Where Ghosts Play

You’ll find the privately owned Griggs Mansion in Saint Paul, Minnesota. This old Victorian mansion was built around 1883 and has four stories and 24 rooms with high ceilings. All the floors have landings as you go up a staircase. On the fourth floor, you’ll find the landing has a vast skylight. This was installed in 1939 when the mansion was used as an art school.

Ghostly Happenings

A lot of supernatural activity seems centered around the 4th floor although other parts of the mansion have been affected as well. At least six or seven entities have made their presence known. The entities appear to be a young maid, a gardener, a child, a thin man in a black suit, a teenager, Amy, and a Civil War general.

The most strongly felt presence is that of a young maid. In 1915 she hung herself off the 4th floor landing because of depression from a failed romance. In the 4th floor hallway, the spirit appeared to a young servant and a butler. Around this area, people have felt a sense of foreboding, anxiety, and feelings of distress. One night three newsmen came to gather information for a series on ghosts. They set up camp in the big room on the top floor. They had two cameras one regular and one with infra-red aimed at the well-lighted top of the stairs and the 4th floor hall. A tape recorder was also set up. The newsmen heard heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. One man went out into the hallway. He saw nothing but felt a strong presence on the stairs. All the men left hurriedly deciding that it wasn’t worth it to spend a night in the mansion.

The gardener Charles Wade took pride in his work and kept the gardens in great shape. He used to take books from the mansion's well-stacked library to help him in his work. Now various people have heard an unseen presence frantically flipping through the books in the library. Perhaps he’s still looking for help on a gardening project.

People in various rooms of the mansion have been visited by a thin man, dressed in a black suit and top hat. In the early 1950s, Dr. Delmar Kolb joined the art school’s teaching staff. He moved into the front basement apartment. One night he was awakened by the pressure of two dead cold fingers on his forehead and found himself in a cold sweat. All he saw was a blue flash that disappeared when he turned on the light. Two nights later he awakened to see the detailed apparition of a man dressed in a black suit and top hat standing at the foot of his bed. His first impression was that this was an intruder dressed in costume but realized it was a ghost when the apparition disappeared into the brick wall.

Mr. Weschke bought the mansion in 1964 wanting to use it as an office and home. He published books on the occult. Working at his desk in the library in 1967 he stopped for a break. In the doorway of the library, he saw a thin, long-faced man with white hair, dressed in a black suit looking at him. After about 30 seconds this apparition faded away.

Two college students moved into the front basement apartment in 1959. During the night one student awoke suddenly to see the head of a child floating above his bed.

When a St. Paul spiritualist/medium Roma Harris came to visit the mansion he felt the shadowy presence of a teenage girl, who called herself Amy. She used to enjoy playing the piano in the mansion. Roma also saw a Civil War officer dressed in a general’s blue uniform, with gold trim. The theory is that this might be the original owner Chauncy Griggs since he had been a Civil War officer.

As with most haunted houses windows are firmly closed, even nailed shut, and have been found open, footfalls have been heard on the staircases, shadowy presences have been seen. Students who rented apartments here found themselves shaken awake to see an undistinguished head floating above their beds. Doors would open and close by themselves, rasping coughs would be heard from empty rooms, light bulbs would suddenly shatter, and paper bags would jump off shelves and be transported across the floor. People here have felt apparitions walk past them and in their time, students working in the art studio room have felt entities looking over their shoulders.

Wabash Street Caves are located near the east bank of the Mississippi River on Wabash Street which runs across the Mississippi River right through the main part of downtown St. Paul. The sandstone caves are located underground, underneath a rather large plateau. Throughout the 12,000 square feet, you can see nicely done brick walls, stucco ceilings, and a carpeted dining space. In the lounge area, there are beautiful tile floors. There is the original 1930s 60-foot bar, 1600 sq. ft. hardwood dance floor which is in front of the performance stage.

The sandstone Wabash Caves have been in use since 1840. Now they provide an entertainment haven for upper-class citizens of the St. Paul area and did so also for the gangster class in the 1920s-1930s. In the early 1900s, French immigrants discovered that the 7 sandstone caves were great for growing mushrooms. At first, mushrooms were provided for the markets of St. Paul but later were also shipped all over the country. During the 1920s St. Paul became a haven for gangsters. A speak-easy, high-class nightclub was set up in the caves. In one of the hallways in the Wabash Caves, you can see framed pictures of some of the infamous gangsters that used to frequent the nightclub. The daughter of the French mushroom farmers and her husband started a romantic night club called The Castle Royal where people could come and spend $1.00 for dinner (at that time the cost of a week’s groceries), dance to big bands, see musical acts, or play cards. It closed its doors when WWII started in 1941.

In the 1970s The Castle Royal 2 was opened as a disco. Sometime afterward a huge flood wiped out the housing along the river and two of the caves were taken by the city to push flood debris and people's ruined belongings into. They are still there today.

