Haunted Places

by earthriderjudyberman In Ghost story 35 Comments

Moon - Lunar Corona

By Judy Berman

Unsuspecting diners sometimes discover that more than food awaits them at their favorite haunts.

Alcoholic beverages were supplied to railroad workers and townspeople who stopped in at the first tavern in Euclid, New York.

Now, spirits of a different sort are at the Euclid Restaurant, which was first built in 1817 at the corner of Route 31 and Morgan Road.

A manager at the restaurant, Joyce Wall, told me years ago of the stories surrounding her workplace.

“Different bartenders had bartended here on nights alone, and they swear they hear chairs dragging across the floor that’s upstairs over the bar,” she said.

“Some of them have been petrified to go and look.”

Wall says it was hard for her to believe that she’d be scared and thought maybe she’s imagining things.

Still, she can’t explain the eerie feelings.

“One bartender said he won’t look in the mirror downstairs because he swears that when he closed up one night that he saw the spirit going through the main dining room. He would not ever look in the mirror again.”

Wall said she never experienced anything physically.

“Just an eerie feeling late at night once in a while if I happen to go in.

“Something seems to go up my spine and – ooh – it was like ‘I want to get out of this room!’ It’s like a cold chill,” Wall shivered as she told of her experience.

Haunted - The Old Hall, Fairies by Moonlight

She’s not the only to be rattled by the unexplained noises and sights. Steve Bolster, who worked as a dishwasher at the Euclid in 1991, said he also heard chairs being dragged across the floor. He attributes the stories to a ghost he called Jezebel.

“People have said they’ve heard her crying because she’s waiting for her fiance. He died on his way here. They were going to get married,” Bolster said.

“They’ve seen her walk across the dining room, up the street outside. They’ve seen her running thru the woods.”

Not all sightings are scary. Some make you chuckle, like the resident ghost at an inn in Elbridge that was built in the 1830s.

Weber’s Wayside owner Fred Weber said in 1991 that he suspected Harry hung around after he died to watch over his wife who worked there. Then, Harry just never left.

Why did he think Weber’s (now known as Wayside Irish Pub) was haunted?

Spooky Windows

“Lights going on and off. Furniture being moved upstairs. We’ve had a couple people actually see the spirit … in this dining room.”

Harry’s appearances usually happened in the morning.

“Everybody meets here for coffee,” Weber said.

“One day, (Harry) came out. All of a sudden I heard: ‘Where’s my coffee?’ Everybody stopped and looked.”

“Again: ‘Where’s my coffee?’ ”

Harry “actually wanted to join them,” Weber chuckled.

While some diners and staff members have been startled and scared by the ghost, Weber said “they’re just wild about Harry.”

 

The interviews for these stories were done in 1991 when I was a reporter at WHEN-AM radio in Liverpool, New York. I really enjoyed talking to these folks, and apologize if I’ve misspelled any of their names.

Do you believe in ghosts? Do you have a non-gory ghost story to share?

 

Main Photo: Moon – Lunar Corona. Taken July 26, 2007. Author: Wing-Chi Poon. (Corona around the moon is due to diffraction by the clouds.)     https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/Lunar_Corona.jpg/640px-Lunar_Corona.jpg

Photo: Haunted – The Old Hall, Fairies by Moonlight – circa 1875. Author: John Anster Fitzgerald https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/The_Old_Hall%2C_Fairies_by_Moonlight.jpg/662px-The_Old_Hall%2C_Fairies_by_Moonlight.jpg

Photo: Spooky Windows. Taken Dec. 28, 2009. Author: Colin Smith. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Spooky_Windows%5E_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1636717.jpg

Link: Haunted – Wayside Irish Pub, Elbridge, New York – http://www.waysideirishpub.com/haunted.html

  1. What a fun time you had as a reporter, Judy, and now we get to share in your adventures. In my hometown, Fort Scott, KS, there are so many creepy stories about the former orphanage (built in an 1892 barracks at the fort), and in three of the old Victorian mansions build before the Civil War. Plus the town has the #1 Natl. Cemetery (the oldest) which includes pre Civil War Indian guides from the fort and unidentified soldiers’ bones recovered in a grave during Bloody Kansas. Ah, the stories! Great post!

