Katie's impressions, part deux

I've had the opportunity to interview the store manager who allowed us access to the building and have gotten some clarification and new information regarding the reputed hauntings at this location. In my interview, we discussed her experiences and she explained that she was psychic and her first encounter with the child's spirit was a psychic one.

She stated that she was in the building on the second floor, cleaning up prior to the store's first day of business, when she psychically heard a child's voice going "here kitty kitty kitty." There was no power in the building so it was very dark, but she said she got away from there as quickly as she could. Later on she had psychic communication with the child and explained to her that she preferred to have communication in a less shocking way.

The child who died apparently did not trip over her cat but instead somehow fell in the stairwell for some other reason. Bearing in mind that the manager has only been in the building for six and a half years, I can't really say for certain that anyone really did die until I can verify at least part of the information presented in some way. I did get what could be the child's full name, which is something to start with, and it is possible that the child was visiting a relative in the building and not a resident. It was possibly her grandmother that she was visiting and the cat could have been the grandmother's cat.

A few other experiences were recorded, including a second hand account of seeing a ghostly woman dash quickly up an invisible stairway leading to what would be a non-existent third floor. The building is not known to have ever had a third floor and the area in which this was seen shows no visible evidence of a stairwell ever having been there. Another episode in the history of the site is that there could have been a 19th century brothel present in the building at one time. Legend has it that a prostitute was murdered by her pimp and that could be the woman rushing up the stairs.

It is possible that someone observed what could have been the dead child's grandmother, that of an older woman sitting in a rocking chair. Another experience was recounted of a (living) child asking her mother "who that man is over there?" when there was no one present (the pimp?). Lastly was an incident where a baby said the name of the "visiting spirit" out of the blue. However, the child's older brother shared the same name so the baby could have been simply practicing saying his brother's name.

There was also discussion of people working in the building reporting the feeling of "not being alone", including the following account. I had the opportunity to talk to one of the tenants in the artist studios on the second floor. She is in the habit of being in the building alone late at night. She told me that the evening before, while going down the hallway to visit the restroom, she suddenly go the distinct feeling of something being there in the darkness so she aborted the trip half way there and went back to her studio.

I want to clarify the situation between the two stores a bit more. A subsequent visit to the street side of the two shops revealed that there is a smaller sign for the second store, but it is not as obvious as the first. Also it should be made clear that the manager who let us into the building for our investigation is not the main lessee, but is actually subletting her space from the manager of the second store. This is the reverse of their earlier relationship, where she had previously been the main lessee, but for financial reasons had to make this arrangement with the manager of the other store. This could be contributing to some of the tensions between the living in the two stores.

Also, the fact that the building was once two separate buildings (and structurally still is) could be a factor in the reputed hauntings as there have been more reports of experiences in one than the other. The room referred to earlier as the "rave room" could have been a dance hall at one time, and the manager reported hearing (psychically again) 1940s dance music from it once.

Because of the problems caused by our inexperience with our initial visit to the store, we have asked (and been granted permission) to return for a follow up investigation on April 9. This time we will be going with fewer people and following a strict strategy for coverage and control of both the investigators and the investigation. The camera will probably be set up in the same spots, but I am also considering bringing along a boombox and playing music from the 1940s to see if we can get any response that way.

Hopefully we'll get more positive results this time.

3/12/05 store investigation -- Matt's impressions

This also is not our official report. And Katie covered most of the bases, but I wanted to take what I learned from this first investigation and give a "do's and don'ts of ghost hunting" to help other people starting in this field.

Though I thought everybody in our group conducted themselves well (no touching, no moving things around without the owner's permission, etc.), we just brought too many people along. The store we investigated was fairly big -- big enough that 11 people could divide into 4 groups, and each could be assigned to their own zone. But I learned from this investigation that a site has to be HUGE for you to have 11 people.

I went down in the basement with my group, which consisted of Mara, and Phil, and me, hoping to capture some EVPs with my digital voice recorder. But there were so many feet stomping around on the floor above us that I didn't even bother. We learned that, when you're doing an investigation and you have 3 floors like we had, you should leave the middle floor empty.

