HGB Ep. 355 - Forepaugh's Restaurant

Moment in Oddity - Horned Helmet of Henry VIII (Suggested by: Mike Roge)

King Henry VIII was a pretty despicable guy. He made a sport of executing people who disagreed with him or beheading a wife. So its not surprising to find out that he had some pretty bizarre headpieces that come off as devilish. One of these headpieces was an armet, which is a helmet that protects the whole skull including the face, that was given to him by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian I in 1514. This has become more widely known as the Horned Helmet and was created by Konrad Seusenhofer, one of medieval Europe’s most prominent armorers, as part of a complete set of armor. This helmet is bizarre because it has these glasses pinned over eyes that have been formed to include even pupils, there are these spiraling horns, teeth formed in the mouth area and really large nose. People had originally wondered if it was made for a court jester because it was so weird and that it was meant for celebrations rather than protection in battle. And it probably was meant more for parades because wearing this thing in battle would have served as a good distraction as it would have made the enemies fall over laughing, rather than striking fear into them. Upon closer inspection of the helmet, one can see that it even has the added details of crow's feet around the eyes and stubble on the chin. Today, the helmet can be seen at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, England. The Horned Helmet of King Henry VIII, certainly is odd! 

This Month in History - Dafydd ap Gruffydd Hanged, Drawn and Quartered

In the month of October, on the 3rd, in 1283, the Prince of Wales, Dafydd ap Gruffydd (Dawvid op Gruffid), became the first nobleman in Britain to be hanged, drawn and quartered. This form of execution would reign for 700 years. Dafydd was the son of Gruffydd who had been taken hostage by the English King Henry III and imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1244. He tried to escape by tying bed sheets into a rope and climbing out the window, but the sheet rope broke and he fell to his death. After years of Dafydd fighting with his brothers, he became the Prince of Wales in 1282. In 1283, the English squashed the Welsh resistance and Wales has been part of the United Kingdom ever since. Dafydd was sentenced to death. The form of execution was particularly barbaric. Dafydd was dragged by a horse to the site of the execution and then hanged by the neck, but not in a way that would snap his neck. He strangled slowly and then was lowered to the ground and tied down. His manhood was removed and he was disemboweled. These were all thrown into a fire. For some people who underwent this kind of death, they were still alive to see their organs being burned up in the fire. The heads were placed on a pike on London Bridge as a warning.

Forepaugh's Restaurant (Suggested by: Lisa Heutmaker)

Forepaugh's Restaurant was once housed within the beautiful mansion for which it is named. The restaurant shuttered in March of 2019 after the death of its Executive Chef. Before closing, this was considered one of the most haunted restaurants in Minnesota. There are thought to be at least three spirits in this former home, including the man who had it built. One has to wonder if these ghosts are lonely now. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Forepaugh's Restaurant.

Joseph Lybrandt Forepaugh was born in 1837 in Pennsylvania. He moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1858 and got involved with the dry goods business. He partnered with another man and they called it, Forepaugh and Justice. By the time he was 36, Forepaugh was the senior partner in the Midwest's largest dry goods store. Later, he would open up other businesses and invested in real estate. On October 19th, 1862 Forepaugh married Mary Lanpher and they went on to have five children. During the Civil War, Forepaugh's store provided supplies to the Union troops. In 1870, the Forepaughs would build their first of two mansions in St. Paul.

This was a large and audacious Victorian home that spread out over five lots in a formerly exclusive neighborhood in the historic downtown area of St. Paul. This neighborhood is known as Irvine Park, which is west of downtown Saint Paul. The neighborhood was platted by fur trader Henry Mower Rice and shipping magnate John Irvine, for whom it was named, in 1849. A New England-style public square was planned in the middle of the neighborhood and named Irvine Park. In 1881, the Pendergast family paid to have a beautiful 3-tiered fountain added to the park. Many mansions were built here, but eventually most became boarding houses that deteriorated over time. By the 1970s, around ninety percent of the homes were unlivable and the city was going to tear down most of the homes and build high-rise apartments. Thankfully, that didn't happen. 

