A Tale of Some Clearwater Hauntings

Have you ever walked into an empty room and felt you weren’t alone? Something didn’t seem quite right, something you couldn’t touch, smell, see, hear or taste, but you got a strange and peculiar feeling from something that wasn't of the ordinary. It wasn't here and it wasn't there and it certainly didn’t feel quite right.

Some places may have doorways to different dimensions. Places where one world overlaps onto another world. Places where former beings haven’t quite completely transitioned to that next place yet.

There are some who say that baseball great, Jack Russell, who also served as a Clearwater City Commissioner from 1952 to 1955, haunted the old Jack Russell Stadium.

He might have been one of many visitors when past stadium workers tell of hearing the sounds of players running infield bases and of bats hitting baseballs late at night. Other times, music could be heard coming from somewhere in the dark empty stadium. Though the stadium is long gone did old and much forgotten ball players find a place to call home and still have a little fun? - Cool, Kim.  (2004) Ghost Stories of Clearwater & St. Petersburg, Venice, FL. Historic Venice Press

In 1896 the opened as an opera house in downtown Clearwater.  It is said to be haunted by not one but by three ghosts, a maritime captain, a small girl, and Bill Neville a former manager who was murdered in the theater. - Jenkins, Greg.  (2007) Florida's Ghostly Legends and Haunted Folklore  Volume 3: The Gulf Coast and Peninsula, Sarasota, FL. Pineapple Press.  Each of these ghosts appears in the theater separately and for different reasons.

Bill enjoyed the theater and considered it to be a familiar and comfortable place.  He supposedly was badly beaten and left to die alone in the theater. He returned, or chose to stay, but as a spirit. Patrons say he still appreciates the theater and the arts. In one instance he saved the life of a worker who nearly fell to his certain death while working close to the balcony edge of the theater.

The spirit of the captain has a knack for inappropriately touching ladies that visit the theater. He is also obnoxious and loud. He is very good at being bothersome when he wants to cause trouble. The small girl seems to be a kind and playful spirit.

R.I.P. HUNTERS, a paranormal investigation team visited the Capitol Theatre and recorded a significant amount of unusual paranormal activity. You can find out more about this haunted theater at Ghost Eyes, and on an entry on Central Florida Ghosts.

Another Clearwater place that was haunted was .  Haunted Florida and Florida Paranormal Research report that some years ago the school required some extensive upgrades.

As the work was being planned night workers would frequently see a small boy running around the school in a baseball players uniform. They also reported hearing loud banging noises. Because of the noise and the appearance of the apparition, some workers declined to work the night shift. Some thought the ghostly boy was a student who had been hit and killed by a car on Drew Street. A recording device was left on one night and the ghost boy's voice could be heard talking to a teacher that had recently deceased. The school's first principal also visited at night although not in the physical form. Workers would see her image and she did let her presence be known through the scent of her perfume.  When the upgrade work started school became quiet again. Did it or are these ghosts waiting for the next change to come back again?

There are other tales of hotels and houses in and around Clearwater that are said to have some unusual residents, or maybe just strange visiting guests. An old adult living facility that was converted back into a house sometimes yields a kind and gentle visitor from days of long gone by. In another house a former owner couldn't take the daily struggles of life anymore and did himself in. Was it a mistake? Did he act in haste, regretting that final decision? For you see on some nights he lets it be known where and how he did that fateful deed.

Have you seen something you couldn't quite explain? Has something happened to you that seemed real but maybe it wasn't? Clearwater Ghost Hunter has seen and heard some things that couldn't be explained. There are several groups working, investigating, searching for clues for those unexplained things that happen in Florida.

Happy halloween, neighbor.

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