Ghost in the Attic

The Healy Block Residential Historic District in South Minneapolis contains 14 Queen Anne houses built 1886-1892 by master builder Theron Potter Healy. The Victorian houses on the east side of Second Street, sitting on the northbound off-ramp from I-35W at E 31st Street, became well known because they were visible to passersby on the freeway. The houses on the west side had been wrecked in the 1960s during the construction of I-35W. A recently constructed sound barrier now cuts the surviving houses off from view, but they are still there. 

 

The 3100 block of Second Avenue, looking south, 1936. --Photo courtesy Minnesota Historical Society

It should come as no surprise that several people have told me ghost stories about these historic houses. One of these concerns an 1890 house on the Second Avenue block once visible from the freeway. The current owner “Dan” says that he knew the house would be his from the moment he saw it while driving by years ago.  The then-vacant house had been used a rooming house and was in a state of serious disrepair.

Dan called the number on the “for sale” sign out front. The then-owner, who lived out of state, told him that the house was not occupied, and that it would be difficult to get a key to him. Instead, the owner advised Dan to climb in through a basement window. And so he did.

Dan went from the dark, spooky basement, to the empty rooms on main floor, up the formal staircase to the second floor, then up to the third floor. As Dan was looking around the attic rooms, he heard someone moving around on the second floor. Dan froze, thinking that someone had seen him breaking and entering and had called the police. How could he explain that the owner had told him to break in?

However, when he went down to the second floor, no one was there. In fact, the house was completely still. Dan checked the first floor and basement and found no one. Not intimidated by the mysterious interloper, Dan wound up buying the house, which he still owns today.

      Queen Anne houses in the Healy Block Residential Historic District, Minneapolis
  

Shortly after Dan acquired the house, he invited celebrated psychic Echo Bodine in for a tour. She told him that the lower floors had residual hauntings, but nothing active. On the other hand, on the third floor “lived” a little boy ghost, an intelligent haunting. Echo told Dan that the boy had said to her, “Dan doesn’t see me, but Newton does.” This freaked out Dan because Newton was his cat’s name–and the psychic didn’t know that. 

The house has been restored, and the ghosts are still in residence. Dan still occasionally hears footsteps on the second and third floors, but is not disturbed by them, knowing that they are made by a friendly spirit.

                             Porch detail of another reportedly haunted house on the Healy Block