Downingtown Ghost Stories

Downingtown Ghost Walk mentioned in The Community Courier

2009-10-22T22:42:00.002-04:00

The Downintown Ghost walk is getting lots of buzz within the community thanks to the folks at The Community Courier.

Click here to read the article in the October 10/21/09 issue of The Community Courier.

Downingtown Ghost Walk makes the big time.

2009-10-15T14:29:00.009-04:00

Just wanted to pass this little tid bit to everyone interested in Downingtown's 1st annual Ghost Walk. The Daily Local did a story on the upcoming event, and the Photographer even seems to have caught something in his photograph outside the front of the library. Click here to read the article and view the picture here. http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2009/10/11/life/srv0000006578581.txt

Don't forget to purchase your tickets for the Ghost Walk on October 24th & 25th. Click the link below for information on where to buy your tickets.

Time and tickets are running out.

2009-10-13T08:10:00.002-04:00

Hi all, just a quick reminder, October 24th and 25th are fast approaching, there is still time to get tickets for the 1st annual Downingtown Ghost Walk.. Tickets cost a mere $3.00 and can be purchased at two Downingtown area business’s.

Downingtown Country Gifts
147 E. Lancaster Ave.
610-518-1550
(across the street from Minquas Fire Hall,
just down from Georgio's Restaurant)

Bud N Bloom Boutique
52 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
610-269-3077
(right next to Roberts Chevrolet)

Downingtown Pinball Gallery

114 East Lancaster Avenue
Downingtown, PA 19335

484) 693-0693

Downingtown area but would still like to buy tickets, I have a limited number of tickets. Please email me @ cmccall45@verizon.net I work in the West Chester area and could arrange meet you. .

This is the Area’s best Ghost Tour without a doubt. If you have ever been on other Ghost Tours then you know how it works. A person will walk you from place to place telling you about the ghostly happenings inside. Out tour is different. DAPI will show you real evidence captured inside each stop on the tour. And in some cases you will even be inside the actual building. So don’t miss it. You will have a hair raising good time.

Meet Your Hosts, Your GHOST Hosts!

2009-10-11T18:16:00.004-04:00

Here's just a sample of the cast of characters who will be leading you through the haunted streets of Downingtown should you choose to partake in the Downingtown Historical & Parks Commission's first annual (we hope) Ghost Walk Of Downingtown. From left to right, please allow me to introduce one "Ella Smith", a runaway slave from the south desperately trying to make her way north of the Mason-Dixon Line via the Underground Railroad and into a new life of freedom. Then there's "Thomas Downing", the man who Downingtown is named after. And on the right meet "Madame Todorovski", a gypsy queen of dubious nature- or is she just misunderstood?
These and other ghostly tour guides will lead you to various historic locations in the borough where unexplained phenomena has been reported, where you will be introduced to Downingtown's own very real ghost hunters, Downingtown Area Paranormal Investigators, or D.A.P.I. for short. D.A.P.I. will reveal to you their findings from the investigations that they have conducted in and around our quiet little town, as well as explain to skeptics and believers alike their methods of communicating our friends in the spirit world.
The Ghost Walk is part of the ongoing celebration of the Sesquicentennial (150 years) of Downingtown. The tour will last approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes and costs the princely sum of $3.00, and is limited to those 7 years of age and older. So come on out, learn & be entertained, as an enjoyable evening is sure to be had by all!

Ghosts & Gridiron

2009-10-04T22:14:00.005-04:00

If you were to take a poll of the average resident of the Borough of Downingtown and ask them "what is the one day of the year that you most enjoy being in Downingtown", I would wager that hands down the #1 answer would be The 4th of July, or "Good Neighbor Day" as the 4th is also known as in Downingtown. Well folks, I am here to tell you that in my not so humble opinion, that the weekend of October 23,24 & 25 will be a weekend that make you not only want to not leave town, it will be a great weekend for you to have friends and relatives come and visit us.
What's going on you may ask? Well for starters, on Friday the 23rd at 7:00 p.m. at Kottmeyer Stadium on the campus of Downingtown West High School, the Downingtown East Cougars square off against local rivals the Downingtown West Whippets. It's Friday night lights football at it's best, Downingtown vs. Downingtown, the East/West football game. It will be absolutely electrifying!
Then on Saturday & Sunday October 24 & 25, the Downingtown150 committee along with the aid of D.A.P.I will present the first ever Ghost Walk of Downingtown, which many of us hope to make an annual event. If you could say that you were at the first Good Neighbor Day, wouldn't that be cool? Well, here's your chance to help us launch something that we hope could be just as much a part of the fabric of our community in the years to come.
So get out the inflate-a-beds, clear out the spare bedrooms, and let's all play host to our distant loved ones that we never get to see enough of, in our fair town on a weekend that many will remember for many a year to come! -Phil Dague

