Original owner

Emma Van Hise: “Okay, so I used to work at a brow salon called Just Browsing. Yes. Very funny name. They just moved, but they were in the South Wedge and based out of Weiders Hall. So, yes, it's on the corner, right where next to Tap and Mallet, or where Tap and Mallet was, and we were on that first... on the first floor, where Tango Cafe used to be.

So, that's a really, really old building. And so, about… I don't know, like halfway, maybe a little more than halfway into my time there–I was there for like for a year–my boss or, well, my manager, not my boss, she calls me and is like, ‘Hey, Emma, are you locking the door at night?’ Like, because we had a really complex bolting system. Like, there were two deadbolts and, like, the deadbolt in the middle of the door... so, the top and the bottom would deadbolt in, so the door wouldn't swing open. And she would say, ‘Emma, like, I've come in and twice the top deadbolt is loose.’

Now, I am, like, neurotic about checking. So, I'm like, ‘Oh gee, Christy, you know, it could be possible that I'm forgetting, but I really, I do like a triple check...’ To the extent where I like walk... when I leave... left out the back door, I'd walk around the front of the building, like, jiggle the door, you know? So, I'm like, ‘I don't know. I mean, I'll really keep an eye on it. But, like, I don't know how that would happen.’ So, some time goes by, and then I come in one morning after she had closed, and I noticed the top deadbolt was open again.

So, I said, ‘Christie, the deadbolt again…’ And she, I'm like, ‘I know you didn't do that.’ She's even more neurotic than me. So, I'm like, ‘I know you didn't do that.’ And she was like, ‘Uh, yeah.’ So, then my boss was there at the time, the owner, and she's like, ‘Well... ‘ We kinda looked at each other, like, ‘Why is this happening?’

She's like, ‘Well, actually, when I first opened this place, when the alarm system was installed...’ She would... she had it connected to her phone and she would get notifications in the middle of the night constantly of the alarm being tripped. And, it was one of those alarms where, if it was tripped, and, like, went on for a certain time without turning off, it called the police.

So, she eventually had the alarm company come and look at it. Nothing was wrong with it, everything was fine. So, eventually, the city sent her a letter and it was like, ‘If you continued to call the police for nothing, we're gonna fine you.’ So, she is just, like, again, at the end... at her wit’s end, and she just sort of is like, ‘I don't know what else this could be, so I'm gonna guess there's some presence here.’ So, she just says, like, ‘Hey, um, I don't mind you being here, but can you like, not mess with like the alarm and stuff?’ And it stopped after that. So then, fast forward to the deadbolt situation. She does the same thing. She's like, ‘Hey, you know, I just, I really don't mind you being here, but again, like any locks and stuff, let's just try to keep it, you know, let's not touch that.’

So, and of course, it stopped. Like, it didn't happen again. So, um, the owner and our manager had a friend. Her name was Michelle, and she was a tarot reader and also a medium. Now, she didn't really... she does medium work and clairvoyant work, but, she self-admittedly says, ‘That's not really like what I do, or I'm still learning it. So, tarot is my main gig, but I do that kind of on the side, but I'm still learning.’ So, she would come. She came like the year before I was working there. She had done tarot readings there on a weekly basis. My boss reached out to her and said, ‘Hey, Michelle, do you wanna start doing this again?’ So she said, ‘Yeah, sure.’

So, the way the space was laid out, there was a little corner that had a wall of... like, a gallery-style wall of mirrors. It was like a little alcove almost. And so she would set up in that corner and do her tarot readings. Now, there's... I don't... I don't know if this is true, but they say that mirrors are like portals, and you know, can lead to all different realms and stuff.