One of the beautiful homes that is still here is the Dr. Justus Ohage House that was built in 1889. It is Victorian in style and has three stories. The Doctor designed it for his wife Augusta with a tower and yellow bricks to resemble the home she grew up in as a child. Unfortunately, she died right before moving into the house. He was left to raise their five kids alone. His claim to fame was performing America's first successful gallbladder surgery. *Fun Fact: The blue John McDonald house next to the Doctor's house has an interesting claim to fame. This is one of those huge houses that they managed to move from one location to another using a flatbed semi. This took place in 1978 and it had to be left overnight on the street and it got a ticket for being illegally parked. This is the only St. Paul home to receive a parking ticket. We imagine it might be the only house to receive such a dubious distinction.*

Forepaugh had his three-story mansion designed so that every window looked out over the manicured grounds and gardens. There are several covered porches. The interior of the house had hand carved wood, chandeliers, fireplaces, a ballroom on the top floor and the finest furniture. The Forepaughs hired multiple servants to help run their home and this included a young Irish maid named Molly. Forepaugh took a liking to Molly. Before long, the two were wandering off to locked rooms and carrying on a torrid affair. Mary Forepaugh eventually walked in on the two while they were in bed together. She understandably was angry and she demanded that Joseph take the family away to Europe, which he did in a bid to save his marriage. 

Molly soon found out she was pregnant. And now she was alone. She fell into a deep depression and one day, she climbed up to the third floor of the mansion and she hanged herself outside a window.  The Forepaughs returned to St. Paul, but Mary would not move back to their former mansion and so they built a new mansion that overlooked the other one. This was on Summit Avenue and was completed in 1891. Forepaugh spent a lot of time looking out at the old property and even walked the grounds of his former home in a real state of melancholy. In early July of 1892, Joseph boarded a streetcar and headed to the woods near Selby and Hamline. There, he committed suicide using a gun. He was reported missing and took a few days before one of Forepaugh's grandchildren that had seen him get on the streetcar, was able to guide the police to the area where they found his body. No suicide note was left, so people have had to speculate as to why he decided to end it all. One reason was thought to pertain to his finances. He was suffering some difficulty with money and he worried about becoming poor. The other reason is that he either felt guilt over Molly committing suicide or he was sad about her death and the death of their unborn child thirty years earlier.

The Forepaughs had sold their Irvine Park home to a well known Civil War general named John Henry Hammond. As we said, many mansions in this neighborhood became boarding houses and that happened to this mansion in the mid-1900s. A WWI and WWII veteran named George became the caretaker of the boarding house. One day, he was attacked and hurt very badly. He had to leave his job, which was hard because he was very attached to the former Forepaugh house. Eventually, the house deteriorated and would have been torn down had a private company not bought it in 2007. This company refurbished the house and opened it as a French restaurant. It changed hands and became the Forepaugh's Restaurant until closing last year. There were eleven dining rooms. One of the neatest rooms was the wine cellar, which had glass doors that opened into a dining room and it had a copper ceiling and limestone walls. Many original items were still part of the restaurant including the front doors, the elaborate staircase just in from the front door and there were old photos of the house hanging on the wall. The bar was amazing and a rooftop terrace gave a great view of the park. The Fitzgerald room was a private dining room with a skylight and shrouded in curtains.

Many people have claimed to have experienced unexplained things inside the home throughout the years. There are claims that three ghosts call this place home. Of course, there is Molly the maid who killed herself here. Then there is Joseph Forepaugh. And strangely, George is said to haunt the place too even though he didn't die inside the house. There has been so much activity that Forepaugh’s Restaurant has been given the title as the most haunted restaurant in Minnesota. There is a fireplace inside the restaurant that many believe is a portal where ghosts enter and exit the home. 

Joseph has apparently come back to his former home even though he did not die there. Perhaps because he carried on his affair with Molly here. Joseph's full-bodied apparition has been seen and he is usually wearing pinstriped trousers, a black waistcoat, silk vest and derby hat. His spirit roams the entire mansion with his most favorite spots being the main staircase and the basement. The basement often features cold spots, rustling noises and the lights flicker. Over time, employees figured out that it was best if the lights were kept on in the basement. This seemed to keep Joseph happy. When he is angry, he makes a mess. He is blamed for moving tables and chairs around the dining rooms too. Joseph's spirit has appeared in pictures. He is usually seen standing next to the prettiest woman in the room. Another photo featured Joseph's hand reaching out to touch a bride’s knee. We'd post the photo, but it disappeared and many think Joseph himself took it after it was put on display.

Employees claim that Molly's room, the third floor dining room where she hanged herself, is the center of much of the unexplained activity. Molly likes to manifest poltergeist activity. There are disembodied footsteps heard in here, the lights turn themselves back on after being turned off and people have experienced feeling tingles as though something electric is touching them. Figures have been seen in a mirror in the room as well. One of the creepiest stories is told about the police and their dogs. The alarm system had gone off and there was a lot of activity recorded. Enough that it was certain that someone had broken inside. The police were called out and they showed up with their dogs and walked the entire house. When they got to Molly's room, the dogs started whimpering and refused to go inside the room. They kept trying to bolt away. The police found no one in the room and no one in the entire house. Molly's ghost likes to appear to brides. She has appeared in a photo with dark hair and smiling with adorning eyes at someone not in the picture. Employees also said they saw Molly during a costume party. At first they thought she was a party-goer who was wearing an authentic period dress. That was until she walked down a hall and then just disappeared. She apparently has a knack for going through walls.

