Ghost Stories

Tonight my husband, son, grandson and I went to hear a Clarion College professor (sorry but I can't remember his name) give a presentation on the results of his team's investigation into paranormal activity at the National Transit building in Oil City, Pa.  He also discussed three other buildings, one located at the Venango Campus (also in Oil City) and two located on the campus of Clarion College.

Our  main interest was in the Transit findings (although the other buildings were interesting too, especially the Hart Chapel.)  

When I first told my family that I was getting a studio in the National Transit Building, my son told me it was haunted.  (If you know my son and husband, you know not to believe most things they tell you...... so I didn't.)  But I heard it from other people too.  Supposedly people have smelled either cigar smoke or pipe smoke.  One of the musicians in the building said he saw a man and smelled the cigar.  (The Transit building was built in the 1890's and was a "men only" building.)  I thought I smelled cigar smoke once myself (but that's a whole other story.)

Tonight was interesting.  I learned things about the building I didn't know.  Things like the arched walkway between the two buildings (which is right outside my studio) was called the "fire walk" because employees had to walk over this just to find out they were fired.

I did know that John D. Rockefeller built the building and had a pent house at the top of the Annex building.  I also knew that the steam powered elevator (which doesn't work and never will again) is only one of two.  The other one is in the Eiffel Tower.

Did they find evidence of ghosts?  Yes they did.  We saw pictures of a very clear orb down in the conference room.  Other orbs appeared on the steps to the penthouse.

Another technique they used was to sit in a dark room with a flashlight.  Using an infra-red camera to capture the moment they asked questions and got responses by having the ghosts turn the flashlight off and on.  This technique did generate activity near the pent house.

We heard audio that was pretty impressive, although I don't think any of those came from the Transit Building.

The building has many, many vaults throughout.  I have one in my studio area.  I asked my grandson if he wanted to sit in the vault with a flashlight.  Wasn't something he was interested in.  I can't understand why.

Besides being a beautiful piece of architecture, this ghost thing adds an extra added dimension to the building.  How cool to have a studio in a haunted building.  Especially at Halloween.