually, we’re pretty convinced that one of the farm’s original owners is still here,” said O.R.B.S. founder Chris Page, who points to a voice recording captured in the farm’s red barn.

On the audio clip, the spirit first refers to himself as “Dave,” then “David.” After conferring with Amber Dalakas, president of the Brunswick Area Historical Society, investigators believe the spirit is that of David Berdan, who purchased the original 325 acres on which the farm sits in 1818.

“We literally waited all night for that affirmation,” Page said.

Although the group did not find any video evidence to substantiate its claims that Heritage Farm is, indeed, haunted, it did gather dozens of recordings of disembodied voices — approximately 18 of which investigators call “direct responses” to comments made or questions being asked by researchers at the time.

The group also recorded unidentifiable sounds, including those of doors latching and footsteps, in places where people were not present at the time, Page said.

“We really have to be skeptical when it comes to everything we see and hear, which is why we spend so much time going over the evidence,” Page said. “We also got a lot of “yes” and “no” answers all night long, which is super common. But we also got quite a few unique comments, some that came out of thin air, and others that came about as a result of the ghost radios.”

A ghost radio, Page says, allows investigators to speak with ghosts in real time. Like a car radio’s scan button, the ghost radios continually scroll through all radio frequencies, but never stop on any channel. Doing so enables the spirits to communicate using the “white noise.”

Of the voices captured during the investigation, several requested “help,” which Page says is fairly common.

“It’s strange to think that of all the things these spirits could say, they ask for help,” Page said. “It’s a little disturbing sometimes, but at least they’re not telling us to get out.”

Other alleged spirits identified themselves, including one captured by a ghost radio in the basement of the farmhouse who referred to herself as Isabel.

After hearing the spirit’s voice, Peshek asked the spirit who Isabel was. The spirit immediately replied, “A person.”

“Does she live here?” Peshek asked.

“No,” the voice replied.

Among the more eerie conversations captured, one of the most chilling investigators presented was captured in the barn. That audio clip, which was caught with the help of the ghost radio, was the voice of a young child yelling, “Help!”

That sound was followed a few seconds later by “Please!” and then, “For me.”

“We’re not sure what it means or who it was, but it was pretty creepy,” Page said.

One of the more lengthy recordings took place in the upstairs bedroom of the farm house, which now serves as an office for the historical society. There, a two-minute conversation of mostly undistinguishable banter, took place followed by 30 seconds or so of questions between an investigator and one of the spirits.

“Are you afraid?” the investigator asked.

“No,” the voice said.

“How come you won’t talk to us then?” he asked.

“I have to,” the spirit said.

“What’s it like where you are now?” asks the investigator.

“Happy,” the voice says.

Page said that comment is one that reassures him as an investigator.

“It was sort of a weird sounding ‘happy,’ but it was good to know.”

Of the all the sound bites recorded, Page said he was amazed how several came through on the audio recordings without the assistance of a ghost radio.

Although investigators did not hear the spirit voices at the time, they were able to hear them once they reviewed the tapes with computerized software.

“These comments are particularly amazing because it takes a pretty strong spirit to pull energy out of thin air like that,” Page said.

One such clip was caught in the barn, where a investigators had just finished commenting that they hoped to stir up some paranormal activity that evening. Instantly, a whispery, drawn out voice can be heard in the background saying, “Good luck with that.”

“Even spirits can have a sense of humor sometimes,” Page joked.

Page and O.R.B.S. co-founder Karlo Zuzic say that all the evidence adds up to one conclusion — there is paranormal activity on the farm.

“The good news is this is still a very peaceful place,” Zuzic said. “This is very positive energy and these spirits are here to protect something, not to harm anyone.”

Page says he believes whatever spirit energy lingers had an incredibly strong love for the farm or one of the artifacts now preserved as part of the museum during life that it wants to protect it in death.

“I guess they want to stay behind and look out for it,” Page says. “And they’re probably glad to see this house, this land, has become a museum and will forever be preserved.”

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The Kendall Cracker Factory

Kim DeVer, manager of the old cracker factory building, had a lot on her mind after the third floor of the building collapsed – and paranormal activity wasn’t far from her thoughts.

On two occasions in the past year, Brian Lavigne of Alton and the Paranormal Researchers of Southern Illinois team conducted paranormal investigations in the old factory.

The determination that DeVer observed and the preliminary conclusion by the research group is that the building displays strong paranormal activity.

“In early December, my son, Ross DeVer, spent the night in the building,” Kim DeVer said. “He definitely thought there was some paranormal activity going on. When we were hunting, we spent most of our time in the basement and the two top floors. There are still spirits there when there was a Baptist Church present, which was before the cracker factory.”

