The Legend of the Tyler Street House

I remember when I first started getting serious about ghost hunting and this happened to coincide with me getting access to the internet for the first time. Here I had the world (as it was) at m fingertips and I started to search for haunted places in the area. And thanks to one of the very first paranormal themed websites called the Shadowlands.net I found several in the area, including one titled the Tyler Street House.

According to the site the Tyler Street House was a modest home that has been the scene of terrifying poltergeist activity since the mid 80's and continues to this day. The site goes on to say the house has had over 22 different occupants since the phenomenon started. Some have been said to report seeing red eyes peer out through closets and darkened bedrooms. Objects were seen to fly off countertops. It even got a bit gruesome when a bludgeoned body of a cat has been find several times in an upstairs closet despite the owners at the time not having any pets.

What I find interesting is that twenty two years later this same story is still repeated verbatim. It's almost as people have copy and pasted over the years. Now I am partly to blame as I originally wrote about it back in 2010 here but even then I mentioned my misgivings about the stories there. I had had the chance to investigate the location back in 2001 and 2007 and nothing happened. Granted it is hard to say whether the place is active or not based off just two investigations, but researching the history helped to lend to me believing the place is not. For one there is no second floor so I am not sure how there could be a second floor closet where the corpse of an animal can be found. Anyone seeing a photo of the house would realize it's only one story and this part of the legend should disappear. But it hasn't. Why?

Remember when we were kids and there was the story of an abandoned house being haunted? No one knew why but they KNEW it was haunted because their friend had told them and why would they lie? Well it's kind of the same here. The story gets repeated over and over and no one questions it because why would they? They want a haunted house story and here it is. 

I still wonder about the rest of the story. Where did the red eyes and and flying objects come from? The flying objects definitely sound like poltergeist activity but the red eyes I do not know. I really wish I knew where this story came from, but like with most legends its hard to pinpoint the genesis of it. 

Will this legend die? Well no, especially with me writing about it again. It's fascinated me over the years as to why it endured even though the story hasn't changed. Will it change now? Probably not. It's one of the many urban legends that permeates Fresno and those never really go away.

Was Visalia's Mooney Mansion haunted by the spirit of a little girl?

Statue of Hugh Mooney and his favorite hunting dog, located in

Mooney Grove Park. - Image courtesy of Visit Visalia.

If you've ever visited Visalia there's a good chance you have been to or at least driven by Mooney Grove Park; so named for Hugh Mooney who donated 100 acres of his ranch to act as a park in 1909. For over a century the park has hosted many gatherings and since 1948 has been home to the Tulare County Museum. But there is another location that was associated with Mr. Mooney. His home. And it was said to be haunted.

The house itself was located on Court Street and changed ownership through the years after Mr. Mooney passed away. Sometime in the 1980's the owner turned the mansion into a boarding house that had nine bedrooms with a common bath and kitchen facilities. One of the upstairs bedrooms was turned into a billiards room complete with an antique table. Also, downstairs in the main foyer there was an antique jukebox that played an old selection of 78 rpm records.

But in the evenings for many years, random thumps would be heard from the upstairs billiard room usually right before or after midnight. The inhabitants of the house would go upstairs to investigate and when the opened the door and entered the room they would find billiard balls and cue sticks on the floor; the balls were usually stored a wall rack with the cues or left in the table pockets. This happened on many occasions and once it was said that when the people entered the room to check on the noise the balls were still moving as if they had just been touched.

Even more interesting is that the antique juke box would randomly play, and usually around the early dawn hours. It got so bad that the owner started to leave it unplugged during the summer months when the occurrences were more likely to happen.

Curious as to what was causing all the strange activity, the owner of the house started to research the history of the home. After talking with several historians at the Tulare County Museum they discovered that sometime in the early 1930's a young girl, about the age of 6, had died in one of the upstairs bedrooms from some type of lung malady. She wasn't a member of the Mooney Family, but it's believed that she might have been the daughter of two San Francisco socialites who had come to Visalia to visit the Mooneys. Her full name is unknown but the owner was able to discern that her first name was April and her last name was Mc-something. It's said that her body was buried somewhere on the property, but there has been no documentation to prove this.

