114 E. Chambers Street, Cleburne
HISTORY
Cleburne’s court square is the home to several older buildings dating back to the early 1900s and older. Just off the court square is 114 E. Chambers Street. It is a large three story building that we were told was built in the 1920s. There were previous structures on the same site. The ground floor at 114 is now home to Garza’s Famous Chicago Hot Dogs. Casey Garza owns the building and operates this great little restaurant with his father Fred.
This location was the site of one of Cleburne’s first funeral homes which was opened by Vincent Gray. The Crosier-Pearson Cleburne Funeral Home website (successor to Gray’s funeral home business) states that in 1868 Gray moved his business to 114 East Chambers at the corner of Chambers and Anglin Streets (this is now known as 116 East Chambers Street). However, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps and city directory review conducted by Monica, indicates that a funeral home/undertaker existed at the site around 1900 and prior to that it was a hardware store and “coffins”, which is confirmed by the Crosier-Pearson website which states that Gray “being also in the hardware business, he actually made the caskets.” By 1904, the Sanborn Maps and city directories indicate that the funeral home was actually located next door (116 Chambers) until around 1928. The building was home to several types of businesses going into the 20th century. Among those businesses listed here are furniture stores, a grocery store, a bank, Gordon’s Commercial College (approximately 20 years), and an indoor golf course (we’re really curious about that one). Also, the Knights of Pythias were tenants from approximately 1938 to 1968 and various union halls were tenants from approximately 1926 to 1973.
We were told that for many years there was a casino, bar, and brothel located here although our research did not indicate any of these types of businesses were conducted at the site. The stories about the drinking and gambling are probably related to union hall activities and their members. On the third floor you’ll find what looks like a cashier’s cage, a small enclosure with a barred window. If the building did in fact house a funeral home, a casino, brothel, and bar the chances of spirits lingering around could be quite high.
REPORTS OF PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
We interviewed Fred and his family. They all had some very interesting stories to tell. Fred has also been interviewed by the local paper in conjunction with his opening of the restaurant. Fred said that they’ve had light bulbs blow up, lamps turn on by themselves, photos fall down from the wall, and lots of very strange noises from upstairs. Fred admits that he expects some odd noises to come from a building of this age, but these go beyond that.
There was a nice antique mirror on the third floor. It had been held in place with clips. Fred removed the clips but could not get the mirror off the wall. About two weeks later Fred discovered that the mirror had fallen and broken and no glue was evident on the wall. The odd thing was that parts of the mirror were found well away from the location it fell from.
Another odd story was that of an older American Indian gentleman who Fred encountered outside the building. The man said that he remembered the building from many years ago when the building was home to drinking and gambling. Fred invited him to come in and look around. The man told Fred that the inside looked much the same as he remembered it. He told Fred that there was a young boy who worked there that delivered drinks to men as they played poker. Allegedly the boy was accused of helping one of the men cheat at cards and was thrown down two flights of stairs. The boy was never heard from again. However there are a set of hand prints on the back of the door in the restaurant’s men’s room. Of course, we don’t know those prints belonged to that boy, but you never know.
The man left the building, Fred got a pen and paper to get the man’s name hoping to get further information. Fred quickly got back out to the street but the man was gone, seemingly vanishing.
Fred said that he has felt like he was touched several times when showing people the building. Just a week or so before our investigation they observed a rocking chair on the second floor that was rocking by itself. There was no wind moving it. They thought that was pretty weird.
INVESTIGATION
On the evening of April 2, 2011, the Stockyards Paranormal Investigation team conducted an investigation here. Our team for the night consisted of Cheryl, Monica, Shirley, John, and Kevin. We were joined by guests Lisa and Glenda. Lisa and Glenda have investigated several locations around the country with the Night Watchers Investigation group. They are both experienced investigators and we were happy to have them with us.
We set up static night vision cameras on both the second and third floor. We did not have access to the ground floor where the restaurant is located. The second and third floor has no electricity and we verified that there was no EMF activity on either floor. Our cameras covered the stairwell located on the east side of the building. Additionally we had cameras covering the entire third floor and a portion of the second floor.
We would utilize our normal equipment for this investigation. This would include EMF meters, K2 meters, vibration meters, motion detectors, parabolic microphones, and handheld audio and video recorders.
During the evening we would have one team working on the third floor and one team working on the second floor. As could be expected we heard a lot of strange noises. Most of these we dismissed as the normal settling of an old building. Additionally this was a very windy night. Some of the window panes have plastic or wood coverings so this accounted for some unusual noises. An old dusty building like this will produce a lot of dust orbs and we captured many of them. However there were a couple of instances that were noteworthy.
A one point both Cheryl and Shirley heard distinctive footsteps on the stairway. We did not catch this on our audio and the motion detectors did not alert.
There was one photo with a very bright orb which we have included below. It could also be dust, but is pretty unusual to see one that bright.
