This week in honor of the Halloween (I know it was two days ago, but I'm campaigning to make it Halloween year-round) I decided I'd show you 10 supposedly haunted places in my hometown.
Butte has always been known for its supernatural activity because of it's many historic buildings (and mines) which have been home to deaths, disappearances, and even murders.
1. Dumas Brothel (East Mercury St.)
The Dumas is probably the most famous haunted place in Butte. An active brothel all the way until 1982, this place obviously has some stories. The most famous is that of Elenore Knot, a madam at the Dumas until 1955, when she committed suicide after waiting for a lover who never came. To this day, people claim to see her ghost wandering the brothel's halls. It's pretty dang creepy walking by there. I took a tour once when I was younger and I don't remember it much, but sometimes when I walk by there on my way home from school I get a chill or hear weird static in my headphones.
The Dumas was the longest running brothel in Butte's red light district, and one of the few still standing today. If you are interested, I would highly recommend checking out it's website,
http://www.thedumasbrothel.com/.
2. Phoenix Building (Park St.)
I don't have a super interesting story about the Phoenix Building, but it's definitely a creepy place. The first two floors are home now to a few art galleries and a men's clothing store, but the rest of the floors are deserted. The bizarre thing is that on there is a bunch of office furniture everywhere up there, almost in pristine condition and well-organized, but super old. It's like everyone disappeared all at once!
3. Butte Courthouse (Granite St.)
Butte was originally intended to house the state capitol so the city built this big gorgeous building for the state legislature. Helena ended up becoming Montana's capitol, so it's just the city courthouse now. A much smaller courthouse used to stand here and it housed the gallows where hundreds were hung. Even after they tore down the old courthouse and built this one, people claimed to have seen apparitions and poltergeists, especially in the basement.
4. Silver Bow Center (Granite St.)
The Silver Bow Center (Formerly the Butte Millionaire's Club) is right next to the Butte Courthouse. It is one of the most expensive buildings in Butte, with a Tiffany glass awning, a gorgeous tile fireplace in the foyer, and beautiful woodwork throughout the interior. It's said that the building is haunted by a 9 year old boy who died decades ago. I have spent the night there a few times with the Montana History Club and although I have never seen said boy, the president of the club a few years ago claims that she spoke to him when she was picking up a key to the building.
5. Mother Lode Theater (Park St.)
In Butte's heyday it had about 15 theaters, but today the Mother Lode is one of the only ones left standing, and the only one still in use. I used to do plays here and sometimes we would have to rehearse on the top floor, which is a super old, run-down ballroom with splintery floors (side note- I once played a part where I was barefoot for the entire play. Needless to say, it was not fun to rehearse up there). One year they had a haunted house up there and now there are random (hopefully fake) bloodstains all over the walls. Also, there are tons of weird props like disembodied mannequin parts hanging around the balcony above the dance floor. I have no stories about it actually being haunted, but either way it is very creepy!
6. Clark Mansion (Broadway St.)
This Mansion was the home of illustrious copper king William Clark one of the most influential men in the state and mining mogul. It is now an art gallery and studio. Maggie and I used to take bellydancing classes in the attic of the house, and our teacher would tell us stories of the hauntings here, namely about a 16 year old boy who died in the house and hangs around in the attic all the time. And then we would work on our belly rolling. (Don't judge!) I was always on-edge and paranoid there and I often felt chills or saw something out of the corner of my eye.
7. Old YMCA (Park Street)
This building used to be a YMCA, and then it was a swimming school thing (which I attended when I was little) and then it was the center for arts in Butte. Maggie and I used to take art classes there on the third floor, and we would heart things all the time, like people coming and going from studios when nobody was supposed to be in the building and the sounds of people running in the old gym. Also, there is a super creepy old elevator that was "operational" (I use that term loosely) and our art teacher used to herd us up to the 3rd floor in it and it would randomly stop and the lights would flicker and it was very traumatizing. I think it definitely contributed to my current fear of elevators.
8. Metals Bank (E. Park St.)
The Metals Bank was originally a bank (obviously) and has since been converted to a restaurant with a few apartments above it. Maggie and I had an actual paranormal (or at least inexplicable) experience here! We were about ten and eleven years old, respectively, and we (along with my mom) were helping our artist friend get some paintings from her studio on the second highest floor. As I mentioned, I have a phobia of elevators so I made Maggie take the stairs with me. We were walking down and we stopped on a deserted floor because we thought we heard something. We heard the sound of footsteps and a click as if somebody was unlocking a door down the hall. As soon as the door started to open an ear-splitting alarm went off. I was sure it was a burglar alarm and so we ran down the stairs as fast as we could. The sound got louder and louder until we reached the lobby and met my mom and her friend. They didn't seem worried, but we yelled over the alarm asking why it was going off. They looked very confused and asked what we were talking about. We looked around and nobody was reacting to the alarm. We realized that nobody else could hear it. My mom and her friend embarrassedly herded us out of the building, apologizing to the huge group of people who stopped to stare at us screaming our heads off. As we walked away from the building the sound faded as if the alarm was still going off inside and Maggie and I looked at each other and, at the same time, asked, "You heard that too, right?"
9. Old Town Hall (Broadway St.)
The most interesting thing about this building is actually in the basement. (Although Evel Knievel, a Butte native, once blew up the men's bathroom on the second floor) Under the City Hall was the old jail, where tons of local legends spent the night, as evident by their names carved into the walls. Fun fact: Robert Knievel actually got his stage name here after serving time with a man named William Knofel. One of the guards remarked that "Evil Knievel" and "Awful Knofel" were both in that night and the name stuck.
The jail closed soon after a man committed suicide there and inmates claimed to have seen his ghost in the holding cells and around the shower area. Now you can take tours there and it is definitely a chilling experience!
10. Old St. James Hospital
This place gives me the creeps to even write about. It might very well be the most haunted place in town! It was Butte's hospital until the 50s (I think?) and after multiple attempts to reuse it as housing, offices, etc. it was abandoned. When it was converted into apartments, tenants claimed to hear random hospital sounds and see doctor rushing around the halls at night. That apartment endeavor barely lasted two years.
My history teacher, Mr.Burgman, told our class a very creepy story about his experience there when he was a kid. Long story short, he accidentally walked into the abandoned building thinking it was a doctor's office. He saw that the first floor was totally deserted, but he heard something on the second floor so he went up to check it out. He reached a busy hospital wing and talked to some nuns who tried to help him find the doctor he was looking for. When none of them had heard of the doctor he thanked them and left. Later he went back with his mother, who didn't believe that he had spoken to someone in there, and found the second floor to be the same as the first, completely deserted. Twenty years later he was looking at an exhibit about old hospitals and found a picture of the St.James hospital from 1931 with the same nun that he saw that day staring right at him.
So there are 10 creeeeeepy places in Butte! Whether you believe in this stuff or not, it's kind of fun to hear stories about odd and bizarre happenings. Butte is full of weird stuff like this, and I barely just scratched the surface, so if you are interested I would definitely consider looking into other paranormal stuff here!
Also, I apologize for all of this Halloween stuff coming so late. Last week ended up being really really busy, especially with Ghost Walk stuff (more on that coming soon!)
Anyways, I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween and I wish you a great end of fall!
