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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781467119658 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Arcadia Publishing SC |
| Publication date: | 09/12/2016 |
| Series: | Haunted America |
| Pages: | 128 |
| Sales rank: | 492,917 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d) |
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CHAPTER 1
HUTCHINGS SEALY BUILDING
2326–28 STRAND
The preeminent nineteenth-century architect Nicholas Clayton designed this pair of three-story buildings to appear as if they are one. The narrow Ball, Hutchings and Company bank building on the corner and the John Sealy office building next door are an impressive sign of the wealth that was once part of the Wall Street of the South.
Built in 1895 of gray and pink granites, red Texas sandstone and buffcolored terra cotta, they were restored to their former grandeur in 1985. A shield on the west façade is emblazoned with the 1895 erection date, and the firm's founding year of 1854 appears below it.
Looking through the glass doors on the Strand side, visitors can see an ornate wrought-iron and slate staircase ascending toward a skylight between the two buildings. It is on this staircase that the woman in white is often seen, although she has appeared in many parts of the two buildings. She is the ghost of a heroic schoolteacher whom locals have named Sara because her true identity has been lost.
During the 1900 hurricane, Sara and others took shelter in these massive buildings. As the storm surge rose along the Strand to seventeen feet, the people climbed to the top floors. Witnesses from the disaster relate the story that the brave teacher selflessly climbed through a window, balanced on the ledge and grabbed people as they floated by in the floodwaters, pulling them inside. Those victims who were already dead were put on one side of the room, and the living were laid on the other. She stayed in the building for several days caring for the sick and injured until she herself succumbed to the disease epidemic that followed the storm.
Nothing much is on the third floor of the buildings now except for retail warehouse space. Even so, certain employees refuse to go there because they feel they are being watched. The whispering sounds on the stairs contribute to their uneasiness.
A visit to the second-floor restroom used by employees and customers can occasionally be unsettling, as stall doors have been seen and felt to shake and pound violently. Heavy footsteps have been heard walking and running on the hard floors near the area, as well.
The retail space on the first floor of the Sealy building is currently home to a charming boutique called Tina's on the Strand. Ladies who work there often need to pick up after the visits of a ghost who's a bit of a rascal.
The workers at Tina's have a routine of thoroughly cleaning and locking up their space at night, but they often come in the next morning to find surprises. They feel the spirit is a little boy who is just looking for attention, not truly meaning any harm.
One morning, a candle, which had been sitting on a shelf several feet away, was found squarely in the middle of the floor. It would have been impossible for the ladies to vacuum around it without seeing it the night before.
When the shop has opened on other days, a variety of unexpected sights has greeted the employees: a stack of Galveston Monthly magazines they keep to give to customers strewn across the floor, a plate that had been sitting on the back of a display rack broken on the floor even though the items in front of it were undisturbed and a blouse that had been buttoned from top to bottom lying on the floor while its hanger remained on the rack.
The boy is also most likely responsible for the tiny handprints at the bottom of the outside of the glass elevator on chilly days when the glass fogs. What's interesting about this is that the outside of the glass is encased with another layer of glass and unreachable by human hands.
The little one probably isn't alone; the aroma of pipe tobacco is often detected in the vicinity.
Next door at the jewelry shop, the owner tells about one night when a necklace and its entire display stand went missing. The disappearance was discovered just before closing, and the staff searched thoroughly for it, with no success. When they opened the store the next day, the stand with the necklace was sitting directly on the counter in plain sight. Every employee who was asked denied having found it and swore that the counter was empty when they had closed the night before.
Workers in the building attest that the spirits don't make them fearful for the most part. They think of them as part of their community.
CHAPTER 2HENDLEY ROW
2010 STRAND
Hendley & Company Cotton Factors was one of the largest business houses in Texas in the 1850s. The series of four separate buildings known as Hendley Row was constructed with a shared three-story brick façade between 1855 and 1858. Ornamented with grand granite columns and cornices, it made a statement of financial strength on the Strand.
Now utilized as inviting retail, office and loft spaces, Hendley Row features glass block centers on each floor, allowing natural light to fill the spaces.
Hendley Row is also the home of several generations of spirits.
The dangers inherent in working in bustling warehouses was as much a fact of life as the cruel reality that many children worked there, trying to help their families make a living. One spirit that haunts the Hendley is thought to be a remnant from that sad era.
The startling visage of a badly injured teenager appears just before something bad is about to happen. Wearing a blood-covered white shirt, bearing cuts on his face and missing an arm, the boy stumbles across the floor before disappearing. Taken as an omen, this is one ghost no one wants to see for him or herself.
The Hendley Row structure played a significant role in the Civil War's Battle of Galveston, on January 1, 1863.
A wooden cupola on the roof of Hendley Row, long since gone, served as a lookout post for the Confederacy. A group of self-designated men, known as the JOLO guards, kept watch there for approaching Union ships and socialized with visitors who thought of an impending battle more as entertainment than a danger.