A Word Of Appreciation

2009-10-04T20:57:00.002-04:00

With less than three weeks to go until The Downingtown150 Ghost Walk I wanted to stray slightly from the topic of ghosts and offer some words of appreciation for some members of our community without whom this highly anticipated event would not be possible. I am talking about our two illustrious fire departments, The Minquas Fire Co. & The Alert Fire Co.
Hopefully many of you are aware that this week is National Fire Prevention Week, and if you're not, I'm sure that your children are. All week long, members of our fire departments. will be visiting local schools to educate our young ones about the importance of fire safety. And by the time the end of the week arrives, in all probability it will be the young ones in our households who will be able to freshen up what we all think we already now know about fire safety.
Also, did you know that on this Wednesday evening both Alert & Minquas will be holding an open house at their stations? Well I'm telling you now! According to the Alert website their open house begins at 6:30, while based on what the nice gentleman who answered the phone when I called Minquas, theirs is from 6 to 9 p.m.
I think that most of us, including myself I'm sorry to say, just don't take the time to adequately think about the thousands upon thousands of man-hours spent each year by our volunteer fire departments. Unlike their counterparts in cities like Philadelphia and New York, our rescuers do not get paid. But it would be a grave mistake to assume that these men & women are any less dedicated or trained. For after all, training and maintaining a constant state of readiness are part of your average firefighters' daily existence. Maintaining a constant state of readiness for events that he or she hope never happen.
I had the opportunity to speak to Minquas Station Chief Mike Miller this past weekend. He related to me a story of a recent call to a local nursing home. The alarms went off, and Minquas Fire Co. sprang into action. Upon arriving at the scene it was quickly determined that it was a false alarm. Somebody had burned some crescent rolls. The person in charge sheepishly said to Mike, "I guess you guys are pretty mad at us", to which Mike replied, "heck no, we would rather have a thousand false alarms than to have real people (including the firefighters themselves) in danger". That's why they take time out from their busy schedules to educate not only the young, but all of us on the importance of fire safety & prevention.
So please, when you are getting in to the "spirit" of things during our Ghost Walk on the 24th & 25th, and you see a member of our fire departments during the tour, don't forget to say "thanks". Thank them for their part in bringing such a fun event to Downingtown, and thank them for the work that they do every single day in ensuring that Downingtown is as safe as a town such as ours could possibly be. - Phil Dague

2009-10-04T09:25:00.006-04:00

http://www.downingtownparanormal.com/walkinfo.html

Good new to all who are intersested in attending the first annual Downingtown Ghost Walk. Tickets are now availabe at:

Downingtown Country Gifts, 147 East Lancaster Ave. Downingtown. They are open today Sunday 10/04/2009.

Other ticket locations will be announced later in the week. There will only be 250 tickets available for each night, so don't wait. We are expecting an early sell out.

2009-09-17T15:47:00.003-04:00

October is fast approaching and with it Halloween. We would still like to hear from you about any stories of hauntings or strange occurrences that you know of connected to Downingtown. We would like to use your stories in our Ghost walk on the 24th and 25th of October. And don't forget D.A.P.I. will displaying evidence from investigations recently completed in Downingtown.

We have evidence from both Minguas and Alert fire houses, The Log house, The Downingtown Library. We will also be featuring local stories of such place as the Downingtown Twin Tunnels

You can contact us; Downingtown Area Paranormal Investigators at info@downingtownparanormal.com