    1. Marylin … This was one of my favorite series. I was given the privilege of taking one day a week to work on a story. By month’s end, I had a 5-part series. I loved the folks who told me about their ghostly experiences. Very cool! 😉

  3. Much edu-tainment here, as always, Judy. Thank you for mining stories from your journalistic past. The dialogue helped me feel right THERE.

    My Aunt Ruthie told me that Halloween was a great time to get rid of (I think she meant “exorcize”) ghosts and apparitions when she thought I was dating someone who may lead to my downfall. She told me this in a letter during my sophomore year in College; I have a feeling I will write about this very soon online.

  5. Fun post, Judy! I’m with you in that I’d much rather read about these things. It must have been fun to interview these people and work on this series.
    When my younger daughter was at college at Albright College, she and the other people on her floor were convinced there was a ghost in the women’s bathroom. They were all afraid to use it late at night if they were alone. There’s also supposed to be a ghost at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. I never saw it, but when I interned there, I admit that I walked through certain areas rather quickly. 🙂

    1. I’m with you, Merril. I’d be hotfooting thru those halls myself. But I do recall, when I was a pre-teen, visiting a swampy area that folks said was haunted. Not at night. But, still … 😉

  7. When I was about thirteen my sister bought a book in to the house , I can’t remember it’s full title somthing about myths and legends but what I do remember was its sleeve . It was black with a gold rim lots of weird shapes indented in it . Of corse I had to have a peek ,I was thirteen and inquisitive . Inside there were stories of mythical beings and creatures . I can remember snapping the book shut , just like they do in the movies , and hiding it under other books or papers . When I came back it was always back in ful view where I could see it . I was then everything started to go missing and then turned up in odd places and I decided I didn’t want to go to bed unless another member of the family was up there and then I’d spend hours trying to sleep . Then one day the book disappeared from the house and things got back to normal .🙃 Or normal ish
    I have always had a vivid imagination and at thirteen it was sky high . I must have just freaked out when I saw this mysterious black book my big sister had bought in , who obviously was interested in it because I hid it but she kept retrieving it . I probably imagined everything missing , mind you even now I’d loose my head if it was loose and the reason the book dusappeard was probably given back to the library or a friend . It scared the hell out of me tee hee thought you’d like to know ☺️ Happy Halloween. 🎃🎃🕸🕸
    Cherryx

  10. To quote a friend, “I’m just Gaelic enough …” to not dismiss this kind of activity. I like to think it’s someone’s way of letting us know we’re not really in charge down here!

    1. Jim … I grew up on this stuff. Ilike your theory. I believe in the possibility of ghosts, but I’ve never seen any. My Mom and her Dad did. They both had ESP. (My Mom and Dad were both part Irish. I believe Dad also was part Scotch-Irish.) 😉

  11. As you know, not a believer of anything beyond our own existence . . . but it does not keep me from writing about it.

    http://dispersertracks.com/2012/11/21/the-guest/

    Now, if I could come back to haunt all the jerks and evil people of the world, I would be totally onboard with being a ghost. Alas, it seems most ghosts haunt people who don’t really deserve it. Ghosts be jerks, methinks.

  12. Interesting tales Judy, I can’t imagine working or living somewhere where these kind of things go on, it must be very distracting! 🙂 I used to love ghostly stories when I was a child, but mainly just for fantasy, I’ve never been a believer that ghosts exist. I guess I could be wrong, if I see one one day I’ll let you know! 😉

    There was a pub a few doors from my home in the country village where I grew up that was reported to have a blue lady. It was an old Coaching Inn from the 1700’s and apparently a woman mysteriously died there in the early 1800’s – so it seems. I knew two brothers (playmates of my brother and I) who lived there and often went round to their flat within the old pub. I would have loved to have seen a blue lady floating down corridors (how Scooby Doo!) but not a thing!
    There was also an abandoned mansion (similar age) that my dad and brother often visited, I only ever saw the outside once, but apparently the inside was quite stunning, even with terrible decay. Again, it had been in it’s young days and old Coaching Inn, they found all kinds of amazing things, including a bottle of opened wine in a concealed compartment of an old fire place – no jewels though, or ghosts! 😀

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