There is a building in downtown Cleburne, Texas that dates back to the 1800's. Anyway, as the story goes, This particular building, called the "Wright Building", was a saloon/hotel during the days of the Chisolm Trail. There was a beautiful, teenaged redheaded girl who worked there serving drinks and such. She would run giggiling to the second floor window on the east side of the saloon to watch the cattle drives pass through town, it was a big deal back then when they passed through town. Anyone who knows about old west saloons knows that some of the saloon girls would "sell their wares". Well, one day a cowboy came into the saloon and told the saloon keeper that he didn't want any of the regular "working ladies", he wanted the young redhead. Since she didn't do that sort of thing, she resisted his advances. He became so enraged he grabbed her by her hair and threw her out that second floor window. She landed on her head and broke her neck, killing her. Supposedly, you can go into the Wright Building and hear the ghost of the young lady run across the second floor, which is used as an attic now, toward the window and hear her giggling. My son's soccer coach used to own a childrens' clothing resale shop in the building and she confirmed to me that she and her husband had indeed heard the ghost. I was in the store on one occasion and did hear what appeared to be someone running across the second floor, but did not hear any laughter, so it could have been anything. Does anyone out there have any stories of haunted public buildings?

I posted this story back in October of '06.

Recently, I had to go to the Wright Building to lease my mineral rights to the gas company. I hadn't been inside this building since I was a gunfighter reenactor about 15 years ago. To my supprise, they've renovated the entire upstairs into office space, in fact, the gas company's office was upstairs where the hauntings are supposed to take place. After we completed the business of my mineral rights, I asked a few questions to guage how the gas company agent felt about the paranormal. Once I felt comfortable enough, I asked him if he ever experienced anything upstairs. He said yes, he had once heard a giggling girl in the hallway early one morning, but didn't see anyone else in the building when he went to investigate. He claimed to not know anything about the haunting beforehand, so I shared the above story with him. He was intrigued, to say the least.

Very interesting, Boss.

That has the earmarks of a residual haunting all over it, is the building brick or some other type of stone?

As for other haunted public buildings, hoo boy, where do I start?

The old Masonic Temple here was built in the federalist style in the late 1800's as not only a meeting place for the Masons but also as a theater. The upper crust Masons wanted to provide a place to hold more dignified entertainment than could be found at the downtown venues that catered more to the vaudeville set.

As anyone who imbibes in ghost stories knows, theaters have a rich history in hauntings and this one is no exception. Today the building is part of a local college and all sorts of stories come out of there. The most prevalent one is about the stagehand who fell to his death during a performance in the 1920's. The man was up on the catwalk above the stage raising scenery when the pulley he was using snapped, causing him to lose his balance and fall some 30 feet to the stage. He struck one of the props on the stage and was impaled on it. Luckily the curtain was closed for intermission so the audience only heard the screams of the performers.

All sorts of reports come out of there about students and faculty who have had run ins with his ghost. The most common is someone walking across the stage and seeing him looking down at them from the catwalk.

Right across the street there was a motel that was the site of a shoot out in which one of the city’s police officers was killed. Every so often someone tells of seeing a police officer standing at the back of the theater and when someone approaches him to ask if they can help him, he just disappears.

The late Jeannie Dixon once toured the Temple and without even being told about the officer picked up on him, saying he was not tied to the building in life but his spirit was drawn to it because of the energies there.

We have many stories locally and I’d be happy to post more later, as for now, time to motate to work.

Oh wow, that's amazing! Is she residual or an itelligent spirit? Has anyone ever interacted with her? It would be cool if someone did.

quote:

Originally posted by shutterhunter2:
Very interesting, Boss.

That has the earmarks of a residual haunting all over it, is the building brick or some other type of stone?

Its made of stone, shutter. That's pretty cool about the Masonic Temple.

LOL! Bossman, when I was reading your story I thought "Hey, I've heard of this building!".
Then I read your second post and started laughing.

quote:

Originally posted by sodie430:
LOL! Bossman, when I was reading your story I thought "Hey, I've heard of this building!".
Then I read your second post and started laughing.

Guess I missed the joke, sodie. What's up?

Never mind, sodie, never mind, I just got the joke. Guess I'm a little slow on the download today.

I spoke to my neighbor across the street yesterday. Somehow, we ended up on the topic of hauntings and ghosts.

He told me he was recently working on the wiring of the Wright Building (he's an electrician). He said they heard a girl's giggle then his foreman was pushed from behind down the stairs.

The foreman wasn't seriously hurt, but he was pretty scared by the incident.

They checked the upstairs area, but there was no one to be found.

Hey guys...
Over the past couple of years I have always wanted to create a pretty legit TOT attraction for my parks, and over the years I've created three different versions of the attraction. Below are 3 photos and a story behind each one. Basically they are just the outer shell of the ride, although in my parks they are functioning attractions. As a bonus I through in my replica of The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland

You should do it. Haunted attractions always pull in a big crowd