During the gangster era, John Dillinger liked to dance at the speakeasy and could be found enjoying himself there a few months before he was gunned down by FBI agents at The Biograph Theater in Chicago, Illinois in 1934. One time mobsters decided to do some business in the Fireside Room. They requested that the club close up early and everyone except a waitress who stayed behind to close up left the mobsters to their own resources. In the kitchen, the waitress heard the sounds of a Tommy gun. Running to the Fireplace Room she saw three gangsters on the floor dead. The hitman had fled with his partner who had been playing cards with the now dead mobsters. The waitress called the police. When the police arrived they found no bodies or blood. However, the waitress showed them the bullet holes in the stones of the fireplace. The conclusion was that the three dead gangsters were dragged into one of the other caves and buried there.

An entity of a man in a Panama hat is seen going about his business inside the caves. At around 3 AM two entities meet in the bar area – a man and a woman. While rehearsing for a play to be presented on the main stage the actors saw the apparition of a man sitting in the audience watching them. A woman's spirit wanders about searching for something or someone. The three dead gangsters are still around enjoying the music and events.

In the 1970s the manager running the disco and an employee saw a solid apparition of a gangster walking toward them in the hallway. He walked past them and disappeared into a wall. While cleaning the caves in 2005 the owner's young son was playing with a ball throwing it against a wall. The ball bounced into the men’s bathroom. While the boy stopped to pick up the ball he saw a man dressed as a gangster straightening his tie. The entity turned, smiled, and winked at the boy before disappearing.

After a wedding celebration, a little boy told the wedding party that he had had fun playing with those men. No one thought much about it until the wedding pictures came back. In one picture the little boy was seen sitting at the table happily smiling surrounded by several apparitions, portrayed by misty forms.

In downtown St. Paul at the north end of historic Rice Park, you can find the Landmark Center. It opened in 1902 and here one could find the post office, the customs house, and the Federal Courts for the county. Soon all of the Federal offices in the upper mid-west moved into this building. By 1967 the Landmark Center was badly in need of repair and in 1970 it was destined to be knocked down. However, a fund-raising project saved it and it was restored.

The Landmark Center is now under Minnesota Landmarks which is a nonprofit organization that makes sure the center is managed and maintained as a cultural arts center. From the outside, it looks like a European-style castle complete with clock and bell towers and steep roofs. This 4 story building takes up the whole block between 5th and 6th Street.

When entering the building on the first floor one finds themselves in the Cortile, an internal courtyard used for large events. The old Federal Courtrooms were located on the 3rd and 4th floors. They have been preserved as history and can be seen on tours of the building. The Ramsey County Courtroom #317 is the largest courtroom with a balcony. Trials of high-profile gangsters were held here in the 1930s. Gangsters such as Babyface Nelson, Machine Gun Kelly, Ma Barker’s son “Doc”, Alvin “Creepy” Karpis, Jack Peifer, and John Dillinger’s main girl, Evelyn Freschette with armed FBI G men, carrying serious cannons (Thompson sub-machine guns) stationed in the balcony. Down the hall was the Detention Room 324 now an office. There is the Butler Room Courtroom 326 which has a Tudor fireplace, which disguises the steam heating system, and the Sanborn Room Courtroom 408 which features a stained glass skylight and a white marble window wall.

Formerly Jack Peifer was a carnival worker and a bellhop before starting to work for gangsters. At one time he ran a speak-easy in St. Paul on Mississippi River Boulevard during the Prohibition era. He also laundered money for the underworld. Things became intense when he joined the Barker/Karpis gang and became the lead figure in two kidnappings of William Hamm (of Hamm’s Beer) in June 1933 and of Edward Bremer, a banker in January 1934. A high priority was placed on capturing them because Edward Bremer Sr. was a friend of President Roosevelt. Finally, Peifer, “Doc” and Karpis were caught and convicted in room 317. Peifer faced 30 years in Leavenworth Prison and not being able to cope with this turn of events he killed himself in his jail cell by swallowing potassium cyanide.

Jack Peifer’s entity appears to enjoy “girls, gin, parties, and the third floor of the Landmark Center”. On the third floor elevator doors open and close without the press of a button and at times they do this when they shouldn’t be opening and closing. A tour guide, Woodrow Keljik, wrote in a Landmark Newsletter that two visitors, who were standing on the third-floor landing looked through the glass top of the handicapped elevator and saw a transparent man wearing a bellhop uniform riding in the elevator to the third floor. When the elevator reached the third floor the man had disappeared. Women have felt the entity's strong presence and have been touched by this entity.

It is also thought that Peifer likes to haunt bathrooms all over the building. The stall doors in the women’s bathrooms open and shut by themselves. When a woman was in a bathroom alone she heard a disembodied man’s laughter somewhere behind her. Another woman saw a man with a menacing presence in the 2nd-floor restroom, who then suddenly disappeared.

When social events are held in the Cortile, bottles of alcohol are known to tip themselves over with no help whatsoever or at times found to be missing. Shot glasses have shattered for no reason. It is believed that the entity of Jack gets agitated around bars. After developing a picture of the wedding party on the grand staircase of Landmark Center a photographer saw a tall, fuzzy grayish man standing behind the 5-year-old ring bearer.