The Kendall Cracker Factory was built in 1864 with deep arched vault-like recesses, once used as ovens. The factory was built on the site of Alton’s First Baptist Church in 1836 and utilized at least part of the basement foundation of the early church, which burned in 1860.
______________________

This is an earlier account on the history of the factory:

THE CRACKER FACTORY

Located in the heart of the Broadway Antique District is a large old building with a long history in Alton. The site on which the brick warehouse stands has been used for several things and has been owned by some of the leading businessmen from Alton’s past. In 1972, the building was purchased by a man named Sam Thames, a beloved figure in the city who organized the first Alton Antique Association. He became a leading force in bringing new antique businesses to town and also in spreading the word that Alton was “the place to come” for fine antiques.

Born in Many, Louisiana, Sam came to Alton in 1969 after serving five years in the United States Marine Corps. He owned a furniture company for a time before purchasing the Cracker Factory building and he made frequent trips to Demark and England in search of antiques for his shop. He also modeled professionally and became a community leader in the city. His support for historic landmarks gained him membership in the Alton Area Landmarks Association and he became one of those responsible for keeping the Berm Highway from being built through Riverside Park. Sadly, Sam Thames passed away in April 1994 following a lengthy bout with pancreatic cancer.

When I first moved to Alton, one of the locations in the city that I heard of as being haunted was the old Cracker Factory, which Sam had owned for many years. While I could never track down anything concrete about it, I was told that the ghost here was probably Sam himself. “If anyone would be haunting that building,” an acquaintance explained, “it would be Sam, because he loved the place so much.”

As it turns out though, if Sam does remain behind here – he does not walk in this building alone.

In March 1865, the proprietor of what had been known as one of the largest bakeries in St. Louis, Kendall’s Steam Bakery, purchased a plot in Alton at the corner of Easton and Second Streets with the purpose of building a new bakery on the site. The land had previously been occupied by the First Baptist Church, which had been built there in 1832. Rumor had it that the church had once been a station on the Underground Railroad but the legend died after the place was destroyed by fire some time after its construction.

H.N. Kendall, the new owner of the property, was well-known in the St. Louis area and he promised a variety of innovations to the new bakery that had not been seen in Alton before. In 1866, Kendall’s Cracker Factory opened at the site. The three-story building (four including the basement), with its unusual Italianate windows on the Easton Street side, became a destination spot in the community after Kendall launched his bakery. Offering a retail store on the main floor, all of the baking was done in the basement using five large, brick ovens that held metal racks. They were so massive that two men could stand side by side in each with their arms outstretched and still not touch the edges. According to old records, the bakery was capable of producing as many as 125-150 barrels of crackers every day, using 50 or more barrels of flour. Three of the original ovens can still be seen in the basement today and signs of scorching and burns are still visible on some of the surrounding wood beams.

By the turn of the last century though, Kendall’s Cracker Factory was gone and the location was better known as the McPike Building. It was owned by Henry McPike and the building housed a number of businesses, including offices for Dr. G. Taphorn and Curdie, Challcombe & Co., a store owned by Joseph Krug, a saloon owned by John Ehret and others. In February 1904, a fire broke out in the building that caused around $8,000 in damage. The fire began mysteriously in the unoccupied basement beneath Krug’s store, which was strange since there was no open fire of any kind in the place and the building was heated by steam. Whatever the source of the fire, it broke out around 9:00 in the evening and an alarm was immediately sounded. By the time firefighters arrived though, the smoke pouring out of the cellar windows was so thick that they could not get through it. To make matters worse, the doors to several of the businesses were locked and the firemen could not get inside. Eventually, the fire broke through the floor beneath Ehret’s saloon, Krug’s store and the Curdie, Challcombe & Co. office but did little damage above the building’s second floor.

With the source of the fire being in an area that the firefighters could not initially reach, it was difficult to combat. A number of volunteers came to try and help and when Joseph Krug arrived, a large window at the front of his store was shattered so that he could retrieve his record books and several items that could not be replaced. Several men went in to try and save the papers and records in the office of James Smith, the township tax collector. At the time of the fire, the Mutual Protective League was initiating three new candidates in a secret ceremony on the third floor but they managed to make it out through the clouds of smoke that suffocated the stairway. A newspaper report of the fire also mentioned the meeting of the Jolly Bachelors that was taking place in the building as well. They were startled when the fire alarm was sounded to learn that their own building was burning. According to the report “the Bachelors retreated in disorder as if they had been attacked by a lot of leap year girls.”

The fire was under control within a couple of hours and was put out by midnight. No cause for the fire was ever determined and those in the building who were insured soon repaired the damage they suffered and were back in business again.

