Ghost hunters set sights on Theodores' tavern in Springfield
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
By RAY KELLY
rkelly@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - Spirits may not be confined to the bottles behind the bar at a downtown nightclub.
Paranormal investigators from the popular SciFi Channel TV series "Ghost Hunters" spent the past two evenings looking into what goes bump in the night at Theodores' and Smith Billiards at 201 Worthington St.
Carrying electromagnetic field meters and thermal and infrared cameras, 13 crew members looked for anything out of the ordinary. The bar was closed to business and the crew's vans were parked at a nearby lot with the show's logo covered so as not to draw the curious.
Investigators did not bring preconceived notions with them, said Stephen A. Gonsalves, one of the co-stars of "Ghost Hunters" and a city resident.
"We try to disprove hauntings. If we can't find any natural or normal means, then we look at the possibilities of something else," he said.
The team's findings will be shown on an episode airing in the fall.
Workers at the century-old, five-story brick building have reported eerie occurrences including:
The loud sound of balls rolling across the vacant fourth and fifth floors, which housed a bowling alley 80 years ago.
Voices whispering to waitresses with no one in sight.
Ghostly footsteps in the club after closing time.
A chill in one part of Theodores' basement.
The apparition of a little boy seated on a pool table.
"I don't know about that last one. It might have been the alcohol talking," co-owner Keith E. Weppler, of Agawam, a self-described skeptic, said jokingly.
Weppler, who has co-owned the nightclub with Keith P. Makarowski, of Enfield, since 1999, said he has not been spooked by the occasional strange sounds, but some employees have been rattled.
"There have been a couple of times when people have literally run out of here at closing time because of the sound of the bowling balls rolling on the floor," Weppler said.
Makarowski recalled an incident in the basement on a summer night. The building was locked tight, but he could hear footsteps and saw the floorboards above him move. He recalled feeling a sudden chill in the previously humid basement.
"I went upstairs with a broken pool stick thinking there was an intruder, but I searched and searched and there was no one there," he said. "I'm skeptical by nature, but I will say that I've experienced some things that I just cannot explain."
Makarowski and Weppler were approached by Gonsalves, whose former band Po' Boy and the Red Hats used to play at Theodores.' He said he heard stories for years from waitresses about unexplained incidents.
Since joining "Ghost Hunters," Gonsalves has investigated other bars and taverns, adding that not all occurrences involve the stereotypical haunted house.
"It can be any structure that has had trauma or turmoil - you don't even really have to have that sort of thing," Gonsalves said. "You don't know what happened on this land before Theodores' was ever even here, not to mention that they have a lot of antique or dated articles here that could have some energy attached to them."
"Ghost Hunters" begins its fourth season next month and has already been signed for a fifth. The investigation at Theodores' marks the show's third visit to the area. Investigators previously examined Clapp Memorial Library in Belchertown and a Sixteen Acres home.
If "Ghost Hunters" determines Theodores' is haunted, Weppler does not think it will impact business for better or worse.
"It will just become part of the charm or vibe at Theodores,'" he said.
