Medical Miracle?
By Tracy Bridwell.
On August 12th, 2000, I was invited by David Sills, founder of Residual Energy Investigations, to lend my expertise as an experienced ghost investigator and the and accompany the fledgling group of ghost enthusiasts on an investigation of the Haunted Building in downtown Houston. The three story converted office. Building was at one time a dormitory for nurses who worked in the adjacent, now boarded up hospital back in the 1940s. In the basement of the office building, there was once a morgue. The property is also situated over what used to be a Confederate cemetery. (In fact it was actually built over the old Houston City Cemetery.)
The Historical Plaque reads:
Inscription. 
On April 8, 1840, the City of Houston purchased five acres in the First Ward from brothers Henry R. and Samuel L. Allen for $750, in order to establish Houston’s first city owned cemetery. A city ordinance passed later that year divided the cemetery into four sections: (1) a “potters field” for criminals, suicides, and persons killed in duels, (2) the “negroes burying ground,” (3) the “commons” for “all others not otherwise provided for,” and (4) family plots “for sale to the highest bidder.” Later sections were created for members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) and the Masons.
As the only city cemetery in use during a forty-year period, it became the final resting place of many citizens of the Republic of Texas and veterans of the Civil War. Also buried in the cemetery were many victims of Houston’s recurring yellow fever epidemics, the last of which occurred in 1867.
The city discontinued use of the 1840 cemetery when a new cemetery opened on Allen Parkway ca. 1879, and thereafter only burials in existing family plots were allowed. In 1893, the City Council announced plans to move all remains to a
new location and build a schoolhouse on the site. However, public outcry prompted an injunction prohibiting the action.
By 1923, this cemetery was neglected and overgrown and very few grave markers were still visible. Jefferson Davis Hospital was built on the site in 1924 and the Houston Fire Department facility was added in 1968. While thousands remain buried here, the only above-ground evidence of the cemetery today is the concrete curbing surrounding the Super family plot in front of the hospital and a small Confederate section inside the Fire Department facility.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Cemeteries & Burial Sites. A significant historical date for this entry is April 8, 1840.
Location. 29° 46.109′ N, 95° 22.076′ W. Marker is in Houston, Texas, in Harris County. It is in Washington Avenue Coalition. It is on Elder Street, on the right when traveling south. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 1101 Elder Street, Houston TX 77007, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Jefferson Davis Hospital (a few steps from this marker); Houston Infirmary (about 700 feet away, measured in a direct line); 1940 Knapp Chevrolet Building (approx. ¼ mile away); Baker Common
(approx. 0.4 miles away); St. Joseph’s Catholic Church (approx. 0.4 miles away); Horace Dickinson Taylor (approx. 0.4 miles away); 1928 Democratic National Convention (approx. half a mile away); Hogg Building (approx. half a mile away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Houston.
Another marker is no longer nearby. In Loving Memory of our Confederate Soldiers (was within shouting distance of this marker but has been permanently removed).
Credits. This page was last revised on June 12, 2023. It was originally submitted on June 12, 2023, by Brian Anderson of New Albany, Ohio. This page has been viewed 909 times since then and 101 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on June 12, 2023, by Brian Anderson of New Albany, Ohio.
Tony was one of the office building employees, graciously, he gave us a tour of the building.
He told us that no one likes to stay after work in the evenings, due to the sounds of doors opening and closing and footsteps walking across the floor above them, when they knew the building was empty. One employee was working for hours, making copies in a hallway, when he heard the his name spoken aloud from an empty stairwell behind him. Knowing he was quite alone, the employee decided to call it a night and left in a hurry. Another employee whose office and desk faced the ladies restroom, observed a woman and a toddler entering the restroom late one afternoon. The offices were due to close in a short while, so he watched for the pair to come out, to make sure they left before the building was closed for the day. After waiting quite a while, he knocked on the ladies room door. When he didn’t receive an answer, he entered the restroom, only to find that there was no one there. He is adamant that they could not have slipped past him without his knowledge.
Tony went on to say that he was a he and a few others caught a glimpse of the apparition of a woman going down the stairs. He described her as wearing a knee length white uniform style dress and stockings. The employees have started calling her Mary.
Our group canvassed the three story building.
Collectively, We had various sorts of equipment and EMF detector, thermal scanner, night vision gear and various cameras, including some very technical high end cameras. Many photographs were taken. Weird things began to happen immediately. The folks with the high tech cameras reported that their batteries and battery packs were being drained before their eyes. Even I could get not get my tape recorder to work properly though I had just replaced the batteries and it had been working fine before we entered the building. Finally, our investigation was concluded, and when we left, Tony locked the doors behind us.
We were chatting in the parking lot when I felt compelled to turn around and take a few last pictures. I’m glad I did, because after developing the film, I found that I had taken a picture of a full bodied apparition of a ghost. She was in one of the windows in one of the last pictures I had taken while standing in the parking lot. She is dressed in a bib style uniform, similar to an apron that ties at the shoulders, and her white nurse’s cap is clearly visible on her head. When I enlarge the image on my computer, I could even make out a pocket on her apron. However, her face remains featureless. Could it be Mary?
The next day an employee double checked the office window to see what I could have photographed, That could have been possibly causing the image of the human that I took. He reported that the office in question was actually quite bare, without any pictures on the walls, and certainly nothing was stored in front of the window.
The following Monday I went to work, as usual. Until this time, I had not really shared with my employer that I love to go on ghost investigations, and other than a passing reference to believing in ghosts, that was the extent of his knowledge about my unusual hobby. However, this time when he asked about my weekend, I told him everything about Mary and I showed him the photograph.
