Dates- October 27 and 28, 2001
Members- Kenny, Donna, Bob, Patty, Steve and Dick

A Brief History- Out of continued respect for the owners, this history will indeed be brief. We'll keep out any obvious things that would give away the identity of the owners and their home. The church was built in 1850's out of the need for another church to accommodate the growing congregations of two other churches. The church consisted of a Sunday School/Lecture Room that was attached to the main House of Worship. In the early 1890's, the church was almost destroyed by a fire. The fire consumed part of the main church, a large pipe organ and the Lecture Room/Sunday School. The members got together and rebuilt it with additions onto the Sunday school section. In the1920's, a larger addition was built onto the Sunday school that housed a gym, a bowling alley, and several classrooms to accommodate the growing congregation. Unfortunately, due to the location of the church, the proximity of similar churches and a decline in members, the church was forced to close and merge with another church outside of the area. The congregation had completely moved out of the building by 1984. The present owners saved it from being demolished and now make it their home and work. Fortunately for us, they are very open and extremely nice people who allow us to investigate.

Report- A special note here. All week prior to the investigation, Patty was having nightmares. Patty had a feeling that something terrible was going to happen (or did happen). Nothing bad happened to any of us, perhaps because of Patty's warnings.
      The day began with the entire group fanning out all over the city to do research. Dick and Bob worked at the library while the rest of the group, Kenny, Donna, Patty and Steve, visited the church where the congregation had moved. Bob found tons of information out about the town as things were in 1892. Most notable was the name of the pastor of the church at that time, there was a heat wave that summer, there were numerous drownings in the area, and a gal by the name of Lizzie Borden was making headlines. We also were able to find the article depicting the fire that happened in the church in the year 1893.
        We arrived at the church around 5:15p.m. The investigation started with giving Dick a tour of the church, since this was his first time here. Bob was also shown the second basement (where the bowling alleys used to be) for the first time. Bob had no impressions or feelings while we did this walk through, nor did any of the other members. The first part of the investigation, Bob and Dick went to explore the basement while Ken and Steve looked around behind the large area of the church. The four of them were trying to see where the fire of 1893 started. We found it! Dick and Bob found evidence of the fire. They were able to find several areas, mostly cross beams, that look as if they could have been burned the day before. While investigating the basement, Bob saw a flash of light "run" across the floor in the back part of the basement. Bob immediately asked Dick if he saw it. He did not. Both of them did note that there was a window in area that Bob saw the light. The windows, however, were not smooth and therefor, light was not easily focused through them. To prove this point, Kenny and Steve went outside to shine a light through the window. They could not recreate what Bob saw.
        Every time Steve walked by the small room (dressing room) before you enter the large area of the church, he always felt he had to look inside. Steve expected to see something or someone just sitting there. Even when the door was closed, he felt he "needed" to look through the opening to see if someone was there. When Bob and Steve walked passed there into the large part of the church, they both stopped and looked inside the small room at the same time.
        When we really started to get down to business, the group assembled in the theater area. We decided to take video of the "Miss Piggy" room and the small area of the church. Kenny set his video up on the balcony just opposite the Ms. Piggy room, while Steve and Dick set their cameras up on the main floor pointing up at the room.
        We got ready for a Question & Answer session. Bob was up in the balcony and the rest of the team stayed downstairs. Patty was designated the Question Asker. A couple of times, Bob felt the chills and directed other members to take pictures either near him or off to the side. Kenny was on the main floor snapping several pictures whenever Bob made a sign that he felt something. Some of the questions that Patty asked seem to bring forward more of a response than others. A few times when we addressed the male entity that we have run across, Bob had a feeling of the chills and also anger. Bob is not entirely convinced that this feeling of anger was imposed by himself or not. In a previous investigation, we heard an angry male voice on an EVP. Bob may be imposing his own conclusions and feelings from that recording onto this and future investigations.
        During the question period, Steve, Patty, Donna and Bob heard someone make a deep sigh. At first they thought it was Dick. But when they asked Dick, he said he had not made a sound. The sound had actually come from behind them to the upper left. Shortly after this, when Patty asked, "Why are you so scared" to the little girl she had seen before, she felt as if someone jumped inside of her and literally "feared for their lives." Then suddenly the feeling was gone. Throughout the questions, Patty felt like someone was watching them. She also felt like something terrible had happened there. It's important to note that at this same time, Bob was getting these feelings of anger and rage. Kenny had gone up on the balcony by this time and noted some cold spots along the side of the theater. As soon as he turned the corner to face Bob, there was a wave of chills that came over Kenny.
        We took a break to go over our recordings. We decided to focus on the same area again. This time Patty, Bob, Steve, and Donna were going to sit up on the balcony and Kenny and Dick were going to be below. Patty was setting up her equipment to try to duplicate some pictures she had taken during the last investigation. Kenny set up a motion sensor down on the stage by Dick. Patty took a picture then looked at it. It appeared at first glance there was something in the picture, but was later proved to be the curtain. Kenny went into the room and Patty felt that someone was in there. She told Kenny to be careful. Kenny said "Guys, there is something in here". Kenny saw a dark figure move behind a dressing wall. (It's one of those old time folding walls that people used to change behind) He saw it move between the hinges before it disappeared. Patty saw a shadowy figure peek out of the door then when Kenny got to the doorway; it faded back in again. We took several pictures. Meanwhile, Dick accidentally tripped one of the motion sensors set up on the stage, looking out towards the seating area. After that, it started to go off every couple of minutes. Kenny, thinking that it may have had something to do with the batteries, replaced the batteries in the motion sensor. This had no effect and sensor kept going off. The motion sensors went off about 7 to 10 times. Every time Dick sat down it went off again. Now, we've learned that the owners actually had alarm systems with motion sensor installed when the first moved in. They had to take the motion sensors out because they kept going off all night.
        We started another Question & Answer session. This time Bob, Patty, Donna, and Steve were on the balcony and Kenny and Dick were downstairs when Patty started asking questions again. Patty smelled a faint sweet scent, almost like a light perfume. Bob, Patty and Steve asked a series of questions. Dick asked questions using some of the names we had found in our research. The recordings are still being evaluated.
        The next part of the investigation was held in the larger part of the church, the main body. We sat in a circle in the dark and Bob asked questions. A few times Patty felt a presence behind Bob. Kenny also felt this presence behind Bob, and took several pictures of him. Kenny also kept getting the feeling that someone was sitting up on one of the balconies. The pictures taken show a bright gold orb hovering not too far away. We reviewed the EVPs and found some positive results. To the question asked, "How old are you?" we got the answer "30", and to the question "Do you work here?" the answer was "Yes".
        Bob, Patty, Dick and Kenny went to the "Miss Piggy" room to do another investigation. Kenny set a motion sensor by the door. It pointed towards the open doorway so to pick up anything moving through. As Kenny said, "I set a motion sensor by the door just in case anyone wants to join us"…it went off. Bob started asking questions. Then Patty asked some, feeling very unsettled. A few times when she was asking questions specifically to the little girl, Patty saw her peek in the door. (The sensor did not go off.) She also felt as if the little girl wanted Patty to follow her. Kenny felt nothing at all. We've made the conclusion that the entity left the room when the motion sensor went off, rather then it joining us.
          After all this, the team was starting to drop off. It was approaching 1:30 AM on Sunday and we had all been running non-stop since about 9 Saturday morning. Bob, Dick and Kenny attempted a 15 minutes of silent recording but I think we may have gotten more snoring then anything else! We called it quits and everyone gathered in the "safe" room for a nap. Kenny was the last to nod off, only because he wanted to set up recorders in an area where a school bell has been heard, several times, at 2AM. Nobody knows why 2AM, just that that's when it happens. Nothing was captured.
        When Steve was outside both when we arrived and left, he kept wanting to look upstairs into the window at one of the old Sunday School rooms (doll room). He again, expected to see someone there. Steve felt as if someone was peeking out of the room and kept hiding so they wouldn't get caught. Kenny had the same feeling, although it was from the front of the church. When we left the church at the end of the investigation, Patty felt a sense of relief that we were leaving, but that there is still a lot to investigate.

