the day after 'National Dog Day'

August 27th, my birthday - the dog days of summer, the hottest day of the year.  Knuckles and I sharing treats.  Born in 1950, seventy-one years ago tomorrow. Not bad for a couple of old buddies.

 

 

J. J. Heard Opera House - Arcadia, Florida

In 1906, John J. Heard opened his grand Opera House in downtown Arcadia - showcasing live performances of opera, theater productions, plays, musical acts, political rallies and the occasional church function. Years later, when movies became ever popular, a projection booth was built and silent movies and "talkies" were thus added.

But the 'Opera House' apparently has another side to it's long history; 

In 2017, WFTX-TV, Fox 4 News of Ft. Myers reported,

Ghost hunting at the Arcadia Opera House

Morbid history fuels paranormal sightings

The stories may be old, but the chills are new. If you believe.

To reach the second floor of the Arcadia Opera House, you have to climb 27 old, creaky floors. It's an ominous sign of what's to come. Many consider the building to be one of the most haunted in all of Southwest Florida. The buildings owner, James Crosby, isn't sure what to think.

"At some points, I always get the impression there's somebody else here," Crosby says. "Whether that's just the size and scope of the place or the lighting, but I'm always catching something out of the corner of my eye that makes me stop and turn my head." By day, the Opera House is an antique. By night, it's a playground for ghost hunters.

Eric Kincaid is one of several ghost hunters who have recorded electronic voice phenomena, or spirit voices there.

Kincaid and others point to the Opera House's dark history to explain the ghosts. A 1905 fire destroyed an orphanage on the same property. The next year, the Opera House was the first building to go back up in Arcadia. But legend has it, a little girl fell out of a window and died, a few years later. Ghost hunters claim, she still haunts the building.

"There's a good story of a woman who was sitting at the stop light on the corner of Oak and Polk, who looked up and saw a little girl staring at her," Crosby says. And she sat through three red lights until somebody finally honked and when she looked back, the little girl had disappeared from the window."

 

 From the upper balcony, looking down on today's historic stage

 

 

Stage front

 

Backstage, a surviving old RCA film projector

 

 

And being backstage, accidentally finding a young three year-old named Morgan.