We've heard this story from other locations like the Winchester Mansion where an employee is closing up for the night and they flick off all the lights, lock up and head to their car. Upon looking back at the house, they notice that the lights are back on. That happened to an employee one night and the light that was on was coming from Molly's room. He went back inside to check the room and turned the light back off. He locked up again and headed back to his car, only to notice that the light was back on and it seemed brighter. Now he knew that it was not just something he had overlooked. He went back inside and found a lit candle on one of the tables. He yelled aloud, "Molly, I am tired and I want to go home. No more games." He blew out the candle and locked up again and this time the room stayed dark. Apparently, Molly will listen when asked to stop her prankster activity. A customer was using the restrooms and when he came out he said that he heard a woman singing in the upper levels of the mansion. No one was up on the upper level. 

The other spirit in the house is said to be George who was attacked here. The assistant general manager was named Ben Bush and he claimed to have had many weird experiences, especially when it came to George. George had been a caretaker and now that Ben was a caretaker of sorts, George liked to put him to the test. The two eventually became friends and Ben even claimed that they would watch sports on the television together in the office. Glasses get thrown when employees are setting up for receptions and no one is sure which spirit might be doing this.

The way that Molly's story was discovered seems to have been through a psychic reading. Many people feel that Molly just wanted her story told and that the activity from her tapered off after the reading. Paranormal investigators were allowed to investigate the restaurant when it was open and they documented the lights turning off and on not only by themselves, but also on command. Shadowy figures were picked up on equipment too. The existence of all three spirits has also been recorded, but investigators think they have picked up other spirits too, which is why some believe the fireplace is a portal. There could be as many as seven spirits here. One time, a guest was taking a tour and under their breath they said, "Too bad the place is haunted." Right after that glasses at a nearby waiters station started shaking.

Hannah Logan visited Forepaugh's in October of 2018 and she writes of her visit, "So, did I have any spooky experiences at Forepaugh’s Restaurant myself? Nothing that stood out, though I will say that I did have an odd feeling while standing where Molly is said to have hung herself. But, was that was a feeling of sadness that this poor young woman was abandoned and alone to the point where she felt she had to commit suicide? Or a supernatural touch? Then later, as we were eating, I felt chills up my spine when Ben was sharing his experiences and told us that he could feel George touching him right there in front of us. But again, were those goosebumps because he was a good storyteller? Or something else?"

Michael Norman is the author of The Nearly Departed, Minnesota Ghost Stories and Legends and he was interviewed by mprnews.org. The article said, "'Last time I went, there was a photograph kept behind the bar. They call it 'The Ghost Bride." The photograph features a couple posing at their wedding reception, which was held at the restaurant in the 1990s. It's a lovely memory — until you see the disembodied arm floating on the staircase. Norman tracked down the couple in the photograph. 'Both of them said there was no one standing back there when the picture was taken.' He keeps a copy of the photograph with his research. He won't say whether it has swayed his belief in the supernatural. 'I don't take the position as a believer,' he said. 'I've never seen a ghost — but that doesn't mean they don't exist.'"

Forepaugh's Restaurant was housed in a beautiful Victorian mansion and we hope that this location is once again put to good use. Not only so that people can enjoy the beauty of its interior, but so that the spirits will not be lonely. Is the former Forepaugh's Restaurant haunted? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:

https://eatsleepbreathetravel.com/dining-with-ghosts-at-forepaughs-minnesotas-most-haunted-restaurant/

Irvine Park Walking Tour:  https://www.bigboytravel.com/minnesota/stpaul/irvine-park-walking-tour/

HGB Ep. 347 - Griggs Mansion

Moment in Oddity - The High Line or Death Avenue

Above 10th Avenue in Manhattan on the West Side lies a train line known as the High Line. Today, it has been transformed into a beautiful park, but the history behind this rail line lead this lane into being nicknamed "Death Avenue." There was a need in the city for a freight train to carry goods to and from the warehouses and factories on the West Side. There was just one problem. This is Manhattan, so it was incredibly busy and crowded. Running a train through cross streets, traffic and pedestrians would not be a good idea. But that didn't stop the New York Central freight line. They built rail lines down the middle of 10th and 11th Avenue in 1846. Shortly thereafter, the maiming and deaths began. To try to help the situation, the West Side Cowboys were born. These men would ride on horseback, waving red flags and lanterns, in front of the trains to warn people that the train was coming. It was a dangerous job and not as effective as it was hoped it would be. By 1908, well over 430 people had been killed by the trains. Some tracks were moved underground and eventually this set of tracks was moved above the street and named the High Line. The last train ran here in 1980. We can only imagine that witnessing a cowboy riding down the middle of 10th Avenue in Manhattan, waving a flag and screaming "The train, the train" while a locomotive rumbled behind him, certainly was odd!

