In 1972 the Texas State School for the Blind opened the newly renovated Confederate Women’s Home as a learning facility for their students affected by the rubella epidemic. The Fanny Mae Memorial Hospital was torn down and a new brick building was constructed and the original Home and annex were converted into classrooms, a gymnasium and an area for physical therapy. What used to be rooms for the aging ladies became rooms for the children.
The multi-handicapped children lived in the building learning basic life skills such as using a toilet, feeding themselves, as well as basic education and physical therapy.
Ten years later the children were returned to the main campus at the Texas School for the Blind and the Confederate Women’s Home was sold. The profit from the sale was used to build a permanent facility for their rubella students.
In 1986 the building’s purpose once again centered on senior citizens, becoming home to the Austin Groups for the Elderly (AGE), a partnership of different organizations that offer services to the elderly. It is uncertain why the ghost stories began then, but they came pouring forth!
One A.G.E. employee reported, “I saw an old woman in a white suit with white gloves and hat, walking out of a storage closet in the Elder Haven Adult Activity center. I followed her to see where she went. The woman entered the break room where several people were seated. Just as I entered the room, the woman I was following vanished, but one lady seated in there exclaimed that she was suddenly very cold and felt like some one was watching her. I told her I had just seen a ghost walk in.”
Tammy, another A.G.E. staffer gave this account: “I was working late one night in my office on the second floor when I heard what sounded like a bunch of women talking and laughing outside my door. I walked out several times and as soon as I opened my door the talking stopped, but once I closed the door and returned back to my desk the talking and laughing would start up again.”
There is this story from A.G.E. employee Sandy: “Late last year, we kept noticing that the Xerox machine was getting turned off early. We asked around the staff and each of them said, ‘No, it’s not me.’ I thought it might be some pre-programmed time within the machine, so I asked the technician when he was out one day, and he told me that there wasn’t a timer switch on that machine.” Sandy described the phenomena. “The machine would be on, and then the next minute the switch would be in the off position. One afternoon I was in a hurry, and I literally turned around briefly to do some sorting when I heard a ‘click.’ Sure enough, the machine had been turned off, except there wasn’t anybody else there!”
There is a small two story structure behind the main A.G.E. building, constructed in the 1930’s. For a while a nearby school rented it for their football team. A member of the team told this story: “We would often come back to our building after a night game in order to change. There would be a dozen or so of us all hanging out upstairs making noise and watching highlights of the game on the television. Every so often, no matter how loud we were, we would hear an even louder banging as if someone was stomping up the staircase that led to the second floor. Often we would turn off the television and sit quietly as the banging continued. As soon as one of us would make the move to walk over to the stairway and look down, the banging would stop.”
An A.G.E employee who did not wish to be identified admitted, “I was working on a Sunday. To my knowledge the rest of the building was empty. There had been some tenets in and out earlier, but I hadn’t heard anyone for some time. I stepped outside to get some fresh air and take a break, and then I went back in. As usual on the weekends, the hall lights were dimmed with only every other fixture on. As I approached my office door, I stopped, startled, because I could hear a child screaming in pain or fear…mostly terror, I think. The sound was very faint, like something just out of reach, and I couldn’t tell which direction it was coming from. It was almost like it was part of the air itself or in the walls. At the time I didn’t know that the A.G.E building was once a home for disabled children. The sound faded and I never heard it again. The whole experience, though, was unnerving.”
As though to strengthen the case of haunting by a child or children, A.G.E. employee Celia told us, “I had left my office one day and was pulling away in my car when my passenger side window started to roll up and down on its own accord. It was an electric window and I had never had any problems with it before. I kept trying to keep the window rolled up but after a few minutes it would roll back down on its own and then up, as if a child were playing with it or someone who had never seen an electric window before. This went on for several weeks, and I took the car from mechanic to mechanic, none of whom had an answer. The problem began to escalate when my door began locking and unlocking. I thought that maybe I had picked up a passenger from the building, so I turned around and went back to the office. I parked the car and told whoever might be in there that they could not come home with me and that they had to return back to A.G.E. I then walked back to my office hoping that I was being followed. I waited a few minutes and returned to my car. I had no further problems with the windows or door locks after that.”
For a period of time there was a childrens daycare in the A.G.E. Building. Every evening the staff would pick up all the toys and put them in their proper storage area. In the morning, though, it was not uncommon to find toys scattered up and down the hallways. Were the playful spirits those of once-disabled children?
It should also be noted that while conducting an investigation of the Confederate Women’s Home, my team not only recorded disembodied adult voices, but also whispers and chimes.
The Austin Groups for the Elderly: https://ageofcentraltx.org/
Confederate Men’s Home: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/texas-confederate-home
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