Posted on 04/30/2004 7:12:03 PM PDT by CurlyBill
ST. THOMAS -- Somebody calls the newspaper with a tip and I find myself clambering up the steps of the old St. Thomas courthouse, thinking I'm wasting my time on a wild goose chase. Maybe a wild ghost chase.
It's a grand old building, to be sure. First built in 1852, it burned down in 1898 and was rebuilt the following year. Situated atop the hill on Wellington Street, the three-storey structure features five arches out front and a cupola on top.
The building, which is being renovated, holds a Crown attorney's office, a land registry office and provincial and Superior courtrooms.
Maybe the courthouse holds something else, too.
Several people tell me that years ago, a husband and wife team of custodians lived on the top floor. They say the wife died in a tragic accident and she has haunted the building ever since.
I tug on the door leading to the top-floor apartments, but it's locked.
I hear that, for years, there have been strange things happening here. Most of the people who tell me these tales don't want their name in the newspaper. Not in a ghost story, anyway.
One yarn goes like this: A caretaker, spooked by a vacuum cleaner that kept mysteriously turning off, finally lost his patience and spoke aloud. "Now look," he said. "The sooner you let me finish my work, the sooner I'll be out of here."
The vacuum immediately started up.
I'm told nighttime cleaners have found all the trash cans upended. I'm told a worker changed the brand of liquid cleanser she was using; later, she found all the new cleaning bottles on the floor, tops off, spilling into a drain.
I talk to a St. Thomas police officer in one of the courtrooms. He tells me that about 20 years ago, he and his partner responded to a possible B and E -- breaking and entering -- at the old courthouse.
It was a hot summer night. But, he says, as the two men climbed a rickety staircase to the top floor, the temperature suddenly dropped.
"It got so damn cold," he says, "it was like climbing into a fridge."
Then, he says, he felt a pressure on his left side and was shoved aside with such force that he would've tumbled off the steps if his partner hadn't grabbed him.
"That was my last experience being in here at night," says the cop. He laughs, but I don't think he finds it funny.
Then I meet a couple of electricians working on the renovations. Do they know anything about the ghost? One nods.
Dave Eels tells the story matter-of-factly, almost as if I'd asked him how to upgrade a fuse box.
Eels says it happened back in February. It was dark, about 7:30 p.m., and Eels and two other men were working in the courthouse. One of the guys asked if they wanted to go outside for a break.
Later, the man explained why he'd wanted to leave the courthouse: He'd been working alone in the basement when he felt something tug his overalls.
Then the room turned suddenly cold -- so cold, says Eels, the man could see his breath.
While they were standing outside, the three men heard a loud noise -- a sort of banging -- echo from the supposedly empty building. One guy figured a sheet of drywall had fallen. They heard more noises and went back to investigate.
And this is what they found in the small basement room where the one man had been working: They found the man's drill case, where he'd left it. Atop that they found the man's sweater, where he'd left it. And atop that they found a wooden chair, smashed to pieces.
Eels says the chair had been sitting, intact, in another room down the hall.
Eels shows me the broken chair. I ask if he believes in ghosts.
"Something was going on that night," he says.
Later, I re-enter the small basement room, with its curved, brick ceiling and old stone walls. I'm a skeptical guy. It's mid-afternoon. There are at least a dozen people upstairs.
Still, it feels good to get out of there. And I do. Fast.
Please add me to your ghost ping list.
I've spent the past several hours reading some very interesting stories.
If there's any room left on the your list, please add me too~!! :)
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