Post by Tomspy77 on Oct 5, 2016 16:30:15 GMT -6
Author explores Galveston’s ghost story folklore Ghost44
ghost-17 picture541
Author Kathleen Shanahan Maca didn’t set out to chase ghost stories.
Instead, she said, they came to her.
Whether rooted in weathered streets and centuries-old homes, Civil War battle sites or the great storm that shifted the island’s geography, Galveston ghost stories tend to draw an eager audience.
“Everybody has one, it seems like every building has its own ghost story that goes with it, and Galvestonians are pretty proud to share their stories,” said Maca, who lives in the Clear Lake/Pasadena area and describes herself as a historian.
Maca’s book, “Ghosts of Galveston,” published in early September, is a compilation of folklore and history.
Incorporated in 1839, the city is home to one of the largest concentrations of intact pre-1900 Victorian homes in the United States.
The island also weathered a yellow fever epidemic and its most devastating event, the 1900 storm, which killed thousands. All make for a rich heritage of folklore and tales of the supernatural.
Galveston’s mysteries are a big lure to visitors, especially during Halloween, according to Will Wright of the Galveston Historical Foundation, a preservation organization that guides tourists throughout the city’s historical homes and buildings.
“For Halloween, it’s a way for us to utilize some of those properties in ways we don’t get to throughout the rest of the year, and in some cases, we get to open up some properties rarely open to the public,” he said.
The foundation is not in the business of proving or disproving the existence of ghosts, said Wright, but it does fully embrace their role in Galveston folklore.
“We do have funs stories we can share and use that as a way for people to experience the homes and learn a little about what society, culture and living was like during those times,” he said. “Any time you have natural disaster coupled with old homes, it’s a wonderful foundation for that storytelling. Galveston is pretty unique in that regard.”
Maca’s first book, “Galveston’s Broadway Cemeteries,” delved into the history of the city’s seven cemeteries, which were built over 176 years.
“When I was doing the cemetery book, a lot of people kept asking me if I was running across ghost stories - because people equate cemeteries with ghosts,” she said. “You can’t go to Galveston without running across ghost stories.”
That was the starting point for her second book, part of a series for Maca on Galveston’s history.
Fascinated by ghost stories and folklore since childhood, Maca nevertheless considered herself more a historian and genealogist. Combining the two was a natural, she said. The Rosenberg Library and county courthouse in Galveston became a valuable resource for archives.
While neither the library nor courthouse had a ‘ghost file,’ they did provide historical context to many of the stories Maca had been collecting.
After a year of research that included poring over maps, police reports and deeds and conducting interviews with homeowners, Maca had read about and listened to over 100 ghost stories. She narrowed the list to only those attached to existing buildings.
“If it was just kind of an ethereal story with no basis in fact, it wasn’t included, I wanted to find some historical background,” she said.
Maca ended up with over 40 stories, included in all their ghostly glory in 35 chapters.
“Different people I interviewed introduced me to other people or family members that had experiences in their homes – it just rolled from there,” Maca said. “It was a lot of time of gathering the stories and four times as much time trying to find historical backup for them.”
She said she started with the notorious ghosts, including those at The Hotel Galvez, which provides an app guiding guests toward the corners, hallways and ballrooms where apparitions are said to roam. Another well-known spook spot is the Walmart between 67th and 69th streets, reportedly the location to hear children’s cries and coughing - ghostly reminders that the site was once St. Mary’s Orphanage, where the bodies of nuns and children were found after the 1900 storm.
The Strand has a wealth of stories. Just before the Battle of Galveston, the Strand was “Confederate central”, Maca said.
Soldiers marched up and down on top of the Hendley Building, now home to Hendley Market, and according to legend, uniformed specters appear and the sounds of marching on the floorboards can be heard.
The ghost of a Confederate soldier is said to make himself at home at another building while the spirit of another man who was decapitated by a train hovers over the railroad museum.
The Hutchings Sealy Building, now home to an Italian restaurant and various gift shops, was a bank building at the time of the 1900 storm.
“When the flood waters came into the second floor, and people were trapped on the third floor, including a school teacher dubbed ‘Sara’ because we don’t know her real name, she actually stood out on the ledge and pulled people in through the window out of the flood waters, she was very brave,” Maca said.
Her ghost and that of a little boy who died in the flood are said to wander up and down the stairs of the building or to move things in the shops at night.
Maca researched the different kinds of ghostly phenomena and provides another explanation for what some may call ghosts.
There are types of hauntings, she said, called residual hauntings.
“They are basically like a loop that just plays – it’s not really that there is a spirit there – it’s just that something so traumatic happened there and it made an energy imprint on the place,” she said
Other, ghostly ‘energies’ are more interactive - laughing children, cries and moving objects.
“It’s like a photograph except it’s not on paper,” Maca said.
The good thing about Galveston, she said, is that few of the many reported ghosts are malevolent.
“Almost every spirit seems to be more of a guardian-type entity. I don’t think any of them are anything to be scared of,” she said. “The people that live and work in these buildings don’t seem to be afraid of them either.”
The ghost stories, she said, are as a much a part of the city’s history as its landscape..
