The tour was sponsored by Mesa Historical Museum which is rumored to be haunted as well. The tickets had to be purchased in advance at their web site & then ended up selling out. Adults were $10 & children 3-12 were $6. We started the 2 hour Ghost Walk of Downtown Mesa at 7pm outside in front of the Arizona Museum of Natural History, formally known as the Mesa Southwest Museum, nicknamed the "dinosaur museum", which is located at 53 N MacDonald in Mesa, AZ 85201-7325 - (480) 644-2230.
The first building we entered that has had strange occurrences is Sun Dust Gallery (48 West Main Street #100, Mesa, AZ 85201, (480) 464-6077).
The owner, Ron Floyd, explained to us that one evening he had a 2 foot tall stack of plate glass in the basement with a larger, thin piece of glass on top of it. The next morning when he came in the pieces of plate glass were spread evenly apart & the larger piece of glass was lying nearby. NOTHING was broken. He also explained to us that his basement has a boarded up door that is the entrance to an underground tunnel that goes underneath Main St. but is said to be collapsed. The building was built in 1848 & had been a Masonic Hall & a ballet studio in the past.The next building we entered was Sweet Cakes Cafe across the street (21 West Main Street, Mesa - (480) 461-9529). Here the owner told us about numerous sightings her overnight baker had of a beautiful woman in the seating are of the cafe. The female baker thought the woman she was was a painting on the wall but realized later that there is no painting in the back corner of the room. At night the lights have flickered on their own, a pan has dropped & things disappear & reappear. She also told us about the experience of a travel agent who had worked in the front of the building years ago. She had finished working for the night & locked up the store but when she went to get her purse & keys to go home they had disappeared. She searched her small store & everywhere she could think but did not find them. She was locked in the building so she had to call her husband to bring an extra set of keys & come to the shop. The next morning her purse had reappeared under her desk & strangely, her keys were in the bathroom that is rarely used.
From there we went to the Drew Building located at 39 W. Main Street, Mesa, AZ 85201.
These are little apartments called Loft at the Drew that can be rented for an overnight or extended stay. The building manager lives on-site & told us that they had two resident ghosts named Edith & Rose. One evening a resident received a phone call on her cell phone asking her if she was having a party because her radio was turned up very loudly. She explained that she was not at home & had not left her radio on. She gave the superintendent permission to go in to shut off her radio, when the gentleman entered the radio was turned up full blast. Another strange event that happened on the property was a woman who was asleep in the middle of the night heard her cat screech loudly. When she got up to investigate she found her cat locked outside the apartment with the door double locked. It is interesting to note that the building was build in 1920 & is made of Lehi brick.
We continued east on Main St. to Mystic Paper which is a scrap booking supply store located at 123 W Main St - Mesa, AZ 85201-7309 - (480) 834-0286.
I had been there in the past & asked the employee if they had any strange happenings & was told that they had seen things knocked off their shelves. The woman who was working there told us about one day when her boss had been looking for a marble to put into a little hole on the street level that goes down into the basement to surprise someone who was down there. However, she couldn't find a marble so she put in a nickel instead. When the people came upstairs she asked if they saw the nickel she sent down & they said yes, they also saw the marble too. But she had never put a marble in the hole. On a different day a woman had been taking pictures inside the store when a metal lunch box flew off the shelf & hit her in the head (she says this as I'm taking pictures of course LOL). Also, the shop directly east of them had been AJ's Antiques which is connected to Mystic Paper by an archway so you could go between the stores without exiting the building. AJ's Antiques has since closed down so it is currently vacant. In a follow-up phone call with Wendy at Mystic Paper I asked if they had more activity in the main level or the basement & she said they are both equally active. I also asked what the building had been used for in the past & was told it was build in 1895 as a grocery store which burned down in 1903. It was re-built & in 1911 it was a pool hall, it was later Vance Bros. Bakery & Malt Shop in 1923.
Directly next door to Mystic Paper is Queen's Pizzeria & Cafe (125 W. Main St - Mesa, AZ - 85201 - (480) 964-1609) which was the next stop on our tour. However, they were very busy so we did not go inside or have one of their employees relate their personal experiences. Our tour guide told us that the building was built with Lehi brick & it is pretty active with paranormal activity. One day after a TV crew had been there doing an interview about ghostly activity a whole rack of pots & pans fell over. They have also heard knocking on the brick walls. Unfortunately, when I called them this afternoon (to ask them about their Facebook page which is referenced on their website but not linked) the gentleman who answered set the phone aside & then hung up without speaking to me.
My husband's favorite location on the tour was Evermore Nevermore Clothing & Collectibles
(127 West Main Street, Mesa, AZ 85201 - (480) 964-4624) located next door to Queen's Pizzeria & Cafe.
The, Bob, co-owner was very nice & told us about a few different paranormal events that happened, starting with the day they toured the location with their landlord (who also owns History by George). During their tour they were surprised when the door to the womens restroom opened on its own. George took it in stride & just reached over & pulled it closed again. On other occasions the basement door has locked on its own & both restroom doors were locked by themselves. One day a man in a gray coat was seen walking in to the store but when they realized he had never left they searched the whole store & could not find him. Later that day a paranormal group from Tucson did an investigation & lecture in the store. A sensitive with the group said she felt the presence of a man in a gray coat. Bob also said that the CD player is often manipulated. It switches from MP3 to CD & back again on it's own & goes off & on. IN fact, earlier that evening, during a tour before mine, the CD player in the store stopped working & started up again later. He mentioned that they have a higher chance of activity on stormy days which is when he's seen things fly off the shelves on their own. (2013 note: This shop is now out of business)Our tour stopped in front of Surf & Ski Custom Screen Printing Shop (137 W Main St, Mesa, AZ. Tel: 480-834-5010) which is next door to Queen's Pizzeria & Cafe. but the business was locked up for the night. The tour guide said that in 1920s a man killed his son & himself in the tunnels below the building when he found out they were seeing the same woman. Later in the 1950s a man who was having marital problems killed himself in the building.
From there we crossed the street again & went to Kimberly Jarman Photography (126 W Main St. - Mesa, AZ 85201 - (480) 203-1090) which is located in a building that was built in 1911 & was previously an antique store. When it was an antique store the woman working there smelled a strong aroma of coffee but didn't know how because at that time the closest restaurant in the area was Subway located on Robson & Main St. She researched the building & found out it had been Coffee Pot Cafe in the past. The occupants of the building said they had daily occurrences such as keys being moved (like Sweet Cakes) & their lights turning on & off on their own.
While we were on the way to the next business we spoke briefly with PAPA (Phoenix, AZ Paranormal Society) who had a table set up outside of Antique Plaza.
We were lucky enough to go inside Antique Plaza (114 W Main St. - Mesa, AZ 85201-7310 -
(480) 833-4844) after hours & get a tour (with most of the lights off) by an employee who has had a few strange experiences while she was working.
Her first paranormal experience was on her first day of work 13 years ago. She had been seated at a desk located at the bottom of the front stairs when she heard a rattling noise coming from the peg board behind her. When she turned around, all the plates that had been hanging up were stacked, UNBROKEN, on the floor. Later she was downstairs she heard knocking three times but kept trying to ignore it. When she turned she saw a floating apparition which sent her running up the stairs & out of the building. Books have been known to fall off the shelves upstairs as well. Another employee told her that one night as she was working from 6pm - 10pm she felt a cool breeze out of nowhere that actually moved her hair. On a different night she brought her Jack Russell Terrier dog with her to work but the dog kept barking at nothing & was acting strange so she had to leave & take him back home.Our last stop of the tour was visiting the inside of the Arizona Museum of Natural History, formally known as the Mesa Southwest Museum (53 N MacDonald Mesa, AZ 85201-7325 - (480) 644-2230). API (Arizona Paranormal Investigations) had a table set up near the jail area of the museum where they told us about what they do & answered questions from people in the group.
While most of the group went into the jail cells I stayed behind talking to the API members. They said one of the most actively haunted places in Arizona is the Vulture Mine in Wickenburg, AZ. They also mentioned The Birdcage Theater in Tombstone, AZ, the Red Garter Bed & Bakery in Williams, AZ & a pic they got inside the Pinal Cemetary which I found investigation links on-line from Ghost Hunters Arizona & East Valley Paranormal Society.
Well, that is the end of the information I learned on the Ghost Walk tour of Downtown Mesa last night. I am going to go through all the photos I took & place them into a Photobucket album so you can see them all.
**UPDATED 10 28 2010**
I just finished uploading & labeling all 41 pictures I took during the Ghost Walk of Downtown Mesa on 10/22/2010. They are in chronological order:
http://s739.photobucket.com/albums/xx36/ewingwest/Ghost%20Walk%20of%20Downtown%20Mesa%2010%2022%202010/
Thanks for reading & have a Happy Halloween.
If you have any true stories of haunting experiences you have had please feel free to let me know about it in the comment section below.
Also, let me know if you would be interested in reading more blogs about other haunted locations I've visited in the past & might visit in the future.
If you have any true stories of haunting experiences you have had please feel free to let me know about it in the comment section below.
Also, let me know if you would be interested in reading more blogs about other haunted locations I've visited in the past & might visit in the future.
