FROM THE ARCHIVES: In search of the Lady in Blue

This story was originally published in the Tribune on Oct. 26, 2008. Susan Engle would write an annual "ghostbusting" story when she was the Tribune's Sunday editor, and this was one such story. Engle died in 2013.

Footsteps in empty rooms. Whispered voices. Chilly breezes. The feeling of being watched. A mysterious lady in blue.

Is Morgans' Alley in downtown Lewiston haunted? Enough people believe it is that I decided to find out for myself. This is my sixth Halloween ghostbusting excursion. I've checked out the Nezperce Hotel in Nezperce, the Lewiston Civic Theatre on Normal Hill, the Liberty Theatre and the old Erb Hardware building, both in downtown Lewiston, and a farmhouse on the outskirts of Uniontown. Only one --- Erb Hardware --- gave me a serious case of the willies. I didn't see anything, but the footsteps coming my way from an upstairs corner of the unoccupied building quickly ended my solo excursion two years ago. I decided a team approach was the best defense against the heebie-jeebies.

Randy Thompson, the Tribune's assistant city editor, agreed to join me on Monday's late-night visit to the lovely confines of Morgans' Alley.

The building has been undergoing a transformation since its purchase a couple of years ago by John and Vikky Ross and Vikky's sister, Nikky Hites, all of the Moscow area. They are updating with an elevator and new plumbing, electrical and structural elements. The final project - renovation of the second-floor theater room into a banquet facility - is nearly complete.

Except for the crowd in the basement bar, the building was deserted when we let ourselves in at about 9 p.m. We poked around the main floor a bit before heading upstairs. The second and third floors are home to a mix of tenants, including an art studio, hair salon, dance and music studios and a vacuum dealership. The leaded-glass windows, carved dark-wood moldings and rich, red carpeting evoke echoes of a bygone era. "If there's a ghost, this is where she hangs out," I thought.

I settled into the lobby at the base of the elaborate steps to the third floor, awaiting my brush with the paranormal. After some conversation, Randy headed to the third floor with a video camera while I sought a quiet spot on the shadowed back stairs leading to the dance studio above.

I had a clear view into the theater room, with eerie red light from the BoJack's restaurant and bar sign spilling through the windows on the south side. The shadows I saw moving in that room were mostly attributable to cars passing on Main and D streets. I'm not sure what made the room's heavy wooden doors, a relic from the old Vollmer-Scott building, slowly swing open. All the windows were closed, so the gust of cold air that flowed from the theater room didn't come from the outside.

Those subtle signs weren't enough for a dedicated ghost hunter. In the years I've been tripping through reputedly haunted locales, I've never seen a ghost. I wanted to see the lady in blue.

That's what Morgans' Alley tenants and owners, and the operator of Lewiston's ghost tour call her. Garry Bush, a Lewiston city councilor and retired teacher, has conducted walking tours of Lewiston's historic downtown district for several years. He said people have seen a ghostly woman in the rooms and corridors of Morgans' Alley. She is described as beautiful and full-figured, always clad in a high-necked blue dress with her hair up.

Count Pat Guier among the believers. Guier, who owns and operates Grandma's Old Town Cafe on the main floor, has seen and felt the lady in blue on several occasions.

"I've seen her one time in my solarium a few years back," Guier recalled. At the time, she was putting in long hours alone, whipping up pies and baked goods for the restaurant.

"Her hair was pulled back and she had a high neck on her dress," Guier said of the ghostly woman. "And then she just kind of faded out."

She also described feeling a presence in the building. "I've heard footsteps, where I leave my office and check the building." No one's ever there.

"She doesn't scare me. I just wish she'd do something to help," Guier added with a chuckle, speculating on the ghost's culinary abilities. "If this (her death) happened way back when, they didn't open a box, didn't open a can. She knows how to cook."

Guier believes the lady in blue, who she calls "Helen," is a benign presence who keeps an eye on what's going on. She's heard footsteps overhead, when the second floor is empty, and felt chilly breezes and the unmistakable feeling of being watched. "It's like she's checking everyone out." Guier thinks the lady in blue is a prostitute murdered many years ago on the premises.

Bush agrees the presence is non-threatening, but his research makes him think she is actually the ghost of a woman named Mary Spalding, who lived in Lewiston during the early 1900s. A highly religious woman, she was married to kin of the Spalding missionaries and took exception to prostitution activities on the second floor of what was then the Goldstone building, Bush said.

She died in 1941, four years before Lewiston specifically outlawed prostitution, and Bush believes she is still keeping an eye out for such activities. "Her mission in life was to stop prostitution," he said, suggesting that perhaps she doesn't realize the mission has been accomplished.

Hites, Morgans' Alley co-owner, also has experienced a presence. "I just heard a little sound, like muffled voices," she said. It happened when she was busy with renovations, so she didn't look through the building for clues to its origin.

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"Lady in blue, where are you?"

I was still on the back staircase, calling for Morgans' Alley's ghostly presence to join me for a visit.

"Lady in blue, where are you?" I repeated several more times, but stopped when I realized how much it sounded like, "Scooby Doo, where are you?" I didn't want the ghost to think I was mocking her.

"Lady --- are you there?"

Nothing, save for that cold whoosh of air from the deserted theater room. Maybe she was upstairs with Randy, trying for her YouTube moment. (See accompanying story)

I'm 0-6 for ghost sightings. Better luck next year.

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Engle is the Tribune's Sunday editor. She can be contacted at scengle@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2228.