The Ridglea Theatre, Fort Worth Texas
Photo by Amanda Eagleton
The Ridglea Theater is a Ft. Worth icon. It was built in 1948 and opened in 1950. At the time of its opening it was a state of the art movie theater. Many Ft. Worth residents remember attending movies here “back in the day”. The Ridglea is now used for live music and has hosted a number of popular bands. Richard Van Zandt and Wesley Hathaway manage the current operation as they have since the mid 1990s.The future of the Ridglea Theater is in doubt and there are many people working hard to save this historic landmark. To learn more about this please check out the following website http://ridgleatheater.org/
REPORTS OF PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
We interviewed Richard Van Zandt and heard several interesting stories. All the following stories have happened over the past few years.Just off the main lobby is a stairway leading up to the second floor to what is now a bar with several tables and chairs. A security guard was sitting on the steps and looking up towards the landing where the stairs make a turn. He saw what seemed to him to be a young boy poke his head around the stairs and then quickly duck back. No one was supposed to be in the building at the time other than two on duty guards. Both guards searched the entire upstairs area and found no one there.
On another occasion, Richard and several others were in the lobby area preparing to leave for the night. They all heard voices coming from the second floor bar area. They went to investigate and found no one there.
In the main showroom, witnesses saw a white figure that looked like the outline of a person standing just to the side of the stage area near the entrance to the right side exit door. No one was in the area at the time.
A security guard was alone in one of the upstairs auditoriums. He noticed the temperature dropped sharply and then saw what appeared to be a dark shadow on the stage. He left the room and found the other on duty guard. When they returned the temperature had returned to normal and they found nothing.
In the main auditorium Richard was with a friend who observed what he thought was a person walking down the hallway leading back to the lobby. Other than Richard and his friend there was no in the building at the time.
THE INVESTIGATION
The Stockyards Paranormal team conducted our investigation of the Ridglea Theater on the evening of September 12, 2010. The team of this investigation consisted of Cheryl, Monica, Shirley, John, and Kevin. We were joined by guests Caitlin, Amy, and Amanda. For the night’s investigation we divided into smaller teams with each team taking a section of the building. One group worked in the front lobby, the stairwell, and the bar area on the second floor. A second team would work in the main auditorium, while the third team worked the auditoriums on the top floor.We had placed a K2 meter on the stair landing near where the young boy had been seen. We had placed a small teddy bear close to this spot hoping that it might draw the attention of a young child. Just as we were about to move away from this spot we had a sudden flash on the K2 meter. We had no activity on the K2 meter prior to this time and the EMF reading here was too low to cause the K2 to flash. At about this same time we picked up an orb photo on the same spot.
In the main auditorium, Kevin, Paula, and Caitlin heard a noise that sounded like glasses clinking. Kevin asks, “if that’s you can you do that again, it’s a pretty cool noise.” At that time we picked up an EVP that says “yes” (EVP 1). It is very clear and seems to be in response to the comment.
Cheryl picked up an unusual photo in the upstairs hallway. Shirley had noticed some movement out of the corner of her eye in this area at about the same time the photo was taken.
John later picked up an EVP in the main auditorium as well. You can hear John say something and then a voice says “what’s this stuff” and a different voice says “what?” (EVP 2). It seemed to us as if the spirits were commenting on John’s equipment.
John later picked up a second EVP in the same area. He comments about leaving a recording running and then you hear what sounds like a woman’s voice. (EVP 3)What she says is difficult to make out but is definitely there to be heard.
John picks up another EVP when the entire group is gathered together in the large auditorium. You can hear what seems to be whispers and then Kevin says he thought he heard a whisper (EVP 4). At the time, Kevin was using a parabolic microphone to pick up any difficult to hear noises which may explain why the rest of the group did not hear the whisper.
Cheryl, Shirley, and Amy were in the main auditorium and noticed several shadows and noises that could not be explained. Shirley took a photo and Cheryl saw the shape of some type of entity as a shadow in the flash. The photo itself showed no anomalies. At about the same time Cheryl picked up an EVP which seems to say “Do you think?” EVP 5. All three investigators thought they heard a voice at this time and the audio they captured backs that up.
We picked up several orb photos during the investigation. As we have stated before we can never be too excited about orb photos as most of them are most likely dust particles. However we do include some that are bright or have movement to them as well as some just to give you an idea of what the location looks like.
This investigation was a privilege for us to conduct. The Ridglea Theater is a famous building in Ft. Worth and has a lot of pleasant history to it. Many Ft. Worth residents see this building as a place of many happy memories. The investigation produced several very interesting pieces of evidence. Being a large location it presents unique challenges for investigators and is just the kind of place we all love to work in.
We would like to thank Richard Van Zandt for his agreeing to let us in and for being so helpful during the entire process. We had a great time and we hope that we can return for a follow up investigation. We hope that everyone will do what they can to preserve this beautiful building for many years to come.
EVPS
EVP 1EVP 2
EVP 2a
EVP 3
EVP 3a
EVP 4
EVP 5
EVP 5a
Pictures