We also learned that, when trying to capture EVPs, if you talk or make any noise you should identify yourself and always speak at your normal volume. You should never whisper. Some of us thought that by placing the recorder down and then going in the other room to whisper, our voices wouldn't drown out any EVPs we might catch. And they didn't...but now we have a different problem. Now, because everybody was whispering that night, we can't identify who was talking when we're at home later listening for EVPs. We can't discern what's an EVP and what's a human voice. So on our next ghost hunt, we'll have to try to keep it quiet, but if anybody has something to say, they should talk at normal volume.

Personally, I won't believe what I have is an actual EVP unless I was holding the recorder in my hand when it was captured (so that I know it wasn't manipulated by someone else), the voice is distinctly not one of us, and it answers one of my questions directly. There is a theory among skeptics that when you catch an EVP, you are just picking up someone talking on a CB radio.

You must also take a notepad with you and record everything, like what room you were in and when, so you can compare notes later. This is something most of us did do, but a few did not.

We are actually going to go back to this store for a second hunt, this time with fewer people. After that, then we will post an official report here.

3/12/05 store investigation-Katie's impressions

What follows is NOT THE OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION REPORT. It is only my impressions as part of the investigation team!

Our first investigation as the Wisconsin Ghost Network-East Central took place on 3/12/05. Being our first, it was a large group including four "visiting" investigators from a partner group in Green Bay.

The site was a pair of gift shops sharing a single site in east central Wisconsin (of course). The store haunting lore is that a young girl tripped and fell over her cat in a front stairwell, dying as a result of the fall. The child is reported to haunt the building and is a spirit of the type that you spot out of the corner of your eye. She is dressed typically of the turn of the century. Also another spirit of a ghostly child from a building a few doors away is supposed to come visit and play with her. The cat is also supposed to be in the building, along with at least one other cat that had belonged to one of the store managers. There may also be other spirits as 1940s music has been reported to come from the 2nd floor ballroom (aka "rave room") when no such music was being played.

This particular store was interesting because it is (or "they are") in an approximately 100 year old building in the downtown area of the town where it is located. From what we were told, the building has been an office supply store, carpet store and a furrier. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there were coldwater flats on the 2nd floor.

In today's shops, the gifts range from metaphysical books to handmade jewelry, artwork and clothing on one side, and handmade crafts, gifts, artwork, snacks and Beanie toys on the other side. The physical plant also has a dual identity, being once two separate buildings that were joined together sometime in the past. There are two shop fronts (only one has a door), two basements, two upstairs areas, all joined.

The contrast between the two buildings is sharpest in the basement, where one side is obviously been dug deeper and a new floor (perhaps a whole new basement) put in, while the other is a step up and the ceiling is dangerously low. The basement contains a large variety of items in storage, an old fuel oil tank, a couple of smaller "alternative" stairways leading upstairs (one completely blocked off) and a pair of old wooden doors leading into either a coal shute or into an old tunnel system reportedly existing between some downtown buildings (it does not look tall enough to walk thru).

Upstairs on the second floor, one side consists of small rooms off a long hallway that are leased out to artists as studios or offices. The other side contains a large ballroom type area that is used for classes and is rented out for "rave" parties. The condition of the two buildings is also different. Some of the studio rooms are being repainted and repaired but there are places where you can see up through the ceiling in the hallway and the wooden floors haven't been attended two in awhile. Some of the studio rooms have avant garde type paintings directly on the walls. One of the front rooms contains an old rocking chair with a rag doll in it. The doll is said to occasionally slightly change positions, as if someone picked it up, and then tried to replace it in the same position. There is also a steep wooden stairwell leading to the street, obviously used by tenants to enter and exit the building. This is the area where the child is reported to have died.

On the other side, the "rave room" floors appear to be in better condition and the walls more recently painted plain white. There is furniture, including an old sofa and some upholstered chairs. Access to the building's attic is also in this room (you need a tall ladder).

The mezzanine between the first and second floors consists of some small sitting areas, office space, coatroom and extra space.

The two stores also have different managers which leads to some conflict in personalities and temperament. There is only one store sign on the front even though they have different names so the identity of the store without a street side sign is covered beneath the identity of the other one. The two stores are also not distinguishable on the inside except for two checkout areas. There is nothing to tell the customer that he or she is leaving one store and going into the other. (I have some experience with this, working in a shop that shares an entry with TWO other stores!). There is also the possibility the the building itself was constructed on the site of an earlier wooden building that burned down in part of a major 19th century fire in the district.

