Ghosts along the Texas Coast (17 page)

The Oaks

The October 31, 1990 edition of the
Galveston Daily News
carried an interesting story written by Bob Whitey. It was about the Virginia Point Inn, and Sarah, the friendly live-in ghost!

A telephone conversation with Eleanor Catlow, the owner, verified what Bob Whitey had written was true. Sarah Hawley and her husband were the first owners of the house, and Catlow feels certain it is her spirit which returns, not to frighten, just to look after her old homestead. And although there have been many incidents of windows closing, doors opening, footsteps heard on floorboards, and rocking chairs rocking of their own accord, Mrs. Catlow has never felt frightened or intimidated.

Mrs. Catlow and her husband bought the house six years after he retired. It was the first house they looked at, and seemed like home immediately. They looked no further. Mrs. Catlow has since turned the place into a bed and breakfast inn, and of late, she said “Sarah” has not made her presence known.

Many of the Catlow's guests have reported strange experiences. One relative who came to the inn to be married reported a presence in her room the night before her wedding. She said she heard the rustling of a wedding gown, and she also reported a rocking chair rocked, while a door opened repeatedly all through the night. She said she knew something was in the room with her.

A couple who stayed at the inn reported two pictures falling to the floor the night they stayed there. It seems those folks had relatives who did not get along well with the Hawley family. Catlow added, “The chain wasn't broken or bent . . . the pictures just crashed to the floor.” They had never fallen previously and haven't fallen since. It just had to have something to do with Sarah not wanting that particular couple to stay there!

Still another guest claimed he was invited downstairs during the night for an otherworldly conversation. Supposedly the man was awakened about 2 a.m. by a spirit voice which asked him to come downstairs and “visit with me awhile.” The man said it was a “good feeling.” He said he had a wonderful visit with the spirit and then calmly went back upstairs to bed!

We recently learned that the inn has been sold. We wonder if Sarah will take kindly to the new owners.

Virginia Point Inn

Galveston Island has many haunted places. One of them was the subject of a Halloween newspaper article on October 31, 1989. The
Galveston Daily News
article was researched and written by Sonja Garza.

My interest piqued, I tried to contact the owner mentioned in the write-up, Barbara Stanford. Finally, I located a distant cousin of Stanford's who told me she had sold the house and moved to California some time ago. She believed the deserted house might be owned by the city of Galveston.

The
News
article stated that the old house at 23rd Street and Avenue K is slowly decaying and the paint is flaking off the wood.

The 90-year-old mansion was a former boarding house. There are some twenty-seven rooms within its three stories.

Linda Groh, a married daughter of Ms. Stanford, was quoted as saying she had “vivid memories of unexplained footsteps, eerie laughter, and nightmarish visions.” She slept on the second floor. Every night about midnight for an entire summer, she would hear tapping on the floor above her, almost like people tap dancing. She also heard distant laughter and faint music playing. This happened sometimes when she was alone. The third floor always gave her the creeps.

Jessie Glasgow, Barbara Stanford's son, had his own experiences to relate. He told about how chairs stored in a room on the third floor would move around by themselves. “One day I'd go to the room and they would be stacked on top of one another. A few days later, they'd be off in the corner,” he said.

Amy Wagner, a Galveston resident who once attended a party in the old former boarding house, said one boy at the party got so frightened by something he saw while he was in the house, he jumped out of a second story window. Luckily, a tree broke his fall.

Joseph Witwer, who owns the property next door to the old house, says he knows for a fact that several people died in the boarding house over the years. “An old seaman and others have died of natural causes there, but nothing of a violent nature,” he said.

The article quoted Olivia Meyer, spokeswoman for the Galveston Historical Foundation, as saying the most current records kept on the house are dated 1912. Meyer believes the home might have been built about 1905 in another city and moved to Galveston about six years later.

Garza stated in her article that Mrs. Stanford was no longer bothered by the ghosts. She had had a spiritualist come and check the place out, and she had determined that there were probably two spirits there, one male, and one female. Stanford was quoted as saying, “The medium told me in order to get rid of the spirits, I'd have to leave also because they were emotionally attached to me. I plan on staying.”

What made Barbara Stanford change her mind and move on? Did the “attached” resident spirits go away, or did they follow her to California? Or are they still hanging around the old house?

During a recent visit to Galveston we learned the building has been purchased by Mr. David Goodbar, the owner of a beautifully restored mansion in the same block in what is known as Galveston's “Silk
Stocking” district. Restoration and remodeling of the building was to be completed early in the summer of 1994. It is being leased to numerous antique and art dealers who will display their goods in a boutique-like atmosphere. The many rooms that make up the boarding house lend themselves well to such an endeavor. According to Mr. Goodbar the house was built as, and always was, a boarding house for roomers. The genial owner didn't hesitate to admit the old building is reputed to be among Galveston's most haunted habitats!