“To me, a community’s folklore is part of its history. It doesn’t mean you have to believe it, but it’s integral to how the community operates, what people’s belief’s are,” Maca said.
Instead, she said, they came to her.
Whether rooted in weathered streets and centuries-old homes, Civil War battle sites or the great storm that shifted the island’s geography, Galveston ghost stories tend to draw an eager audience.
“Everybody has one, it seems like every building has its own ghost story that goes with it, and Galvestonians are pretty proud to share their stories,” said Maca, who lives in the Clear Lake/Pasadena area and describes herself as a historian.
Maca’s book, “Ghosts of Galveston,” published in early September, is a compilation of folklore and history.
Incorporated in 1839, the city is home to one of the largest concentrations of intact pre-1900 Victorian homes in the United States.
The island also weathered a yellow fever epidemic and its most devastating event, the 1900 storm, which killed thousands. All make for a rich heritage of folklore and tales of the supernatural.
Galveston’s mysteries are a big lure to visitors, especially during Halloween, according to Will Wright of the Galveston Historical Foundation, a preservation organization that guides tourists throughout the city’s historical homes and buildings.
“For Halloween, it’s a way for us to utilize some of those properties in ways we don’t get to throughout the rest of the year, and in some cases, we get to open up some properties rarely open to the public,” he said.
The foundation is not in the business of proving or disproving the existence of ghosts, said Wright, but it does fully embrace their role in Galveston folklore.
“We do have funs stories we can share and use that as a way for people to experience the homes and learn a little about what society, culture and living was like during those times,” he said. “Any time you have natural disaster coupled with old homes, it’s a wonderful foundation for that storytelling. Galveston is pretty unique in that regard.”
Maca’s first book, “Galveston’s Broadway Cemeteries,” delved into the history of the city’s seven cemeteries, which were built over 176 years.
“When I was doing the cemetery book, a lot of people kept asking me if I was running across ghost stories - because people equate cemeteries with ghosts,” she said. “You can’t go to Galveston without running across ghost stories.”
That was the starting point for her second book, part of a series for Maca on Galveston’s history.
Fascinated by ghost stories and folklore since childhood, Maca nevertheless considered herself more a historian and genealogist. Combining the two was a natural, she said. The Rosenberg Library and county courthouse in Galveston became a valuable resource for archives.
While neither the library nor courthouse had a ‘ghost file,’ they did provide historical context to many of the stories Maca had been collecting.
After a year of research that included poring over maps, police reports and deeds and conducting interviews with homeowners, Maca had read about and listened to over 100 ghost stories. She narrowed the list to only those attached to existing buildings.
“If it was just kind of an ethereal story with no basis in fact, it wasn’t included, I wanted to find some historical background,” she said.
Maca ended up with over 40 stories, included in all their ghostly glory in 35 chapters.
“Different people I interviewed introduced me to other people or family members that had experiences in their homes – it just rolled from there,” Maca said. “It was a lot of time of gathering the stories and four times as much time trying to find historical backup for them.”
She said she started with the notorious ghosts, including those at The Hotel Galvez, which provides an app guiding guests toward the corners, hallways and ballrooms where apparitions are said to roam. Another well-known spook spot is the Walmart between 67th and 69th streets, reportedly the location to hear children’s cries and coughing - ghostly reminders that the site was once St. Mary’s Orphanage, where the bodies of nuns and children were found after the 1900 storm.
The Strand has a wealth of stories. Just before the Battle of Galveston, the Strand was “Confederate central”, Maca said.
Soldiers marched up and down on top of the Hendley Building, now home to Hendley Market, and according to legend, uniformed specters appear and the sounds of marching on the floorboards can be heard.
The ghost of a Confederate soldier is said to make himself at home at another building while the spirit of another man who was decapitated by a train hovers over the railroad museum.
The Hutchings Sealy Building, now home to an Italian restaurant and various gift shops, was a bank building at the time of the 1900 storm.
“When the flood waters came into the second floor, and people were trapped on the third floor, including a school teacher dubbed ‘Sara’ because we don’t know her real name, she actually stood out on the ledge and pulled people in through the window out of the flood waters, she was very brave,” Maca said.
Her ghost and that of a little boy who died in the flood are said to wander up and down the stairs of the building or to move things in the shops at night.
Maca researched the different kinds of ghostly phenomena and provides another explanation for what some may call ghosts.
There are types of hauntings, she said, called residual hauntings.
“They are basically like a loop that just plays – it’s not really that there is a spirit there – it’s just that something so traumatic happened there and it made an energy imprint on the place,” she said
Other, ghostly ‘energies’ are more interactive - laughing children, cries and moving objects.
“It’s like a photograph except it’s not on paper,” Maca said.
The good thing about Galveston, she said, is that few of the many reported ghosts are malevolent.
“Almost every spirit seems to be more of a guardian-type entity. I don’t think any of them are anything to be scared of,” she said. “The people that live and work in these buildings don’t seem to be afraid of them either.”
The ghost stories, she said, are as a much a part of the city’s history as its landscape..
“To me, a community’s folklore is part of its history. It doesn’t mean you have to believe it, but it’s integral to how the community operates, what people’s belief’s are,” Maca said.