This Month in History - World UFO Day

In the month of July, on the 2nd, in 2001, the planet started observing World UFO Day. UFO stands for unidentified flying object and this particular day was founded by UFO hunter Haktan Akdogan. The day is meant to help spread awareness that there may be life in existence on other planets. The hope has been that enough pressure will get international governments to come clean about what they have in their UFO files. People celebrate the day by hosting watch parties  where people spend hours watching the skies for weird anomalies. The date was picked to commemorate the rumored crash of an UFO in Roswell, New Mexico on July 2, 1947. Some people choose to observe World UFO Day on June 24th instead because this is when the first ever official report of a UFO in the United States was made by avaitor Kenneth Arnold. Either way, make sure next year you have your lunar cocktails ready and your bags packed because who won't be ready for a trip off this planet? As long as there are no anal probes involved!

Griggs Mansion (Suggested by: Sharon Remackel)

The Griggs Mansion in St. Paul, Minnesota was originally built for wealthy merchant Chauncey Griggs in the 1880s. This house stands on a street full of historic homes and although it is quite beautiful, it has been through several hands. No one knows why it changed hands so many times, but it seems as though no one managed to live there for more than a couple of years, save for an art school that took up residence for twenty-five years. Could that be why this home is rumored to be one of the most haunted houses in the state? Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Griggs Mansion.

St. Paul is one of Minnesota's biggest cities and has a strategic position along a deep bend of the Mississippi River. This was originally land inhabited by the Ojibwa and Sioux tribes and it would be the Sioux tribe that would make a treaty with Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike in 1805 that would give the US possesion of the land. Fort Snelling was built here first, followed by settlers like tavern owner Pierre Parrant whose Pig's Eye Tavern gave the settlement its name, Pig's Eye Landing. Parrant was one of the settlement's more notorious residents and was a whiskey salesman with a crooked eye and a big troublemaker. Catholic missionary Lucien Galtier arrived in 1841 and built a log chapel that he dedicated to the apostle Paul and the town would take on the name St. Paul. This town would become the capital city for the Minnesota Territory, which officially became a state in 1858. The Northern Pacific Railway helped the city to grow and soon St. Paul was the gateway to the Pacific Northwest. As the Depression took root in the 1920s, gangsters made St. Paul their safe haven. St. Paul continued to grow and is the second largest city in the state. Chauncey Griggs arrived in the city in 1856 and would build his mansion here in 1883.

Chauncey Wright Griggs was born in Connecticut in 1832 to a family that was known as good New England stock. It as written of the Griggs, "In whose tombs scandal never slept." By the age of fourteen, Griggs was already working as a clerk in an office while he continued his education. He decided to go into teaching initially, but found it boring and decided to move to Detroit and go to business college. He found work as a clerk in a bank there after graduating and was soon talking about business pursuits with some of the clients. The furnishing business is where he started his mercantile pursuits, but by 1856 he decided pursuits further west would be more prosperous and he was right. Griggs was only twenty-two years old at this time and he set up a general store in St. Paul. He knew that railroads would be needed, so he set his sights on promoting the building of the railroads as a contractor and was eventually a coal and lumber merchant.

Through all this, Chauncey had a girl back home in Connecticut, Martha Gallup, and he brought her out to St. Paul and married her in 1859. They would go on to have five children. Griggs and Martha had just set up home when the Civil War broke out and he joined the Third Minnesota Infantry where he was soon promoted to Captain. He fought in Nashville and helped General Grant with his pursuits in Vicksburg. In 1863, he became ill and had to resign from his post. He recovered and not only kept up his business pursuits, but entered politics serving first for two years in the State Legislature and then seven years in the Minnesota Senate. The Griggs had amassed a small fortune and decided to build a grand mansion next to Grigg's business partner, Addison Foster, on Summit Avenue at number 476. Eventually, Summit Avenue would be filled with Victorian mansions and today is the longest stretch of Victorian-era homes in the United States. On this 4.5 mile stretch, of the 440 original homes built here, 373 still stand. *Fun Fact: Frank Lloyd Wright called the street "the worst collection of architecture in the world."*

