http://www.wellandtribune.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=940836

Is the museum haunted?; Paranormal investigators will be looking into strange happenings

Posted By ALLAN BENNER

He's not a malevolent spirit.

But staff at Welland Historical Museum are pretty sure he resides there.

"I don't know who he is, but he likes to move things around," said Penny Morningstar, the museum's assistant curator.

"None of us have gotten the sense that he's harmful, but he's very mischievous, whoever he is."

A rack of old clothing in storage upstairs at the museum is covered with a plastic sheet to keep dust off it. A few times, Morningstar has left the museum in the evening, certain no one else was in the building, and the plastic sheet was in place, covering the clothing. When she returns the next morning, she has found that plastic sheet pulled from the clothing rack and left on the floor at the far end of the room.

"There's no wind up there. Someone has moved it," she said.

That's one of many examples of unexplained occurrences at the museum, which served the city as a library for 80 years.

A few weeks ago, Lori Burns was sitting at her desk in the museum when she heard a loud crash from the far side of the room.

She slowly walked past the museum's displays of old toys, furniture, photographs, and paintings towards the area from where the sound emanated.

She found a wooden music stand lying on the floor, along with the a very old edition of Alexander's Hymns - a book compiled by a composer who died in 1895. There was no one around, and nothing to explain why the stand fell from the piano, especially since it was held in place by a wooden railing.

"It was a little freaky," she said. "It wasn't necessarily spooky at first until I got there and realized what it was."

There have also been many times when items have gone missing, only to turn up days later in unusual locations.

"It's not even a case of coming back five minutes later and finding it, it literally is moved somewhere else and it's a couple days before you find it," Morningstar said.

He's not a malevolent spirit.

But staff at Welland Historical Museum are pretty sure he resides there.

"I don't know who he is, but he likes to move things around," said Penny Morningstar, the museum's assistant curator.

"None of us have gotten the sense that he's harmful, but he's very mischievous, whoever he is."

A rack of old clothing in storage upstairs at the museum is covered with a plastic sheet to keep dust off it. A few times, Morningstar has left the museum in the evening, certain no one else was in the building, and the plastic sheet was in place, covering the clothing. When she returns the next morning, she has found that plastic sheet pulled from the clothing rack and left on the floor at the far end of the room.

"There's no wind up there. Someone has moved it," she said.

That's one of many examples of unexplained occurrences at the museum, which served the city as a library for 80 years.

A few weeks ago, Lori Burns was sitting at her desk in the museum when she heard a loud crash from the far side of the room.

She slowly walked past the museum's displays of old toys, furniture, photographs and paintings towards the area from where the sound emanated.

She found a wooden music stand lying on the floor, along with the a very old edition of Alexander's Hymns - a book compiled by a composer who died in 1895.

There was no one around, and nothing to explain why the stand fell from the piano, especially since it was held in place by a wooden railing.

"It was a little freaky," she said. "It wasn't necessarily spooky at first until I got there and realized what it was."

There have also been many times when items have gone missing, only to turn up days later in unusual locations.

"It's not even a case of coming back five minutes later and finding it; it literally is moved somewhere else and it's a couple days before you find it," Morningstar said.

Once, she heard the ghostly voice of the museum's resident spook.

She was standing on a ladder looking for an old quilt to add to one of the displays.

"It was really quiet up there, and you could hear the creaking of the building and everything else."

She was certain no one else had followed her into the storage room. "I was just about to reach for the quilt that I wanted, when all the hairs on the back of my neck stood up."

Suddenly, the creaking of the old building fell silent. She said it was as though "something had shifted."

At that moment, she distinctly heard a man's voice say, "Hello. Hello."

She forgot about the quilt, jumped down from the ladder and ran downstairs.

With so many weird things going on at the museum, staff decided to call in experts to help.

Yesterday, Carol Taylor from the Niagara Area Paranormal Society was at the museum for a preliminary interview, and to set up a time when she could return with a team of paranormal investigators, armed with the latest gadgets for ghost hunting.

Taylor said the team of volunteers use infrared cameras, digital recording devices, electromagnetic sensors and other devices to "scientifically prove or disprove" if a premises is haunted.

"We want to see the proof, either on the digital audio, our video cameras or pictures or anything like that," she said.

She said the investigation will likely take three or four hours.

Team members do the work as a hobby and don't charge for their services.

"The reason we got into this is because of our own experiences and we wanted to find out more of what was happening, and why these things occur."

Museum archivist Nora Reid has been through a lot of very old and somewhat creepy buildings throughout her career.

While she's not immune to the spooky ambiance of some of the places she's been to, she hasn't had any personal experiences with ghosts. "I'm used to old buildings and I try to ignore the atmosphere, because a lot of it is just the look of it and that there's a lot of old stuff sitting around. Your imagination can get working on it," she said.

"I've never had anything tremendously weird happen in any of the buildings."

But she's not discounting the experiences her colleagues have reported.

Taylor said the paranormal society will also be investigating Central Fire Station in the coming weeks.

Although museum board chairman John Mastroianni gave the paranormal society permission to spend an evening at the museum to conduct its research, a specific time for the ghost hunt has yet to be determined.

During past investigations, Taylor said the team of ghost hunters gathered a lot of evidence supporting the existence of spirits in the buildings they've visited.

"At our last investigation, we had more than 114 pieces of audio and we had video from that place," she said.

They've also recorded ghostly voices during their visits to some of Niagara's creepiest buildings.

Most of those voices, she said, are calling "Help me."