Mr. Garza has relocated the rocking chair that he had seen rocking by itself. During our investigation we placed a beach ball in this area. Had there been any type of breeze in this area it would have easily moved this ball but for the entire evening the ball remained stationary. Additionally during the investigation we placed a vibration meter in this area. At one point we were trying to encourage the spirit of the child to play with the ball. While we were talking our vibration meter went off. This was the only time during the evening that this meter activated.
Get Out… Go EVP
Early in the evening just as we were setting up equipment, John picked up this EVP. It is very staticky, but can be made out.
Yes EVP (shorter version)
This is a very simple short EVP, but it seems to be taking part in a conversation. Cheryl is talking about how her kids take her double A batteries and you’ll hear a whispered voice that says “yes”.
Unknown male voice EVP (shorter version)
Monica, Kevin, and John were investigating on the 3rd floor. John picked up an EVP that sounds like a man mumbling. You can’t make out the words, but Monica reacts to the voice by asking John if he had made a noise.
EVP Girl’s voice (shorter version)
Glenda picked up a very interesting EVP while on the third floor. The group was moving from the front of the building to the rear of the building near the bathroom. The voice sounds like a little girl talking but you can’t really make out what she is saying. Prior to the last EVP sessions, the group gathered on the 2nd floor for a break. Monica left her audio recorder on the third floor during this time and picked up what sounds like a child-like voice.
Monica’s EVP
This was picked up by Monica on the 3rd floor south room. We can’t make out exactly what it is saying but it also sounds like the voice of a small girl.
EVP whisper
Monica, Kevin, and John were investigating on the 2nd floor when Kevin picked up this EVP. You can hear the click of a camera in the background. It sounds like it’s saying “there’s a way”.
Video of orb
Monica set up her video recorder on a table on the 2nd floor in the room closest to the street facing away from the street and window. You can see a partially opened door in the shot. During the clip you’ll see a small bright orb of light come from the lower right hand side of the screen and move to the door. It hovers there for a second, drops down and disappears. On the left hand side of the screen you’ll see a large orb appear then disappear which happened right after Kevin said, “Can you do something for us to let us know that you are here”. Toward the center of the screen you’ll see a flash of light, then the large orb will reappear on the left had side.
We’re not really sure what to make of this. They may just be dust or a bug but it seemed unusual enough to include in our evidence. We were not taking photos at the time and we could not be getting car lights from the street. Here’s a photo of what you’re seeing in the video.
PX Lisa and Shirley being touched(shorter version)
Glenda, Lisa, Shirley, and Cheryl were conducted an EVP session on the 3rd floor. The K2 meter was going off on a regular basis. Keep in mind that there is no electricity on either the 2nd or 3rd floor and our EMF sweep showed no high readings. While asking questions, Shirley was standing and operating her video recorder. All the others were seated. Shirley felt something touch her arm. Immediately after that Glenda felt something bump her chair. Just after that Lisa felt first her arm and then her breast touched. As soon as this happened they all began to talk to the spirit and let it know that it should not be touching them in that manner. While this discussion was taking place, the PX said the word “listen”. The PX gave us almost no activity for the entire night except for this short word.
Our best guess is that the spirit was trying to communicate in some way and was failing. It then tried touching the investigators to get their attention. When it was chastised for doing this it said “listen”, meaning that he was talking to us but that we weren’t hearing them. We’ll be the first to admit that this is speculation, but it was the closest thing we come up with. If any of our readers have another idea, we’d be glad to hear it.
Being touched is something that Fred has reported happening on several occasions. We have experienced this a couple of times during previous investigations, but this seemed to take it to a higher level. It was one of the most intense sessions of the evening.
That’s It EVP
Later in the evening we were all gathered in the south side room on the 3rd floor. During this session, John picked up an EVP that seems to say “that’s it”. At the time we were talking about the area near the restroom where we had all experience a kind of creepy feeling during the evening.
A couple of days after the investigation we were contacted by Fred. He told us that when he came in to the restaurant on Monday that he found a picture on the floor. He was wondering if we had heard a loud crash during the night which we did not.
CONCLUSION
This was a great place for us to investigate. It was a really large building with a great deal of interesting history. I wish we could pin down the history a little closer. If this building was being used as a brothel, casino, and bar during the 20th century that history was probably not officially recorded. We’ll keep searching for more information and if we find it we’ll update our records.
During segments of the investigation, we all experienced those creepy feelings that you get in places with paranormal activity. The third floor seemed to be the location for most of these feelings. Our most intensive experiences took place in the south room of the third floor.
It was another great investigation for us and we were happy to have some experienced guest investigators with us in Glenda and Lisa. They brought a big contribution to the night.
We are always hesitant to say that a location is or is not haunted. We can only report on the activity that we encountered. We did pick up some interesting things and had an unforgettable personal experience. We’ll let you decide what you think.
We would like to express our appreciation to Fred Garza and his family for making us feel welcome. I hope all our readers will make a trip to Cleburne and try one of those excellent hot dogs, they are really worth making the trip.