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Patty and Friends (Last Checked, 2015)
Patty and Friends
History of Building
Patty & Friends Antique Village is the oldest antiques mall in the state of Florida. The main building was built in 1915, and was originally two separate buildings with a courtyard in between. It was a quadplex with two 2 bedroom apartments upstairs and 2 one bedroom apartments downstairs. The back section was a set of smaller apartments, and the front section was 4 larger apartments with sunrooms & porches. Nettie Barrett owned the house originally and was still here in the 1940s according to the census. Bessie, her housekeeper, was also here. Her son owned the buildings after her.
The lobby was built in 1980 in the area where the courtyard was in order to join the two buildings. The “red house” on the other side of the parking lot was built in 1920.
The original owner opened the mall in 1980 after visiting a similar antiques mall in North Carolina. When the mall opened, there were 27 dealers; today there are around 50 dealers in the main building now, and the red house is currently vacant.
There have been numerous stories of paranormal activity since the mall opened. As far as we know, there is no record of anyone dying in any of the buildings.
Front Porch:
Blood drops have been found on the porch. They were so real that a nurse thought someone had been cut and bleeding. These drops appeared steadily for months.
Water has been ruled out (pooled water=rust from roof) as weather is frequently dry when episodes occur.
The drops appear on both the porch and on the asphalt just beyond the porch.
Could it be a predator of some sort with a small kill in tree above? No evidence of feathers or other indicators has ever been seen.
The strongest theory: Pine tree tar.
Lobby activity:
Soft voices have been heard around the jewelry counter; never is what they are saying quite clear. These voices are still reported by current store employees.
This area is reported to have presences; sensitives and people claiming to be psychic have identified a woman on the first floor in the lobby .
From the front counter to the right side of the store:
The employees here reported that for years the carpet would move on its own. We deemed that due to a male entity, but this year it seems to have stopped for now. Yet, in accordance to the history of the building, could this actually be Bessie, the maid who lived with the original owner of the buildings?
Whoever she is, this lady wanted people to know that she had straightened out parts of the store, and that she was an active participant in keeping up the appearances of displays. She moves items in the room and all the way to the back. The store manager, Shari, told us a story that when she first came to work here at Patty’s, she had just straightened things up. She had moved an ottoman but when she turned around to leave, the ottoman had been moved back to its original spot. She hadn’t touched it, but decided it was better to leave the piece than upset anyone.
In the same area numerous reports have come in describing various aspects of a man: This year, we introduce one of the male ghosts here who we are calling the Tinkerer.
Brandy experienced a unique phenomena with the IR thermometer which recorded a temperature drop. Upon request from the entity, the temperature would decrease a point at a time, dropping from 78 to approximately 71 degrees by the time the session ended (about 12 minutes). The entity did not drop the temperature further. The air conditioner was not on at the time, and the room temperature around the area did not appear to be affected.
Brandy’s personal interaction – This hasn’t happened in a long time, but I was very cold in this area. I felt as if some of my own energy were being used while here – like energy was pulled from my hand, which is something that has happened to me before but not for quite some time now. Others sensed the chill as well.
We did check with the store about the radios, in case it was someone who came in with a collection, but these seem to come and go. Our thought is that this area may have been a garage or storage area that someone once used and has decided to continue to use, even now.
From the front counter, to the left side of the store:
Room near stairs: Feeling that something was going to move or be thrown (did not happen). There was the sensation of too much changing too fast in the store.
Segue to stairs:
When looking up the stairs, shadows have been seen passing along the top of the stairs.
Upstairs:
This area has had items moving and has also had mysterious presences tripping the motion detectors. For many years, the staff here would report calls from the security company that something had tripped the sensors. They would also come in to find items moved. The current manager told a story that one day she found a book on the floor. When she picked it up, she discovered it was opened to one of her favorite childhood stories.
Patio area: Footsteps have been heard by investigators and by store employees.
Voice/Music (room with the fireplace):
Male energy reportedly curious about the group and about the visitors. Management also reports seeing a figure of a man moving upstairs and smelled various scents when activity is present.
The folks who work here have noted hearing voices talking upstairs after the store is closed. The conversations are loud and clear enough that they have gone back upstairs to make sure there are no customers left in the building (even though we had not seen any when closing up the store & turning off the lights).
Image, above, provided by employees of the mysterious red droplets described below.
Sound file below: This is an EVP (one of the few that I count as an EVP) from an investigation at Patty's a few years back. It's taken from a larger clip and the sound was also captured on video. The only issue that I have is that you CAN hear some outside noise (cars) outside the building. This isn't a car going by but I'm not sure if a male voice could penetrate the walls from outside (if there was a chance of a man walking by at that moment singing to himself...?). As far as I am aware, there was no one outside. Investigators were female, as were store owners. One man was with us but IN THE ROOM and he did not speak. This "do do dooo!" sounds like it's coming from the other room (which was in view from where we were and had no one present). There is a male entity there and there were other phenomena that night which is part of the reason that I count this. I also think that he may have been kind of joking with us a bit (Is there anyone here? No. Do do dooo! (From the next room)." Ha ha, Mr. Spectre.
January 2017: We have a second book coming out for Patty and Friends Antique Village (Ghostly Encounters in Saint Petersburg Vol. 2: Patty and Friends Antique Village). It can be purchased on Kindle and paper copies will be available soon through Amazon. The paperback can be purchased for $5.50.
