The Stock Exchange Building
Pre-Investigation
The Stock Exchange building is located at 131 E. Exchange in the Fort Worth Stockyards and was built in 1902 during a booming cattle industry that brought the beginning of the stockyards to North Fort Worth. With the booming industry both Armour & Co. and Swift & Co., meatpacking industries, were lured into the area to save the cost of shipping live animal to northern plants. When the industry was in its peak the Exchange building housed commission businesses, telegraph offices, railroad offices, postage offices and four vaults. The building is quite large and today it currently houses several businesses, the Stockyard museum, and at least two ghosts.One of the ghosts is that of a little girl who, as rumor has it, had died in one of the upstairs vaults. She had gone to work with her father and when she got bored and he became busy he suggested she find some place to play. She went into the vault and fell asleep unnoticed by anyone. The father apparently forgot that he had taken her to work by the end of the day and got all the way home when his wife reminded him of their daughter. They spent the night looking for her but didn’t find her until the next morning, inside the vault where she had passed. Now, if you talk to one of the Stockyard security guards they will tell you that you can see her from time to time, sitting in the attic window looking out to the street below. Linda that works in the Exchange building also reported that one morning, she and another lady were on duty in the building, around 5AM. Linda was upstairs and the other lady was downstairs by the back door of the building when she called Linda and told her to come downstairs right away. When Linda arrived by the back door her co-worker pointed out that there was a small child’s handprint in the condensation on the window by the back door. It had not been there previously and lasted for about an hour.
The other ghost that has been seen in the building is apparently that of a woman that had been murdered in the building and found in one of the upstairs vaults. Linda states that she looks as real as anyone else does when you see her but then she just isn’t there anymore.
Other possible paranormal activities in the building is the sound of spurs on the wooden floors made when no one in the area is wearing them and other strange creaks and groans that are normally expected in old buildings. The Range, which is a media outfit, report that their phones talk to each other as well.
The Stockyard Paranormal Investigative group looks forward to finding any paranormal evidence in the building and determining if the building really is haunted.
Investigation
On the evening of August 16, 2008 the Stockyards Paranormal Investigations conducted an investigation of the Stock Exchange Building. One of our first tasks involved an experiment involving the report of the little girl who left her handprint on a window at the back of the building. After cleaning the window thoroughly, we sprayed an adhesive substance on one of the window panes and covered the window with baby powder. We photographed the window immediately after this application. We would come back at the end of the evening and check the glass to see if a handprint would appear. Participating in tonight’s investigation were Terri, Casey, Monica, Cheryl, and Kevin. We were joined by guests Robin and John.We divided into smaller groups and worked all parts of the building. During the evening we had the following personal experiences:
While Casey, Robin, and Kevin were in the rear corridor we heard a couple of odd noises. One of these was the sound of paper rattling, it seemed to be very close to us and we never could find a source for this noise. Casey asked the spirits to make a tapping noise and we heard a faint tapping. This noise was not picked up on our recorders.
During a short break, Kevin and Robin were walking toward the bathrooms on the west end of the bottom floor. Robin was near the bathroom and Kevin was about 10 yards behind her. Both Kevin and Robin heard an odd noise and stopped immediately. Kevin asked if Robin had heard the noise and Robin said that she had just seen the image of a woman, shadowy in appearance, walk across the hall and disappear into a locked door.
While doing an EVP session upstairs near one of the big safes, Monica caught an EVP. The voice seems to be that of a small girl saying “bad”. Just before the EVP is heard, Kevin is talking and Monica tells the spirit not to be afraid of him that he just has a stern voice.
The second EVP was also captured by Monica. While working on the first floor west end hallway, she captured what seems to be a woman’s voice saying “Mary Kay”. We are wondering if this was the older female spirit that has been reported in the building.
Monica also reported that at one point during the evening it seemed as though her camera malfunctioned. A series of several photos came out dark as though her flash was not working. This was not the case and the camera was working properly. We have no explanation as to what may have caused this to happen. Monica also experienced a malfunction with her video camera which for some odd reason refused to focus. After turning the camera on and off, it began to function properly.
During the evening we captured several orb photos some of which we will include in this report. Cheryl captured one photo which seems to show a child’s hand touching Cheryl’s skirt. Cheryl also reported hearing what sounded to be a child’s voice say “hello” very faintly while she, Monica, and Jaime were sitting in the upstairs hallway near one of the vaults.
The evening ended with us returning to the rear area window where we had coated the window with baby powder. Upon our return we found what seems to be fingerprints on the window. We have included the photographs, both before and after with this report. The fingerprints seem to be more like those of a young child or a small woman. They are there at the end of the investigation and they weren’t there when we started. We can’t explain it.
We had several interesting experience during the night. We never caught that one piece of evidence that could allow us to conclude that the building is haunted, but we did experience several odd events that we would like to investigate further.
The Stock Exchange Building is one of the most historic buildings in the Ft. Worth Stockyards. We would encourage everyone to visit the Stockyards and take a stroll through the Stock Exchange. We would like to express our appreciation to the management of the building for allowing us to conduct this investigation and spend time in this historic piece of Ft. Worth history.
Pictures
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Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVPs)
"Bad"
"Mary Kay"