The strange occurrences seemed to stop sometime in 1990's when the property was sold numerous times and the interior of the house was gutted for refurbishment. During demolition an old doll was discovered in one of the walls in what was the billiard room. The doll was given to the Tulare Historical Society and was able to be dated to being made sometime in the 1920's and was made in a factory in San Francisco.

Was the little girl haunting the room where her doll was at because she wanted it back? That could explain the odd sounds and objects being moved. But what of the antique jukebox playing on random (was it playing Queen?) down in the foyer? Perhaps the little girl liked to listen to music. It is interesting to note though that the activity stopped when the doll was found. I wonder since the doll was given to the Tulare County Museum to put on display, is there any activity there now?

Ghost of little boy haunts Sanger residence

Is one of these houses on Acacia Drive in Sanger haunted by the

ghost of a little boy killed years ago?

In the small town of Sanger, located in Fresno County, there is a legend of a small boy's ghost that has been around for several decades. The stories goes that sometime in the mid 1900's, a young orphan boy was caught trying to steal a freshly baked pie that was cooling on a window sill of a local farmer's house. When the boy ran off with the pie, the farmer chased after him. The boy was finally caught on what is now Acacia Drive and was shot and killed while begging for his life.

Over the years people have reported seeing a young boy in one of the residences on Acacia Drive (for privacy I'm not going to reveal the address) begging for his life. Food missing from the refrigator have also been reported. Apparently this story is rather common in Sanger. A very good friend of mine used to work for the Sanger police department and was telling me a few of the local ghost stories (one he told me scared the hell out of me, but I'll save that for another day). He starts to tell me about the ghost of a little boy who keeps stealing food from these people's refrigator of someone that he knows. I ask him if the house is on Acacia Drive and he looks at me suprised and says yes. I told him about the story that's been around for years and was suprised that there may be a kernel of truth to it.

I asked my friend if it would be possible to meet with the people who live at the house to see what is going on. Unfortunately I never did get the chance to go there as he switched jobs soon after. But I still think about the ghost of that poor little boy still stealing food all these years later, and apparently he has never learned his lesson.

Is Fresno's Meux Home Haunted?

Do the spirits of former residences still wander this Victorian era

house in downtown Fresno?

Located on the corner of Tulare and R Streets in downtown Fresno sits a house that has been in existence since 1890. Built in the Victorian style, the Meux Home was the residence of a Dr. Thomas Meux and his family up until 1970 when his daughter, Anne Prenetta Meux passed away. The house was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. It now exists as a museum, educating the public what a typical Victorian home was like. But there are stories that not all of it's residences have left.

When I first started investigating haunted locations in the Fresno area over a decade ago, I was told by several people that the Meux Home might be haunted. Stories of hearing children's laughter upstairs were common and I was even told the story of how the house would be closed up for the night and then when it was reopened the next day there were door knobs missing on several of the doors.

I decided to go to the home itself and see if I could find any truth to these stories. Upon my arrival, I found the head docent (tour guide) and struck up a conversation with her. I talked a bit about the architecture style of the house before broaching the subject of ghosts. To my surprise she didn't flinch when I asked if the house was haunted. But she did tell me she had never heard any stories if there were ghosts there and had never heard that the place was haunted.

I discussed the topic of ghosts and the paranormal with her for a few more minutes, she was quite knowledgeable in it (turns out she listens to Coast to Coast AM every night). I then asked her if it was possible to do an investigation of the home, to determine if there actually was anything there. At that point she got somewhat annoyed, saying they don't allow camera flashes in the home as the light from the flash tends to fade antique objects. I told her we could do only video work, and just use our night vision enabled cameras to accommodate them, but she still declined. Saying that the Board of Trustees wouldn't like the stigma of the Meux Home being haunted. I gave her several examples of homes turned museums that were known to be haunted (Whaley House in San Diego, Winchester Mansion in Santa Clara) that have benefited from this, but she still declined. I gave her my card and said goodbye.