As the battle began, the USS Owasco shot a cannonball at the building, leaving a scar that can still be seen today. The cornice on the seventh column on the Twentieth Street side of the building bears the damage.
A cannonball and piece of Hendley flooring imbedded with shrapnel can be viewed at the Rosenberg Library Museum, as well.
Because the Hendley was alternately used to headquarter Confederate and Union troops as control of the city changed hands, phantoms from both sides are seen wandering in front of and inside the building.
The most well known of these is a Confederate soldier wearing his gray uniform who can be seen running up and down the stairs and walking around the second floor through the windows at night.
The sounds of pacing back and forth across the roof can also be heard during early morning hours. It might be the echoes of the JOLO guards still on watch.
After the war, businesses moved back into the row and eventually restored normality to the district. But the worst tragedy ever seen by Galvestonians was yet to come, and the Strand would become ground zero of the aftermath.
There is no way to know whether a few of Hendley's occupants are apparitions of victims of the 1900 storm or of family left behind to fruitlessly search for their loved ones.
A lady in a white Victorian dress has often been seen ascending or descending the stairs at the back of the building. Some have also heard her softly crying or seen her desperately searching the streets surrounding the building.
Sounds of small feet running around the upstairs apartments are attributed to the ghost of a little boy, wet and disheveled, who can be seen wearing a gray winter suit, hat and boots. He has also been encountered sitting or leaning on the stairs and has even been photographed through a window.
The most pathetic of this group is a four- or five-year-old girl who sometimes plays near the skylights. Other children, whom she tells that she is lost and can't find her mother, most often see her. If the living children enlist the help of adults, she vanishes.
Mysterious dragging sounds across ceiling joists and sounds of footsteps in the attic have been heard and are said to last for hours. Once the space is investigated in the daylight, there is no evidence of objects having moved and no way in or out of the area.
As sad as some of the specters at the location are, the living tenants and residents of the building don't feel fearful and are almost protective of these pitiful souls.
CHAPTER 3MERCHANTS' MUTUAL INSURANCE BUILDING
2319 STRAND
Built in 1870, the Merchants' Mutual Insurance Company Building was constructed as an identical replacement to its original, which was lost in a fire in 1869. Inspired by French architecture, the mansard-style roof is said to have been the first of its kind on the island and makes it easily distinguishable from other buildings along the Strand.
Now the building is home to Galveston Old Time Photos, where visitors can have their photo taken in period clothes. Customers may need to doublecheck the images for someone who wasn't posing with their party.
The spirits of several men, one playful little girl and a family group roam the floors of the building, seemingly misplaced in time. As with most structures on the Strand, the unseen residents that call this building home are spirits that lost their way during the horrors of the 1900 storm.
At one time, the owners of the photography studio installed buzzers, so customers could alert employees at the rear of the building to their arrival. When the buzzer began to frequently ring out by itself, it was disconnected. That didn't stop it from sounding from time to time. Perhaps the little girl is finding fun in getting the attention of those around her.
Occasionally, items have flown off counters directly at workers with no apparent explanation.
One male entity that the tenants call Charlie sets himself apart, however, as one of the few malevolent ghosts on the island. Thought to be a man who lost his life by unknown causes in the structure long ago, he angrily paces the attic establishing his territory.
The top floor, with soaring thirteen-foot-high ceilings, once contained water tanks to supply the water closets and washstands. Used for storage now, the space is virtually never entered by the owner or tenants unless absolutely necessary.
Visitors to the area report feeling the presence of evil and dread. Occasionally using force to make his existence known, the spirit will go so far as to push interlopers to insist that they leave his space.
Pets brought inside the lower-floor store space often appear to become uncomfortable and want to leave the premises. They obviously don't need as much encouragement as people.
CHAPTER 4BUTTEROWE BUILDING
2307–9 HARBORSIDE DRIVE
The easiest way to locate the 1885 Butterowe Building these days is to find the attractions housed on the ground floor: the Mayfield Manor and Pirates! Legends of the Gulf Coast.
Just behind Saegerfest Park, Mayfield Manor is a haunted house attraction featuring the fictional character of Dr. Horace Mayfield, who supervised the operation of one of the post-hurricane morgues in 1900 and went mad.
While the story is fictitious, the building itself did serve as one of the many temporary morgues after the Great Storm. The shrouded bodies were laid in rows on the floors of the building, waiting to be identified, until time and its effects on the departed demanded that they be removed.
Although the building originally housed a sail-making facility and furniture factory, the darkest chapter of its existence seems to have given it a new focus.
Despite the fact that all parts of the historic building share a macabre past, most of the paranormal activity in the building seems to take place on the haunted house side of the attraction. Scripted to use live actors, it often features ghostly interruptions that most visitors assume are just part of the act.
Mayfield's main spirit resident is a teenage boy they call Thomas. He likes to pull pranks on employees as well as visitors. He especially likes to play with the motion-sensor props like the air cannon, which is rigged to blow air unexpectedly as people walk through the attraction. One female employee was surprised to set it off one day because she knew it had been turned off. Not a fan of the prop, she reacted by yelling at Thomas to stop scaring her. After the cannon was checked and turned on, it ceased to work for the rest of the day whenever she was near it.