Former boarding house at 23rd Street and Avenue K

According to Galveston County's
In Between
issue of October 1978, Old Fire Station Number Six at 3712 Broadway had a ghost!

Captain Jack was a fireman, and he served for over twenty years at the oldest fire station on Galveston Island.

Although he died over forty years ago, it is said that for many years he still would often be heard climbing the stairs which led up to the firemen's sleeping quarters. It always sounded like a fireman in full fire fighting regalia. His ghost didn't like anyone to sleep on the cot by the south window, because that was his spot. Rookies who made the mistake of using Jack's old cot often were rudely awakened. One fire fighter reported that his blankets and sheets were pulled away by an unseen force while he slept!

No longer a fire station because the old building could not accommodate today's larger trucks, the building has for the past three years has been the home of Alford Air Conditioning Company, Inc. Donna Briones, the office manager, shared some of her experiences and impressions with us. Shortly after the old station became the home of the air conditioning business, Donna started to notice unusual occurrences. For instance, on several occasions she has sensed the strong, almost overpowering fragrance of a man's cologne or after-shave lotion as she sits in her first floor front office, or at the top of the stairs just off the bathroom and shower room that once served the men stationed at Fire Station Number Six.

One morning when Donna was in the building very early, prior to opening time, she stretched out on the couch upstairs to catch a short catnap. As she was just about to drift off to sleep she heard music. It was faint at first, and a little “static-y.” She couldn't tell what the piece was, but it was definitely music. She looked all around. There was no radio in the room. She thought maybe a car might be parked outside the building with the car radio turned up loud, but when she checked she found no car outside. Then she went back upstairs. She heard the music again, “rather scratchy and muffled, like a well-worn record being played on an old victrola.” She never was able to trace the source of the music.

One morning as she sat in the office, Donna heard heavy footsteps descending the stairs just outside the office. She thought it must be her stepfather, who owns the business. When the office door did not open immediately, as she had expected, she wondered why. She opened the door and looked out into the open section of the building which used to house the fire trucks. She also glanced outside, and found her stepfather's van was not even parked alongside the building. She was completely alone in the building!

Because of so many unexplained noises and happenings, Donna has become quite interested in the history of the old building that once housed the firemen. She has turned up the rosters of various captains and their companies who served there over the years. Several records dating back to the early 1920s revealed one captain who served there for a long time was listed as “Captain A.J. O'Mara.” We wonder, could the “J” possibly have stood for “Jack?”

We are glad the old building is still there, providing a restful haven for the spirit of an old fireman who served his community so faithfully for so long.

They called him “Captain Mott.” Born near Alexandria, Louisiana, on June 21, 1837, Marcus Fulton Mott moved with his family to Galveston in 1845. He grew up on the island and later became a successful lawyer in the firm of Bellinger, Jack, and Mott. During the Civil War, Mott was a colonel in the Confederate forces. Later, the honorary title of “Captain” was bestowed on him by the Galveston Artillery Club, and that's what he liked to be called.

Captain Mott built a lovely, big Victorian home for his family in 1884. The address is 1121 Tremont. It was purchased by Tommy Witwer in 1943, and today, the lower floor is used for businesses, while the current occupant, Joseph C. Witwer, one of Tommy's sons, lives in the upstairs portion of the building.

Former home of “Captain” Mott, at 1121 Tremont in Galveston

According to Tommy Witwer, who was quoted in an article in
Eagle Images
, October 1980, the first indication the place might be haunted came when his daughter reported hearing voices in the attic. Years later, Witwer's granddaughter reported that the “Captain” had come into her room and spoken to her. A conversation I had with Witwer's son Joseph indicated that the spirit most often appeared to youngsters. He said more than one child had seen the “Captain,” and that he had also seen the spirit when he was about twelve years old. He said it rarely appeared to adults, but he did vividly recall seeing the ghost when he was a youngster.

Some very strange incidents occurred when a young man named John Implemence moved into the household as a tenant. Soon after his arrival, he was lying on his bed one day when he distinctly heard a voice tell him to “get out of here.” His mattress then lifted, and he was thrown into the air and across the room! In the next few days, pictures flew off the walls and the furniture moved about. After these incidents, John invited some of his friends over to visit him in his room, and they began to hold Ouija board sessions. When Implemence questioned the “Ouija spirit” about what it meant to do to him, it said something about coming after him with “a wet rope.” That night, as he was preparing to go to bed, Implemence heard a voice which seemed to come from the attic. He opened the door and walked up the steep steps. When he reached the top, a great heaviness seemed to overcome him. An unseen force seemed to hold him. He felt as if he were actually tied to the newel post, and he was unable to move from 2 a.m. until daybreak when he was suddenly and inexplicably released.