The four-story Griggs Mansion was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style by architect Clarence Johnston, one of Minnesota's most prolific architects. The mansion was constructed from Bayfield brownstone, which is found in Wisconsin along the Lake Superior coast and is a quartz sandstone. There are these wonderful turret like parts of the structure and arched windows. The property included a carriage house and cost $47,000 to build and was completed in 1885. There were twenty-four rooms and all floors had high ceilings causing people to describe the rooms as cavernous. The interior also had beautiful wood-paneled walls and stain glass windows. The Griggs didn't live in this house for very long. After four years, the family decided to relocate to the West Coast. They just missed out on the streetcars finally arriving just south of Summit Avenue, granting access to downtown more easily.

In 1910, the house was heavily damaged in a fire that nearly gutted the entire mansion. A New York interior decorating company restored the house and updated it for around $6,000. Roger B. Shephard bought the house and when he died, his family donated the house to the St. Paul Gallery and School of Art. This was in 1939. At this time, the front dormer was replaced by a skylight to bring more light into the painting studio. The school remained at this location for twenty-five years until a new center was built. Carl Weschke (Wesk) was a publisher of occult books under Llewellyn Publications and he owned the house throughout the 1960s. (Llewellyn was his middle name.) He is considered the father of New Age and grew up with spiritualist grandfather that heavily influenced him. For a time the house was broken up into apartments and today is a private residence. We're not sure how many people actually owned this home, but it really seems to have been like a "hot potato" as so many people have described it with families spending a lot of money hiring staff and buying furnishings and then moving out very quickly.

There are reports of the mansion having at least six distinct spirits roaming its rooms. Sharon had written us about Griggs Mansion, "Have you ever done a cast on the Griggs Mansion in St. Paul, MN? It’s considered to be the most haunted house in St. Paul, possibly, even in Minnesota. The reason I’m asking is that in 1963, I think, I spent the summer working as a Jill of all trades for the summer. My first real job. I did clerical work, clean up work and whatever needed to be done. That was the last year that the St. Paul Art Center was there. After that, the mansion was bought by Carl L. Wescheke who was a publisher of occult books and the founder of Llewelyn Publishing, which publishes FATE magazine. He was there for a couple of years. The home has an EXTENSIVE history of haunting and there’s about seven or eight spirits inhabiting it. I experienced several 'haunted' things during that summer, I have always been 'sensitive' to the paranormal. (remember, playing in cemeteries - lol). So didn’t allow it to affect me too much. Also, at this time I had no clue about the reputation of the home. Going forward to the early 80’s I found a book called the Haunted Heartland which had the Griggs Mansion in it. Imagine my shock when I found out about it’s reputation!!! It also explained some of the strange things I encountered while I was there, that summer."

At one point, Carl Weschke had asked a university student to watch his house while he was away in February of 1965. On an evening during that time, a neighbor made a frantic call to the police department claiming that he could hear cries coming from inside the Griggs Mansion next door. Patrolman Jerry Dolan and his partner were sent out to investigate. When they arrived at the house, it was dark and quiet. They checked the front door and found it locked, so they went around to the back door. It was unlocked and they pushed it open. As they entered the house, they swept the room with their flashlights and found a disheveled young man crouching in a corner, overcome with fear. He was shivering uncontrollably. Then all of a sudden they heard a howling coming from somewhere in the house. The officers did a quick search of the house, but found no one else in the house. Officer Dolan claimed that his hair stood on end the whole time. They  wrapped the young man in blankets and loaded him in their patrol car. They asked him what happened and he cried out, "I have seen death!" They took him to the hospital where a doctor found that he had nothing physically wrong with him, but that he was in a state of deep shock.

Nick Woltman wrote in the Twin Cities Pioneer Press in 2016 about three reporters from the Pioneer Press who tried to stay overnight at the Griggs Mansion back in 1969, "They were invited by the house’s then-owner, a local publisher of books on the paranormal named Carl Weschcke, to investigate rumors that it was inhabited by ghosts — but they fled before dawn after hearing what sounded like footsteps approaching their room. 'We all agreed on one thing,' they wrote. 'There is no prize on earth that could get us to spend a single night alone in that great stone house.' The article also shares the owner at the time, Carl Weschke's, experiences. Mr. Weschke had the home renovated, which included replacing the windows. After that, one window kept opening by itself. Weschke finally got frustrated and nailed the window shut. The next morning, he found the window open again. He had told Woltman that he was in the library when he saw a man standing in the doorway and explained, "Neither of us moved. There was no sound. We just kept standing there face to face. He wore a dark suit. His face was long and thin. His hair was bushy and white. He seemed to have an expression of surprise when he saw me.” And then the man just faded away. Once when he was on the back staircase, he felt himself being picked up and tossed in the air.