Far from disbelieving, he was quite amazed. He then told me something even weirder,
his own mother used to be a nurse at that hospital during World War Two and had even lived in the dormitory.
Fortunately for me, his mother Louise, age 75, was still alive. So after work I went over there to show her the picture and get her input. I didn’t tell her anything, other than how I had gotten the picture, I didn’t want to impress any ideas upon her?.Like her son, she was not at all disbelieving and was readily able to identify the uniform that Mary was wearing. It was the Bibb style uniform of the student nurses in the 1940s.
My employer’s mother, the former nurse Louise, also told me that one night, many, many years ago, a rundown boarding house for men, very near the hospital caught fire and 30 or more people died. The burned corpses were stacked like cord wood in the morgue. Is Mary hanging around to help these unfortunate victims?
On October 7, 2000, Residual Energy Investigations and I went back to the haunted office building to conduct a follow up investigation. This time I brought a friend from Beaumont with me, an extremely sensitive woman named Darlene, who is aware of lingering spirits.
Tony briefed us on the recent paranormal occurrences, one of which dealt with a female employee who scoffed at the notion of a ghost in the building. She was singing a different tune after walking down the hall one day and being hit in the fanny with a balwed- up piece of paper. No one, that anyone could see, threw it at her, But another employee reported seeing the offending wad of paper sailing through the air as it passed his office.
Ready to go, We split up and once again canvassed the building. At one point, when the majority of the group was on the second floor, Darlene suggested that we diminish the harsh fluorescent lights in the hall to better our photographic chances, which we did. At about this time, Darlene felt as though someone unseen was beckoning to her from the far end of the hall, where it joined with a wall and formed a T. She went down the darkened hallway and stood with her back to the wall. I followed her. She was leaning against the wall with her eyes closed, breathing slowly and deeply. I knew immediately that she had slipped into a trance.
JOIN US ON A TRIP TO THE HAUNTED PIONEER FARMS
I asked Darlene if someone was there with us, to which she nodded slightly in reply.
“A woman, her name is Selma. I can’t quite understand the last name, but it starts with the letter H. She sounds like an older black woman. She is annoyed that we’re here in her building. She asks when will enough be enough? She wants to know what we want. She is saying, when will you people listen to me”?
Darlene tried to soothe the restless spirit she was conversing with in her mind. She explained that we were there simply to meet people like her, we were interested in her world, and we didn’t want to cause any harm. At this point, I realized that Darlene had slipped into a total trance, and the person I was questioning was, in essence, Selma. I asked.
“Are you a student nurse here”?
Selma “no”.
Are you a nurse of some sort”?
“No”.
“Are you the head matron”?
“No”.
“Do you know a nurse named Louise? But unfortunately, Selma didn’t know her.
By now it had occurred to me that if Selma was from the 1940s, she probably had a position as a maid. I then asked, “do you take care of the nurses in some way”?
Selma replied, “I clean up after them. I tried. I try to take care of them, but nobody would listen to an old colored lady”.
Suddenly, Darlene interjected. “Listen to you about what, Selma”?
At this point, Selma became very upset and began to breathe rapidly. She started to cry, which meant that Darlene started to cry. Selma said “that man. That man. He’s hurting the little one”! With a shaky breath, she continued. “I tried. I tried. Nobody would listen to me”.
At that time she saw David and more of the investigative team coming towards us. Nervously, she said. “I can’t do this. I can’t do this”. Suddenly, Darlene was back. She was incredibly shaky and had rubber knees. I had her sit down on a nearby chair. She wiped the tears from her eyes, and merely said “wow”. Apparently when Selma saw David, she got scared and ran away. She could actually see Selma running down the hall with a mop in her hand.
We later found out that the instant Selma broke from Darlene and ran away, Mike, an investigative member of the team, who was standing at the opposite end of the hall, heard a distinct bang on the wall and next to him.
And simultaneously felt something move right through him. The sensation caused his knees to buckle and he momentarily faltered. Another member who was standing next to him, indeed verified that he saw Mike suddenly stumble and fall against the wall.
By now, the entire team of residual energy investigations had gathered around the week Darlene. Everybody knew something had happened, So after getting Darlene a drink of water, we all went to the conference room at the basement level of the office building., the former morgue, to discuss what had just happened.
Danielle was pale, weak and shaky, but otherwise fine. I proceeded to turn on my tape recorder and held the microphone just inches from her face as she spoke. I could see that it was working properly this time, and I was thankful for that. She related how she could “see” through Selma’s eyes. Darlene thinks that Selma may have witnessed a doctor, from the adjacent hospital, being quite rough with one of the student nurses, She sensed something about spurned advances and quite possibly a near rape. The nurse in question had a fair complexion with dark hair and a fiery temperament. Also, Darlene got the firm impression that the reason that Selma was frightened by David’s appearance was because he may have resembled the offending doctor from all those years ago.
A couple of weeks later, Darlene and I went back to see Louise, my employer’s mother. We didn’t tell her anything about Darlene’s experience. Instead, we asked about the day to day life, living conditions and habits of the dorm residents. Did the doctors from the hospital next door ever come over to pay visits to the nurses?
Louise laughed at that one. Did they ever! And the single nurses were just as bad as the doctors, often trying to sneak the men into their rooms, past the matron. She was married at the time, so the doctors didn’t bother her. She did, though recall one pretty young nurse, who was engaged to be married, and had to constantly fight off the advances of 1 particular Doctor. At one point the young nurse had to be quite rude and rough with him in her order to make him leave her alone. She described this nurse as being a feisty gal, with dark hair and a fair complexion. Darlene and I just gaped at each other. Could this be the scene that Selma had witnessed? Louise also confirmed that the cleaning staff in the dormitory were all black women.
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