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Haunted Pumpkin Patch Art
Last fall, we presented you with 8 allegedly haunted places you can visit in Milwaukee. Like many scary stories, we’ve decided to create a sequel. Here’s five more haunted hot spots for you to visit on your next legend tripping expedition.
1. Riverside Theater (116 W. Wisconsin Ave.)
Built in 1928, the beating heart of the ghost story at this vaudeville theater turned movie house resides in the projection booth, where a former employee is said to have had a heart attack while on the job changing film reels. The room, now used as a light booth, is said to be haunted by the apparition of the projectionist, who turns stage lights on and off and messes around with other settings. They say you can feel his presence even as you walk up the steep, narrow stairwell to the room. The upper hallways are also said to be haunted by the ghostly sound of ghostly children playing and laughing and strange growling has been heard in the basement. Needless to say, it’s been a favorite spot for paranormal investigators to research.
2. Hilton Garden Inn (611 N. Broadway)
The Pfister is Milwaukee’s most famous haunted spot, having terrified over two dozen baseball players. But just a couple blocks away is another allegedly haunted hotel. In 1883, the Newhall House burnt down, a tragedy that killed around 70 people. Northwestern Mutual constructed their Loyalty Building on that same corner, which opened in 1886. Northwestern Mutual moved into their building on Wisconsin Avenue, but it the Newhall site remained an office building until 2011, when it was remodeled into the Hilton Garden Inn. Staff and guests have reported strange noises, shadowy figures, intense feelings of fear, doors opening and closing by themselves and other eerie occurrences.
3. La Belle Cemetery (700 E. Grove St., Oconomowoc)
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The urban legend style story from this cemetery centers on a grave with a statue of a girl standing next to a cross, where four members of the Nathusius family are buried. They say the statue’s hands drip blood and/or weeps blood. Another says that an apparition of the girl forms in the statue, walks out into the cemetery, then wades into nearby Lac La Belle, reliving her drowning in a loop.
4. Pabst Mansion (2000 W. Wisconsin Ave.)
The former home of Captain Frederic Pabst and his family, the Pabst Mansion has been carefully and beautifully restored to look as it did in the 1800s. Some say members of the Pabst family might be continuing to hang around their former home. There’s been reports of hair and clothing being tugged at by an unseen force, mysterious phantom smells of cigars and perfume, doors slamming shut by themselves, and an apparition of Captain Pabst himself has been spotted. You can sip tea and ponder these stories at a “A Victorian Macabre Tea” at the mansion on Friday, October 3. Tickets: https://book.peek.com/s/dc4b3489-5ae1-4299-965d-676407d25cea/9EDOv
5. Marquette University (1250 W. Wisconsin Ave.)
Just down the street from the Pabst Mansion, Marquette University is home to the St. Joan of Arc Chapel, built in Chasse, France in the 15th century. A Francophile paid to have the chapel disassembled and moved to Long Island; after their death it was moved again to the Marquette campus. The legend is that there is a stone in the chapel that Joan of Arc knelt on to pray, then kissed before going off to battle. That stone is supposedly much cooler in temperature than the stones surrounding it.
That’s far from the only supernatural story on campus—a ghost named “Whispering Willie” hangs out in Straz Tower, and more spirits have been reported at Helfaer Theater, and in Johnston and Humphrey Halls, the latter of which was a former children’s hospital before it became dorm.
