Deep River Town Hall Auditorium
Additional Information
Investigation of
Date: June 19, 2010
Location: Deep River, Connecticut
History: Deep River‘s distinctive Town Hall was built in 1893 in a “flatiron” shape to conform to its location, where Elm and Main Streets intersect diagonally. The building originally had businesses and a post office (which moved out in the 1960s) on the first floor, with town offices being on the second floor. The third floor has an auditorium. The building’s granite foundation and the 1905 granite fountain outside were both donated by Samuel F. Snow in memory of his wife. The Town Hall was also said to have housed the jail and morgue in the basement. In December of 1899 there was a bank robbery at the Deep River Savings Bank. The bank had hired a night watchman who carried a riot gun purchased from Winchester Firearms Corporation in New Haven, Connecticut. It is reported that the watchman shot one of the bank robbers having killed him and that his body was transported to the morgue in the basement of the Town Hall.
Reports of activity presented to us prior to investigation:
One staff member of the Deep River Town Hall Auditorium reported hearing a whisper directly in his ear while powering down equipment after a production one evening. It was also reported to us that footsteps were heard on the third floor when no one was on the third floor. During a production one evening, one of the actors reported seeing an older couple sitting in the back row of the auditorium. She thought that the couple was her grandparents and later asked her boyfriend why he did not sit with them to which he responded that her grandparents were not present. While powering down equipment another staff member reported hearing footsteps walking next to him when he was alone in the auditorium. It has also been reported and witnessed that the elevator will occasionally come up to the auditorium when it is not called. The call lights for the elevator do not come on when this happens. And yet another staff member reported seeing a shadow crossing in front of the exit sign in the balcony of the theater.
Findings:
On arrival, we listened to the claims of activity. We were asked to come to the show that evening as there was a report of an orb seen during productions of the show. We sat in the back row of the auditorium and did witness an “orb” caused by the glitter on a hat that was worn by one of the actors. The cameras were causing the glitter to reflect across the stage. During the show the elevator did come to the third floor and the doors opened. The call light on the elevator did not light up but one of our team members went to the first floor to see if anyone had pushed the elevator button, thus calling it. No one was present at that time on the first floor.
After the show had finished, we went about setting up our equipment. We were investigating with John from Above the Realm Paranormal and were lucky to have 2 DVR cameras. We set the cameras up in the auditorium covering the stage and balcony and focused 2 cameras on the elevator, one on the first floor and one on the third floor. John set his DVR up in the basement to catch any activity in that area due to the reports of the morgue and jail having been housed there. The equipment we used that evening besides the DVR cameras included a K2 meter, EMF meter, digital thermometer, digital cameras, digital tape recorders and video camcorder.
Team members were divided and went to their separate locations to investigate. While investigating the balcony area one of the team members experienced seeing a “shadow” cross in front of the exit sign. We were not able to capture this on the DVR as the camera was placed so that it would cover the entire balcony and not just the sign. Footsteps were also heard on the stage directly behind one of the members. Unfortunately, there was no change in temperature readings or readings of the K2 meter. On review of the digital tape recorders, we were able to hear the footsteps. The auditorium is a large open space with high ceilings causing you to hear echoes of your footsteps when walking, but there were no echoes to the footsteps heard on the tape. Due to the amount of dust in the building we will not use any of the photos for evidence as all orbs we caught were more than likely dust. Although, there were a few “orbs” that were strob-like in appearance that seemed to be emanating their own light.
The only K2 hit that we were able to get was in direct response to an EVP session while one of the members was sitting in the back row of the auditorium. It was very brief in nature and the K2 only lit up 3 lights. Just prior to the K2 lighting up, the elevator doors opened and once again the call light did not light up. We had someone sitting at the DVR camera on the first-floor monitoring both the DVR and the elevator. She did not push the elevator button nor was there anyone else on the first floor at this time.
We did experience “equipment failure” during our investigation. We lost 25 minutes on one of the camcorders and the digital cameras malfunctioned frequently in the basement. EMF readings in the basement were not “high” except by the electrical fuse box, so I cannot explain this malfunction. The DVR cameras set up in the auditorium seemed to waiver occasionally and go black as well as losing 1 ½ hours on the digital tape recorder. The loss on the digital tape recorder was when we went from the auditorium to the basement. On previous investigations, we have never experienced loss of tape recordings or malfunctions of the cameras and DVR equipment. Can this be explained by paranormal activity or was it a simple malfunction of equipment due to an electrical interference? That is something I cannot answer.
Can we explain the elevator changing floors by itself? Maybe it was a simple malfunction of electrical equipment?
On review of the tape recordings, we did experience a couple of whispers. Please listen and give your opinions.
Haunted or not haunted? I would have to say that we did not experience enough paranormal phenomena during the investigation to say that this location is truly haunted. Further investigation should be conducted in order to prove any and all paranormal activity.
