Nestled along the edge of the town square in Burton is a quaint little building that has a rich history of being haunted.
In fact, the current occupants say weird things happen in the building and they can feel the presence of ghosts. And folks living in Geauga County have heard all the ghostly tales.
Full Spectrum Art Studio and A Garden's Way Gallery is now housed in the building. A brick in the original wall marks the year 1922. That's the year the building was established as a school gymnasium. It was built by volunteers.
The original flooring is still in place, the upper observation area has been covered over and the first-grade classroom has been changed.
Images: Building Has History Of GhostsA local spiritualist used to work at the building. She grew up in Burton. Her father even played basketball in the gym when he was young and worked in the building when it was part of a manufacturer in the 1990s.
After a new school was built in Burton, the building was turned over to the Geauga Farm Bureau. There are still remnants of it, too. An old scale built into the floor and the wall remains. You can still feel the floorboards move the scale when you step on it and the big counter weights clink under pressure. The workers there now were told it could not be moved.
That may be because the vision of a man in his 40s or 50s, wearing dirty overalls, is known to keep watch over the scale. The spiritualist said he walks back and forth along the nearby wall as if he wanted to take care of the building.
The spiritualist also said there is a woman about 65 to 70 years of age who makes her ghostly presence known. She is said to wear an apron and is baking in an area near the windows.
In the front of the building a ghostly cat is said to be low to the ground and still wanders near the offices.
The building was also once owned by the Clark family.
Carlene Klarich, Robin Anne Payne and Susan Lucas are busy with their projects and teaching art classes in the building.
Robin said that she hears the sound of a door opening all the time. She said they also have a lot of problems with the lighting. But she was surprised when she saw some activity in the front hall the first week in October, right after she was contacted about hosting newsnet5.com's ghost camera. She's not sure if that meant the ghost was excited or angry about the camera being there.
While trying to set up the camera's image, the power flashed, keeping the camera offline a bit longer. And the image that was being projected kept getting brighter even though no one was making any adjustments.
Carlene said a friend of hers was in the building recently and told there was a young girl on the stairs to the upstairs office. Carlene wondered why she often heard the footsteps on those stairs while working.
Her friend also said there that there was a tall gentleman by the name of Peter. He even followed Carlene outside one day and was touching her arm. Carlene originally thought she had a bug on her arm until the friend told her that it was Peter.
These ghostly images and noises don't seem to bother the women. They feel they can work right along with these building occupants.
You see Burton is Geauga County's oldest settlement, so it's not hard to believe some of its residents don't want to leave.
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