Haunted Ybor City by Deborah Frethem

Author:Deborah Frethem [Frethem, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, State & Local, South (AL; AR; FL; GA; KY; LA; MS; NC; SC; TN; VA; WV), Body; Mind & Spirit, Supernatural (Incl. Ghosts)
ISBN: 9781626196223
Google: __qttAEACAAJ
Publisher: History Press
Published: 2014-01-15T05:04:50+00:00

L’UNION ITALIANA (ITALIAN CLUB)

This club is still in existence, and where it once taught English to Italians, it now teaches Italian to English speakers. The club has a website and a newsletter. It is firmly part of the twenty-first century, but its roots go back to the nineteenth. Begun in 1894, it was formed to benefit Italians from all over the entire city. The weekly dues included the usual social events and medical care but also came to include funerals and burials as the Italian Club maintains its cemetery to this day. The first permanent clubhouse was appropriately dedicated on Columbus Day in 1912. But it only stood for three years before one of the many fires in Ybor City destroyed it. The Italian Renaissance–style building that now stands was completed in 1917. There was a theater, a dance floor, a cantina, a bowling alley, recreational and educational rooms and a library. The Italian Club became famous for its dances. Sometimes two bands would play in the same evening.

The stories of haunting here are less prevalent than at the Spanish Club. But there is one story. A cleaning woman has been seen on the stairway, down on her knees with a scrub bucket and brush. Her hairstyle, her clothing and her method of cleaning seem to belong to a different era than today’s. If she is approached, she will look up and smile, as if she is completely at home. If you ask her name, she will say, “Virginia” and then vanish right in front of your eyes.

The Italian Club has been a popular place for paranormal investigators. One group was using an EVP recorder on the stairway. This is actually a regular digital recorder, but it is allowed to run while the investigator asked questions, leaving pauses for the answer. Later, the paranormal analyst listened very carefully to the recording. In this particular case, the investigator had asked, “Is your name Virginia?” The answer, not heard by normal hearing, was clearly audible on the digital device: “Yes.”

Another investigation made use of a different ghost-hunting tool, the K2 EMF meter. This device measures electromagnetic fields. Although these fields can be produced by electrical interference, it is believed that a spirit can manipulate the lights and dials on these meters to give answers to “yes” or “no” questions. A group of young women believed that they made contact with a woman in one of the ladies’ rooms. The spirit told the girls that she was seventy years old and that she had two sons, a grandson and a daughter-in-law she didn’t like. When a male entered the room, the communication stopped abruptly. As they were leaving the ladies room, the motion activated paper towel dispenser whirred as it spat out a paper towel. No one was anywhere near the device. At the same time, another member of the team was “talking” with the spirit of a young boy at the bar.

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