Month: December 2020

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A “non-stop jazz spook”—Baltimore, MD

The Evening Sun (Baltimore, Maryland)
June 12, 1923 

“GHOST” HOLDS SWAY AS DOUBTERS FLEE

Family Moves From Dulaney
Street House And Schemes
To Lay Spook Fail. 

A “spook” thought to be the spirit of a departed long-distance dancer, has visited the house at 2630 Dulaney street and has driven the tenants away, residents of the block say.

Those who have gone to the house to scoff have departed very suddenly when the “haunt” came forth and gave visible demonstrations of its power, and today the ghostly visitor from the nether world reigns supreme.

Mr. and Mrs. John Welk, who moved into the house from Woodberry six months ago, have been driven out. Residents of the block who have seen strange things happen in the house are inclined to agree with them, and neighbors tread softly as they walk past the deserted house at night.

Non-Stop Jazz Spook.

But though the “ghost” haunts the house, it, too, seems ill at ease, as though it is doing penance. For as it does its stuff it groans mournfully, and the sight of a shoe seems to exercise an unbreakable power over it.

This has caused some to think that it is the ghost of a long-distance dancer who passed out after shuffling for 167 hours and who is doomed as punishment to shuffle for an eternity on the Elysian fields.

Mrs. Welk first became conscious of its presence when a pair of shoes she left on the floor started to shuffle wearily about the room, while heart-rending groans emanated from somewhere in the empty space where the person in them should have been.

Nor is it only Mrs. Welk’s shoes which are moved by the unseen ghost. According to neighbors, it is perfectly impartial and say shoes which are places in the building are seized with a desire to get somewhere else.

This includes not only unattached shoes, but those on the feet of investigators. Persons who have, in a calm and scientific spirit, sought to plumb the depths of the visitations have found that their shoes have suddenly carried them out of the house when the manifestations commenced.

Robert Mason, 2611 Dulaney street, was one of the scoffers who tried to show up the ghost. A pair of shoes were placed on the first floor as bait, and presently they began to move without any visible shanks in them. They moved to the accompaniment of a low moan, and at the same time a sweater which had been placed in the shoes was thrown a foot away.

Goose flesh began to appear on the backs of the necks of the investigators, but they stayed to see what would happen. A moment of shivery silence passed and then Mrs. Welk suddenly screamed, “There he is!”

A shadow appeared on the wall, a shadow which Mrs. Welk declared was the spirit of her dead father. But, unlike Hamlet, she did not stay to converse with it.

“Come with me,” said a hollow ghostly voice.

For a moment the group stood unable to move. Then their shoes got restless and they went out the front door.

George Pettingill, a carpenter, 2638 Dulaney street, is another who tried to lay the ghost. He piled up more shoes then six ghosts could wear in the middle of the floor and put some of his tools on them to weight them down. Suddenly the tools were scattered to the corners of the room and to the cadence of the same lugubrious groans, the shoes began to waltz. Everybody seemed satisfied with this and left.

_____

Dulaney Street lies southwest of downtown Baltimore, just off US 1 in a neighborhood called Mill Hill. Looking on Google Maps, it appears that the house where this haunting took place is no longer standing. The street is derelict with many of the town homes boarded up. A residence that was once a neighbor to 2630 still stands and appears to be occupied by tenants.

Dance marathon 1923
Dancers participate in a marathon 20 April 1923. Photo by the National Photo Company, courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

This article is interesting, not only in documenting this strange phenomenon, but in linking it to a “long-distance” dancer. It seems that the article is referring to the dance marathons that were popular in the 1920s. In these marathons, couples danced for as long as they could endure. As long as the couple remained moving, they were still in the running and rules sometimes allowed one partner to sleep, while the other remained dancing. The article notes that this particular dancer danced for 167 hours, which is more than six days, which was possible. The current record for marathon dancing, according to Guinness World Records, for an individual is 124 hours and for a pair is a mere 41 hours. Dancers setting records before the advent of Guinness World Records, which was first published in 1951, have not been included.

Sources

  • Dance marathon. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 27 December 2020.
  • “Ghost” holds sway as doubters flee. The Evening Sun. 12 June 1923.
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Phantoms from the fire—Atlanta, Georgia

The Ellis Hotel
176 Peachtree Street
Atlanta, Georgia

In downtown Atlanta, the city’s most famous thoroughfare, Peachtree Street, is lined with many possibly haunted landmarks. On any haunted tour of the city, one of the primary stops should be 176 Peachtree St.—The Ellis Hotel.

Winecoff Hotel Atlanta Georgia 1918
A view of the Winecoff Hotel in 1918. Courtesy of the Atlanta History Center.

This boutique hotel may offer ghosts in addition to its usual amenities.

The Ellis opened originally in 1913 as the Winecoff Hotel. It was here in the early morning hours of Saturday, December 7th, 1946, that a fire broke out. The 15-storey hotel, often advertised as ‘absolutely fireproof,’ was booked to capacity with Christmas shoppers, families in town to see the premier of the new Disney film, Song of the South, and some 40 Georgia high school students in town for a mock legislative session.

Starting in a third-floor corridor, the fire spread quickly. As the old hotel lacked modern fire preventive measures and the fire spread wildly up the single escape stairwell trapping everyone above it. The Atlanta Fire Department impressively responded with nearly 400 firefighters, 22 engine companies and 11 ladder trucks, four of them aerial. However, ladders were only able to reach people partway up the burning hotel.

As flames licked at their doors, guests began jumping or trying to lower themselves on improvised ropes of bed sheets. Others tried to propel themselves across to the Mortgage Guarantee Building across the alley off Ellis Street. The alley soon became dangerous as bodies began to fall. The sun rose that day to reveal 119 lives snuffed out among the still smoking carnage.

Winecoff Hotel fire Atlanta Georgia
Photographer Arnold Hardy was able to capture this image of Daisy McCumber as she plummeted towards the sidewalk. This young lady survived her fall and the photographer was granted a Pulitzer Prize for this photograph.

Sadly, the Winecoff itself was absolutely fireproof, just not the combustible interiors. The hotel’s modern incarnation as the Ellis can attest to that. Outside the hotel, a historical marker reminds passersby of “Georgia’s Titanic” while spirits may remain in the hotel as reminders to the tragedy.

Guests and hotel staff have cited a tremendous variety of paranormal activity. The building’s elevators have been known to act strangely and operate on their own accord. During the renovations into the Ellis Hotel, workers reported finding their tools moved or missing as well as hearing footsteps and voices coming from empty rooms. Guests have reported hearing screams and the sound of running within empty corridors while some have awakened to the odor of smoke within their rooms.

Staff members have also reported that calls come to the hotel switchboard from unoccupied rooms while the smoke alarm mysteriously goes off at 2:48 AM, the time the fire started. People outside the hotel have also claimed to have seen faces in the windows, some of them appearing to scream in pain.

Ellis Hotel Winecoff Atlanta Georgia
The Ellis Hotel in January of 2020, by JJonahJackalope, courtesy of Wikipedia.

After The Winecoff Fire was published in 1993, I bought a copy and passed it to my parents once I finished it. A short time later, we were in Atlanta one evening and decided to drive past the old hotel building. The huge building still stood derelict and we drove slowly down Ellis Street. Peering down the alley between the hotel and the old Guarantee Mortgage Company building where so many had leapt to their deaths, we spied some graffiti scrawled on the wall of the hotel. “The police tape is soaked in blood,” it read as if to remind viewers of the sacred somberness that continues to haunt the scene of the country’s deadliest hotel fire.

Sources