This man was seen by many people in the house. Another person who saw him was Dr. Delmar Kolb. In the early 1950s, Dr. Kolb joined the art school staff and he needed a place to stay, so the school allowed him to move into an apartment down in the basement. One night he awoke with a start when he felt two cold fingers pressed to his forehead. He had broken into a cold sweat too. Kolb flipped on the light and saw a blue flash or streak that disappeared. Two nights later he was startled awake once again and could make out a figure at the end of his bed. This looked to be a man of average size, dressed in a black suit and top hat. We're not sure if there was a light on somewhere that enabled him to see this, but we wouldn't be surprised since he had the scary experience two nights before. At first, the teacher thought that maybe this was someone who had broken into the house, but when it turned and walked into the brick wall, he knew he had just seen a ghost. This was not the only report of this man in a suit and hat. Several people claimed to have seen him.

We went back and found the 1969 article from the Pioneer Press that the reporters wrote relaying their experiences in the house. They had brought a psychic named Roma Harris with them. He said, "There has been much sorrow here, a lot of suffering … things have been done that shouldn’t have happened. There was a general — or something — here. I see a blue uniform with lots of gold on it." Roma also felt the passing of the maid at the stairs and said, "Someone was pushed and fell here … the police were called … the person was permanently injured … but it was an accident." He continued, "There is so much activity here … so many who have lived here. The house has a heaviness about it — like a ball and chain." He left and the reporters stayed. Throughout the night, the men felt a sense of dread, especially near the staircase. Around 1:20 a.m.,  there were five distinct thumps like heavy footsteps and then silence. At 3:35 a.m., the men heard a creaking sound that was not like the house settling, but rather sounded like soft footsteps. These were on the stairs. They stopped after a minute. One reporter ran over to the stairs and saw no one. At 3:45 a.m., there were some squeaking sounds on the stairs as though someone were walking down or up the stairs. They packed up at 4 a.m. and decided they would never return again.

One of the other spectres thought to be in the house might be Chauncey Griggs himself, which is odd since he didn't live in the house very long and didn't die here. As we just shared from the Pioneer Press article, Roma saw a man in a blue uniform. Many people believe that this was Griggs in his officer uniform. There was a gardener employed here at some point named Charles Wade. He was very dedicated to his work and could be intense. Wade often used some of the books in the library to help him in his gardening efforts. When he died, people believed his spirit returned to the house and now occasionally flips through the books in the library trying to continue his work on some unfinished business. There are also claims of a teen-aged girl named Amy being in the house. No one knows at what point she lived here, but she had played the piano in the mansion. And she may be doing that still in ghostly form. Roma had claimed to feel this girl as well. Three students moved into the basement apartment and one of them saw an apparition too, only this one was not a man in a black suit. This was the head of a child floating above his bed. Many students at the school claimed to feel as though something were watching them or hovering behind them.

One of the more well known spirits here is said to belong to the maid that the medium Roma had claimed he felt at the stairs. But the story about her doesn't seem to include an accident on the stairs, but rather a suicide. She had a romance that didn't end well and she went into a depression. This was in 1915 and she made the horrible decision to hang herself off the fourth floor landing of the stairs. Shortly thereafter, she started appearing to people in the house. Two of these people were a servant and a butler in the fourth floor hallway. Many people have a feeling of foreboding when they climb the stairs, especially near the fourth floor. Could this be one of the entities that the reporters heard during their investigation?

Other experiences that have been reported are people being shaken in their beds, shadowy apparitions, rasping coughs from empty rooms, light bulbs shattering, bags falling off shelves and jumping across the floor and the feeling of something unseen walking by them. With all these stories, it's hard not to believe that something strange is going on inside the mansion. Is the Griggs Mansion haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 161 - The Palmer House

 
Moment in Oddity - The Lake in the Gulf

Some have called this location the "Jacuzzi of Despair." And it would seem it is a type of hell on Earth, or actually, under the water. It's approximately a days ride aboard a boat from New Orleans. Scientists have been amazed by this discovery in 2014 and Erik Cordes, associate professor of biology at Temple University, has said of this lake at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, “It was one of the most amazing things in the deep sea. You go down into the bottom of the ocean and you are looking at a lake or a river flowing. It feels like you are not on this world." This is a circular pool that measures about 100 feet in circumference and about 12 feet deep and is around 3,300 feet below the surface of the Gulf. The water in the lake is five times as salty as the water surrounding it and contains toxic levels of hydrogen sulfide and methane. Anything that swims into this area dies. Only bacterial lifeforms like shrimp and tube worms manage to survive this deadly lake. Scientists look at the lake as a chance to study what life on other planets would be like. You know, because some day you might go to space and end up in the bottom of some toxic lake. This lake at the bottom of the Gulf, certainly is odd!