Initially most of us came by the store at 4PM for a daylight "walkthru" with one of the store artists. This gave us the opportunity to learn the layout of the building and make decisions in the way we would approach the investigation. My hubby also had the EMF reader and tried to map out EMF "hotspots" for logging. Surprisingly, he did pick up a slight moving EMF "trail" near the floor in front of a bank of breaker switches that did not appear to be coming from the switches.

After our walkthru, we all headed to my house for spaghetti dinner (thank you to our partner group for providing DELICIOUS garlic bread!)

For this investigation, we were greeted by the manager for the store with metaphysical products and our earlier artist guide, along with some friends and individuals I did not identify that evening.

There were a total of eleven investigators to cover the three floors (plus small mezzanine). We arrived at 9PM for the main investigation and left around 12:45AM.

Before we actually started, hubby and I went upstairs to set up a camera in the room with the rag doll. The camera was a Sony nightshot camera which was set up in front of a window (outside of which was a large street light). The camera was set in nightshot mode (not the enhanced nightshot mode) and aimed at the chair holding the doll. The camera was left running for about an hour (the length of the tape), then moved to the top of the stairwell leading down to the street for an hour. We haven't reviewed those tapes completely yet.

The group split up into three sections after that, each taking a different floor for investigation. Hubby and I took the main floor and walked around with an EMF reader, digital camera, temperature sensor and a digital voice recorder. The problem with the recorder was that the wooden floors squeaked quite loudly as we walked around, plus there was a loud cooler that would cycle on and off. These are the trials and travails of ghost hunters however, so we figured these things in when listening to the recordings later. (results will NOT be posted here, at least for now). If we do this building again, I think we will bring chairs and sit down for awhile in each area, rather than walk around.

After about an hour, we met the other investigators in our "home base" area in back of one of the stores and we decided who would go where. Hubby and I spent some time in the back of the store doing recordings and photos in a private room that was opened for us and got some more history from the store manager. After that we went upstairs for awhile but recordings may have been hampered by the fact that unknown to us, some of the other investigators returned to the second floor. Also some of us tended to whisper rather than talk in normal tones, which causes confusion when listening later for EVPs (electronic voice phenomena). So results from our time on on the second floor are open to speculation. We got some whisperings but they could be coming from other living people who were on the floor. (My voice recorder is a Sony ICD-ST10 digital with a very sensitive, aim-able microphone.)

We spent some time relaxing and chatting with the manager in a sitting area before returning downstairs. One of the other investigators came in the rave room, reporting that his camera battery had died (just after I recorded some "whisperings" over our voices, I found later). He also stated he had seen some small shapes in the long hallway, one going around the corner and out of sight, while the other was a smallish white shape that disappeared (correct me if I'm wrong, Kurt!). They could have been construed as being "cat-like".

(I should mention here that I have visited this building in a more informal "ghostwalkthru" last year and got some interesting photos, mostly orbs. But my most interesting experience was spotting what looked like a gray "cat's tail" out of the corner of my eye, scooting across a walkway, going from one wall straight into the opposite one! Here is a link to a DRAWING of what I saw: click here)

We decided to go back downstairs. I'm a large SLOW person with bad knees, so I went first down the stairs, taking one step at a time. Hubby followed me down and at this time got the most interesting temperature reading of the evening. He had the sensor pointed at my back as I went. The normal temp when he aimed it at me was about 78 degrees (taking into account the ambient temperature and the fact that I had a thick sweater on). For a moment, the sensor plunged about 20 degrees WHILE it was pointed at me. Possibly not coincidentally, this was time when I experienced one of my "chills down the back" episode. Was I being followed by something unseen? Hmmm...

Hubby and I went back downstairs and spent a few more minutes in the basement. This was unremarkable except for a few orb shots. The conditions down there were dusty even though we all tried not to stir up dust. By this time, everyone had finished, the store people were exhausted and we packed up and headed for home.

Thanks to everyone for coming to the investigation and especially to the store folks for having us. It was a fascinating experience which we hope to repeat with a smaller, more subdued group in the future.