Anyway, so Michelle starts doing her tarot readings again, and we notice things. There was like nothing... nothing weird happened for a while, but after she starts doing the tarot readings again, things start to get weird. Like, just weird stuff starts happening. One day I come in... so, the deadbolt thing started happening. I come in one morning after my manager Christie had closed, and the shop was just sort of in this weird disarray, like in a way that she would never leave it that way. Like, we had our... it was one big room basically, but we had a little waiting area with two sort of antique chairs, and one of those chairs was, like, sitting in the middle of the floor directly facing the wall, and I'm like, ‘Okay. Christy did not leave it like that.’ Like, it was in the weirdest position that it's, it's nowhere near... and so, I texted my boss. I'm like, ‘You weren't here with...’ Like, she had a little daughter. And I'm like, ‘You weren't here with Lou last night, were you? Like, after I left or after Christy left...’ And she said, ‘No.’

And, I'm like... because, there... things are just like weird. Like, there was just like stuff in weird places. Some of the merchandise on the shelves was kind of like... Lou would sometimes take apart... like, we had these little shot glasses that had a lid, like for sale, and she would take them apart, and they were like that, and just like some of the other stuff was just moved around weird.

And she said, ‘No, no, I swear.’ And I'm like, ‘Okay, um, this is strange.’ So, then there was another day when my boss came in and she noticed that there was... so, we had... it was a brow salon. We had treatment rooms, and each of the rooms had a bed where the, you know, they would do their work on. And, one morning my boss came in, and she found a pile of sand on her treatment bed and a penny on top of the pile.

And we're like, ‘What? What is that? What is that?’ So, one thing I noticed was... there would be periods where Michelle would do her tarot readings every single week. Then she'd be like, you know, ‘I'm going on vacation,’ or, ‘I have a lot on my plate right now.’ She had a whole other full-time job. She's like, ‘I'm gonna hold off for like a couple weeks, but I'll be back on this date.’

I would notice that every time she would... like, the stint that she was there, there'd be activity, and then when she wasn't there, nothing would happen. I just started to notice like a correlation from when things were going weird, and I said this to Michelle, and I explained all this. She's like, especially the sand and penny thing, she's like, ‘Uh uh, that... someone is telling me to get the F out.’ Like, ‘Someone is not happy that I am doing this there.’

So, we also had these upstairs neighbors, and the woman who lived in... this couple who lived upstairs, she also, I guess, was sensitive to things. And she said, like... because I was, like, small-talking with her. I'm like, ‘Have you ever felt anything weird happening in here?’

Like, I don't know, it's an old building. She's like, ‘Oh yeah, and you know where I feel it?’ She's like, ‘In that corner.’ And she points to where the mirrors are, where Michelle does her readings. And she's like, ‘In that corner. I don't like going in there in the apartment because I feel like really depressed and heavy and I just like, I feel like crying sometimes. And there's just this, it's chilly over there.’ And I'm like... I didn't tell her that's where, like, all of that was happening. So, eventually, I had read something at one point that ghosts just kind of, like, want to be acknowledged. When I would, like, close up for the night, I'd be by myself. And of course, it was just like, it was very dark and there was like lots of windows, so I felt like I was in a fishbowl.

So, I'm like kind of freaked out knowing that like something's happening. So I just was like, I would just like talk to the ghost. I just like, ’Okay, all right, I'm gonna finish up in about 30 minutes and I'm gonna leave. I hope you have a good night.’ And, so, I would just, I don't know, like, say ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye.’

The upstairs neighbor, she told me this story about like the original builder of this building, and allegedly he was quite the socialite. I think it was built in the twenties, and there's–actually, Tango Cafe utilized this when they were open–there's a big ballroom up on that top floor. And so, he used to, like, hold parties up there, and it... it's just, like, an old, creepy building. And, she said that he was, um, never out, but he was alleged to be gay. And, she said that some of the motifs are... I don't... this is totally legend, I have no idea if this is true. She said some of the motifs on the outside and on the inside of the building are meant to represent sperm cells.

So, he is allegedly the person. And, even though like this stuff is happening, I never felt... I didn't actually feel, like, that scared. I just felt like he was sort of just keeping an eye on things and just like, ‘Okay, don't mess with my building. Like, please, keep it in working order. Don't do anything crazy.’ Like, I just got that feeling. So, yeah, that's my story.