This Day in History - Genie the Wild Child Discovered

On this day, November 4th, in 1970, a child given the name Genie is taken to Children's Hospital and she will come to be known as the Wild Child. Genie had suffered horrid abuse for the first thirteen years of her life. Her mother had brought her into a welfare office seeking help for the blind. It was after Genie was taken to the hospital that the world found out that she spent those first thirteen years locked in a bedroom, tied to a child's potty wearing diapers. That was during the day. At night, she was bound inside a sleeping bag and an enclosed crib. If she spoke a word, she was beaten. No one spoke to her and her father only growled at her. She was given the name Genie by Social Services because she reminded them of the genies that were kept in bottles. Her parents were charged with abuse and her father committed suicide before his court appearance. Genie was studied for a few years until funding dropped off. She traversed through foster homes where her abuse continued. It is believed that she is living in an adult foster care home somewhere in California. The movie Mockingbird Don't Sing was made about Genie and her tragic life.

The Palmer House (Suggested by Katie Flanay)

Minnesota became the 32nd state in America on May 11, 1858. The Minnesota city of Sauk Centre has a long history as a wild west of the Midwest. In this city sits The Palmer House Hotel, which is both a hotel and a restaurant. It has been a popular place for over 100 years. It was not the first building on this location. An earlier hotel burned to the ground. The Palmer brought innovation to the city with its glitz that included electricity. There are stories of people who have died at the hotel and some claim that there are dozens of restless spirits in this most haunted location. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Palmer House.

Minnesota was once inhabited by the Dakota and Ojibwe Native American tribes. They were eventually pushed back by European settlers from Germany and Scandinavia. In 1762, it became part of Spanish Louisiana. Land west of the Mississippi became part of the United States after the Revolutionary War with the rest of Minnesota coming along after the Louisiana Purchase. Logging would become a main part of the economy and sawmills would dot the land. Nearly smack dab in the middle of Minnesota sits the city of Sauk Centre.

Sauk Centre is 117 miles west of St. Paul. Sauk Lake sits nearby and it is from this lake that the city takes its name. The name was initially suggested by Alexander Moore. The Sauk Centre Herald was the first continuous newspaper west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains. The first issue was published by Joseph Simonton June 6, 1867. *Fun Fact: A printer's devil is a person serving at or below the level of apprentice in the printing industry. (A Twilight Zone episode had that name too.)* The second publisher of the paper, Charles F. Hendryx, said of the town, "When I came to town in July 1879, the frontier town was like a child in swaddling clothes and when I left in 1903, it was like a young child running around in knickers." The city was a true wild-west town hosting settlers and trappers. In the early days, there were two flour mills and one grain elevator. A rail line brought two trains a day, the stagecoach was running and a steamboat brought produce and passengers down Sauk Lake.

Sauk Center House - Sauk Center Historical Society Collection

The old Sauk Centre House was the city's first hotel. It was built along the stage coach line as a stop around 1863. It quickly became a social gathering place. Which meant it housed some extras like a brothel. Unfortunately, on June 26, 1900 it burned to the ground. There were no reports of anybody dying in the fire. Many people in the city were glad to see it go as they did not approve of the side activities going on here. Businessman Ralph L. Palmer, along with his wife Christena, built a new hotel in the former's footprint and Ralph was all about going big. He wanted this new hotel to be bigger and better than the Sauk Center House and he went for glitz with the goal of giving the city its first class hotel. When it opened, the hotel had 38 rooms and a spacious gathering area. It was the first building in Sauk Center to have electricity. There were beautiful Austrian stained glass windows in the lobby that remain today.

The Palmers had two children, Hazel and Carlisle. The family lived at the hotel and Christena’s mother and brother, George Brandner, also worked at the hotel. The hotel was the cornerstone of the city's downtown area. Nobel Prize winner Sinclair Lewis had worked at the hotel and he included it in his 1920 novel, Main Street. In the novel, the hotel is called the Minniemashie House. There were several families from the town that called the hotel home. During the 1920s, with prohibition in full swing, the Palmer House became a place to headquarter the running of liquor. There were reports that tunnels under the hotel took liquor to other locations in the city. There was a flea maret at the hotel at one time too.

