Old City Park Investigation 11/1/07

Credible Paranormal Investigations

OLD CITY PARK is a museum that houses old and historic homes and buildings relevant to Dallas's history. Several structures there have their share of paranormal occurances associated with them. The main focus of our investigation were The MKT Depot, The Millermore Mansion, The Sullivan House, and the Law Office of Thompson and Knight.

Date of Investigation: 11/01/08
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Investigators Involved:
        Ardis
        Bob
        Rick
        Dustin
        Doyle
        Nick
        Martin
        Mark

The Millermore Mansion (1855-1861)

In 1855, William Brown Miller began building this house, which he laid out using the North Star as a compass so that it faced directly north. Stone quarried from nearby Mountain Creek Lake was cut for the foundation and milled lumber from East Texas was hauled on commercial freight wagons. It took seven years to complete the house. The home remained in the Miller family until we purchased it in the 1960’s. This is perhaps the most ‘active’ of all the buildings as many sightings have been reported here over the years.

v The figure of a woman is often seen in the upstairs master bedroom moving from the window to the nursery. It is thought to be Minerva Miller, Mr. Miller’s second wife. The silhouette of a woman has often also been seen in the bottom middle pane of glass at the front of the master bedroom window closest to the side of the house.

v Security often reports lights moving through the upper floors of the house at night. Several people have reported seeing a globe of light floating in the same window that the silhouette of the woman has been seen.

v An employee cleaning the house left clip-on sunglasses on the hall tree downstairs. She was the only person in the house the entire time she was there. She returned to find finger prints on the lenses and the glasses moved to a different location on the hall tree.

v Birds often hit the upstairs front bedroom window where the woman is seen. They avoid all other windows in the house.

v A different employee heard heavy footsteps going up the back stairs while no one was in the Village. Children’s laughter has been picked up on audio tape in the house late at night when only four people were present. This was only heard when the tape was replayed.

Bob and Ardis were the first to arrive and Ardis immediately went to work recording audio samples, while Bob recorded the layout and contents of the home on video. During this time, Michele, the events coordinator at the museum, stayed by the front door due to the paranormal activity that she feels takes place in the home. A short while later, she came running up stairs and informed our investigators that she heard someone whisper the word hair into her ear. While doing so, Ardis and Bob still had their media in operation and both recorded the audio of the conversation. Upon playback, we discovered what to us sounds like the laugh of a young female who might have been enjoying the fright that Michele had due to her experience. Children's laughter on audio has been reported by another group that had previously investigated the park. The following audio and video clips are the evidence of that laughter.

Possible Millermore Laugh Audio

Millermore laugh video

During this transaction Tracey, a park employee, informed us that there was a connection with the Miller family and a man named Henry (Harry) Hines, whom a local street is named after. Harry Hines was the best friend of Mr. Miller. We later found out that a common nickname for the name Harry in that era was Hare. William Miller died in the arms of Harry Hines.

The MKT Depot (1886-1887)~

The depot, built in 1886, served the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas line, called the MKT or the KATY line. Because the building had tracks on both sides, it had doors to service both lines for loading freight, as well as passengers. Some of the strange occurrences experienced here are:

v A woman has been seen in the front waiting room. She is reported to sit on the front bench wrapped in a shawl. Others have reported seeing a woman in a bustle.

v Those who have entered the Ticket Master’s office have reported sometimes feeling uneasy, as if something did not want them there.

v This same feeling of unease is experienced by those of Anglo-American ancestry whom have lingered in the “Colored People Only” waiting room.

There were no reports of paranormal activity associated with the Worth Hotel. However, upon the team gathering together for the move to the next structure, Ardis noticed someone walk from the side of the hotel , around a picket fence and into the right door of the neighboring restroom facility. He informed the team that they needed to wait for whoever had just walked into the restroom. After a quick head-count, we realized that everyone was present and accounted for. Since the park was closed, there should not have been anyone else in the park, so Ardis decided to see who this person was. Upon approaching the restroom door, he realized it was actually the women's restroom door he saw this man walk into. He entered the women's restroom to find it empty. He clicked on his digital voice recorder and asked if anyone was present. At that time, one of the restroom doors opened on its own accord for approximately a foot. The stall was empty. Ardis was immediately evicted from the restroom facility by the staff and was unable to investigate it further. We later found out that this man who was seen walking from the side of the hotel could not have done so due to the picket fence which he followed was actually attached to the side of the hotel. Whoever this person was could only have come from the bushes in front of the hotel before seemingly vanishing inside the women's restroom. A representative of the DFW Ghost Hunters had advised Ardis and Rick to investigate the women's restroom since a man committed suicide in it. The staff denied such a claim. Ardis wanted to assure the readers that he did, for a brief second, look away from the restroom facility to count heads. It was only for a second, but this person could have feasibly exited the women's restroom and entered the men's without being seen. However, a search of the men's facility turned up no one. There were, however, windows in the restrooms that a person could have climbed out of, if he felt so inclined.

The Law Office (turn of the last century)~

This building served as a meat market and grocery store when it was built in downtown Dallas. It is said a gangland shooting occurred here in the early 1930’s. Some of the strange occurrences experienced here are:

v Often people who enter this building express a sense of feeling uneasy when entering the building.

v The figure of a man has been seen in the reflection of the glass at the front of the building.

v An employee has reported that when giving a tour of the building, a chair rolled a short way across the floor without anyone touching it or moving around it.

v Several psychics have reported seeing a blood stain in the center of the floor at the back where the meat counter would have stood.

click for law office audio

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Other than a cold spot in the freight room, we did not document any evidence of the paranormal in this building. We did, however, find out that the museum has what they call "Living History" volunteers who dress up in period clothing to give a sense of realism to the era represented by the historical buildings. This could explain the reports of women in period clothing being seen in some of these structures.

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The Sullivan House (1885)~

This house was part of the enclave of homes in The Cedars, a fashionable neighborhood near downtown Dallas. This house was the central building in a complex that included a separate kitchen, laundry house, carriage house, servant’s quarters and a well. Daniel Sullivan moved his family into the house in 1889. He died in 1929 and the house passed out of the Sullivan family.

v A little girl in a bright yellow dress with her blonde hair in pony tails with yellow ribbon has been seen downstairs near the children’s room.

v A “giddy” feeling has been reported by some upstairs, while others have expressed a feeling of “dread” around the staircase. One woman reported feeling that she was about to be pushed from behind as she stood at the head of the staircase and was strongly shaken up. Another woman reported the feeling of being pulled and feeling queasy.

v A small globe of light, reported to be about the size of a dinner plate, has been seen from outside the house moving from the drawing room to the study.

We spent time recording audio samples in the Sullivan, including the very large attic shown in the photograph, but came up with nothing. We did record the sound of someone whistling two notes on our audio, but we later figured out that our recorders were producing this sound themselves and they were not paranormal. Dustin and Nick reported tapping sounds coming from a wine glass, but the sounds were not discovered on our audio samples.

The team initially investigated the law office for a short while before moving on. Dustin had decided to return to the law office and leave his digital voice recorder so that it could collect audio samples for an hour. He entered the room with a park employee while he sat the recorder on a desk. To do so, he had to lean over a plexi-glass barrier that normally prevents guests from entering too far into the room. As he did this, he noticed a sign on a desk that read "out, will return at four o'clock". He read this aloud to himself. It was at this point on the audio that we picked up what we feel, if it had been corroborated with other evidence, could have been compelling evidence in favor of electronic voice phenomena. We discovered the voice of what sounds like that of a young girl telling our investigator to go back. Click the link immediately to your left to hear that evidence.

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