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October 17, 2012
History on Hall Street
Eric Keith | St. Joseph News- Press/
The Shakespeare Chateau is 127 years old.
Shakespeare Chateau, Gothic House host flashlight tour to benefit the Cracker House By SHEA CONNER St. Joseph News-Press
There’s just something about the Shakespeare Chateau that gives people the chills. Maybe it’s the home’s Victorian architecture. Maybe it’s the house’s intimidating presence. Or maybe it’s because it looks like the kind of ominous mansion that Count Dracula would inhabit. Whatever it is, folks always seem to ask innkeeper Isobel McGowan the same question. “People just take one look and say, ‘Is it haunted?’” Ms. McGowan says with a laugh. Although there are no recorded accounts of hauntings at the tremendous house at 809 Hall St., one can certainly feel the ghosts of 127 years of history throughout the decorative objects of the home — the stair banisters in the shape of dragons, which Ms. McGowan says guard the home, the hand-carved cherry woodwork, the antique roof ornaments and 47 — yes, an astounding 47 — stained glass windows. “You can imagine faces of the past in those windows,” Ms. McGowan says. “For people with that sensitivity — that leaning toward the spirit world — it’s easy to imagine.” One of those friendly faces likely would be the chateau’s original owner Nathan Ogden. He and his third wife dreamed of living in a home that would be inspired by worldly mythology, with each inch artisan-crafted. “They imagined a truly magnificent, fabled kind of building,” Ms. Eric Keith | St. Joseph News- Press/
Please see HISTORY/Page 2
The Shakespeare Chateau will host a dark flashlight tour, with ghost stories and a scavenger hunt to follow, on Oct. 29.