Between the time of the fire and 1972, when Sam Thames purchased the building, the Cracker Factory went through a number of different owners and always served as retail and antique shops, as well as offices and even a small restaurant for a time. When Sam opened his antique store in the building, he moved into the basement and became known all over the area for his excellent selection and assortment of unusual objects. According to friends, Sam was the first to report the presence of a haunting in the building. It has been said that he frequently spoke of hearing footsteps in his store, especially going up and down the main staircase that led in from Broadway. He never thought much of it though and figured that any “additional occupants” in the building were more than welcome. Some maintain that after Sam passed away, he joined the unseen presences in the building and continues his attachment to the place as the years have gone by.

In the fall of 2002, Julie Rossi and her fiancé, Gary Basden, began looking for a place to open an antique store in Alton. When they had the chance to see the basement of the Cracker Factory, Julie fell in love with the place and knew that she had found a home for their new store, Riverbend Treasures. The basement had been largely unoccupied since Sam Thames had died and so they began the hard work of renovating the space to suit their needs. They spent about two months on the project before finally opening the store in November of that same year.

During the weeks before they opened, Gary had a chance to talk to some of the other occupants of the building and learned that they believed the Cracker Factory was haunted. As a non-believer in ghosts, he listened politely to their stories but never really thought much more about it. The other occupants, who have office space on an upper floor, told Gary that they were often visited by a resident spirit. He did not manifest himself in the phantom footsteps that Sam Thames heard but rather put in appearances as a full-fledged apparition. They described him as having long, dark hair, a straight nose and wearing black pants, a vest and a white shirt with old-fashioned, billowy sleeves. The specter was never threatening but usually just appeared for a few moments and then vanished. On one occasion, he was seen staring at their copy machine as it churned out pages, as though fascinated by the process. And one other thing, they added, was that he had a tendency to whistle.

The stories were mostly forgotten by Gary until one day a short time later when he and Julie were getting the store ready to open. “I was working in one area and Gary was working in another, out of sight,” Julie told me, “and for some reason, I started whistling.”

Gary immediately came out of the back and asked her what that sound had been. When Julie asked him what he was talking about, he asked her if she had been whistling. When she replied that she had been, Julie noticed that Gary looked relieved. “I forgot to tell you,” he told her. “They told me that the ghost upstairs likes to whistle.” Julie still maintains that for someone who said he did not believe in ghosts, that he certainly came out of the back room quickly to see what was going on.

But the strange happenings in the building would soon turn out not to be false alarms. As Julie prepared to open the shop for her first day of business, she carefully double-checked to make sure that the doors were locked before she left the night before. She had brand new “open” signs that had been placed in the windows and as she checked to make sure that the doors were locked, she also made sure that the signs read that she was “closed”. She was looking forward to turning them around the next morning. However, someone beat her to it! When she came in the next morning, both of the signs, on both the front and side doors, had been turned so that they read “open”. No one else had been in the building since Julie had left. The only explanation seemed to be that “someone” in the place was happy that she had opened a new antique store in the basement.

This was the first incident to occur but it would not be the last. One day that first winter, Julie came in one morning and discovered that the thermostat for the furnace had been turned up all of the way. She was sure that she had turned it all of the way down the night before, since heating the space was so expensive, and even if she had not, she would not have turned it up that high. She called Gary to make sure that he had not done it, but he had not been in the shop at all.

As time passed, other small occurrences took place. Items moved about by themselves, footsteps were heard on the staircase (and Julie reported this before she ever found out that Sam Thames had talked about the same thing) and on occasion, she would catch a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye. A couple of different times, she saw fleeting figures that she described as being a man and also a little child in corners of the store.

One evening, one of the ghosts even spoke to her. She was working late one evening and was waiting for some vendors to arrive with some new items for a booth that they have in the store. Gary had left to go pick up some items that they had purchased at an auction and so Julie was left in the building alone. The vendors were running a little late and Julie left both doors open for them when they arrived. As she was working in the side room, she heard the sound of someone whistling. Thinking that the vendors had arrived, she walked out to greet them but there was no one there. “I just assumed that it was my imagination,” she told me, “and not thinking anything of it, I went back to work.”

A few minutes later, she heard a voice call out to her. “Hello, Julie,” it cried. This time, sure that the vendors had actually arrived, she once again walked out into the main room. Once again though, the place was empty. At that, Julie announced out loud that she had had enough of the game and nothing else bothered her the rest of the evening.

For the most part, Julie believes that the ghosts that are in the building are harmless and are notorious pranksters. The changing signs and turning thermostats have been just a couple of their tricks. In addition, they have been known to turn lights on and off, hide things and to change the station on the radios that have been placed around the store. “We have three radios,” Julie explained,” but we keep them all turned to the same jazz station. On some mornings when I have come in, I will find the radios have all been set to some strange station that we would never listen to. I don’t know how this happens but it’s really bizarre.”

Around the time of this writing, Julie bought an old pie safe at an auction and had it displayed in the store. In the bottom racks, she placed three antique pie tins that she was also offering for sale. Inexplicably, when Julie comes into the store in the morning, she will often find the tins to be moved around, switched in position, turned upside-down or outside of the pie safe. There is no explanation for how they could have gotten this way and I have tried to fiddle with the rack myself (trying to get the pie tins to move) but I had no luck with it. Is this an example of Julie’s prankster ghosts at work – or a specter attached to the pie safe itself?

Julie and Sam Thames have not been the only people to experience odd happenings in the basement. Many customers who have come in, including attendees on the History & Hauntings Tours, have claimed weird encounters inside of the old bricks ovens that line one side of the store. These encounters range widely between the smell of something burning (which then vanishes), cold chills, eerie sensations and even feeling as though they have been touched or their clothing pulled on. I never tell anyone what to expect when they go into the building, but rather allow them to look around the place for themselves.

In June 2003, a woman named Barbara Crain came on the tour with her husband and daughter. She and her husband, Charles, were looking around the store and were standing in the center oven when she got a strange feeling. “I mentioned to Charles that I felt sort of uncomfortable there and after we went outside and were standing there for a couple minutes, I realized why I felt so uncomfortable,” she explained to me later. “I am by no means claustrophobic and being inside of small areas has never bothered me in the least. However, when I was in that center oven, I felt as though the walls were closing in on me and that was what was causing that uncomfortable feeling.”

And while Barbara is not alone in her strange experience with the ovens, I am perplexed as to what might be causing this to happen. There is nothing in the history of the bakery, especially in connection to the ovens, that should be causing people to have strange reactions in them – but yet they are. This is just one of the unsolved mysteries of this fascinating historical structure.

Unfortunately, Riverbend Treasures is no longer located in this building but even you do see a business with an “open sign”, be sure to stop in and check the place out. It’s likely that you’ll find some unique items on the shelves and you may even hear a ghost story or two. Many people in Alton are willing to share their stories of hauntings and restless ghosts. The spirits are just a part of doing business here and you just never know when you might get a chance to encounter one of the resident haunts for yourself.

Ross DeVer, a 16-year-old Marquette Catholic student, spent the night in the building with friends. He was walking around filming when a friend heard a creak and a towel was yanked off the rack near them.

“We also walked by doors that were open and five minutes later they would be closed,” he said. “We went to bed about 4 in the morning and woke up at 8 in the morning. I had a hard time getting to sleep. I was afraid I would miss something. I definitely think there are spirits inside the building. On the PRoSI visit, all the walkie-talkies started making noise and we went into the room and they were all still off. That was weird. I went on both hunts.”

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Corornado Theatre

Some say ghosts haunt the Coronado Theater and although many people believe this to be nonsense, the theater is offering us a chance to see for ourselves.

“One of the main places, actually he’s standing up there right now, Mr Van Matre is standing up there at the balcony.” said spirit communicator Mark Dorsett as we walked into the main lobby. We didn’t see anything, but he claimed he could.

Are there some ghosts in town? Dorsett has been to the Coronado many times and every time he’s goes he sees ghosts. Now he’s using his ghost glimpsing gift to offer tours through the historical theater, tours about some things he says he sees.

Dorsett says the Coronado Theater is haunted by three spirits. The first, Willard Van Matre, built the theater and was it’s first owner. Miss Kileen, the second ghost, was the first office manager and has been known on occasion to spray people with her flowery perfume. The final spirit, Louis St. Pierre was the Coronado’s first theater manager.

Stagehands at the theater have reported being tapped on the shoulder when they were working backstage, even though nobody was nearby. Could it have been the perfectionist poltergeist St Pierre?

“We had another person who at the same time someone was having a personal experience they took a picture and there was a bright orb exactly where the person said ‘You got to take a picture right there.’” says Dorsett.

All of the ghosts have their own personalities and hangouts according to Dorsett. He plans to reveal them all on the tour. He even has an explanation as to why these ghosts are still hanging around, including Mr. Van Matre.

“I mean he loves this place. He literally built this theater and when he passed he just couldn’t leave it. This is as close to heaven as he needs.”

Dorsett says Van Matre likes to stand at the door and welcome people to his theater. Dorsett says none of the spirits are malicious so there is no reason to fear them.

Opened in 1927, the Coronado Theatre in Rockford, IL has a long and storied history. Stars such as Bob Hope, Sammy Davis Jr., Liberace and Milton Berle have all performed there, and the theater was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The theater enjoyed a massive restoration project at the turn of the millennium and had its grand re-opening in 2001. In addition to serving as the home of the Rockford Symphony Orchestra, the Coronado Theatre presents Broadway shows, concerts and other entertainment events.

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