In South Bend, Indiana there is the Studebaker Mansion (The
Studebaker legacy was that they built first wagons and then
cars through the 1960's and is now called Tippecanoe Place
Restaurant.
The mansion, four enormous floors of stone and
brick, has been many things since it was inhabited by the
Studebaker families through the 1930's where they
entertained then President Benjamin Harrison as well as
many other high members of Indiana society...it's been many
things since from a Red Cross Hospital to what is now the
famous Tippecanoe Place Restaurant.
It's a beautifully
decorated one-of-a-kind place with great food and fabulous
atmosphere. This place has a reputation of being haunted.
My husband and I really enjoy dining there but whenever
we're there the hair on the back of my neck stands up the
minute we go to the second floor and up...mainly the three
adjoining rooms that of course are now dining rooms but
back then were a nursery, maids quarters and one of the
many master bedrooms (this mansion has 40 rooms).
On New Years Eve we dined with friends and were walking about the
mansion touring when we began chatting with an employee
who's been there since it's been a restaurant (20 years).
He said most people who say it's haunted all "feel"
something in the nursery and other two rooms where I felt
the presence of something (not evil or scary in the least,
just protective)...he said that there was a fire back when
the Studebakers lived there and that portion of the house
was destroyed and had to be rebuilt, but that no one died
in the fire although a maid was severely
burned...strange...also, on the next floor up directly over
the nursery is another suite of then bedrooms, now dining
rooms...as we were standing in the middle of this room,
pictures on the walls began to move, as if wind was blowing
them. We exited the room and as I turned to look at them
again, they had stopped moving. We waited a minute, peeked
in the room without actually entering it, and the pics were
not moving, but upon us going to the middle of the room,
they began swaying again. And yes upon leaving, we turned
and they had stopped. (okay we did have champagne but not
THAT much! :-)
Anyways, a bartender told us a story that
his roommate, also a bartender had an experience as well.
Several patrons sitting at the bar (on the 2nd floor just
outside of the "nursery" room were asking him about all of
the rumors/folklore about hauntings to which he replied "I
don't believe in any of that stuff" to which an expensive
bottle of liquor promptly flew off the shelf and crashed on
the floor behind the bar a few feet from him"...needless to
say he's now a believer.
Another story from the employee
was that they used to get calls continually from the police
department that the restaurants "sound activated" alarm
system kept going off and upon reviewing the sounds on tape
sounded like things, mainly dishes, being thrown around in
the basement portion of the home.
The restaurant
eventually changed the type of security system because
anything sound activated would continually be set off by
some "unseen force".
If you're ever in South Bend, IN
check out this place, it's absolutely gorgeous inside, the
food is very decadent, and who know's, maybe a server from
the "past" will ensure that your dining experience is a
great one!
Contact me here: skylark564@msn.com
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