Downtown haunts

Looking for a Halloween adventure? A ghostly pub crawl might scare up some fun

ARNOLD WAYNE JONES | Executive Editor
jones@dallasvoice.com

In the grand scheme of things, Dallas is a comparatively new city. It was founded in 1841, more than 60 years after the Revolutionary War, when Eastern stalwarts like Boston, New York and Charleston were already a century into their histories. Even the Spanish and French didn’t do much by way of settlements. We are, famously — or notoriously — a town with a limited appreciation for civic history.

Or so we often think. The Caddo Indians occupied this land for millennia before Europeans elbowed their way in, and even during our sesquicentenary of existence, a lot has happened… much of which we don’t even know.

Which helps when you hear that on any Friday or Saturday night in Downtown, you can take a walking tour of old haunts … literally.

“A place doesn’t have to be old to be haunted,” our guide, a gusseted painted woman named Mercedes, informs the assembled group. “We don’t know what happened [on the land] before.” And sometimes we do. And it doesn’t take much to bring out the spirits. Both kinds of spirits, in fact.

A combination pub crawl, local history lesson and search for the paranormal, Nightly Spirits walks you through a series of nightspots where you can enjoy booze, bluster and bygone eras. You don’t need to be a believer to enjoy it, but it helps to be a drinker.

“The more you drink, the more interesting I am,” Mercedes promises. She isn’t wrong.

“Downtown is dead,” people will say of Dallas nightlife. Possibly… but not just in the way you think.

“All of the bars we go to are actively haunted,” Mercedes says. Anecdotal evidence can be pretty convincing.

Though never as rough and lawless as other Texas towns and beyond, Dallas was still part of The Old West, ever since a Tennessee lawyer decided an intersection of the Trinity River would be a good spot to set up a trading post. Rules soon followed. In the middle of the 19th century, you couldn’t fly a kite in Dallas proper, or curse in a tavern, or bowl on a Sunday or hire a lewd woman to carry your beer. You could, though, own slaves until 1865 … and the fact slaves revolted, burning the town to the ground in 1860, is often ignored by the history books. There’s a lot of psychic energy in such a past.

Consider Dallas’ history with Robert Johnson — perhaps the most infamously haunted musician of all time. Johnson was a guitarist of no particular skills until about 1936, when suddenly his mastery of the instrument gobsmacked all who heard him. In June of 1937, he recorded nearly half of the only 29 tracks which make up his legend at a studio in Dallas; within 14 months, he’d be dead of unexplained causes at the age of 27. Did he, as has been surmised, sell his soul to the devil for the gift of musical genius? The walls of a downtown recording studio may hold the answer.

The old Scottish Rite building boasts a harmless residual haunting (a former caretaker who still seems to do his duties) while the First Presbyterian Church, founded in 1856, contains stories of its own. But to get the full effect, the tour specializes in tales told with the woozy glow of an adult beverage in your hand.

Green Door Public House. Although rebuilt in 2013, the site of this Downtown bar has its own troubled history. When the bar opened in July 2014, staff immediate began reporting paranormal sightings. A woman in Victorian clothes walks to the back … and disappears. People report unexplained chills. My drink: Martin House IPA.

Hardwood Tavern. Though newer than Green Door — open just two years — employees report even scarier experiences, including banging noises. On a warm night, we sit on the patio while Mercedes tells the equivalent of campfire stories, among them the legend of the Lady of White Rock Lake, which has its origin as recently as the 1930’s. My drinks: Tarantula Tequila Sour.

The Crafty Irishman. The Irish love their stories of the fantastical, and there are some to share here as well in the refurbished Mercantile Building. My drink: Tullamore Dew and a side of Irish nachos.

Press Box Grill. Chances are you never have any reason to go to the far back room of this pub inside the Wilson Building, but if you do, you might notice the energy emanating from a boarded-up elevator shaft. It can’t be anything, can it? My drink: Vodka and Sprite and shared plate of loaded potato skins.

Will you be convinced of an afterlife, or even just an occasional poltergeist, after a guided walk through town? Maybe not. Then again, listen to a Robert Johnson record and tell me something mystical isn’t at work in the universe. Happy haunting.

Fridays and Saturdays beginning at 8 p.m. Reservations at NightlySpirits.com/Dallas-Ghost-Tours.