|
Article published Mar
14, 2008 from www.goerie.com
Haunted hotel
Do signs point to ghosts at The Knickerbocker?
By Valerie Myers
valerie.myers@timesnews.com
LINESVILLE -- Expect high spirits at The Knickerbocker this St.
Patrick's Day. Owners Peg and Myrle Knickerbocker are having friends in
on Monday evening for what they hope is confirmation that the building
is haunted.
A&E Television Network will broadcast results of a recent
investigation there on its "Paranormal State" show at 10 p.m.
The program features investigations by the Paranormal Research Society,
an organization of Pennsylvania State University students interested in
the occult.
"I know what I've seen and heard here, but you still appreciate
that confirmation," Peg Knickerbocker said. "It helps affirm
what you've experienced, that you're not crazy and that you can talk
about it."
The Knickerbockers, members of their extended family, workmen and
patrons have all reported seeing, hearing or sensing ghosts in the
former hotel. The building was constructed as the Arnold House Hotel in
the late 1870s. It is now open for meetings and private parties only.
Titusville's Brian Boughner was sitting at The Knickerbocker bar one
night talking to Peg Knickerbocker about the building's history when he
heard footsteps he couldn't account for in the kitchen.
"It was about 10 o'clock at night, it was pitch black out there,
and everybody who was in the building was in this room," Boughner
said, gesturing to the lounge. The Knickerbockers' Labrador retriever
was sitting nearby and also looked into the kitchen at the sound,
Boughner said.
"I asked Peg if she heard it, and she did, and if she was going to
go out and take a look, and she wasn't," he said. "She said
they hear it all the time."
Family members frequently hear footsteps in the building or capture the
sound on tape when they've heard nothing at all, Peg Knickerbocker said.
She once saw a dark shape in the kitchen doorway and has seen what she
believes is the ghost of a small boy ducking out of sight on the second
floor.
"He's there and he's gone, like he's playing hide-and-seek,"
she said.
A medium brought in by "Paranormal State" investigators last
fall shared some of what she sensed in the building with the
Knickerbockers.
"She said she saw a little boy playing hide-and-seek on the second
floor," Peg Knickerbocker said. "No one had told her what I'd
seen, yet it was exactly that. It made me cry."
Workmen currently renovating the building also report strange
experiences there. Dan Carpin was in the basement when a "prickly
feeling" made him turn.
"I thought I saw something that looked like a little kid, then it
was gone," Carpin said.
He readily admits that he doesn't like the basement. "I get a
creepy feeling down there by myself," he said.
Another worker, Richard Rich, told Myrle Knickerbocker last Oct. 17 that
his dad died on that day 26 years earlier.
"As soon as I'd said that, the lights right above us blinked off
and on. No other lights blinked, and Myrle and I were the only ones in
the building," Rich said.
The building caretaker has heard "Chopsticks" played on a
piano below her room when no one downstairs heard it. Peg Knickerbocker
recently heard a woman ask, "Are you up? Are you getting up?"
on the building's intercom early one morning. She traced the active
intercom to the unoccupied third floor.
She believes it was the voice of the "woman in white" that
others have seen in the building.
The Knickerbockers have no idea if "Paranormal State"
investigators experienced any of those things during their three-day
visit last fall. But they hope there's visual or audio evidence of the
spirits that they believe haunt the building.
And not because they hope to attract more business, Peg Knickerbocker
said.
"I don't think this is going to increase business, and I don't
think it will scare it away. We welcome investigators because what they
catch on film or audio here opens the discussion. And they need a place
that's active where they can grow and develop how and what they
investigate."
The Knickerbockers hope that "Paranormal State" investigators
developed their skills during their stay.
"They seemed very pleased," Myrle Knickerbocker said.
"It's going to be interesting to see what they found."
Local paranormal investigators could yet steal the TV team's thunder.
The Titusville area Keystone Paranormal team will set up closed circuit
cameras at The Knickerbocker tonight. A Franklin-based team will
investigate the building on Saturday night.
Bougher, as lead investigator for the Keystone group, anticipates great
things.
"This place is haunted," he said. "There's no
doubt."
VALERIE MYERS can be reached at 337-8312 or by e-mail.
On TV
"Paranormal State"
Investigation of The Knickerbocker Complex airs Monday at 10 p.m. on
A&E Television Network. |