Bob's Conclusion: The research end was fantastic. On the first investigation, Steve and I had an experience of feeling heat. The area that we were in when this happened to us was the area that the fire took place. The research, in this instance, was a great validation of our experience.
        I still feel that we are mainly dealing with two ghosts. One is of the little girl and one is of a man. The Man, I feel was an important figure and was approx. 30 years old. I think we should try to focus the research on Pastors that were at the church when they celebrated their 30th birthdays.

Patty's Conclusion: I feel there are at least 6 entities, possibly from different times wandering within the church's walls. I also feel that during this investigation we were too aggressive and anxious. I think the next time we should do the 15 minutes of silence for the entities to get use to our being there. I also feel we were much to "eager" to get results. I am glad nothing happened to any of the group (no one got hurt), however I still feel one of us might. I think there is an "unfriendly" entity at work at the church and we must be careful. This is unfamiliar territory.

Kenny's Conclusion: When Patty states that we may have been too aggressive, I must say that I was part of that. We were all very excited from what we learned from the research we had done. We found several things to back up experiences and I guess I was gong-ho! Anyway, I'm still up in the air about how many entities may be here, but for now I'm leaning towards four. The redhead, the old lady who rings the bell, the little girl and this angry man. Bob and I disagree on the possible identity of the angry man. I believe he may be the first Pastor of the church. We acquired a picture of the man and as soon as I saw it, I got chills and excited. I could also see him being upset by the congregation leaving the church, the one for which he was such a big part of it's beginnings. Although, Bob has the impression that it is another Pastor, the one serving the church during the 1893 fire, which destroyed much of the church. This is also a realistic idea, for the man may have been very upset by the state of his church, perhaps even shouldering some or all of the blame.
        The theory Patty and Steve bring up that several ghosts may be here from different times is very possible. We have seen no evidence of them working together, only separate. If this is the case, we have our work cut out for us.

Account compiled from member's reports-PIRA

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