Though I never did hear from the Meux Home, every time I drive by it I still wonder if the stories are true. Why are children's laughter heard and whose voices are they of? And the stories of the door knobs missing intrigues me. Could it be the same children playing pranks on the docents that now work there? Or is it someone else? Unfortunately I may never know and it seems the haunted history of the Meux Home is still a mystery and may always be one.

Is a Fresno home plagued with poltergeist activity?

Is this small house in Fresno plagued with poltergeist activity?

Over the years on a street called Tyler, there is a house that has changed owners more times than of those surrounding it. Rumors of red eyes staring out from darkened closets and bedrooms intermixed with that of objects flying off counter tops. There was once a report of someone finding a mutilated cat carcass in the attic space.

No one really knows what was the cause of this activity, or why it's been occurring for so many years (most poltergeist activity last only a few weeks at the most). I did have the chance to investigate the house both in 2001 and 2007, but both times I did not witness anything out of the ordinary. I was able to talk to the realtor of the house and was able to confirm the high number of owners (at least 20 over the past 15 years). Though this could be due to the location of the property, it's not in the best location and there have been reports of gang activity there.

Last I checked the house was up for sale again. Perhaps it's just another victim of the housing crisis. Or perhaps there is something else there keeping people from living in it.

The Zalud House

The Zalud House - Porterville, CA

I don't know too much behind the paranormal history of the Zalud House as I just heard about it recently. I do know there is a group that is planning on giving haunted tours of the house, with all proceeds going to the house which is now a museum. They are still working out the details, but as soon as I hear about them I'll post them in an update.

The Zalud House, which is located in Porterville, was built for John and Mary Jane Zalud in 1891 and through out it's history it was only occupied by the family. The house is listed on both the National Historcial Registry of Old Houses and the National Register of Historic Places.

The house has remained unchanged over the years. The garden, which has not changed since the 1930's, and the mansard style roof is still the same over a century later. Interior-wise, it is one of the few museums in the country to still have it's original furnishings though they are changed seasonally.

As for paranormal activity, there have been reports of people feeling that they were being watched by some unseen presence, footsteps heard in several words, as well as whispering voices. Given the fact that the house still has it's orginal furnishings, I wouldn't be suprised if some of the Zalud family members were still there along with their possessions.

My first Paranormal Experience

People ask me what got me interested in the paranormal, especially ghosts to begin with and why I used to investigate proposed haunted locations. I had always been curious about the unknown, albeit ghosts or UFO's or something else that was unexplainable. Every journey has a start and this is the story of the first ghost I ever saw. It happened to be in the house my mom owned when I was a kid.

I was up late one night watching TV when I decided to go to bed as there was nothing on. As I walked to the back of my house down the hallway to where my bedroom is at, I passed my sister's room and saw something white move from her room to the bathroom right across from her's. I also heard the rustling of fabric on the hardwood floor. I assumed it was my sister sleepwalking again so I turned on the bathroom light to make sure she was ok. Upon turning on the light I saw no one in there and figured I was just getting a bit sleepy and that maybe she just moved from the bathroom to her bedroom. I turned on the light in her room to see her fast asleep and not wearing pajamas that would make a rustling sound on the floor (she was wearing the typical pants and shirt pj's). A bit creeped out now as I knew I saw something I went straight to bed.

The next morning I told my mom what happened and she suprised me by saying that it was probably the ghost of the previous owner of the house's wife. Apparently she died in the house and my mom even said she had seen a shadowy figure several times as well as odd feelings.

Unfortunately this was the only time that anything occurred. A few years later my mom sold the house. I don't investigate any proposed haunted locations anymore as I felt I wasn't helping in any way. Though I sill am interested in the subject I don't think there are any experts out there that can really do anything to help the spirits or even the people who live with the ghost.