A major renovation began in 1993 of the hotel. Rooms were combined so that 38 rooms have become only 19 and each of these has their own bathroom. Jacuzzis have been added to some rooms as well. There is a restaurant and pub just off the lobby stocked with favorite cocktails and savory dishes that include home-baked goodies for dessert. There is also a conference room. They provide historic tours of the hotel and even ghost tours with a ghost hunt in the basement that is normally off limits to guests. They keep a log of ghost experiences because they are so frequent here.  When the place was renovated, everything was re-wired and updated. So how do you explain so many electrical disturbances from lights turning off and on without assistance and televisions flickering off and on? Kelley Freese became owner of the hotel in 2002. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Both guests and employees have had so many experiences that it is hard to keep track. Reports started back in the 1950s. The chef has heard footsteps moving across the wet floor when she is mopping all alone. A wet puddle will appear in the middle of the kitchen floor for no reason. Servers will set up the tables after dinner is over, so that they are ready for the next day. When they come in the next day, they will find that the silverware has been moved. A night clerk had a male guest come down and ask if he could get a beer. The clerk went into the pub and got a bottle of beer. The man asked how much he owed as he took out a $5 bill and the clerk wasn't sure what to do as he had no access to any money. He told the man he would either need to drink five more or he would have to give him change in the morning. The man fished out $1.25 and went upstairs. When the clerk told the owner about the interaction the next morning, the owner stated that no man was staying at the hotel with that description.

Kelley, the owner, has experienced some chilling paranormal occurrences. She was a skeptic before coming into possession of the hotel. She has felt what seemed like the palm of a hand grabbing the top of her head. She has had guests fling their room keys at her as they make a run for it in the middle of the night. She has seen a shadowy figure in the basement. Her husband was with her at the time and he thought the figure's eyes looked red and that it a wolf type creature. As the figure moved into the room further, all the light was blacked out and there was a strong malevolent feeling. Her husband said they should all go upstairs immediately. Kelley says it is the most chilling experience that she has ever had at her hotel.There is also a story that a psychic told Kelley there were bones in the basement. Kelley dug where she was told they were located and she found what looked like rib bones. She placed them in a box to show to her husband later. When she went to retrieve the bones, they were gone.

Ghost Adventures has filmed an episode here. My Ghost Story featured a couple in episode 15 that experienced a freaky possession type haunting while at the Palmer House. Darkness Radio with Dave Shraeder uses this as their supernatural base. They host events here often. Katie Heart had interned with Darkness Radio for a while. She is now co-host of One Bizarre Podcast and I asked her on Twitter if she ever experienced anything there. She tweeted, "There's always lots of activity there! We had the lights, and some movement as well. It was very interesting!" Psychic Echo Bodine claims that there are at least 40 individual ghosts at the hotel.

Ghost Stories Inc. visited the Palmer and had unexplained knocks on the wall of their hotel room. They figured out that the knocks sounded like the headboard of the beds bumping against the wall, but could not explain why this would come from an empty room. They picked up a young boy singing on a walkie talkie several times, including when asked if he could do it again. They had no children with them. A ball that they brought with them was moved from the hallway to the inside of a room. A couple members of the group also saw the apparition of a child crouched on the stairs. There is a story that a young boy died at the hotel, possibly of the flu, and there have been other reports of a young boy seen in the hallway playing with a ball.

Other ghosts reputed to have made the Palmer House their home in the afterlife are Raymond, Lucy and Hank. Raymond is a grumpy spirit that haunts the entire hotel with an emphasis on the room that is called "Raymond's Room." Lucy is very good at changing the temperatures of a room. She can drop it 30 degrees in minutes. Guests wake up in the middle of the night freezing and able to see their breath. The most haunted area is in the basement. The ghost here is a former maintenance man named Hank. Some claim that Sinclair Lewis liked the hotel so much that he not only wrote about it, but has decided to stay there after his death.

The basement may be the most haunted area, but the rooms that have provided the most experiences are rooms 11 and 17. A newlywed couple were staying overnight in Room 17 and they were awakened in the middle of the night by the apparition of a man wearing clothes more suited for the 1920s. He was standing at the foot of their bed. The furniture gets moved in this room when the guests are absent. A guest in Room 11 was sleeping with his legs outside of the sheets - a big no no - and sure enough, he felt unseen fingers stroking his legs. When he jumped up to see what was causing the sensation, he found nothing. Both rooms have cold spots at times and seem to have a heavy oppressive feeling.

Do these former employees and guests still roam the halls of the Palmer House? Is the Palmer House Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide!