Detroit; Active or Haunted Spots

There is a large list of Detroit activity going around. Ever since I was a teenager I would drive around and explore with my friends. Typically, when a major publication like the Detroit News or Hour Detroit Magazine says something is haunted I avoid it- because it seems more tourist trap than genuine. But sometimes it's legit. Also, if a report says anything about a woman in white- nope. Tip: Not all ghosts are heartbroken women or soldiers, not all women wear white and not all souls mope around their own graves only at night to smile for the camera. Those ones tend to scream urban legend, not actual paranormal encounters.

However, here is a small list I have compiled where I can confirm some activity,  or at the very least some places that feel like they go bump in the night.

The Whitney: This is one of those places that play into being haunted by cashing in, minus having guests pay for tours. Commonly said to be haunted with kitchenware flying off of walls, counters, glass breaking, lights on and off, elevators going when nobody requests them, or stop suddenly. Typical stuff. None of that was experienced by me personally, but it will be in every google search you do with the words Whitney and haunted. What I did take note of when I was there (numerous times) are these few things; The ladies room on the second floor is not as commonly noted as being anything active, but ramblings have been mentioned. Here is my rambling- I first stepped into the room around 6am on Thanksgiving one year while working as a volunteer. One step from the well lit hallway to the slightly less well lit bathroom was a drastic change in energy. It went from commonplace to someone is standing next to me in one pass through the door. You know in teen movies when someone is hiding in a bathroom stall and the person they're hiding from presses their face against the crack in the door and stares them down before dramatically pushing the door open? That's how it feels in this bathroom. Like someone was waiting for you, is watching you, and does not want you to completely ignore them. Also, the rooms off of the Ghostbar on the third floor go a little wonky in their atmosphere. I remember one time I walked into one of the rooms, felt lightheaded, had a quick swoon, walked out of the room and was fine for the rest of the day. Someone told me it could have been something moving through me or near enough to cause a reaction. The intrigue!

Historic Fort Wayne: Aside from knowing these grounds are haunted from countless others, I have had experiences in a few spots. My favorite of my whole time there happened in the jail during a paranormal tour with MPI and other famous investigators. This story happened over spirit box with Johnny Zaffis and ticket holders, and I was sitting up font at the jail table with Johnny taking photos and going with the flow. A man came through the box to chat, Tom, and he was not really responsive to much, and broke in and out like static for a few minutes while John asked crowd sourced (uninteresting for the most) questions. Then I started chatting directly with Tom over the box and asked him personal questions more so than why are you here. I asked him, Tom, would you call yourself a handsome man? It was what we can only identify as a laugh with the box lights and meter going off, and a yes. His answers got faster and clearer, so, Handsome Tom became my buddy. I also asked if he was happy, if he had a family, if he frequents the park often,what he misses and we mostly made out is that he had a family, he died after the 67 riots from burn injuries and he was possibly a sweet talker. (The fort was used as a triage during and after the riots, as well as shelters for homeless)
I also noticed an almost magnetic feeling in the gym of the Visitor Center. Like, a scary feeling that if you looked around you would see some crazy shite.
Officer's row also had a few instances of lights shining when no lights aught to be. Were they weird dirty reflections off of a boat a mile or two out? Or something else? Hard to say, because they were small twinkle lights, it was . We saw lights in the Commanding Officer's house. Also the barracks has a lot going on. I haven't personally seen or heard much here but I have heard others' EVP recordings and photos and stories. As seen in my doc, I thought I heard something, we all did, but we cannot promise that it was a ghost. But we definitely did all hear it.

Masonic Temple: Though I don't doubt that the Masonic is spectacularly haunted- the only thing I really witnessed were cool spots (it's an old building) and electronics not working in a room or a hallway when they were just seconds ago working fine. I'm told that can be a sign of something ghostly. Or- again- it's just an old building and reception might not hit every nook and cranny of this beautiful palace. I am working on costumes for Theatre Bizarre this year inside the Masonic, so, hopefully something will happen for me.

The Leland: This place, this place is whack! I'll do a more in depth post about this one later on because there was much to tell, but to catalog it nicely, I'll detail a few things now. On the mezzanine by the old dusty piano we felt like we were being watched. For some reason it made us want to whisper, so for ten minutes in the dusty darkness of this strangely lit half floor we were mostly silent but still felt rude. On one upper floor we heard a muffled TV like someone was watching it in their apartment- only we heard it through nearly the whole floor. The same muffled sound not getting much louder or softer depending on where we walked. We did find an apartment in the corner by the window with a TV on but it was definitely in a non-central location and it would not cause us to hear it by the elevators. We crept to the sub-roof where the Purple Gang threw people off and made it look like suicides, which was neat but we didn't see any residual hauntings jumping off like some claim. There were a lot of literal signs saying keep out, and a lot of icky ones like water marks turned black crawling down the walls like a horror movie. All in all, active, but I didn't see a ghost in a way that I could say was without a doubt. Would investigate again.

This is my brief list of Detroit specifics. There are more and I will get to them in another post. In the meantime, do you have anything to add? Anything I should check out? A story to share? Let me know in the comments!

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