HGB Ep. 595 - Queen Anne Hotel

Moment in Oddity - Smooth Head Blobfish

There are many strange looking creatures that lurk in the depths of our oceans. Some, presumably even yet to be discovered. There is one very peculiar fish that was discovered in 2003 that is found deep in the sea off of the southeastern coast of Australia. It is known as the smooth-head blobfish. Its neighborhood ranges from 2,000 to 3,900 feet deep and its looks are like that saying, 'a face that only a mother could love'. Strangely, it resembles a gelatinous faced old man with a very large nose. The unique creatures do not have a swim bladder and their body density is slightly lower than water which allows them to float above the sea floor. They also do not have a full skeleton which also lends to their blob like appearance, especially when brought to the surface. Its head makes up 40 percent of its body mass. They are usually found around one foot in length and it is said that they can live up to 130 years. Although we enjoy the creepy at History Goes Bump, please only search images for this creature if you dare. You have been warned. We don't know if the smooth-head blobfish would win the ugliest fish in the world title, but it certainly is odd. 

This Month in History - World's Largest Floating Dock (Suggested by: Duey Oxberger)

In the month of July, on the 4th, in 1869, the world's largest floating dry dock began the longest spanse of its voyage from Porto Santo, Portugal to Bermuda. The Royal Navy stationed in Bermuda needed the dry dock for repairing its ships, but Bermuda's bedrock consisted of too much porous sandstone which prevented the building of a dry dock on site.  The structure was built in England and then began its incredible journey to Bermuda. In our modern era, the dry dock resembled a giant half pipe, like a skateboarder's dream, courtesy of Tony Hawk. The method of delivering the giant iron structure was a feat in and of itself. When the dry dock departed Porto Santo it was towed by iron warships HMS Warrior and HMS Black Prince. It was guided by the wooden paddle frigate, HMS Terrible from behind. The U shaped dry dock itself had its own sail hoisted in the middle of the structure to assist in its own propulsion. A portion of the voyage took the structure through The Narrows at Ireland Island where threats of damage by reefs were high. The dry dock was carefully maneuvered by the Terrible with gunboats HMS Vixen and HMS Viper lashed to each quarter of the structure. On July 31st 1869, the largest floating dry dock of the time was secured in its final resting place of its journey. It served the Royal Navy in Bermuda for over three decades before being retired in 1906. 

Queen Anne Hotel

The Queen Anne Hotel in San Francisco has been a fixture of the Pacific Heights neighborhood for more than 100 years. As the name reveals, this is an old Victorian styled house - a big one! Before it was the boutique hotel it is today, it was a school for girls run by headmistress Mary Lake. Mary loved the place and seems to have returned in the afterlife. She is one of the reasons many feel that this is the most haunted hotel in San Francisco. Join us for the history and hauntings of the Queen Anne Hotel. 

The Ohlone People were believed to have arrived in the area somewhere around 500 AD and they were here for thousands of years. They were still there when the Spanish arrived. They faced slavery and death. The Spanish founded San Francisco in 1776 and they named it Yerba Buena, after a plant that was growing in abundance in the area. The common name for this plant is Oregon Tea. Mexico declared independence from Spain in 1821 and that was it for the Spanish. The Ohlone continued to stay in San Francisco after the Spanish left. The city would be renamed San Francisco in 1846, after Saint Francis of Assisi. American settlers started coming out to California and the Gold Rush that ran between 1848 to 1855 caused a boom for San Francisco. And by boom, we mean 800 residents to 50,000. An earthquake and fire in 1906 hit the city hard, killing 3,000 people and destroying 80% of the city. The city rebuilt and is today one of the most populous cities in California. The World Fair in 1915 showcased the city's progress and prosperity. The Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937. Beatniks came and the counterculture made San Francisco its capitol. Today, the city is successful in business and has several haunted locations, with Alcatraz probably being the most popular and haunted, but the Queen Anne Hotel is said to be the most haunted hotel in the city. 

The hotel started out as a girls’ boarding school and was built in 1890. The money for the endeavor came from Senator James G. Fair. This man has been described as "one of the great villains of Wild West Lore." To give the listeners an idea of how people felt about this guy, everyone called him "Slippery Jim." Fair had been born in Ireland in 1831 and emigrated to America in 1843, landing in Illinois. When the Gold Rush began, he headed for Nevada - to another haunted city we have covered in the past, Virginia City. There he found success working as a mine superintendent and eventually, in 1869, was running the Bonanza Firm at the Comstock Lode silver rush. The Bonanza Firm was a partnership Fair started with three other men and they hit a massive silver vein they dubbed the "Big Bonanza." The men themselves were called the Bonanza Kings and this strike made them incredibly rich. They used some of their profits to found the Bank of Nevada in San Francisco. Fair himself branched out into the railroad and established the South Pacific Coast Railroad in 1876. This railway committed to laying down track from Newark, California through San Francisco Bay  to the Santa Cruz Mountains. Fair would move to San Francisco in 1887 after he served in the US Senate from 1881 to 1887. He died in 1894.

So the listeners are probably asking, what caused this guy to have such a bad reputation? Well, like many politicians, he used his vast wealth of $50 million to get himself a seat in the Senate. Early in his mining career, in 1857, Fair was sued along with two other men for infringing on another mining company's claim. What Fair and his buddies had done was to get a shareholder of the other company to claim he was working as an agent of a young black woman and he sold the land to Fair's group as a double deal. They used this woman because blacks couldn't testify in court. The group still lost and had to give up the claim, but they only had to pay the court costs and then give the plaintiffs $1 out of the $100,000 they were seeking. But it revealed that Fair was willing to do things in an underhanded way. He was absolutely ruthless and disliked by most people. 

His nickname of "Slippery Jim" was inspired by his bad credit and came about in 1861 when he was at Angels Mining Camp. He was often heavily in debt at the camp and suppliers would check with his bank before extending him credit. His growing list of unpaid bills had them calling him slippery. Another story about him goes back to his management days in the mines. A group of miners were taking a break and he walked up to them and asked for a light. There was no smoking allowed underground, but since this was their supervisor, the miners assumed that it was okay with him if they smoked. After all, he WAS smoking. So they enjoyed a smoke break with him. Later in the day, they were all handed dismissals for breaking the rules, signed by Fair himself. Not only did Fair treat his employees poorly, he was an absolute rat to his wife, Theresa Rooney.

The couple had met before Fair had made his money and he was just a young miner. She was the daughter of Carson Hill boarding house owners Thomas and Alice Rooney. Fair married Theresa in 1861. He was described as “devilishly charming” and his charm went out to more than just Theresa. He was a notorious womanizer and this got worse when he was in D.C. serving as a Senator. Theresa had had enough at that point and filed for divorce from San Francisco in 1883. And this erupted into a nationwide scandal. The papers carried all the treacherous details. Theresa’s attorney tracked down two women who claimed to have affairs with Fair, a San Francisco brothel owner and a lady of the evening. She won the largest divorce settlement in the country's history at that time. She was awarded $4.25 million, the mansion on Pine and Jones and custody of their three young children.

It was after the divorce that Fair seems to have taken up with a woman named Mary Lake, who would be the headmistress for the boarding school that becomes the Queen Anne Hotel. So now the listeners understand how this man came to finance the all-girls school. Mary was born in Little Falls, N.Y., in 1849 to Helen and Delos Lake. The family decided to move across the country to San Francisco when Mary was still a toddler. Delos opened up a law practice and became very wealthy, building a mansion and sending Mary to the best schools. She focused on teaching and her early career focused on grammar schools in the city. Eventually, Mary desired to open her own place, so in 1889, she started the Lake Seminary and while this was a really nice private boarding school for girls, she wanted something more lavish. Enter James Fair and the construction of a gorgeous Queen Anne styled building at the corner of Sutter and Octavia in 1890. The building had 31 private bedrooms, a dining room and library. The exterior featured large bay windows and elaborate ornamentation. And the paint style that it still has today was described as the painted lady style. Around 100 girls attended the school.

Now remember how Fair’s divorce made all the newspapers? Well, this little affair was the talk of the town as well. The San Francisco Chronicle ran the headline “CUPID AND MR. FAIR” on October 30, 1891. The article revealed, “The pupils in Miss Lake’s establishment at 1534 Sutter Street have whispered it back and forth and giggled, smiled, simpered and laughed outright for a fortnight. What made it all the more interesting was the story that Miss Lake had been absent from her school for a time and that Mr. Fair had not been seen on Montgomery Street in eight days.” Fair and Lake both denied the rumors and Mary claimed that her enemies had made up these lies to drag her name through the mud. She said that she had only seen the Senator a handful of times. When the rumors went further and claimed that the two had secretly married, Fair went on to point out that Lake was a woman of great esteem, but that she certainly wasn’t his wife. And maybe rumors of a love affair were just that, but one has to wonder why former Senator Fair would want to finance a boarding school for a few rich girls. Some claim that maybe Fair was friends with Delos Lake who was now a judge and so he did it as a favor to him. And some records show that Lake paid rent to Fair at $400 a month.

For six years, the school ran successfully, but the Panic of 1896 swept across the nation after silver reserves dropped in value and the economic downturn shuttered the school. Everything had to go, so Mary sold everything with a heavy heart. The ten pianos that had filled the home with music were the toughest to let go. The whole affair broke her heart and perhaps that is why she died eight years later at the age of 55. She literally died on her 55th birthday, while living at her half-sister’s house in Montclair, New Jersey. After her death, the local paper wrote, “She was possessed of a keen wit and a warm, magnetic personality which endeared her to the hearts of all who had the good fortune to know her intimately. Though her pupils during all the years of her teaching were counted by the hundreds, she never forgot one.” It continued with talk of the library at the school, “Mary’s school library [was} different. There [were] all the usual, high-brow classics from Hawthorne, Moliere and Bulwer-Lytton. And, mixed in, romance novels from Jane Austen, tales of growing up from Louisa May Alcott and the many adventures of Alice in Wonderland. For who has not loved to linger in fairylands and wonderful Aladdin scenes, and wander in the realms of fancy? And Miss Lake thoroughly believes in the cultivation of the imagination of children.”

James Fair, as we said, had already passed two years before the Panic, but the building remained in the Fair estate, so whoever was in charge of the estate at the time decided to rent the place and the first taker was the Cosmos Club, which was a men’s club for the rich and powerful in San Francisco. This was formed in 1881 and incorporated in 1883 and had 215 members. Some claim that this was a secret society of sorts, but it certainly was one of the “Old Money” clubs. A Medium article says of the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C., “Members [had to have] made noteworthy contributions to the arts, sciences, or public service, thereby fostering a community of intellectual discourse and enlightenment.” Decorum and discretion were expected and there were initiation ceremonies passed down through the generations. It’s a bunch of rich men who can do whatever they want and swear each other to secrecy, so one can only imagine how very different this was from the young girls who had inhabited it before.

The house fell into disrepair as it changed hands until it was purchased by the Queen Anne Hotel Company and renovated and reopened as the Queen Anne Hotel in the 1980s. The hotel features a variety of room styles, event space and runs more like a bed and breakfast with a complimentary deluxe continental breakfast. The lobby is like a time capsule. One really feels as though they have stepped back into the Victorian era with this large sitting room filled with antique furniture, sparkling chandeliers, floor-to-ceiling formal drapes, a piano and a fireplace. Afternoons feature tea and sherry in the Parlor and Library. The Parlor Room also has a painting of Lillie Hitchcock Coit, who was a prominent San Francisco socialite in the day. She had been fascinated with firefighters from a young age and became a patron of the volunteer firefighters of the city. Coit also was a benefactor of the Coit Tower, which is a well known structure that she built to beautify the city. Some of the rooms feature canopy beds and all rooms have period pieces along with contemporary amenities.