The entity also shows a talent for mimicking voices, calling the names of employees in voices they recognize.
A psychic who investigated the property claims to have recorded shadows running around the pirate side of the exhibit as well.
Ben is another ghost on the site that tends to prefer more physical manifestations, including causing doors to open and close by themselves and locking people in or out of the bathrooms.
An elevator with a heavy door and solid latch closure has been known to open by itself. Once, it even began to violently shake, as if someone was unable to open the door. Luckily no one was inside at the time.
Backdoors to the sets allow actors to travel between the rooms without being seen by customers. With the sets' thin walls, they can simply listen to see if anyone is coming. If they hear a scene being performed, they can judge how much longer it will be before the group passes into the next room.
One of the ghosts, however, is so familiar with the script that he often recites it to confuse those waiting to change locations. The employees find out later that there was no one in the room they were waiting to enter. The security cameras can confirm it.
Customers at Mayfield might get more than they paid for, but after all, they are there for a good scare.
CHAPTER 5SPRINGER BUILDING
2119–23 STRAND
Originally constructed as two separate buildings, the 1878 Clara Lang Building and the 1877 Marx and Kempner Building, this structure was remodeled into a single edifice after receiving extensive hurricane damage in the 1940s. The building at 2119 Strand originally had four floors, but it lost its top level to the 1915 hurricane.
An architectural trompe l'oiel mural by artist Richard Haas on the façade gives it the appearance of being much more ornate than it is in reality.
One of the earliest tenants of the building was Ratto and Company, which manufactured plain and fancy candies and chewing gums. That company was followed by the printer F.O. Milis and Company.
Oscar Springer, in whose honor the building was renamed, came to Galveston from Germany in 1902 and became the building's most famous tenant. After teaching piano and German for a short period of time, he began publishing a weekly German-language newspaper, Die Galveston Post. He later founded the Galveston Piano Company and eventually bought out his neighboring tenant, F.O. Milis, expanding into a printing business. All of these interests saw their heyday in the Clara Lang portion of the building.
The upper floors of the Springer are currently loft apartments with beautiful oak and pine floors, high ceilings and one resident ghost.
A teenage male entity that has been seen to wear knickers and knee socks, suspenders and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up resides there. Although his clothing seems appropriate to the period of the 1900 storm, there is no way to know for sure that his spirit remains from that event. He might just as easily have been employed by one of Springer's many enterprises and feel that the building is where he still belongs.
Often seen out of the corner of people's eyes or passing quickly through a hallway, the amiable spirit seems content to observe people and his surroundings without interacting with them. His presence is more often felt than seen.
He has also been spotted sitting on the rooftops of other buildings on the block, swinging his legs and watching passersby.
CHAPTER 6J.D. ROGERS AND E.B. NICHOLS BUILDINGS
2013–19 STRAND AND 2021–23 STRAND
Currently used as a venue for special events, such as weddings, fundraisers and banquets, the 1894 Rogers Building was strictly business in earlier times.
Directly across from the Hendley Building, it was used as a variety of mercantile establishments through the years, including a liquor wholesaler and stores selling goods arriving on ships at the nearby wharves.
Severely damaged in a fire in July 1900, it survived the disaster as well as the Great Storm two months later. The edifice, along with the adjoining Nichols Building, was completely renovated in the 1980s.
The building is easily distinguished by the twin parapets at the roofline, which still bear the initials JDR and the year 1894.
Though many of the structures along the Strand served as temporary morgues after the Great Storm, experts agree that the Rogers Building is the site where the most famous post-storm morgue photo was taken.
A number of phantoms have been spotted standing and floating across the balcony gazing down as people pass by.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Ghosts of Galveston"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Kathleen Shanahan Maca.
Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements,
Introduction,
1. Hutchings Sealy Building,
2. Hendley Row,
3. Merchants' Mutual Insurance Building,
4. Butterowe Building,
5. Springer Building,
6. J.D. Rogers and E.B. Nichols Buildings,
7. Menard House (the Oaks),
8. Samuel May Williams Home,
9. Mensing Brothers & Company Building,
10. Adoue & Lobit Bank Building,
11. Galveston Railroad Museum & Shearn Moody Plaza,
12. Maison Rouge,
13. Tremont House,
14. Nicaragua Smith,
15. Witwer-Mott House,
16. Boardinghouse,
17. Walmart,
18. The Hotel Galvez,
19. Oleander Hotel,
20. Rosenberg Library,
21. Fire Station No. 6,
22. Bishop's Palace,
23. Ashton Villa,
24. Van Alstyne House,
25. Bolivar Lighthouse,
26. James J. Davis House,
27. The 1894 Opera House,
28. Isaac Heffron House,
29. "Old Billy",
30. Mollie Walter's Bordello,
31. Victorian Inn,
32. Alfred Newson House,
33. Charles Adams Home,
34. Assorted Ghostly Encounters,
About the Author,
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