Public Domain
Pfister Hotel, 1901
Pfister Hotel, 1901
Milwaukee has a long legacy of ghost stories. Any building that’s been around for any lengthy amount of time seems to have a ghost lingering on in the afterlife. Some spirits are famous, like the spirit of Charles Pfister, who is said to still hang around the lobby of his namesake hotel, or Captain Frederic Pabst, spotted in both the Pabst Mansion and the Pabst Theater. Others are unknown, like a mysterious man in overalls spotted in the Historic Marshall Building. A full listing of allegedly haunted spaces in the Milwaukee area could stretch into dozens or even hundreds of entries, so we decided to focus on just of few of the most legendary tales for this haunting season, all places you might have the opportunity to explore yourself.
1. Pfister Hotel (424 E. Wisconsin Ave.)
Milwaukee’s most notorious ghost story is probably the Pfister Hotel, a tale as well told by Major League Baseball players as paranormal investigators. Staff has reported seeing the apparition of Charles Pfister since he passed away in 1927, but it wasn’t until the early 2000s that baseball players began to share their experiences. Adrian Beltre, Carlos Gomez, Colby Lewis, and Bryce Harper are just a few players who have talked about their ghostly encounters. When the Dodgers have played at Milwaukee the last two summers in a row, their shortstop Mookie Betts has insisted on getting his own Airbnb rather than face the Pfister’s famous ghosts.
2. Shaker’s Cigar Bar (422 S. Second St.)
Located in a former speakeasy, owner Bob Weiss has promoted cigars and the ghosts lurking around his bar and restaurant for decades. Ghosts allegedly abound in this place, and you can hear their tales via Shaker’s in-house tours. If you’re feeling especially brave, you can spend the night in their haunted penthouse suite, but if that’s too intimate of an encounter, just stop by for a Ghost Ale or other drink at the bar.
Photo via Cambridge University Press
Stephan F. de Borgehyi
Stephan F. de Borgehyi
3. Milwaukee Public Museum (800 W. Wells St.)
Innovative Milwaukee Public Museum director Stephan Francis Borhegyi died in a car accident on his way to work in 1969, but some say his spirit remains among his beloved collections. There are many stories focused on the museum’s third floor, where a portrait of Borhegyi hangs. Up there, people have spotted a caped apparition (de Borhegyi preferred an opera cape to a coat). There are also reports of sudden cold spots, motion sensors have been tripped with no one there, and an empty elevator sometimes arrives and opens by itself. Will Borhegyi’s ghost follow the museum’s collection to their new location? Only time will tell.
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4. Brumder Mansion (3046 W. Wisconsin Ave.)
Built in 1910 as a gift for German publisher George Brumder’s eldest son, George Jr., the Brumder Mansion has a storied history after the Brumder family left. It was run as a speakeasy during prohibition, but by the 1940s, the building’s morals had flipped to a home for Lutheran pastors, and later a boarding house. In the late 1990s, the building was renovated to become a bed and breakfast, which is still the mansion’s function today. George Brumder Jr.’s ghost is still said to reside there, as is “Aunt Pussy,” a former boarding house resident named for her love of cats. The Brumder’s basement theater—one of the building’s ghost hot spots—occasionally features magic shows and other theatrical productions.
5. Cafe Corazon (3129 N. Bremen St.)
Photo courtesy Café Corazón
Café Corazón Riverwest
A uniquely shaped building that used to be a train service station, this restaurant features several reports of hauntings, from an apparition of an elderly woman hiding in one of the restrooms to a mischievous boy ghost who pranks the kitchen staff. The building was once home to Auggie’s Triangle Tap, which was a hang out spot for The Outlaws motorcycle club. Namesake August Notbohm shot and killed a would-be robber inside the bar. Café Corazon’s ghost stories are part of the self-guided Riverwest Radio Ghost Walk going on this month until October 31.
6. Historic Miller Caves (3897 W. State St.)
Construction on the Miller Caves began in 1849 and they were used to keep beer cool in an era before refrigeration. You can still see the cave, which is now used as an event space venue, on Miller tours. A legend that dates to at least the 1950s says that the cave was a Saturday night rendezvous spot for a young brewery worker and his lover. But one fateful Saturday evening, the brewery worker was a no-show. When his lover returned home, she found out that her sweetheart had slipped and broken his neck in a cave stairwell. Within weeks the young woman had died of a broken heart, but now the two are joined in the afterlife, spotted as a pair of luminous apparitions in the cave.
7. The Rave/Eagles Club (2401 W. Wisconsin Ave.)
Photo: Rave/Eagles Club
Historic photo of the Eagles Club pool
The Eagles Club opened in 1926 as a recreational facility, and the building’s swimming pool, empty for decades, is the source of the most well-known ghost story here. Access to the empty pool is restricted to the general public but accessible in the green room areas for visiting performers. Several have claimed to see a spirit of a young girl by the pool, with the theory being that she drowned in it.
In addition, there’s supposed to be a spirit of a former cranky janitor, who angrily lashes out at visitors, and there’s urban legends related to the place because of its proximity to the Jeffrey Dahmer cases—Dahmer killed a victim at the nearby Ambassador Hotel and later lived just about three blocks away on N. 25th Street. Dahmer was arrested in 1991, the same year the newly remodeled music venue opened.
8. Grant Park (100 E. Hawthorne Ave., South Milwaukee)
“Enter this wild wood and view the haunts of nature,” reads a sign leading to the path of the seven bridges of Grant Park. Some say the words are literal, with claims of screams in the dark forest, the sound of ghostly footsteps on the wooden bridges, an eerie mist, and sudden feelings of constricting fear. Some say they’ve seen an apparition of a woman dressed in white strolling across the bridges, so keep your eyes open and your wits about you if you’re on an evening walk through these haunted woods.
Tea Krulos writes the Madcap Milwaukee Calendar column for the Shepherd Express and leads walking tours for American Ghost Walks.
