Historical Society’s biennial Ghost Walk returns Saturday
By Tracy Ouellette
Editor
Every other year, for the past decade or so, the East Troy Area Historical Society invites the public to learn about some of the “haunted” houses in the village with its Spirits of East Troy Ghost Walk.
One of the Historical Society’s biggest fundraisers, event coordinators are expecting a large turnout this year with people from all over coming for the thrills and chills.
“It’s a lot of fun and it’s a way to let people get familiar with the history of East Troy and its homes and some of the things that have happened over the years,” Ghost Walk Committee Chairman John Vilanj said. “We’re thinking at least 100 people for this year, everyone loves the walk.”
Walkers will gather at the East Troy Area Historical Museum on the village square starting at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday to make their donation and receive a wristband. Tour groups will head out one by one, beginning at about 7 p.m.
“While we’re waiting for groups to assemble, guests can watch some old-time, scary movies from way back when, in the museum’s theater and tour the museum to pass the time,” Vilanj said.
“Each group will have two tour guides, dressed in the 1900s era clothing, carrying lanterns to fit the part of days gone by,” he continued.
The tour groups will make the circuit around the haunted homes in the village, ending up at the East Troy House for the final stop and a look at it’s rather checkered past.
Maureen “Rennie” and David Allen, who own the East Troy House and Ivan’s on the Square, say the old hotel once housed a brothel.
“I’ve had different mediums in her over the years at different times and they’ve told us there are small children running around everywhere upstairs,” Rennie said. “They figured out that the ‘ladies’ lived upstairs and worked down here.”
Rennie said there have been numerous ghost hunters investigating the East Troy House over the years, sometimes setting up equipment to try to measure disturbances on Halloween and other times.
“We have a few ghost stories,” David said. “It’s actually fun, I’ve never been affected by or concerned about ghosts, but we definitely have one here at East Troy House and you sure know she’s here.”
One time, during a previous Ghost Walk, people who were on the tour and taking photos discovered ghostlike images in the photographs when they looked at them later, David said.
“They brought them down for us to look at,” Rennie said.
“I was in the room when they took the pictures and they sent it back to me and when the photos were developed there was a woman leaning over the silhouette over the bed and a photograph of a child standing on the box at the end of the bed, reaching over the bed. They were just faint images, you couldn’t see a face or anything, but they were there,” David said.
People have also noticed apparitions in the upstairs window of the room that is said to have been the bedroom of the brothel’s “madam.”
“He asked who lived in that room and when I told him no one and asked why, he told me he saw a woman standing in the window with a long, flowing dress on,” Rennie said.
One incident stuck out in both Rennie and David’s memories. When decorating the East Troy House for the same Ghost Walk tour that the photographed images were taken, they suspended a silhouette of a person over the bed in the room that reportedly belonged to the brothel madam. Both Rennie and David said they could “feel” her anger at the Halloween decoration.
“By the end of the week you could feel the animosity, you could feel the electricity and hum in the air,” David said.
“That’s when I told him to take it down,” Rennie said.
“You could feel it all the way out in the hallway and Rennie said take it down and I understand irrational women, so I took it down,” David said.
East Troy accountant Eric Kramer, who owns the Sewall Smith House, has had a few run ins with the ghost that haunts his home and business.
“We call him ‘Davey,’” Kramer said. “We think he’s a kid; he’s rather playful.”
Kramer said they don’t know for sure who their ghost is, but over the years there’s been quite a few incidents with them making their presence known.
“When the travel agency was here, one day the ladies who owned it were discussing Davey with a client who was booking a vacation,” Kramer recalled. “The man said ‘Hogwash! There’s no such thing as ghosts!’ And as soon as he said it, the light fixture came crashing down right next to him. It’s not something you say when you have a teenage ghost haunting your house.
“Whoever he/she is, they’ve got a great sense of humor.”
The Spirits of East Troy Ghost Walk begins at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25, and goes until all the walking tours are finished. Wristbands for the walking tour can be purchases at the Historical Society Museum.
There will also be refreshments on the village square provided by the Troy Center 4-H Club for the walkers while they’re waiting and after their tour.
East Troy Area Historical Museum, 2106 Church St., is open on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to noon and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The museum is also open by appointment on Sundays, from May through November, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For more information, visit etahs.org.