The Haunted Halls of Minquas & Alert

2009-08-26T19:06:00.007-04:00

This past Tuesday evening was a night much like any other summer night in bucolic Downingtown, PA. Groups of kids were out playing some hoops down at Kerr Park. Of course there were the usual lines at the counters at Rita's. The aromas of barbecued dinners were wafting through the air on every block in town. Small town America at it's finest, to be sure. But all was not normal on this particular sultry summer's night, for Downingtown's very own team of ghostbusters, D.A.P.I. had set out to investigate the rumored ghost sightings of both of our illustrious fire halls, Minquas & Alert. D.A.P.I., is short for Downingtown Area Paranormal Investigators. Who knew? As it turns out though this sort of thing is not as far out as you might expect. It turns out that the Chester County Night School currently offers seven courses in the upcoming semester related to ghostly endeavors.
The folks at D.A.P.I. have been enlisted by the Downingtown150 committee to help us put on our first (and hopefully not last) ghost tour which will take place right in the heart of Downingtown on Saturday Oct. 24 & Sunday Oct. 25. It's all part of the Downingtown Historical & Parks Department's ongoing celebration of the 150th anniversary of the chartering of the Borough of Downingtown. So if your going to have a ghost tour, it stands to reason that you're going to need some ghosts. So, "Who ya gonna call?!" D.A.P.I., of course!
On Tuesday evening, about 10 members of D.A.P.I. , along with several members of the Downingtown150 committee, were met by Lieutenant Jeff Stevens of the Alert Fire Company, who gave us a tour of the station, along with a brief history of Alert. Later in the evening our investigation moved over to Minquas Fire Station, where Assistant Chief Steve Miller played the cordial host. At each location our intrepid ghost hunters, armed with an array of scientific equipment (more about that in a future blog), spread out in search of spirits from the netherworld. What did they find? You didn't really expect me to tell you that here, did you? To find that out and much more you are going to have be at one of our Ghost Tours on October 24 & 25, or both nights- if you dare!

The Changing face of Dtown.

2009-08-23T15:14:00.007-04:00

I have a story as related to me by one of the long time residents of Downingtown who does not want to be identified. He showed me this photograph of the Log House that he took the other night while he and his wife were walking along Rt. 30. I looked at the photograph and said this could not have been the other night! the Log House does not look like this, those trees are no longer there, there is no roof overhang on the front of the house. he said I know. He said he could not understand why the photograph looked so different. He said that he still had the original in his digital camera and I asked if he would show it to me. I couldn't believe my eyes, it was the same photograph. I've taken several photographs of the Log house and could not recreate that photo that this man had. All my photos looked the same, like the Log house looks today.

2009-08-21T16:29:00.004-04:00

Help wanted. DAPI is in need of anyone who has a story of ghostly origin from within the Downingtown Area. If your family has lived in Downingtown along time they may know of a ghostly story or to. Maybe your grandparents lived in Downingtown and you visited as a kid and your grandfather would tell you about that haunted house around the corner. You remember, he would tell you the story right before it was bed time.
Then when it was over he’d say ok let’s get to bed. You would head up the stairs with your knees knocking; eyes wide open and hearing every little creak and groan. Then the moment of truth. You would be standing by the light switch near the bedroom door trying to figure out how you were going to be able to jump from the door way to the bed so that whatever was under the bed couldn’t get you.

If you have any interesting storyies please contact us at. info@downingtownparanormal.com

Got Ghosts?

2009-08-20T22:04:00.000-04:00

Somebody call the fire department! Actually, there's no fire. But we are looking for those affiliated with either of Downingtown's two illustrious fire departments, Alert & Minquas, in the past or present to see if anybody has any unusual tales to tell. OK, no sense beating around the bush, after all this is the blog for the Downingtown Ghost Walk. We are looking for ghosts and ghost stories. Do you perhaps have an uncle who used to be a fireman who told you about the time.... Or was good ol' Aunt Gertrude setting up for the Ladies Auxilary Bake Sale when all of the sudden she felt a chill down her spine?

The Downingtown Ghost Walk

2009-08-18T21:09:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update., The Downingtown Ghost Walk will be on Saturday October 24th & Sunday October 25th.

The walks will start at 5PM and run until 6:30 for familes with small children. During these times we will present spooky stories that are geared toward the smaller ones.

From 6:30 to 9:30 the walks will change to more adult oriented stories.

Just a little sample to start getting you in the mood. In the picture above we captured what appears to be a woman in the window, top right pane.

Keep checking back often for updates and sneek peeks.

Downingtown Public Library

2009-08-16T10:08:00.000-04:00

The Downingtown Library will also be featured on the Ghost Walk with some very interesting
and spooky history.

.

The Twin Tunnels of Downingtown

2009-08-14T07:19:00.001-04:00

I'm not going to say much about the Twin Tunnels of Downingtown. You will have to come take our ghost tour in October to find out the scary details. We won't be going to the tunnels. but we will have some interesting information as well as photographs. Anyone who lives around here knows that you take your life in your hands when you try to walk through the tunnels. I will just say this, The Tunnels have several stories of gruesome happenings over the years dating from the late 1800's to 1990's.

Downingtown Log Cabin

2009-08-14T04:25:00.001-04:00

The Downingtown Log House was built about 1705 by John Hickman. For the rest of the story you will have to come to the Dtown's Ghost Walking tour on October 24th & 25th. You will have an awesome time.