By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
ALLEN PARK – Ghosts are often a liability, but for the city’s historical commission, the appearance of friendly spirits to paranormal professionals and some members has created an income opportunity for the city’s historical museum.
The Historical Commission will host a return engagement of the Ghost Hunters of Southern Michigan at 6 p.m. Oct. 14 in rooms A, B and C of the Community Center, 15800 White Ave., and concluding at the historical museum, the former Bachus House, built in 1888 at the northwest corner of Park and Englewood avenues.
Tickets for the community center presentation are $10 for adults and $5 for students. For reservations, call museum director Sharon Broglin at 313-383-2453.
“The interest is astronomical for the paranormal, probably due to TV,” Broglin said.
Broglin said GHOSM members share actual findings they have captured with their equipment.
She said three other paranormal groups have also successfully recorded readings in the historical building. She said she has experienced some unexplained events in the museum as well.
Robin Lemke of Allen Park is a member of the four person GHOSM team of paranormal detectors. Their one-hour presentation, which they do at no charge as a fundraiser for the historical commission, will show past paranormal readings from around the state, including readings from the museum.
After the one hour presentation, attendees are invited to the historical museum for a Victorian wake and chance to see the historical home.
Historical commission member Scott O’Riley said GHOSM members will have their detection equipment at the museum after their presentation at the Community Center, and people can interact with them and even bring their own paranormal detection equipment.
For an additional fee, the historical commission might consider a possible overnight event at the museum, around Halloween, with paranormal experts, so participants might be able to experience some of the phenomena first-hand.
Historical commission member Betty Nixdorf said they believe one of the ghosts is a 9-year-old boy, her grandfather’s brother, who died as a child, and who lived across the street. The boy frequently visited his grandmother in the historical museum house.
Broglin said the ghost of a man in a plaid shirt also frequently appeared near a ground floor entry way to people who lived in the house over the years. She said three of the four paranormal groups captured images consistent with independent past tenant descriptions without any prompting or prior knowledge.
The friendly ghosts are welcome at a time when the historical commission, haunted by the city’s political past, no longer receives city funding and services for the museum’s building and grounds.
Broglin reported at a May 26 commission meeting that the historical group has a $12,000 fund balance, but needs that to pay for roof repairs, eradicate ants in the museum’s basement, discourage raccoon infestation, and hire grass cutters to perform work previously done by the city.