215 North Rochester Street

I love horror movies. I work as an actor in an outdoor haunted attraction in October. I was reading Stephan King in 5th grade. It should be no surprise that I believe in ghosts.

I lived, for a few years, in a building that is haunted. At the time it was called “Inn the Olden Days” and was a bar/restaurant in downtown Mukwonago Wisconsin. The building was constructed in 1871 and the story I heard from people revolved around a fire. The building, as I understand it, used to be almost twice as long as it is today. However, as some point in the past a lady went down to the cellar to have a discreet smoke break and ended up starting the building on fire in which, she perished. It is said that her spirit remains and occasionally torments the employees including people working in the kitchen and the wait staff. There is rumor of video footage capturing her as she walks from the kitchen into what is now a restroom. I have not actually seen this footage so I cannot validate its existence or hers for that matter. I have gone into the basement of that building and there is a cloying sense that makes you feel as though you are covered in fruit flies and they are crawling all over you, in your ears, nose and mouth. It was pretty awful but I never witnessed anything from her.

What I can attest to is the activity upstairs where the apartments are. At the time I lived there, the upstairs portion was divided into a large apartment, a small economy apartment, and an office used by the owner. If you were to stand in front, my apartment (the larger of the two) would take up the better part of the upper left-side 1/2 of the building. Here is a very poorly drawn out idea of the upstairs layout.





Standard access to the apartments is had by going around to the back of the building, climbing a set of stairs that would become nearly lethal at the slightest suggestion of rain or snow and walking along a catwalk consisted of metal grating until you came to a locked door. It was not ideal for anyone with even a touch of acrophobia. The only way in is either with a key or pressing the doorbell to one of the apartments. This comes into play later.

It was explained to my roommate Landon and I that the main entity upstairs was a man named Ben who used to be a town constable. Ben wasn’t particularly malicious; he just seemed to get bored and liked messing with us. Our first encounter with Ben came near the beginning of our stay there. One of us was pouring a glass of milk and just before the milk hit, the cup few off the counter leaving us pouring milk on the counter. We were so shocked at first we laughed but after a while, our humor changed to bemusement as we tried to rationalize what happened. We also had an entire gallon of milk disappear from the fridge. Having neither one of us drank the entire gallon ourselves we enquired of the owner if he borrowed it after they ran out downstairs. With some indignation, he quickly assured us he did not enter our apartment without permission and steal out milk. He, in fact, seemed offended and gave us both pamphlets regarding renter’s rights.

After that fiasco, the interactions with Ben seemed a little more jovial. I remember coming home and seeing all the lights on in the apartment but not seeing London’s car only to discover the light being off when I got up to the apartment. There were times when Ben would knock at the apartment door. I would hear the knock but not hear anyone walk up to the door and sure enough when I opened up, the hallway would be empty. One night he came knocking and I didn’t answer. He knocked again and I didn’t answer. He knocked a third time and a told him to cut it out in a loud voice. He then started knocking on the door continuously until I sprang out of my chair and stomped to the door. The moment I touched the door, the knocking switched to my bedroom door. When I went to that door, it moved to the bathroom door. I followed his knocking to every door in that apartment until he finally stopped.

That was the last time I yelled at a ghost.

I remember situations like coming home and finding every door, drawer, and window in the apartment open or feeling a slight breeze flow past you while you’re reading a book. I am particular about how I have the blinds drawn in my room. I have them always pointing down; more than once I have woken up to find them pointing up. It is a disconcerting feeling to have event after event occur with little in the way to rationalize them.

Other times you would get a feeling of someone kind of hanging around near you. Imagine you’re in an elevator. You can feel the people around you radiating their existence. You can feel that they are only a couple of inches away from you without looking. You can almost imagine you might feel their breath on your neck. It was like that only I couldn’t see anyone. It wasn’t unpleasant and it stopped being disturbing after it became apparent there wasn’t anything nefarious afoot. I decided he just wanted to be near someone, as though maybe he were lonely.

During the time I lived in that apartment, I worked 2nd shift which meant I slept the better part of the day. I had noticed during the couple of days surrounding Halloween, there felt like a lot more activity both in the hallway and in my apartment. It seemed like it was more than Ben hanging around but since it was nothing other than a feeling and there wasn’t any physical activity, I didn’t bother with it. I come to find out later that a local radio show had been downstairs broadcasting live and they had brought in a “Medium” to try to communicate with the ghosts in the building. My Mom happened to be there and mentioned that her son (me) lived in the apartment upstairs. They asked her to give me a call but knowing that I was most likely sleeping and having first hand experience waking me up she declined. I suppose what ever I was feeling upstairs was just trying to avoid what was going on downstairs. I sort of felt pleased that “they” chose to be up near me during that time. I would like to add that at the time this took place I was skeptical on the subject of mediums. Since this occurrence, I have had experiences that solidify my belief that some people have the ability to communicate with another plane of existence. I remain, however, unconvinced in the abilities of the person who was there that day.

I ended up moving out of that apartment primarily because I couldn’t afford to live there alone. It was defiantly one of my favorite places to live, even if it was a little “crowded" sometimes.