Some say not all the guests are going home at closing time at Akron Gold and Silver, a fine antiques and estate collectable shop in downtown Akron Iowa. A neighboring business owner heard a male voice after hours calling their dog by it’s name “Sandy” after hours when the building was all locked up. Sandy, the building complex’s guard dog, heard it too and went to find out who was calling her only to find no one there. Did the voice come in with the grandfather clock that arrived that weekend as some suggest or the framed charcoal drawing of a stately gentleman a few weeks before? Others report bangs and crashing noises in a storage room area only to find nothing disturbed or anyone there. All very entertaining for those that visit this location.
Built in 1926, the Old Fort Braden School is now the Fort Braden Community Center. People claim strange activities going on there. Doors opening, lights turning off or on by themselves, etc.
Paranormal activities include sightings of shadows of a female in period costume sitting alone at table four. A young lad walking in through the front door going into the restroom locking the door only to find the door locked without anyone in there. Food sliding across the table at table floor reported by customers. Psychics have felt there energy within the building. Employees have heard there names being called in a whisper when they are alone in certain parts of the restaurant.
In Hubbard, Ohio, the area where Pathour Wheeler Road and John White Road intersect is known to locals as “Hell’s Corners.” It is said that a young native American boy was shot on this spot many years ago, and that a jail once stood here where many hangings took place. That may explain why there seems to be an inordinate number of modern-day fatal car crashes at this intersection.
The wife and I decided upon staying a night while I was in the states. We are locals and both have been by this home numerous times in our lives. It is an old home built around the turn of the 20th century. During the night I was awakened to the faint sound of a party with clinking wine glasses, laughing, and a little music. Several times, I heard someone walking up and down the stairs. There was a house cat outside our door that seemed bent on coming in to sleep with us, but we were asked to keep the door shut, as he would want to cuddle and may wake us up. I heard someone speaking to the cat off and on as well.
Being an early riser, I went downstairs and the proprietor was making coffee. He asked how we slept and I responded with, “Great, but I could hear the party in the next room off and on, until they settled down around three.” To that, the man replied, “You were the only ones here last night, and I went to bed right after you checked in.” After coffee and a change of subject, I returned to the room. My wife was getting ready and said to me, “Did you hear those people in the next room last night?” When I told her what the man had said, she wrote it off to a loud television set.
It is a beautiful, Spanish-style home converted to a Bed and Breakfast and is a great place to stay the night. Just keep the door shut and you should be fine. (wink wink) We will definitely go back.
This address, at the corner of Muscatine Ave. and Dearborn Rd., is now an antique store that is rumored rumored to be haunted. People are said to have heard footsteps, voices, seen apparitions, and felt patches of paranormal feelings (ex. cold spots, uncomfortable feelings…) A great place to visit for beginning hunters and willing explorers.
People who love ghost tales will love the University Inn in Gooding, Idaho. University Inn is the sole remaining structure of the failed Gooding College, built in 1917. The building was the men’s dormitory. The Gooding College suffered financial losses during the Great Depression that resulted in the school’s closure. The state of Idaho converted the dormitory into a treatment facility for people with tuberculosis. In 1976, the institution closed. It is now run as a local hotel.
Local paranormal groups have investigated the hotel and enough unexplainable occurrences have been reported to convince more than a few that the building is haunted by its former inhabitants.
The State Theatre was built in 1927 and has brought many attractions throughout the years, such as silent films, operas, circus acts, plays, ballets, and music shows. Because the theatre had such a variety of shows, there seem to be multiple ghosts that like to haunt the building.
The theatre’s staff report things being moved mysteriously, hearing footsteps, the toilets and sinks bubbling at times, and being tapped on the shoulder by someone who wasn’t there. There is a statue above the stage that some claim changes positions periodically. Members of the Kalamazoo Michigan Paranormal Investigators have visited the theatre and recorded circus sounds, a girl singing, a woman speaking, among other things. They even had the video camera violently knocked out their hands, but were able to record a voice saying, “Tom”. Tom is the name of the venue manager who has worked at the theatre for nearly 2 decades.
The Akron Area Museum, formerly the home of the Ross Family is haunted some say by the Materiach, Mrs. Lucille Ross. The 100% volunteer staffed museum has had many members experience cold drafts, noises and a feeling of a presence around the main stairway and formal dining room in the former Ross home. One voluteer claims he felt a hand pushing him from behind as he was about to go from the third to second floor.
Tours of the Museum are available upon request. For additional information, please contact board President Rodney Anderson or Vice President Angela Price.
The college has a beautiful and small campus, but what lies beneath the surface is chilling. Many have heard whispers and seen entities playing the back room of the library where the books and archives are located. The elevator has also taken its riders to their destination without the pushing of any buttons (including the buttons outside the elevator on the separate floors). No one knows who these entities are or why they are there, but they become active in the early hours of the morning.
The Castle, the college’s trademark, has many lost souls that still roam the halls. Originally, the castle was home to Mr. Whitelaw Reid, a millionaire. His three children died in the castle during a terrible fire, and still roam the hallways of the west room right where the painting of them is. Other strange occurrences include the temporary immobilization of tour guides while giving tours to students, cold spots and sensations of being watched while roaming the halls. There are several accounts of doors opening and closing by themselves.
Just behind the Castle, you can find the graveyard, final resting place of the founders of Manhattanville College and the nuns that once worked there. During the night, you can go see the three statues, if flash pictures are taken, they may come out blurry or have orbs surrounding the statues.
A quick walk down the path from the cemetery is the Old Chapel, complete with an underground catacomb system that acted as the final resting place to the nuns who passed away while working at the college. It wasn’t until the chapel was abandoned that the bodies were moved to the cemetery. Dark shadows can be seen when exploring while footsteps in the gravel outside can be heard in the early morning.
Unfortunately, the residence halls have no shortage of paranormal activity either. Residents have experienced odd scratches down their feet as well as locked doors swinging open in the middle of the night. Spellman Hall, the freshman dormitory building, is most famous for the Ghost of 118. It is said that back when the school was of a Catholic persuasion and the faculty of nuns lived on campus, one nun hung herself in her room, Spellman 118. Since then, the room has been renovated and combined with a surrounding room to accommodate to the Resident Advisor. The door was covered in bricks and the number 118 was removed, but was the ghost? Her spirit has been felt roaming the halls, opening doors probably to check on the children that used to be in her care.
Manhattanville College is absolutely haunted throughout its campus.