It truly is amazing that this beautiful building has not only weathered time, but also the earthquake and fire. Could it be that it was protected by someone unseen? Mary Lake loved the school. This had been her dream. She died in 1904 and people claim her spirit returned to the building, so she quite possibly was here when the tragedies struck San Francisco. Claims are that she haunts Room 410 the most, but there are enough stories about the entire hotel that one can imagine that she wanders around and there seems to be residual energy from the girls left behind. EVPs have captured the giggling of little girls. People claim to feel cold spots in the hallways. Strange reflections show up in the mirrors in the hotel. Staff and guests have seen the full-bodied apparition of Mary dressed in period clothing. Others describe the appearance of a mist. Bags seem to unpack themselves at time and Mary is credited with that. Room 410 is said to be the most haunted room in the hotel. The hauntings are referred to as “friendly.” A guest staying in Room 410 awoke one morning and was stunned to find himself on the floor with his bedding neatly tucked around him.

People also claim that the spirit of the Voodoo Queen of San Francisco, Mary Ellen Pleasant, might be here as well because she once lived across the street. Pleasant was probably the most powerful black woman during the Gold Rush in San Francisco. She had inherited a large sum of money from her first husband after he died and set off from New England to California in 1852. We should mention that her husband was abusive and he just may have been poisoned and before Pleasant arrived in New England, she had been in New Orleans where she learned voodoo from Marie Laveau. Mary Ellen invested her money in services for the miners after she got to San Francisco, like laundries and boardinghouses. Pleasant donated a lot of her money to the black community, from churches to the black press. She took a case all the way to the Supreme Court when she was denied service by a street car and won. Pleasant was an ardent abolitionist and her headstone states “A friend of John Brown.”  She built a mansion with her business partner Thomas Bell and lived there with him and his wife and children, acting the part of domestic servant even though she partially owned the place. The mansion was dubbed the House of Mystery and rumors claimed there were tunnels running beneath it. She eventually lost much of her wealth, which was somewhere over $1 million, and was said to wander around outside the former Bell Mansion until her death. 

The former home site now hosts the Landmark Apartments and Healing Arts Center. Before that, this was the Greens’ Eye Hospital that was founded by brothers, Drs. Aaron S. and Lewis D. Green. They had emigrated to San Francisco from Latvia to intern with Stanford Hospitals in 1906. They were inventors of various corneal treatments and pioneers in eye surgery. They built the two-story hospital in 1928. There are claims that there are hauntings here. Possibly from the hospital, but also maybe from Pleasant’s time here. People claim her spirit wanders around the Queen Anne Hotel and the nearby eucalyptus trees that she planted. The San Francisco News ran this story on October 14, 1935 about Pleasant, whom people called Mammy, "For 25 years during the past [nineteenth] century she tyrannized the somber and inscrutable Bell mansion, with its fringe of eucalyptus, at 1661 Octavia-st. What old-timer does not remember the lean, erect, shrewd-eyed Negress with her old black straw bonnet, gold hoop earrings, spotless kerchief fastened with a winking moss-agate brooch, moving among the stalls of the old Sutter-st market? Mammy, who was reputed the wickedest woman in San Francisco, who figured in every important lawsuit for nearly half a century, but who lied so cunningly that the most astute lawyer never tripped her. Mary Ellen Pleasant had an uncanny way of chancing upon gossipers and professed to the skeletons in the closets of every high-ranking family in the city. Folks took care not to snub her. You never knew when she would find out something about you. The history of Mammy Pleasant and her hold on Thomas and Teresa Bell will perhaps always be shrouded in secrecy. For although she had been offered $50,000 tell what she knew after the death of Mr. Bell and her grim rift with Teresa Bell over a property settlement in 1899, loyalty was one of Mammy’s virtues. People said she was a blackmailer, a procuress, a thief, a horsewhipper of children—who was also capable of generosity and infinite gentleness—and that she had been a New Orleans slave whose master had freed her for “certain reasons.” She had hypnotic powers over women and brewed love philters which she sold to wealthy damsels. Among the latter was Sarah Althea Hill. She helped Sarah Althea bury Senator Sharon’s coat and waistcoat in a cemetery one dark night—assuring Sarah Althea that this procedure would revive the sulking senator’s dead love for her. It was common legend that Mammy was in league with Blind Bill, the Bell butler. When Thomas Bell died from a fall over the banisters of his own house and his son Fred was the victim of a mysterious assault in the house, tongues clacked unrestrainedly. Before he died, Tom S. Burns, who was Teresa Bell’s old notary public, swore he knew Mammy had killed Thomas Bell by giving him drugged port wine and pushing him over the banister. Little wonder when mammy died in 1904 at the age of 89, and Teresa Bell sold the “House of Mystery,” which subsequently became a select boarding house, that folks labeled the place haunted." 

Back to the Queen Anne Hotel, a group of three paranormal investigators stayed overnight in Room 307 and since one of the haunting experiences is said to be having your bags unpacked for you, they left a backpack full of equipment and other things on the bed, along with a REM Pod on the bed and they left the room. They had also set up one of their cell phones to pick up any activity on video and when they came back, the backpack hadn't been touched, but the video revealed the REM Pod going off. As they watched the video, the REM Pod went off again and it lasted for probably 30 seconds. A fan in the room also turned on by itself. They left again with the REM Pod on the bed and video captured it going off several times on its own. They got out an EMF detector and it started going off and then they heard a knock coming from a desk in the room. So they didn't get anything crazy and nothing with any valuable communication, but there definitely seemed to be something messing with the equipment. 

Sam and Colby stayed in Room 410 around three years ago. Two girls joined them named Katrina and Stas (stahz). Before they went to the hotel, they stopped at a museum for about 30 minutes and left all of their bags and stuff in a car on the street. In San Francisco. This was a hatch back. You listeners can imagine what happened. So, the boys had to make this video with a very basic camera and no equipment because it was all taken. But we like old school anyway. At one point in the night, Katrina's back was touched and maybe this was because the head mistress was trying to get her to stand up straight - posture you know!

The FootTracker Blog participated in an investigation in 2011 and wrote, "As we are in room 410, perhaps the large crowd was too much for Miss Mary Lake, we did not see a full body apparition. However, as we stayed in the room longer, we noticed the chair at the end of the bed has a crease on it (and was getting more apparent), just like someone is sitting on it….hmmm." They also felt a cold spot in that area as well.
djsreddit wrote on reddit in 2015, " My mom has always been into the supernatural and she sparked that interest in me as well. We saw the Queen Anne hotel on tv as being a haunted place that people have experienced encounters with something. We lived nearby, about an hour away, at the time so we called and booked the room of the deceased women that reaches out to people who stay there. Fast-forward to that night, we toured the surrounding neighborhood and grabbed dinner. Finally we get back to the room, i set the cameras up to record as we sleep to try and catch any activity. Once they're prepped i went to shower while my mom watched tv. I finished my shower and went and laid on the bed to watch some tv. I had my arm hanging off the edge of the bed while laying there talking to my mom when out of nowhere i had the feeling I've read others describe as the warmth being sucked from your body. I immediately pulled back from the cold and tried to feel the area my arm was again and it immediately cooled my arm again. At this point i started to speak to tell my mom, but it was so surreal that i didn't know what to say so i tried sit up off the side of the bed. It was at this point that i felt something push on the center of my chest that was so cold that i could define what was firmly pushing me back onto the bed as a hand. I burst into tears, not sobbing, but water was pouring from my eyes out of fear. My mom was frantically asking me what was wrong because all she could see was me laying down quickly. I tried to calm myself enough to tell her what was going on, but before i could explain, the hand removed the pressure from my chest and it was as if nothing had happened. The freezing cold area where my arm was hanging had disappeared. I calmed down and explained everything to my mom. She said that we should just leave and i said no. I was dead set on getting video after we fell asleep. Why? Because this wasn't my first experience and i really just wanted something i could show others around me to try and give some type of proof. I had to set alarms because at the time the tapes were only able to record 2-3 hours at a time and needed to be changed. Our initial experiment was to just push the blankets on the floor and go to bed. We did this because there are multiple accounts of people not only seeing an entity, but that they wake up with the blankets covering people up to their neck when they went to bed without the blanket covering them. I woke up around 3am to my alarm. First issue is that i set an alarm for every two hours. We went to bed at 10pm and my alarms were loud ringtones. Nothing that i could've slept through. The second thing i noticed is that the blanket that we pushed off the bed was now covering my mom and I all the way to our necks. The blanket was smoothly covering us as if someone had pulled it out of the dryer and shook it out and set it perfectly on top of us. I woke my mom to tell her, but she was completely out. She would wake up, but then fall right back to sleep. I got up to change the tape and then went back to bed. When we woke up the next day everything felt normal. Nothing was out of place minus the blanket and nothing followed us after we left, but there were more than a few photos that show what could be orbs floating nearby me in the room. I didn't catch anything on video, but i also slept through my alarms so who know what was going on around us that night." 

Susie Milwaukee wrote on TripAdvisor in 2017, "My family actually stayed in a lovely corner room with a turret. We were impressed the hotel survived the San Francisco earthquake and fires. We knew nothing of the hotel supposedly being haunted. I half awoke one night to experience a feeling like someone was tucking me in and gently pushing on my collarbone. I thought it was a strangely comforting feeling. The next day, we found out the hotel was supposedly haunted by the former headmistress, Mary - who ran a boarding school for girls. We were told she likes to tuck people in at night! I was shocked and a little freaked out by what I’d experienced the night before. It wasn’t a scary experience, it was comforting. I believe it was Mary."

The Queen Anne Hotel is a gorgeous example of its namesake and the fact that it embraces that historic Victorian charm on the interior makes it that much better. One can see the love and effort that Mary Lake took to make this place a home for young girls. This place gave her a lot of pride and losing it was devastating. It wouldn’t be surprising that her spirit would want to return. The question is, did her spirit come back here and does she haunt the hotel? That is for you to decide! 

HGB Ep. 594 - Haunted Tulsa

Moment in Oddity - Queen Victoria Burial Requests

We love the Victorian era so, of course, we gotta love the Queen for who it was named, Queen Victoria. Something that we really love about her is how much effort she put into her funeral and burial. This was a woman with a plan. A twelve page plan! First, she had a list of things she wanted to accompany her in the coffin. These items included: 
A plaster cast of Prince Albert's hand. The Queen had actually slept with this every night after his death in 1861.
A photograph of John Brown.
A cape made by her daughter Alice for Prince Albert.
Her wedding veil and rings.
As much jewelry as could be placed on her, including rings on every finger and bracelets on her wrists.
A bouquet of Scottish heather.
Albert's dressing gown.
Casts of her children's hands.
A lock of John Brown's hair and his mother's wedding ring. These were controversial items that the family didn't know about because they were probably part of a secret list given to her doctor and dresser. The doctor took pains to hide the fact that the ring was on her wedding finger. Did this indicate that she had married John Brown?
Queen Victoria requested that she not lie in state. She didn't want any black. Nobody should wear any black and she wanted a white pall on her coffin. The Queen was a soldier's daughter, so she wanted a military funeral. She was buried wearing a white satin dress and her wedding veil. Her death left the world and her country in a bit of shock even though she was 81 at the time, but for us the real shock is just how meticulous and planned she was in regards to her burial and her requests were certainly odd.  

This Month in History - Tour de France Begins

In the month of July, on the 1st, in 1903, the first Tour de France started. The Tour de France is a bicycle race that runs through multiple stages over multiple weeks in the country of France. Every year features a different route, but the typical modern day route runs over 2200 miles and goes through 21 stages over three weeks. The first race ran through six stages that were very long, typically 250 miles each. Today's stages are a little over 100 miles. There were one to three rest days between each stage and the route was relatively flat. Cyclists raced solo, so there were no teams like the modern race. The leader after a stage was run would wear a green armband, rather than today's yellow shirt. Cyclists got paid at the end of each stage if they were one of the fastest eight cyclists of the stage. If a cyclist gave up before finishing a stage, he could still ride in a stage the next day. This 1903 race had 60 cyclists and only 21 would complete all six stages. Maurice Garin was the winner, sealing the greatest margin of victory that there would ever be in the Tour de France. He won by 2 hours 59 minutes 31 seconds. He won 6,075 francs and used that to buy a gas station where worked for the rest of his life. 

Haunted Tulsa 

Tulsa is a thriving city with a diverse cultural and arts scene, but it wasn't always that way. The city suffered through the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. The area was settled by the Creek Nation after they were removed from their ancestral homes in Alabama and Georgia and Tulsa eventually became an oil boomtown. The history here has led to hauntings in many locations and we are joined by Teri French of Tulsa Spirit Tours to explore the history and hauntings of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Teri French is the owner and operator of Tulsa Spirit Tours, which has been hosting tours in Tulsa, Oklahoma for 22 years. This was the first of its kind in Oklahoma. Teri also founded the Paranormal Investigation Team of Tulsa, P.I.T.T., in 1999 and she has written the books "Tulsa's Haunted Memories," "100 Things To Do in Tulsa Before Your Die" and "100 Things To Do in Oklahoma Before You Die." She joins us on this episode. 

Kelly: Tulsa is often referred to as "Green Country." Why is that? 

As most people know, Oklahoma became the final stop for many Native American tribes after the Indian Removal Act was passed in 1830. What would eventually become Tulsa was settled by the Five Civilized tribes:  Choctaw, Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Chickasaw, and Seminole. The Turtle Clan of the Creek specifically founded Tulsa , calling it Tulasi in their native tongue meaning "old town." Tallahassee also gets its name from this word. There is a Washington Irving Park here because the writer visited in 1832. The first non Native home built here was a log cabin by Lewis Perryman in 1846. He and other settlers called the place Tulsey Town. Railroads and the oil boom would build Tulsa into the town it is today. Despite its success, Tulsa had a dark side. Teri shares with us a bit about the founders of Tulsa and the degradation of race relations that blew up into the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

Kelly: Teri, can you share a little about the history of Tulsa? 

Tulsa Theater

This theater started as Convention Hall and was built by the city of Tulsa between 1912 and 1914 at a cost of $125,000. The theater was designed by architects Rose and Peterson out of Kansas City. This was the largest hall between Kansas City and Houston, Texas at the time. Opera performances were popular here with the most celebrated in October 1916 being Georges Bizet's (zhorzh buh zay) Carmen starring Mary Garden. The building remained Convention Hall until 1952 when it became Tulsa Municipal Theater. In 1979, the theater changed its name to Brady Theater and ran as that until 2019. Today, it is known as Tulsa Theater. One of the well known performers here has a legend and haunting connected to him, Italian opera singer Enrico Caruso. He performed there in 1920 and reportedly caught the cold that led to his death of pleurisy in 1921. Teri French told 2 News Oklahoma, "He wanted to see the oil wells and how they made them. And as they came back, it was raining. It was cold, miserable, and the car broke down. He had a great performance, according to history. It was one of his best. Standing ovations and the whole nine yards." Many blame Tulsa for his death and believe his spirit returned to the theater to haunt it. Another reason for hauntings here is that victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre were brought inside the theater. 

Tulsa Little Theater

This theater was built in 1932. There were fires in 1965 and 1966. The theater was renovated in 2004 and this seems to have sparked paranormal activity. The Law Office of Bryce A. Hill bought the Tulsa Little Theatre, and renovated it, while keeping everything as original as possible to the point of when it was built in 1932 and is now using the Front building as their Law Office’s. They called Teri French to come in and investigate. Some of that weird stuff included disembodied footsteps going across the ceiling. Sandbags in the main stage area will sway back and forth and since they are heavy, that definitely doesn't seem to be something that could happen without some amount of force. PITT hosted an event there in 2005.

Cain's Ballroom

French has said, "I think it was in the 40s and 50s when it was considered a rowdy roadhouse. It was actually in the Tulsa World that some of the toughest gang fights occurred right outside the Cain’s Ballroom door." That may be why this location is haunted. 

The Cave House

Kelly: The Cave House is one of the strangest pieces of architecture we have ever seen. This started out as a simple chicken restaurant in the 1920s, but there was something else going on there too. Can you tell us about this? 

Gilcrease House

The Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art is also known as Gilcrease Museum and houses a wide variety of historical items and art. The building was made from sandstone. It is said to be the most haunted location in Tulsa. French said of this location, "Cameras would fail. Cell phones would shut off or wouldn’t work. It was just weird. We never turned the bus off because we were afraid, at one point, we wouldn’t be able to get it started...So, a couple of years back, they installed a bunch of new security cameras and they kept going off in the south bedroom one evening. Tulsa police were called, and they came out with trained police dogs where they tried to go up the stairs. The dogs absolutely refused to go up. They started whimpering and wouldn’t budge. They ran out of the house. And when the police went up there by themselves, not a living soul was there." The spirit here is thought to be Thomas Gilcrease and he doesn't seem to like visitors. 

The Hex House

Who doesn't love a haunted attraction that is inspired by an actual true story, particularly one that is thought to be one of the best in the country? This might be the case with the Hex House. The original Hex House was located at 10 East 21st Street and was owned by Carolann Smith. This location is a parking lot now that has been for sale for a long time. It doesn’t seem like anyone wants to buy it. Rumors claim that the basement still exists under the parking lot. The attraction is housed in a store front at Town West Shopping Center at 5610 W. Skelly Drive. The story was related by Gene Curtis in "The Tulsa World" in 2007, "A 1944 investigation by police revealed a small casket buried in the backyard of a Tulsa house and two young women who had been under hypnotic or occult control for seven years.

The probe was nicknamed the "Hex House" case because police and reporters thought it had all the spooky elements of a Halloween story -- bondage, spell-casting, mesmerism, hypnotism. But this case was real, not a Halloween tale, and led to a short prison term for Carolann Smith, 45, and freedom for the two young women, Nell Willetta Horner, 30, and Virginia Evans, 31, who had been forced to live in an unheated basement of the house at 10 E. 21st St. and to turn over their paychecks to Smith. The young women told authorities they had been led to believe they would receive a great reward in heaven, called the "big payoff," for serving Smith, who apparently had devised a religion of her own. Horner told police that Smith had starved and beat her under the guise of religious purification." The investigation was touched off when Smith obtained eight World War II ration books for herself, the two young women, several fictitious names and for a daughter, Bonnie, that actually was her dog, BonBon. Neighborhood children told Alice Allen, a teacher at Lee Elementary School, where ration books were issued, that there was no Bonnie but that Smith had a dog named BonBon. They also knew that Smith and the two young women had buried a casket in the backyard in the middle of the night. When police investigated, they discovered Horner and Evans living either in the basement or in the servant's quarters and sleeping on orange crates without blankets while Smith lived in luxury. They found 45 pairs of expensive women's shoes, many of them unworn, silverware and glassware, clothing, jewelry, expensive furniture, 18 pairs of new gloves and cash.

Meanwhile, the young women wore tattered dresses to their jobs and had no cosmetics, although Smith had "enough to stock a drug store." The hundreds of beauty items and perfumes were kept in her bedroom. When they dug up the back yard, police first found a dog's carcass buried in a cardboard box and underneath that a small casket containing the carcass of BonBon that had been buried 5 feet deep. Books dealing with the means of developing will power, magnetism and self-mastery of fate were found in Smith's house. They also found writings by her that dealt with the means by which the human mind could be affected and about witchcraft and magic. When the case got to court, it was something less than the sensational and lurid case observers expected, but it was still puzzling. The big question, of course, was how did Smith control the two young women? Horner testified she always followed Smith's orders. She said she was told in 1940 to have nothing to do with her family and that from then on her last name was Sherman. She assumed that she had been adopted by Smith, who sometimes used the last name Sherman. Evans testified that "we thought she was leading us into a good life." "She always quoted Scriptures to bring out her point," she said. "They fitted in perfectly with what she wanted us to do."

In addition to receiving the paychecks of the two young women, Smith also received $31 a week from Evans' father for her support and extra money to pay for a nurse. She had written him that Evans was mentally ill and needed a nurse that would cost that amount. A District Court jury found Smith guilty of suborning (inducing) perjury and sentenced her to a year in prison. She pleaded guilty in federal court to a charge of using the mail to defraud Evans's father, a wealthy Stroud merchant, and making false claims to obtain ration books. She was placed on probation for the latter crimes. The subornation charge stemmed from a Municipal Court case in which Evans and Horner testified against a neighbor who lived in the adjoining duplex of the house. He was charged with assaulting Horner. Horner said she and Evans were told exactly what to say in their testimony and that they were rehearsed for hours. She finally typed a script and memorized it, she said.

From the Haunted Attic website, "As Carolyn engaged in rituals to communicate with the spirits of her lost children, the house became a focal point of dark energy. The once-proud home fell into despair, the walls adorned with strange symbols and the yard littered with trinkets and offerings from those seeking to break the curse. Visitors reported feeling an oppressive energy surrounding the house, with many claiming to see apparitions of the children playing in the yard or hearing their laughter reverberating through the halls. The legend of the Hex House gained interest from paranormal enthusiasts and ghost hunters. In 1998, a team of paranormal investigators conducted a series of investigations of the grounds of the former Hex House capturing photographs of orbs (spectral energy) and recordings of unexplained sounds, including disembodied voices. Their findings only solidified the house’s reputation as a haunted location, transforming it into a popular destination for thrill-seekers and the curious alike." 

The "Hex House" was a favorite site for young Tulsans to visit on Halloween for years after the case was settled. But the house was torn down in 1975 and the site became the parking lot for the Akdar Shrine. The Shrine later moved to 27th Street and Sheridan Road and its old site -- where the Hex House had been -- became the site of apartments.

Kelly: Do you have a favorite haunted location? 

Tulsa seems to have several haunted locations in the town. Are these places haunted? That is for you to decide! 

HGB EP. 593 - Haunted Foggy Bottom

Moment in Oddity - Tasmanian Devil Births

Many of our listeners are familiar with Taz, the Tasmanian devil from the Looney Toons cartoons. The real life carnivorous marsupials live exclusively on the island of Tasmania. There are over 330 species of marsupials in the world but there is one not-so-fun, fun-fact about Tasmanian Devils that makes them quite unique. Tasmanian Devils have a rear facing pouch. This orientation keeps them from filling their pouches with dirt as they dig their burrows. That detail of their bodily orientation is not entirely strange however. Other burrowing species of marsupials such as wombats and quolls also have rear facing pouches for the same reason. What is so unusual about the devils, is the fact that on average, they give birth to between 20 and 40 babies all at once while only having 4 teats in their pouch. The underdeveloped babies latch on to their mother's teats for approximately 3 months while they mature. This means that regardless of how many babies are born, it is highly unlikely that any given litter would number higher than four. Once the mad dash to their mother's teats has ended and four babies have successfully latched on, the remaining baby devils, known as joeys, perish by either starving or by being eaten by their mother. The joeys will begin leaving their mother's pouch at around 3 1/2 months and often will ride on her back while young. Tasmanian devil joeys stay with their mother until about 9 months old. Survival of the fittest is common in wild animals, but having to defy such high odds in the animal kingdom, certainly is odd. 

This Month in History - Birth of P.T. Barnum

In the month of July, on the 5th in 1810, Phineas Taylor Barnum was born in Bethel, Connecticut. At the age of 15, P.T. Barnum's father died which led to him holding a variety of jobs to help support his mother and five siblings. He eventually became a publisher at a local weekly newspaper and by the age of  19, he married 21 year old Charity Hallett with whom he had four daughters. After moving to New York City in 1834 he began his adventures as a showman, inviting the world to come and witness Joice Heth, a black woman who Barnum stated, "was the 161 year old nurse to General George Washington". Upon the death of the woman it was of course revealed to be a hoax. Barnum later acquired John Scudder's American Museum in New York City. He quickly transformed the traditional location to display instead human curiosities, dramatic theatricals, beauty contests and other spectacular attractions. P.T. Barnum once wrote, "This is a trading world, and men, women, and children, who cannot live on gravity alone, need something to satisfy their gayer, lighter moods and hours, and he who ministers to this want is in a business established by the Author of our nature". Barnum traveled the world looking for oddities, living or dead, real or fake and garnered international attention for the showman's showcase of wonders. Many famous people in history attended his unique and sensational creation. Despite his name being popularly linked with the circus, P.T. did not actually become a circus showman until after the age of 60. Where he continued to work until his death in 1891 at his Connecticut mansion. The Times of London paid the late Showman tribute stating, "He created the métier of showman on a grandiose scale.…He early realized that essential feature of a modern democracy, its readiness to be led to what will amuse and instruct it.…His name is a proverb already, and a proverb it will continue."

Haunted Foggy Bottom

Washington, D.C. is the home of the American government and every square inch of it oozes history. Shockingly, we haven't covered many haunted locations in the Capitol City, despite its extensive history. So it was definitely time to investigate what else is haunted in this city and we found a neighborhood with multiple ghost stories. Foggy Bottom dates back to the mid-1700s, but it would take nearly 100 years before people would settle here and these were mostly laborers. There were two grand homes here, one of which still stands and both reputedly were haunted. And there are a couple of legends connected to the area as well. Join us for the history and hauntings of Foggy Bottom.

Foggy Bottom started out as Funkstown, nicknamed for German settler Jacob Funck who originally owned the plot and subdivided it. The official name of the settlement was Hamburgh and it stretched over an area near the confluence of Rock Creek and the Potomac River. Jacob joined Robert Peter and James Linigan in officially founding the town in 1765. They would control it until 1791 when the territories were given to the city of Washington and the United States government. The town hadn't been very prosperous for them anyway, as few settlers would come. When the second phase of the industrial revolution brought factories to Washington, D.C., immigrants started coming and the neighborhoods filled with laborers. They worked in the gas works, breweries and glass plants and the industrial smoke that came off these facilities made the city seem foggy, thus the name Foggy Bottom was associated with the neighborhood. One of the beers that came out of Olde Heurich Brewing Company was called Foggy Bottom. The brewery ceased operations in 1956 and the building was razed to make room for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Foggy Bottom would become home for a variety of government institutions. The U.S. Department of State was established as the Department of Foreign Affairs in July of 1789 and the name change to State came a few months later. They are responsible for our foreign policy. This was joined by later buildings housing the Federal Reserve, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. George Washington University is located in Foggy Bottom and is a federally chartered university that was named Columbian College originally. It opened in 1821. This was the first university founded under Washington, D.C.'s jurisdiction. The idea of the college came from President George Washington and he willed some of his shares in the Potomac Company to establish the school, although those shares lost value before they could be used for that. Later presidents and leaders would take up the mantle and get the school opened. It was renamed for President Washington in 1904. There are rumors that Mitchell Hall, which had once been a hotel, is haunted. We didn't really find any stories connected to that though.

The Old Naval Observatory was here from 1844 to 1893. While everything about the observatory has moved, the building itself is still there and is a National Historic Landmark. In 1877, the moons of Mars (Phobos and Deimos) were discovered from the observatory. There were a couple of bridges in Foggy Bottom that have legends connected to them. There was a bridge that linked the neighborhoods of Georgetown and Foggy Bottom to each other over Rock Creek. This bridge, known as M Street Bridge, was built in 1788 and on a stormy night, it collapsed. Unfortunately, there was a stagecoach on it at the time and so the coach, driver and horses all went into the water and drowned. That bridge was rebuilt. Now it is said that on dark and stormy nights, people see a ghostly stagecoach with a ghostly driver and horses driving frantically across it as "he had been wont to do in the days of the flesh." A drummer boy is said to have drowned near this bridge as well and his apparition is sometimes seen and sometimes a faint drum beat is heard. The Whitehurst Freeway was once the K Street Bridge over Rock Creek. A story started in 1908 that a headless male ghost would hang out on the K Street Bridge. Nobody knows how he lost his head and were not sure if people driving on the freeway ever see him.

There had been graveyards here in Foggy Bottom at one time, but none of them exist here anymore. A place that was once called Camp Hill because soldiers were stationed there during the War of 1812 had what the paper described as a 'tolerably large graveyard." That seems to have disappeared by 1866, but nobody knows if the bodies were removed. Another graveyard was where GWU's Medical School is now on 24th Street between H and I Streets. Christian Hines wrote of the site in 1866 that it was originally "on a considerable hill and on opening 24th Street, each side of the street was dug down to a foot below the graves, leaving on both sides open graves and coffins projecting into the street. I have myself seen pieces of skulls lying in the streets, some of which were the skulls of colored people." There were a couple of other smaller graveyards where bodies found floating in the river were buried. These graveyards may have attracted Sam McKeever who lived in Foggy Bottom. A legend told about him claims that he was a grave robber. During the day, he was a rag merchant, but he found more lucrative work at night body snatching and selling the bodies to medical schools. One story even claims that he jumped a woman in a Foggy Bottom park in 1918 and knocked her on the head, killing her. He carried the body to the medical school and collected his money. It had been dark and he didn't bother to look at his victim. He probably should have because when he arrived home, he found his wife missing and she never came home. He eventually realized what he had done. Some people claim his spirit roams Foggy Bottom. Perhaps looking for his wife?

Foggy Bottom has a four block Historic District of row houses that date back to the 1870s. These housed the working class Irish, German and African Americans from 1870 to 1915. These laborers came after the Civil War because the industry was growing so quickly here. The need for skilled and unskilled workers was great. And the plus about the row houses is that they were very affordable because Foggy Bottom wasn't a really desirable place to live because of the soot, smog and odors. The district is bounded by 24th and 26th Streets, New Hampshire Avenue and K and H Streets and covers three acres. 135 of the buildings are historic and many of the row houses measure only 12 feet wide. Their style is late Victorian and they stand two or three stories tall and are made from brick. Street level of many of the houses hosted businesses like bakeries, saloons and grocery stores. Gentrification eventually changed the cultural and racial make-up of the row houses. Snow's Court was affected heavily by this. C.A. Snow had been the publisher of the National Intelligencer and he built four frame dwellings that was nicknamed an "alley dwelling." As many as five black people would share a space that measured less than 700 square feet. The alley was considered overcrowded and unsafe. Hughs Court is known as Hughs Mews, but had the same reputation as Snows Court and is where Sam McKeever was said to live. Today, those same houses have obviously been renovated, but they now sell for half a million dollars. We couldn't find any stories of haunted row houses, but we did find a couple of haunted mansion in Foggy Bottom.

House on 25th Street 

All we know about the location of this house was that it was on 25th Street near Wisconsin Avenue on the border of Georgetown and Foggy Bottom. Paranormal Investigator Hans Holzer wrote the book "The Ghosts That Walk in Washington" in 1971 after he investigated several locations in the capitol city and one of the locations was this house. Holzer usually took psychic medium Ethel Meyers with him, but in DC it seems he worked with a variety of what he called "reputable" mediums. One of them joined him in the house for a seance and reported that it was haunted by "a very old black man who kept telling the assembled witnesses that he hated them for some reason" and that there was a woman named "Elizabeth Hanford, who claimed that her father had been in Lincoln’s Cabinet, and that she had died by hanging when she was only twenty-four." 

The Octagon House

We've talked about a haunted Octagon House on HGB before. That house had that name because it was built as an octagon with eight sides. That is not the case with this octagon house. It has eight angles, rather than eight sides. There is a distinctive circular center room at its front as well, that takes away from the octagonal shape. The house is located at 1799 New York Avenue NW and was built in 1799 for John Tayloe III, who was the wealthiest planter in the country at the time. He inherited his father's plantation, Mount Airy, which was part of a group of interdependent plantations that covered 60,000 acres around 100 miles from DC. Tayloe not only was a plantar, but he bred horses and raced them and also built ships. Later, he owned several iron foundries.

Tayloe built the Octagon House in DC after a very important person suggested that he do so. His sister, Sarah Tayloe, married President George Washington's half-nephew and the President suggested Tayloe build in DC. The plan was for the house to be a winter home, but after 1818, they lived in it full-time until 1855. While the house is the only thing still around on the property, there originally was an ice house, smokehouse, laundry, stables and carriage house and, of course, slave quarters. As hard as it is to believe now, where the Octagon House was built was out in the wilds. The architect of the house was the man who designed the United States Capitol, William Thornton. He got some help from James Hoban, who designed the White House. The reason that the house ended up with its unique angles was due to the plot's location along New York Avenue, which was diagonal. The house wouldn't have looked right if it was placed facing either of the streets that it was along, so Thornton related the house equally to both streets, which put the two walls at a 70 degree angle from each other. When completed, the house had six sides and was built from red brick and trimmed with Aquia Creek sandstone. The interior featured mahogany doors, gold leaf embellishments, brass fixtures and closets, which were nearly unheard of at the time. An interesting feature were these two secret doors leading into the back hall and dining-room, both of which had no key holes, hinges or openings showing on the blind side. And the staircase is really interesting two. They have been described as "serpentine" with the way they curve up three stories. 

John Tayloe had married Ann Ogle in 1792 and the couple had 15 children with three of them being born at the house. When the War of 1812 started, Tayloe joined the Virginia militia and because of his experience with horses, he was put in charge of the DC cavalry. Tayloe's wife had offered their house to host the French consul and so a French flag was flying outside of the house when British forces marched into the city in August 1814. This saved the house from being burned since it was technically a "diplomatic residence." 

During the War of 1812, James Madison was President and he and first lady, Dolley, had to flee the city and when they did, the First Lady had her pet parrot taken to Octagon House for safe keeping. The White House was burned, so the Madisons needed somewhere to stay. The Tayloes invited the Madisons to live at the Octagon House and so the President rented the house for $500 for a six month stay. Dolley threw parties every Wednesday night and these were apparently called "Squeezes." That nickname came from the fact that the parties were so crowded, people were squeezed together. Dolley liked to invite people from all political persuasions to talk and build relationships and she made sure to greet everybody personally. And then she went to the kitchen and whipped up some Dolley Madison snacks like Zingers - ok, we made that part up. On February 17, 1815, President Madison ratified the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812, in the upstairs study at the Octagon. 

In 1828, John Tayloe III died at the Octagon House at the age of 57. His wife stayed on there until she died in 1855. The Tayloe children rented out the house after that. A girls' school rented it first and then in the 1870s, the Federal government used it as office space for the Hydrographic Office of the U.S. Navy. By the 1880s, it had become a multi-family apartment building housing factory workers. In 1898, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) started renting the house for their new national headquarters and they eventually bought it in 1902, holding onto it until the 1960s. The American Architectural Foundation took over the building and restored it to its 1818 appearance and opened the house as a museum in 1970, which it remains today. It is said that this is the most haunted house in Washington, D.C. Curators, staff and visitors have all reported paranormal activity. People hear rustling silk on the stairs and pounding on the walls. Floating spectral lights have been seen. The hanging lamp in the main hallway swings by itself. Footprints have been seen in dust on the top floor landing.  

The house had call bells for the servants and slaves and these bells began ringing on there own as far back as the mid-1800s. It is believed that the spirits of dead slaves ring the bells to announce their presence. The bells are no longer in the house and so not heard in our modern era, but there are many stories from the past. In 1874, Mary Clemmer Ames wrote about it: "It is an authenticated fact, that every night at the same hour, all the bells would ring at once. One gentleman, dining with Colonel Tayloe, when this mysterious ringing began, being an unbeliever in mysteries, and a very powerful man, jumped up and caught the bell wires in his hand, but only to be lifted bodily from the floor, while he was unsuccessful in stopping the ringing. Some declare that it was discovered, after a time, that rats were the ghosts who rung the bells; others, that the cause was never discovered, and that finally the family, to secure peace, were compelled to take the bells down and hang them in different fashion. Among other remedies, had been previously tried that of exorcism, but the prayers of the priest who had been summoned availed nought."

Virginia Tayloe Lewis was a granddaughter of John Tayloe III and she wrote a memoir on the family that was never published. She had grown up in the house and experienced the weirdness with the bells. She wrote, "The bells rang for a long time after my Grandfather Tayloe's death, and every one said that the house was haunted; the wires were cut and still they rang… Our dining room servant would come upstairs to ask if anyone rang the bell, and no one had." The wife of American consul to China, Samuel Laurence Gouverneur, Jr., was named Marian and she shared the following about the bells, "I have been told by the daughters of General George D. Ramsay, Chief of Ordnance for the United States Army and commander of the Washington Arsenal in Washington, D.C., that upon one occasion their father was requested by Colonel John Tayloe...to remain at the Octagon overnight, when we was obliged to be absent, as a protection to his daughters… While the members of the family were at the evening meal, the bells in the house began to ring violently. General Ramsay immediately arose from the table to investigate, but failed to unravel the mystery. The butler, in a state of great alarm, rushed into the dining-room and declared that it was the work of an unseen hand. As they continued to ring, General Ramsay held the rope which controlled the bells, but, it is said, they were not silenced."

Dolley Madison hadn't lived in the house for long and certainly didn't die in it, but her spirit is thought to return to the house on occasion. She apparently likes to host ghostly receptions and her full-bodied apparition has been seen in the drawing room and in the front hall. Her spirit leaves behind the scent of lilacs. People know the spirit is the First Lady because the apparition is seen with a turban. Dolley liked to wear them because they made her look taller. In the 1960s, the museum superintendent was Alric H. Clay and he claimed that something unseen was opening the house's doors late at night and would turn the lights on.

 Two tragedies occurred in the house with two of the Tayloes' daughters according to legend, but we found nothing to support the stories. They both died in accidents by falling down the stairs while in the process of arguing with their father about the men they wanted to marry. One daughter had fallen in love with a British soldier before the War of 1812 and died before that war as well. The other daughter died in 1817 after she eloped with a young man her father didn't approve of and when she came home to reconcile, they fought. The stories got started in 1908 in an article that ran in the Minneapolis Tribune. No names were included in the story and three of the daughters did die before they reached their 30s, but none were recorded to have died in the house. And one of them had been an infant and another died after her father had died. Nonetheless, the ghost lore says that one is often seen crumpled at the bottom of the staircase. Sometimes the light of a candle is seen going up and down the stairs by itself. The other daughter haunts the third floor landing and the stairs between the second and third floors.

A doctor did experience a haunting on the stairs at the house in the late 1940s. At the time, a caretaker named James Cyprus was living in the house with his wife and she had become ill. He asked the doctor to make a house call. After the doctor had spent some time with Mrs. Cyprus, he discussed her care with James and then asked him a strange questioned. He asked if there was someone else staying at the house that was a re-enactor or something. James looked confused and said that only he and his wife were in the house. The doctor then told him that he ran into a man on the stairs who had been wearing a military uniform dated to the early 1800s. And there could be a female spirit connected to the stairs that belongs to slave that worked in the mansion. The story behind her claims that a British soldier threw her down the stairs during the War of 1812. People claim that screams that are heard in the house, belong to her. The soldier that is seen might be the one who killed her as some say he either flung himself down the stairs or that one of the Tayloe sons killed the soldier. 

Another bit of ghost lore claims that a gambler was living in the house in the 1880s, possibly with women, so some think the house had been turned into a gambling den and brothel. One day, he won a bunch of money off a local farmer and that farmer thought that the gambler had cheated. That evening, the gambler was alone sleeping a third story bedroom when the farmer broke into the house, crept up the stairs and shot him to death. A 1912 newspaper article reported that a man was staying on the third floor and claimed that was visited every night by the spirit of a man who was killed over a card game held in that same room.

The Van Ness Mansion

This mansion no longer stands, unfortunately. It had been at the corner of 17th and Constitution Ave and was built in 1816 in the Greek Revival style. The stable that went with the house is still on the property that now hosts the Pan American Union Building. The mansion was built for John Peter Van Ness who was a Congressman from New York from 1801 to1803. Van Ness had married the daughter of David Burnes who had gotten very wealthy selling 450 acres of his land to the Federal government. That would be the land under the White House and the area all around it. We believe we mentioned in our White House episode that Burnes sometimes appears at the White House. Anyway, his daughter Marcia married Van Ness and she founded the city's first orphanage. He became a major general in the DC militia and the Mayor of the City of Washington, while also dipping his foot into banking and real estate. He also built a horse track on his property. The couple had a daughter whom they named Ann and she would be their only child. Heartbreak came when she was giving birth to their first grandchild. Ann died in childbirth and the baby was born still born. That was in 1823. Marcia would die in 1832 when a cholera epidemic swept through DC. In his grief, Peter commissioned a grand neoclassical family mausoleum at Georgetown’s Oak Hill Cemetery and had all deceased family interred. He was completely devastated and all the life seemed to leave him. Peter wandered the mansion alone and withdrew completely from society. The mansion fell into disrepair. He eventually passed in 1846 and the house was demolished in 1908. The government gave the property to the Pan American Union and they built their headquarters there in 1910. It was fashioned in Beaux Arts style. 

When the mansion still stood, people claimed that it was haunted and many think this began when Van Ness withdrew into the house. People claimed to hear the dreadful screams of a woman, whom some think mught have been Ann in childbirth. People who visited the house before it was demolished claimed to hear disembodied footsteps and they would see the apparition of a woman in a period bonnet. Benjamin Henry Latrobe had designed the house and he also designed the stable that sits at the northwest corner of the property. It was refurbished and houses the OAS Art Museum of the America’s offices. The building also houses a terrifying haunting. Apparently when Peter died, a grand memorial was thrown for him and a carriage drawn by his finest six white horses took his body to the cemetery to join his family in their mausoleum. For some reason, the ghosts of those six horses are seen galloping around the property and they are headless. We have no idea why they have no heads. These spirits are often seen on March 7, the date of Peter’s death. After they run around for a while - maybe looking for their heads - they return to the stable just passing through the wall. 

Foggy Bottom has an interesting history and has played a significant role in the beginnings of the American adventure. Is it possible that these various locations in the neighborhood of Foggy Bottom are haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 592 - Adolphus Hotel

Moment in Oddity - Frank Lentini by Chelsea Flowers

Anyone who has listened to this podcast long enough knows that Diane and I are weird kids, and as such, we love learning about circus sideshow performers from back in the day. Many people who ended up performing in circus sideshows were sadly shunned in 'normal' society. But joining a circus gave them steady work and a family. One of those sideshow performers by the name of Francesco Lentini was born with a parasitic twin. Frank had his twin attached at the base of his spine with an extra full sized leg with a foot attached near the knee on his third leg. He was born in 1889 to a large Italian family that already had 11 children. As if dealing with the third leg was not difficult enough as a youngster, one of his primary legs was a full 2 inches shorter than the other. In total, Frank had 16 toes. Sadly, his hometown began calling him, 'the marvel' or 'little monster'. Frank's family sent him away to live with his aunt who found a home for disabled children for the young boy to live at. It was there that Frank witnessed many other children living with disabilities far greater than his and despite how much he hated his personal disability, the experience put his life in a different perspective. In 1898 when Frank was nine years old, he traveled to America where his father reconnected with an acquaintance who was an accomplished showman. By 1899, Frank Lentini had found a place for himself, becoming one of Ringling Brother's most popular acts. He performed with various circuses for nearly 40 years and earn several monikers in the process like, "The Great Lentini", "The Three-Legged Sicilian", "The Greatest Medical Wonder of All Time", and "The Only Three-Legged Football Player in the World". Frank was charming and comedic while engaging the crowd as he performed acts such as jumping rope, cycling, skating and kicking a soccer ball around the ring. He gave many interviews and even when questions were somewhat inappropriate, Frank used his quick wit to deflect invasive questions. It was known that Frank also had an additional *cough* appendage of another type. Frank Lentini was also successful in love, having four children with his first wife and finding love again after his separation. He performed until the very end when in 1966, he passed away from lung failure at the age of 77. I hesitate to call Frank Lentini odd even though he embraced and celebrated his oddness, so instead, I will call him extraordinary. 

This Month in History - Great Seal of US Adopted

In the month of June, on the 20th, in 1782, the Continental Congress officially adopted the Great Seal of the United States. The design process including several proposals took approximately six years. The Great Seal was primarily designed by Charles Thomson the secretary of the Continental Congress and William Barton. It is a national emblem and is used to authenticate important official United States documents typically numbering around 3,000 each year. The Great Seal began appearing on the U.S. one dollar bill in 1935. The principal elements of the seal are the American Bald Eagle which symbolizes America and is shown holding a scroll in its beak with the motto "E Pluribus Unum" which translates to: Out of many, One. The shield appears with red and white stripes representing the original 13 colonies and the blue on top of the unites the shield and symbolizes Congress. The Olive Branch and Arrows held by the eagle represent peace and war and America's power to choose between the two. While the Constellation of Stars above the eagle represents the new states taking their place among other sovereign powers. Beginning in September of 1789, the U.S. Department of State began managing the Great Seal of the United States and continues to do so today. 

Adolphus Hotel (Suggested by: Lori Gunter)

So many deaths have taken place at the Adolphus Hotel that it should be nicknamed "The Death Hotel." This historic luxury hotel in Dallas was named for a beer magnate and was once one of the grandest hotels in the Southwest. The entertainment hosted here was top tier with a long list of popular entertainers from various eras. And the Adolphus had the honor of hosting Queen Elizabeth II in the 1990s. The hotel today is still a luxury hotel located in the heart of downtown Dallas that has great food, drinks, a spa and...a few ghosts. Join us for the history and hauntings of the Adolphus Hotel!

Dallas would be a city built around elements of transportation. There is, of course, the discovery of oil, but the railroad was a key component shaping the city's development. The beginnings of Dallas, though, started with a small trading post on the Trinity River, which was established by John Neely Bryan who would go on to serve as its postmaster, ferry operator and store owner. That was after Texas had won its independence from the Spanish who arrived in the 18th century. Around that same time, the French had also claimed the spot. They both had pushed out the indigenous tribes of the Wichita, Kickapoo, Tawakoni, Caddo and Comanche. No one knows exactly what inspired John Neely Bryan to call his settlement Dallas. Theories include a Scotland town with the name or Vice President George M. Dallas. The town was officially incorporated as a city in 1856, nearly ten years after Texas was annexed by the United States. We've mentioned this fun fact at some point, but there have been a total of six flags that have flown over the Dallas area, France; Spain; Mexico; the flag of the Republic of Texas; the Confederate flag; and the flag of the United States of America, and that was the inspiration behind the amusement park named Six Flags. One of the first skyscrapers built west of the Mississippi was here in Dallas, the Praetorian Building constructed in 1909 that had 15 stories. The exterior was unique with neoclassical styling that incorporated gray granite, gold and terra cotta. The interior featured tile, marble and African mahogany. That building was eventually demolished in 2013, but before that there were rumors that it was haunted by the spirit of a woman named Sally who had been murdered there by a coworker. Some stay she still haunts the site.

Adolphus Busch saw Dallas as a city of the future and he invested in its real estate market. One of his biggest contributions to that market was the construction of the hotel that bears his name, The Adolphus Hotel. Busch was born in 1839 in Germany, the baby of a family with 21 brothers. The Busch family made their wealth in the winery and brewery supply business. Adolphus came to America in 1857 with three of his brothers and they ended up in St. Louis, Missouri. This was a move that Adolphus felt he had to make so he could build his own wealth. With 21 brothers, he wouldn't be inheriting much. He did get a bit though, which he used to found a brewery supply company after he served for the Union during the Civil War. Through his business Adolphus met a soap manufacturer who also dabbled in breweries named Eberhard Anheuser. The men became friendly and Adolphus ended up marrying his daughter Lilly in 1861. After that, he joined the Anheuser brewery business and bought out his father-in-laws partner. The company was renamed Anheuser-Busch in 1879 and as they say, the rest is history.

Clearly Adolphus became very wealthy with Budweiser, which was the most successful nationally-distributed beer of the pre-Prohibition era. He used some of that money to build the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas. The location where the hotel was built used to be occupied by the Renaissance Revival City Hall. Adolphus razed the old city hall. Construction began on the building in 1911 and the style was modeled off a Germanic castle with a 22-story tower that was the tallest building in Texas for decades. The architects were Barnett, Haynes and Barnett and they used elements of the Ecole de Beaux Arts architectural style, which is Parisian. This emphasized heavy masonry of red and gray granite while incorporating classical forms and features and elaborate ornamentation featuring gargoyles flanked by large heads of Greek gods. The interior was opulent featuring brass fixtures, gilded ornamentation, alabaster, silk and velvet draperies, sculptured panels in bas-relief and vaulted ceilings. And there was one bronze chandelier. This chandelier was ornamented with hop berries and leaves, along with the brand’s signature eagle with wings spread wide. The light had a twin and both were originally commissioned by Busch to hang above the Anheuser-Busch exhibit at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. After the fair, the chandeliers were moved to the stable where the Clydedales were kept. One chandelier still hangs above the escalators today.

The Adolphus Hotel opened on October 5, 1912 with great fanfare. The French Room was a part of the hotel when it opened and still remains today. This was truly a golden era dining room with classic European design with a honed marble floor, gilded Louis XVI style chairs, ornate sconces and twin Italian Murano glass chandeliers. Adolphus bought a Steinway piano for the hotel with an interesting backstory. Millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim had bought this piano in Europe and he was planning to bring it back with him when he traveled back to America aboard the RMS Titanic. A delivery snafu brought the piano to the dock the day after the grand ship had set sail, so it didn't end up at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Guggenheim wasn't able to retrieve the piano later because he DID go down with the ship, apparently after putting on his finest suit with a rose tucked into his buttonhole, while sipping on some brandy. That piano is still at the hotel in the French Room Salon.

In the 1920s, the Adolphus Hotel premiered The Century Room on the 19th floor and this would have been THE place to be in Dallas at that time. If we could time travel back in Dallas, this would be a great spot as the room hosted a variety of entertainment that included the big band music of Glenn Miller, the singing of the Andrews Sisters and the swinging sounds of Benny Goodman. The hotel even added a retractable ice rink in 1930 to the room in order to host touring ice shows, which continued for 35 years as a major attraction. That retractable means that a dance floor would glide back over the ice after the shows for dancing. Former speed skating powerhouse and Broadway on Ice legend Dorothy Franey was hired by the hotel in 1943 to put on a show. She choreographed, directed, produced and starred in her “Dot Franey Ice Revue” show for more than a dozen years. Early on the motif of The Century Room was polar bear themed and this was changed to Hawaiian in 1940 with tropical murals and live palms. The rink became a permanent dance floor in 1965. In the 1970s, the room hosted a Hawaiian singer accompanied by five Hula dancers. There was also a fire-and-knife act and a band called the Johnny Scat Davis Band performed. 

Another form of entertainment coming out of the hotel was in the form of broadcasting. In 1936, KRLD radio began broadcasting live from the hotel and the studio brought in big names for appearances. This included Bob Hope and Kate Smith. Notable guests during this time included Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, Amelia Earhart, Jack Dempsey and Liberace. Of President Truman's visit, the Dallas Morning News reported that Truman came in for a drink and was shown to the Presidential Suite, where a bottle each of bourbon and Scotch awaited him. He saw this and turned and asked, "You know, I never drink any Scotch. Do you think I could trade that Scotch for another bottle of bourbon?" And Joan Crawford visited, but not without a list of demands sent ahead of time. These demands according to the D Magazine included "two bottles of vodka brought daily to her room, a carton of breath mints, extra towels so she could see to the bathroom herself, and no fewer than 20 pillows." Apparently this was a 10-page letter.

The first major restoration for the hotel was in the 1980s. After that, the hotel was visited by presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush, as well as First Ladies Rosalyn Carter and Barbara Bush. In 1991, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip came to America on an official state visit and they traveled to Dallas and stayed at the Adolphus. At the end of their visit, they asked to be introduced to every one who had served them during their visit. The Queen gave them an official portrait to be hung in the hotel lobby. Dallas creative and design firm SWOON the Studio partnered with the company Makeready to give the hotel a multi-million dollar refresh in 2016 and this erased all the extremes of the 1980s and took the hotel back to its elegant beer empire heyday. That restoration was completed in 2018 and the hotel entered Marriott's Autograph Collection portfolio.

Today, the hotel features 268 rooms and 139 suites, twin roaring fireplaces in the lobby, The French Room Bar & Salon (which had been The Century Room), City Hall Bistro and Spa Adolphus. One of the signature drinks offered is the Aperol Spritz, which has a vibrant orange hue and a bittersweet flavor that comes from an infusion of herbs and roots. This is part of a southern Italian tradition to stimulate the appetite called an aperitivo drink. Everything is just really luxurious and glamorous, except remember that part we pointed out about calling this place The Death Hotel? 

Holland Murphy, writing for D Magazine in 2018, managed to track down nearly all the recorded deaths that happened at this hotel and there are a lot of them.

The first one was from October 20, 1912 and happened right after the hotel's grand opening. "Just two weeks after the Adolphus’ grand opening, an Italian waiter fresh from Chicago fell three floors down the elevator shaft from the main lobby. He had turned to talk to someone and backed into the elevator, not noticing that the lift had gone up without him. The waiter’s skull was crushed, and he died two hours later at the Baptist Sanitarium where Drs. Rosser and Doolittle unsuccessfully “performed the operation of raising the bone."

On May 14, 1913, "A 45-year-old insurance man and shriner from New Hampshire went for a walk with a group of men after dining at the Adolphus, during which time he became ill and 'sank to the sidewalk.' His friends helped him back to the hotel, and 30 minutes later he was dead. The death was ruled an 'acute attack of indigestion and apoplexy.' Note: 'apoplexy' could mean 'stroke,' but it’s also possible the medical examiner used this as a blanket term for 'sudden death' since it was difficult to differentiate heart attacks from strokes, etc., back in the day."

On February 7, 1915, "During a business meeting with a Dallas gentleman, a 26-year-old traveling collector for an Iowa cement company pardoned himself to his hotel bathroom then subsequently 'threw himself across the bed and was soon in convulsions.' A one-third emptied, six-ounce bottle labeled “poison” was found in the bathroom. In the room there was a note believed to have been addressed to the young man’s stepfather that read, "I got the wrong bottle. Love to all.'" 

On December 26, 1917, "After stopping to let a passenger off at the sixth floor of the Adolphus Annex (the then-brand-new 12-story addition built onto the hotel), the 16-year-old 'elevator boy' attempted to hop on the already-ascending elevator but missed his step and fell 100 feet to the basement. The News’ report said the boy’s 'skull was shattered and both legs were broken.'"

On January 15, 1920, "Just after 11 p.m., in the Commerce Street entrance to the Adolphus, a chauffeur for Bower Auto Rent Company was fatally shot three times by a chauffeur for Adolphus Auto Rent Company. About 20 witnesses were on the scene and one of the victim’s coworkers explained that bad blood had brewed between the two men during a chauffeurs’ strike several days prior—and the gunman had a bruise and cut on his face to prove it."

On October 22, 1924, "A 30-year-old Mexican cook stuck his head in the elevator shaft to look for the elevator’s whereabouts and was instantly killed by the descending car."

On February 21, 1930, "When a model walked into a hotel room ready to assist a 60-year-old millinery salesman with his spring displays, she found nothing but a torn window screen. She notified staff and the man’s body was soon found in an air shaft. The young woman told authorities the man had recently been 'despondent' and had told her 'he wouldn’t see his family again.” Investigators ruled the case a suicidal jump. According to the News, 'The force gained in the fall from the eighth floor caused his body to tear through the galvanized iron roof of an air shaft in one of the inside courts. He had plunged on through to the bottom of the shaft and his head and body were badly torn and cut by the blades of the powerful fan.' That explained the loud crash and puff of dust from fans reported by kitchen employees the night before."

On October 8, 1933, "The 2-year-old son of a musician in the touring Henry Busse Orchestra climbed up on the windowsill to look out at a band playing on the street when the screen gave out. He fell 12 stories. The hotel’s assistant manager scooped the body up and ran to the house physician who was unable to do anything but pronounce the boy dead. In the court case to follow, a judge ruled the Adolphus not liable for the $1,156.15 sought by the boy’s distraught parents, saying 'the purpose of the screen was not to prevent people from falling but to keep insects out.'"

On June 24, 1940, "'With his clothes ablaze,' a 50-year-old man 'plunged' from his fiery 11th-floor room and died on impact when his head struck the hotel’s marquee. As described by the News in a lengthy story: 'While a crowd watched from the street, [the man] leaned out of the window, surrounded by smoke pleading ‘Please, somebody, save me.' Some witnesses believed the man was overcome by smoke and fell, while officials believed he jumped to escape the flames. More controversy ensued over reports that firemen were held up by the hotel’s night clerk and delayed when given the wrong floor. Four days later, after an 'extensive investigation,' jurors decided no state laws were violated during the incident." 

On August 3, 1946, "According to the fire marshal, a 51-year-old Dallas man woke and took his burned pillow and sheet into the bathroom after drifting to sleep while smoking. Yet after settling back in bed, he apparently succumbed to 'smoke and gas when the fire flared up again.'" 

On May 27, 1955, "A maid discovered a 36-year-old fashion buyer from Houston, visiting for a fashion show, dead in her room. It was determined to have been a natural death due to 'acute alcoholism.'"

On July 14, 1958, "The 'smashed body' of a 25-year-old prostitute was found in a small courtyard 14 floors below her room. The News described the woman’s body plunging down the '4×8 inset in the building, ricocheting from wall to wall' and also included such details as the book found on her bed (A Fool There Was). There were signs of a struggle, but the case remained a mystery for months. A 31-year-old man with a 'record for procuring' (that is, pimping) was questioned, as well as two others. But it wasn’t until months later, in January of 1959, when an 18-year-old woman was beaten and left in a Mercantile Continental Building closet, that authorities encountered Willie Philpot, whom the News noted as a 'Negro 2-time loser.' In the weeks to follow, authorities said Philpot confessed to a series of crimes (each News article seemed to mention different ones) including the Mercantile beating, the rape and slaying of a 10-year-old girl in Longview, the beating of several men in Sherman and Alabama, and the murder of the Adolphus prostitute. According to authorities, Philpot said he was employed at the Adolphus and, after delivering “food and set-ups” to the woman’s room throughout the day, she gave him whiskey. From a February 1959 News article: 'As they talked his hand ‘began to twitch’ and he flipped a towel around her neck, Philpot said. When she became still, he tossed her out the window and went back to work.' Philpot was eventually executed in Huntsville for the rape and murder of the 10-year-old black girl."

On March 15, 1971, "A witness said he warned the hotel porter to make sure the elevator car was on the 2nd floor to load band equipment, but just after replying, 'Yes, it’s here,' the porter stepped into the elevator shaft and met his death." 

In the wake of all this death, spirits seem to have been left behind. Over the years, hotel guests have reported hearing loud footsteps outside their rooms, as if purposely trying to be loud. When staff heads to the hallway, they find no one. Some guests even call the front desk complaining about big band music playing in the wee hours of the morning and again, when staff checks, there is no one playing the piano or any music playing anywhere. Security guards and other staff feel like they are being watched at night by something they cannot see. Doors slam on their own. Housekeepers have experienced a tapping on their shoulders while working in the restroom areas, and staff has also witnessed windows flying open when they approach them.

There is the spirit of a young woman named Caroline. The ghost lore attached to her claims that she fell to her death from the ninth floor because she was trying to retrieve a dropped necklace. Her full-bodied apparition has been seen in the hallways and sometimes in the elevators. Some guests have reported seeing her reflection in mirrors. The ghost of a former employee named Charlie is reputedly here. Charlie had worked as a bellhop and he died in the 1920s. He still seems to be doing his job and appears to carry luggage for guests and get them an extra pillow or towel. When guests approach management to thank them for Charlie's hard work, they are told that there is no Charlie on staff, especially one wearing a bellhop outfit from the 1920s.

One of the spirits said to be here is a jilted bride. Her legend is that she took her own life on the 19th floor after she was left at the altar in the 1930s. Guests claim to hear her disembodied wails and the 19th floor does seem to be the most haunted. Elevator doors mysteriously open and close on their own. Some claim that 1930s music box sounding music accompanies her activity. aristolek on YouTube made a video featuring this phenomenon in 2009 writing, "We were on the elevator at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas, Texas..got off on the 19th floor and ALL of the elevator doors were opening and closing like crazy..as well as the phones ringing..this happened two nights in a row." Johnathanlewis8800 wrote in 2023, "No joke, I service this location and the elevators and doors are always freaking me out."

msmyers707 commented, "You are so right this is not a set up. I went there 2 days ago and only stayed one night. I saw the lady in white at about 3am in the upper mezzanine grand ballroom with the painted murals and piano. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. unbelievable....I could not sleep! I will not be staying there again." belladonnaminx1147 commented, "Ask to go to the 19th floor (which is currently under renovation to recreate the scene of the ballroom). They will give you the tour. But do it in the day because at night you don't want to be with whatever entity is up there."

lorimulherrin1637 wrote in 2022, "My husband has twice had  strange things happen when he has stayed there. The 1st time he experienced several drawers mysteriously opening during the night. And the 2nd time he heard the sound of children laughing & running around the hall during the middle of the night when he had a room near the elevators."

Leahbeasley4792 wrote in 2022, "I’m staying here tonight because my husband works across the street, and asked me to come up because he got a nice room from his company! We asked a few of kids to come up, but only two did, because the others told me it’s known to be 'haunted,' which I have no issues with! We asked around where and why when we got here and learned about the 19th floor, so we went up, and as we passed one room, we could hear older music playing and peeked through the doors! It looked like a ballroom, but nobody was around at all so just assumed it was music always playing! We kept walking and really didn’t notice a thing! When we came back around to the ballroom, I noticed and said, 'Awe they stopped the music.' So my kids joked around asking me if they should play music for me! Now that I read all of this, I wish I had known that the music playing in that ballroom was part of the 'haunting.' I’m still awake at 5am and want to go back up but everyone is asleep! I won’t go back up alone, but very interested in all of this, it’s sad that they can’t move on for some reason! This hotel is very nice, and not at all scary! Only went to that floor from stories from my kids, and seemed very normal until I read all of this, which happened at 2:00am!" 

The Adolphus Hotel was built to be a grand hotel and not only did it meet that goal, it continues to be a gorgeous hotel today. Many of its contents and fixtures hark back to an earlier era. Could some of those "contents" be ghosts? Is the Adolphus Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide! 

HGB Ep. 591 - Haunted Sault Ste. Marie

Moment in Oddity - The Effigy of Sarah Hare

There is a most unique effigy that can be found inside the Hare Chapel of Stow Bardolph's Church of the Holy Trinity in the United Kingdom. The effigy is a bust made of wax in the likeness of a 55 year old spinster. She died in 1744 from blood poisoning after pricking her finger on a needle. Her name was Sarah Hare. Her will that was dated August of 1743 stated: 'I desire to have my face and hands made in wax with a piece of crimson satin thrown like a garment in a picture, hair upon my head and put in a case of Mahogany with a glass before and fix’d up so near the place were my corps lyes as it can be with my name and time of Death.' It is believed that Sarah's effigy is dressed in her own clothes and that perhaps the brown curls upon her head are from one of the wigs that she owned. It is unknown whether her replica was created pre or post mortem. Did Sarah Hare have a premonition of her death? It was said that her early demise was punishment for sewing on Sundays which was her habit. Her disturbingly life-like wax effigy is the only one of its kind in England except for those located at Westminster Abbey which certainly makes this unusual bust odd. 

This Month in History - The Birth of George Richard Strauss

In the month of June, on the 11th, in 1864, composer George Richard Strauss was born in Munich, Germany. Richard was a musical child prodigy. His father Franz was a principal French horn player and was renowned for his talent. Franz began Richard's musical education at a young age. Richard began learning the piano at age four and the youngster began to compose his own musical pieces at the mere age of six. Richard may have studied musical theory and composition formally, but it was his father's love of the works of Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart and Schubert that heavily influenced his musical developement. Franz provided his son with advice, comments and constructive criticism. His father also featured Richard's compositions in performances by the Wilde Gung'l, an amateur orchestra Franz conducted from 1875-1896. When Strauss traveled to Berlin, he learned the art of conducting by observing Hans von Bülow during his orchestral rehearsals. Although Strauss is known for many operas and tone poems, his most widely known operas include Salome, Elektra, and Der Rosenkavalier, and his tone poems titled Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration and An Alpine Symphony. George Richard Strauss's accomplishments are too numerous to detail here. The talented German composer and conductor continued creating new pieces all the way up until a year prior to his death in 1949 at the age of 85.

Haunted Sault Ste. Marie (Soo)

Locals call it "The Soo." Sault Ste. Marie is the name of two cities that sit across the St. Mary's River from each other. One in Michigan and one in Ontario, Canada. For Michigan, this is its oldest city and was established by the French in 1671. The Upper Peninsula almost seems to be in a different world when it comes to the state of Michigan as it is separated from the mainland of the state by not only water, but also the island of Mackinac. The paranormal is strong here. For 16 years, the Michigan ParaCon was held in the Soo and the hosts of that continue to run paranormal events there. That's because there are several haunted locations here. Join us for the history and hauntings of Sault Ste. Marie!

The Upper Peninsula was home for centuries to a variety of indigenous groups. These included the Dakota, Lakota and Nakoda Sioux, also known as the Seven Council Fires. The Ojibwe migrated from the East Coast into the area starting in the 1300s and they pushed out the Sioux. The rapids of St. Mary's River inspired them to call what would become the Soo, Baawitigong, which means "at the cascading rapids." The first Europeans to settle would be the French and they changed the name to Saulteaux (soul toe), which means "rapids" in French, which developed into Saults de Sainte-Marie. (souls de sont marie) The first major structure was a Jesuit mission founded by French missionaries Claude Dablon and Jacques Marquette in 1668. That makes this city one of the oldest in the country. It IS the oldest permanent European settlement in Michigan. In 1671, French officials conducted an elaborate ceremony that proclaimed France's appropriation of the territory around Lake Superior in the name of King Louis XIV. They invited a bunch of tribes to witness this. We're sure they were thrilled. 

The fur trade would take hold in the 18th century through the British-owned North West Company. The most influential European settlers at that time were the Johnstons. John Johnston was a Scots-Irish immigrant from Belfast who came to the Upper Peninsula to fur trade. He arrived in 1790 and after a while, his men abandoned him, so a prominent Ojibwe chief took him in. While there, Johnston noticed the chief had a beautiful daughter. He wanted to marry her, but the chief knew that these European men would abandon their native wives, so he told him to come back the next spring and then he could marry her. So Johnston did just that. Her name was - oh boy, clutch your pearls everybody as we try to pronounce this - Ozhaguscodaywayquay. (Oz hag us coe day way quay) Later she was baptized and took on the Anglicized name Susan Johnston. History would remember her as the Woman of the Green Prairie. The family would gain prominence with all parties in the area including Native Americans, First Nations, and Europeans from both Canada and the United States. The couple would go on to have eight children who learned fluent Ojibwe, English and French. 

Later, the Soo would come under British colonial rule. After the War of 1812, a US–UK Joint Boundary Commission came together to figure out what would be Canadian and what would be American using St. Mary's River. Through this, the United States banned Canadian traders from America. That kind of separation lasted through to the end of the 19th century when American and Canadian communities in Sault Ste. Marie were each incorporated as independent municipalities. The US built Fort Brady in 1822 to help protect the locks. In 1866, this old fort was abandoned and a new one was built upland and completed in 1893. During World War II, the fort was used to train troops in cold weather battle. After the war, the fort became surplus so it was sold to the Michigan College of Mining and Technology. In 1966, Fort Brady became the site of the Lake Superior State College of Michigan Technological University. Today, it's known as Lake Superior State University.

The locks have become a tourist attraction, but also serve a very important purpose. The falls of the river became a choke point for trade through shipping. Ships would have to be portaged around the rapids to get to Lake Superior. This was a long process, so then it was decided to just take the cargo itself around the rapids. So a ship would be unloaded, cargo portaged and loaded back onto another ship. Then it was decided to build a lock. This first American lock was called the State Lock and it opened in 1855. That lock has been expanded over the years and is known as the Soo Locks. The locks move nearly 86 million tons of cargo every year and allow freighters to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. The Canadian side built their own passage way in 1895, the Sault Ste. Marie Canal. The locks at this canal were the first in the world to run on their own power station. The Canadian Pacific Railway came through the city to help bypass the locks as well around 1888. The Canadian Sault Ste. Marie incorporated as a village in 1871. The Michigan side incorporated as a village in 1879. The two cities would join forces during World War II to protect the locks from Nazi attacks. 

The twin cities not only share a history, but they share a haunting reputation. Here are some of the haunted locations on the Michigan side of things:

The Second Childhood & Adults Too Shop

This was a thrift shop that was located at 221 W. Portage Avenue, but is permanently closed now. Portage Avenue got its name from the need for an overland portage around the rapids and is part of the Sault Ste Marie Historic Commercial District, which contains a total of 150 buildings. These are buildings with Italianate, Late Victorian, Richardsonian Romanesque and Commercial Brick styles. This is from the National Register of Historic Places Application, "Sault Ste. Marie was a roaring frontier river
town catering to crowds of sailors, laborers, Indians, and tourists looking for exciting times, and cheap liquor flowed like water. Then in August of 1886, following a hot, dry spell, fire broke out in a pile of wood chips next to a bakery and quickly spread through the wooden structures. When the conflagration was finally put out, most of Water Street lay in charred ruins. Merchants rebuilt, though some relocated to Portage and Ashmun Streets. Exactly a decade later, in August 1896, a gasoline stove in a restaurant blew up. Within hours, the flames, fanned by gale force winds, raced down Water Street consuming nearly every structure on the south side, over- half the businesses in town. That finished Water Street-as the City's commercial center and the businesses moved to Portage and Ashmun Streets. At this point, a narrow thoroughfare known as Plank Alley formerly ran south to Portage Avenue. Lined with saloons and paved with two inch planks, sixteen feet long, it comprised the main route to Water Street in the early days." So that's how Portage Street became a prime spot and clearly fire was an issue in the heart of the city. The original structure that is now the thrift shop is believed to have been built by a sea captain and his family ran a store out of it. That captain's spirit is said to haunt the place and his disembodied footsteps have been heard often on an upper floor. There was a doll dressed as a Christmas caroler that got moved to different locations in the store overnight. 

Palace Saloon

The Palace Saloon is a three-story stone building located at 200 W. Portage Avenue and serves up Mexican and American cuisine. The building was built in 1903 and was originally The Brunswick Hotel. The name came from the bar that was installed. Apparently Brunswick was a company that made pool tables and bars and this was brought in by the railroad. This was a speakeasy during Prohibition. A man named Sam was the first owner to start the Palace Saloon and it passed through his family.This restaurant has activity throughout the building from the basement to the top floor. A full-bodied apparition of a man in black who has a wide brimmed hat has been seen sitting in one of the booths, #3, many times. A lady with a big hat in 1920s attire is seen sitting with him sometimes. Employees said that contractors working in the basement ended up leaving because footsteps walking above them when no one was in the building were so unnerving they couldn't take it. A waitress was so scared when she was there one night and heard lots of footsteps that she actually called the police to come because she thought someone had broken in. And people have been touched on their back. An employee was really spooked after something he couldn't see brushed past him on the stairs. Some people believe that the owner Sam is a spirit here. 

The Hotel Ojibway 

The Hotel Ojibway is said to be the finest building in the city and has stood here since 1927. The hotel sits overlooking the Soo Locks. The hotel originally had and Egyptian architectural style and decor and was a luxury hotel offering the finest in amenities at the time with a barber shop and beauty shop. It opened with a grand gala on New Year's Eve in 1927. The pollen-free air blowing in over Lake Superior brought hay fever sufferers looking for relief. In 1947, a couple who managed the hotel, Leon and Beatrice Deglman, bought the hotel. Leon eventually passed and Beatrice took over managing by herself until her death. Famous people like boxers Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis have stayed here as well as President George H.W. Bush in 1992. Today, the hotel is run by Wyndham and features over 100 guest rooms. There seems to be several spirits here. One of them is the spirit of a tall man wearing a top hat. Guests and employees have reported seeing this full-bodied apparition wandering through the lobby area. He is always very well dressed and some people think he is Leon. The most haunted location is Room 616 and guests see and hear a woman in this room. People believe that this is Beatrice. Other activity includes doors opening on their own and housekeeping gets some help. Rooms are sometimes made up when the maid arrives to turn over the room after a check-out. Guests report their suitcases unpacking themselves. Michigan Paranormal Soul Tribe investigated in 2022 and they said, "During our short Estes Method session at the Ojibway Hotel, we believed we were speaking with a male and female couple. While trying to ask questions about who they were, the man tried to silence the woman by talking over her multiple times."

Antlers Restaurant

The Antlers Bar & Restaurant is located at 804 E. Portage Avenue and is kind of an odd looking building. It looks like it is tall enough to be two stories, but there are only windows at the bottom of the building on the front. On the side of the building there are what look to be windows on the second level, but they are all closed up. It looks as though an addition was added to the other side at some point and this is just one level. The outside is covered in stone. The interior gives a log cabin vibe and has 200 mounted animals. The original name of this location was The Bucket of Blood Saloon and it was built in 1903. During Prohibition, this became a speakeasy and brothel hidden behind the front of an innocent little ice cream parlor. The owners were arrested when the police realized that a lot more money was being made than what an ice cream shop would be pulling for revenue. The history of the restaurant goes back more than four generations. Owners include Tony Rogers, Jack Brulle, Al Lelievere, the Kinneys - who were two cops from Detroit and are the ones to accumulate most of the taxidermy - the Cunninghams and finally the Szabo family who still owns it today. There are thought to be two spirits here who are female. They are not named, but one is believed to have been a lady of the evening who may have been murdered here and the other was either a bartender or waitress. The activity usually involves electronic devices that turn on and off by themselves, like the televisions, and one night the jukebox turned itself on and started playing "The Star Spangled Banner" after the place had shut down for the evening. The spirits also open and close doors, cause the lights to flicker, and sometimes even push unsuspecting visitors on the stairs. A & E featured this location on an episode of "My Ghost Stories" in 2012.

The Satisfied Frog Pub 

The Satisfied Frog was located at 209 W. Portage Avenue, but is permanently closed now. It looks like that happened in March 2025. We're not sure what it is today. The building was built in 1897. Reported activity here includes nickels turning up on a formerly vacant bar. The most well-known spirit here is of a little girl. She has been heard and seen and likes to hang out towards the back of the building. A picture taken several years ago featured a picture of a young woman who had a gnarled, disembodied hand gripping her shoulder, but there was no other woman in the picture. Nobody knows where this hand came from.  

Museum Ship Valley Camp

The Museum Ship Valley Camp is located in the downtown area. The Valley Camp is an actual 550-foot long freighter that worked for 50 years before being parked in the marina and reopened as a museum.  The ship was built in 1917 and never had anything happen aboard it that would lead to haunting activity, but it does have several artifacts on board that could lead to activity. Two lifeboats from the tragic sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald are featured in a display at the museum. The Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest ship to sink in Lake Superior. Gordon Lightfoot wrote and composed the song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" in 1976. Verse 4 goes: 
"When suppertime came the old cook came on deck sayin'
"Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya"
At seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in, he said
"Fellas, it's been good to know ya"
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
And Verse 5:
Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters   

The bulk carrier got its start when the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin contracted with Great Lakes Engineering Works to make the ship. The keel was laid on August 7, 1957. The name Edmund Fitzgerald comes from the President of Northwestern Mutual at the time. The ship had three central cargo holds and the interior was said to be fairly luxurious with deep pile carpeting, tiled bathrooms, drapes over the portholes, and leather swivel chairs in the guest lounge. Passengers had two guest staterooms to choose from. Even the crew quarters were nicer than most ships with air conditioning and a large galley and fully stocked pantry. The pilothouse was outfitted with "state-of-the-art nautical equipment and a beautiful map room." On the day before the sinking, November 9, 1975, the Fitzgerald was carrying a full cargo of taconite ore pellets. She embarked from Superior, Wisconsin and was heading to a steel mill near Detroit. A severe storm blew up the next day with near-hurricane-force winds. This caused larged waves that reached as much as 35 feet high. The Fitzgerald began to sink a little after 7pm near the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario and she sent out the message, "I have a bad list, lost both radars. And am taking heavy seas over the deck. One of the worst seas I've ever been in." This didn't include a distress signal. The Captain of the Fitzgerald, Ernest M. McSorley, sent one last message that read, "We are holding our own." But they were not. All 29 crew members perished. No bodies would ever be recovered and the cause of the sinking was never known. Those who have studied the wreck have reasoned that maybe she was just swamped too much or ran aground on a shoal or a combination of things. Many new regulations were put in place after the sinking. 

Visitors and investigators have reported hearing coughing sounds and have seen shadowy figures along the decks of the Valley Camp at night. Maranda Crawford, the Sault Historic Sites Office Manager, recalled in an article by UP Matters, "One time I was up in one of the coal passer’s bedrooms and it was before we were open for the season, we were cleaning the room and stuff, and one of the lights was blinking. So, I unscrewed it and set it on the bed and not touching anything on the bed, it lit up and went out and I have never been back in the room since." Tim Ellis of the Upper Peninsula Paranormal Research Society told the Course of Horror Blog, "Over the years we have had the chance to investigate the Valley Camp and during those times witnessed a number of weird and unexplainable things.  We have witnessed what are known as shadow figures twice on the ship.  Once in the theater room walking back and forth, and the other in the galley area where the workers would have eaten their meals.  It was standing in the doorway and then gone as fast as we saw it.  One member had a piece of coal thrown at him in the coal room area, when no one was behind him that could have thrown it.  But our biggest catch there was the Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) we captured.  Two of our people were down in the coal room area asking questions and doing an audio recording.  On playback you hear a cough in the background and you hear one of our guys say….”Did you hear that?  Some just Coughed.”  Then the other person says, “or it sounded like someone coughing.”  And just as she is saying that, we captured a male voice saying right over the top of her words, 'I am coughing.'" 

Haunted House 

Jade wrote about a home that she lived at located at 408 Dillion Street, "I no longer live in the home but after moving out all of my family slowly started to let out strange things that happened to us while we stayed there. My brother had the most experiences, one where he was even carried downstairs in the night by something he could not see. He also saw what he thought to be a soldier in the basement while he was sleeping and heard his name being called out from the basement multiple times. I myself never saw anything but I always had the feeling of being followed or watched when I was in the basement or in the kitchen (specifically if the door to the basement was open) We also since moving in had seen lights flicker and dim for no reason and experienced it still until the day we left. I have heard from many friends and people I knew that the house is indeed haunted and is known to be. I have never been able to find any history on what could possibly be residing in the home and as I no longer live there i can not find an investigator to help. But if there is any information about this house that would be helpful my family and I would very much appreciate it."

Sault Ste. Marie in Ontario has its haunted locations as well. Paranormal Survivor shared a story in Episode 3 of Season 2 about a psychic who used a Ouija board in her home with a group of friends and unleashed nightly shadow figures and one of her friends started speaking in a strange tongue. She even claimed that spirits dueled on her lawn. The psychic told "The Sault Star" that it was the scariest experience of her life. There are haunted locations here too. 

Windsor Park Hotel in Ontario

The Windsor Hotel on Queen Street was built in 1895 by the architects Findlay and Foulis. The hotel was expanded in 1919 and again in 1931. That addition raised the hotel to nine stories and made this the tallest building in the city until 1974. This was a luxury hotel until bankruptcy shuddered its doors in 1996. Dr. Lou Lukenda bought the building and opened it as the Windsor Park Retirement Residence. In 2010, Algoma University bought the building to use as a student residence, which they had to sell for a bargain in 2015 because of declining enrollment and a tight budget. This next owner restored the building to be used as senior residences again. An anonymous woman wrote, "About nine year's ago a friend of mine and her mom were working there as maids. They got me, my sister and my mom jobs there as maid's. I was told about the hotel's history my first day working there, but like most people, didn't believe it at first. As part of the job, we had to push large metal stands full of sheets and towels and cleaning stuff. My first day on the job, I was told about the second and fourth floor of this hotel. The second floor had one large suite called the Victoria Room that was used for large meetings. It was said that a young woman was killed in there and that her spirit never left. I was told that no matter how hard the hotel tried to rent that floor out, no one would stay on it. The 4th floor was famous for a ghost everyone called Joe. I was told shortly after the hotel was built that he had stayed on the 4th floor and died from a gas leak in his room. I was also told you could tell when he was nearby because you would be able to smell heavy cigar smoke and hear whistling whether it was on the floor or in the room or in the elevator. Once again I didn't believe it. My first shift I had to clean the fourth floor. There were only four rooms on that floor and not one guest in any of them. In all the time that I worked there, I had cleaned the room where Joe died. I had experienced the heavy cigar smoke, the whistling and once I couldn't get the door to open even though it was not locked and there were no other people on that floor. When I finally got ready to leave, I was told everyone that worked there went thought the same thing I had. And that it was very rare when someone agreed to take a room on the 4th floor. The elevator also sometimes has a mind of its own and goes to the 4th and 5th floors on its own. A security guard who worked here in 2015 when the building served as an Algoma University residence, claimed that the fifth floor gave him the feeling that an eerie presence was there at times and he even said that a CCTV camera caught a flash of a fast-moving incandescent person.

The Algonquin Hotel

The Algonquin Hotel is located at 864 Queen Street East and was built in 1888 by local politician and businessman William H. Plummer. This is the only large hotel from the Victorian era that survives in the city. The hotel stands four-stories and the architecture features a central tower with a conical roof and was designed by architect J.B. Sweatts. This is a smaller hotel with only nine rooms. Ghost lore connected to the hotel claimed that a young man died in a fire on the third floor and that his spirit still wanders the building, mainly the basement. He sometimes appears on the top floor as well. Pilar Fiser, who has worked at the Algonquin since 2009, told the Penticton Herald in 2024 that she had "an unexplainable incident that occurred while the bar was closed due to COVID. Around 3 a.m., the alarm — designed to trigger only when something significant activates it — rang out. Upon checking, she found that all the doors to the bar were securely locked and there was no one inside, prompting her to review the security footage. The footage revealed something white moving back and forth in the bar. 'It was like a – I don’t know how to describe it – almost like a hollow,' said Fiser. 'It was nothing from outside, no light coming in through the windows.'" Fiser also said that she sometimes feels a presence in the basement and she thinks that it is a lost soul, but a good one. 

Sault Ste. Marie Canal

The Sault Ste Marie Canal we mentioned earlier was designated a National Historic Site in 1987 and this includes all the buildings that go with the canal, many of which were constructed from red sandstone excavated during the construction of the canal. In 1897, the Superintendent’s Residence was built. Also added was the powerhouse, the Administration Building, the Canalmen’s Shelter and Stores Building. The website Northern Ontario Travel reports about the canal, "The Superintendent’s Residence and Administration Building are both known as a hub of paranormal activity. The ghost of a young girl, in a frilly dress and with a cute-as-a-button smile, has been seen within both. Sometimes she giggles and disappears, other times she is a silent witness to a world that is no longer her own. Some have reported hearing a crying child, the sound so despondent that it rends the heart. Ghost hunters and lovers of the paranormal can visit, if they dare."  

An anonymous person shared, "A place where I lived from age 5-6 was on Wallace Terrace here in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. We lived in the upstairs apartment, which had a long stair case on the back roof that lead to the ground and one inside the apartment that lead to the front door and one small apartment downstairs. My mother used to tell me I would tell her of people in the closet crying. Later she said she had heard that a man had killed his two small children in my closet and then killed himself in there. I had lived in this place again many years later and I moved out not too long after moving back in. This place has now been turned into four apartment all in the same house.

The twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie harbor history and quite possibly some spirits. Is Sault Ste. Marie haunted? That is for you to decide!