Haunted Mansion & Restaurant, IN, USA

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!