Guyer Opera House Investigation

In 1893 there was a massive gas station explosion that triggered a massive fire in the business district. Many businesses were burnt to the ground.

In 1900, Dr. Guyer persuaded a group of local citizens to build an opera house and when built was constructed over the lots of the former burnt-down buildings. The theater, also known as the Lewisville Public Hall, was built in 1901, was named after Dr. Oscar K. Guyer and has put on theater and plays in Henry County since 1976. Dr. Guyer died in 1901 at the age of 49 and never got a chance to see the completed building.

It closed in 1942 and was rediscovered in 1969 after lying derelict for over twenty years. Preservation efforts were begun which continue today. It was revamped in 1983. It is a two and half story building constructed on a limestone foundation. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Address: 110 W. Main St., Lewisville, IN 47352

Telephone: 765-987-7124

Owner: Jeff Phillips

Website: www.guyeroperahouse.com

Hauntings: 

Main Auditorium: There has been heard a growling sound in the projection booth in the past. Investigators sitting in seat 2 & 3 in the front row have reported being hit by mortar. There is no mortar in the ceiling at all as the roof is made of tin. The nearest mortar is on the walls.

In 1923, there was a firearms safety meeting held here and a six-year-old boy in the 3^rd seat in the 3^rd row got shot in the head and died. (Newell Calpha)

A shadow figure has been seen on occasion walking in the aisle behind the seats in the auditorium from left to right. The figure is an adult with a stove pipe hat. Many stage players have seen a little boy that they named Billy.

Downstairs main room: This used to be a Dry Goods store. The little boy from the gunshot wound died along the wall where today there is a small closet. A number of people get a weird feeling inside and don’t like the area. There have been the sounds of footsteps and black masses encountered here.

Dressing Rooms: The owner doesn’t like the last room with all the mirrors. There have been good EVPs recorded here and the K-II meter goes off a lot. Shadow figures have been encountered in this area.

The Ghost Research Society investigated Guyer Opera House on August 26, 2017 and the team members included: Stan Suho, Kathie Para, Marge Sucha, Barbara Meagher, Gregory Kos and Dale Kaczmarek

Equipment setup: Two IR cameras where positioned in the main auditorium. One was facing into the seating area and another across the stage itself. There was no Command Center set up and all the other equipment used that evening was in hand-held mode.

Experiments performed: EVP, Ghost Box and Ovilus X sessions were conducted in the main lobby downstairs, the Vault Room, stage area and Dressing Room backstage.

Personal experiences:

Greg Kos: After our tour was complete Stan and I decided on setting up our IR cameras on the main floor directly below stage on stage left I believe. Stan’s camera was on stage and crossing sight with mine so we caught the entire top row of seats from one side to the other. This is where a shadow had been seen crossing back and forth.

We all had an EVP session while sitting in the seats. I sat in the 3rd row 3rd seat where the boy had been shot and later died in his father’s store down stairs. The only EVP that I picked up was at 11:33 of filming and it sounds to me like someone has thrown a pebble.

I had a great night but I believe a lot of our EVP material was contaminated by outside car truck and motorcycle noise I’m in the process of running my recorder through my computer so my sound quality should improve.  

Barbara Meagher: During the investigation, I had several interesting and fluctuating EMF readings around the closet on the main floor in the lobby. The readings seemed to go up inside the closet and in the door way but go down to zero anywhere else.

This investigator did three EVP sessions.

#1 was begun at 20:47 and lasted five minutes. Unfortunately the audio recording is of poor quality but no EVP phenomenon was heard.

#2 was conducted in the main lobby at 20:51 and lasted 3 min 54 secs. No EVP recorded.

# 3 was conducted at 20:54 in the dressing room and lasted 10 minutes, No EVPS were heard.

This investigator also recorded about 45 minutes of video in the costume area with no unusual phenomenon noted.

As far as personal experiences, I definitely felt like there was a presence in the actual theatre and in the dressing room.

Kathie Para: The building is two stories and a small cellar area off the lobby. The main floor is the lobby and restrooms and the second floor is the theater and dressing rooms. Part of the location is only accessible through the outside door, as it was actually a separate, but connected, business. The next door area used to be a bank many years ago and is now storage for the many costumes. There is a small room there that was the original bank vault.

After a walk through and some history by owner, Jeff Phillips, we got busy setting up our equipment. During the walk through, coming from back stage on to the stage, while I was at the end of the line, I heard voices. In fact I stopped and backed up hoping to hear them again or find an explanation for them. Unfortunately, that was the only time I heard them.

While Stan and Greg were busy setting up cameras on the second floor, the rest of us started unpacking our equipment in the lobby. We noticed activity on a couple of EMF meters and decided that would be a good place for our first EVP session. While I didn’t get any audio evidence on my recorder upon review, we got extreme fluctuations on a couple of Melmeters in the lobby that we couldn’t debunk. This seemed to center around and outside of a small storage closet there. 

The building next door that is used for costume storage was very interesting. We got some relevant responses on the Ovilus X (audio included in this report). We heard footsteps several times in this area. We had one of our members walk and stomp next door while we listened but couldn’t positively say conclusively if these were paranormal. We also heard loud noises, one in particular after we asked for a loud noise.

I found the stage and seating area on the second floor quiet during our long EVP session. 

We did an EVP session in the end dressing room with the mirror, hereby named by me the “creepy dressing room.” Immediately upon turning on the Ovilus X in dictionary mode, we got the names “Steven” and then “George”.  After a while the Ovilus X, then in phonetic mode, seemed to become more agitated and we had lots of swearing coming through About this time I developed an earache and eventually I also was having pain down my neck and felt the need to leave the room after I broke out in a sweat. It felt like a hostile interaction at that time.

I would like to go back to this location and spend more time and use more equipment to see what we would get.

All in all, great place and I want to go back!

Marge Sucha: Equipment I used: Ovilus, Digital Camera, FLIR, EDI+ Research Device, Rook EMF meter, Olympus Digital Recorder. 

Some of the hi-lights from our evening:

There is a small closet in the main lobby where we were getting some hits on the Melmeter.  It seemed like the more we focused our attention to this area the less the activity became.   

While we were over by what use to be a bank several times we heard footsteps.  Since some of our members were still setting up we wanted to make sure it wasn't them.   We contacted them and had them walk around regular and then more of a heavy walk.  We could hear them when they stomped their feet however, the sound was in different area and they did not sound like the same footsteps we were hearing.   

We did an EVP session in the theatre and the first word that came out of the Ovilus was "sit"  Later it the word "clap" came out. 

Dressing room area was our most active area that night.  We got two names Steven and George.  Whoever was in there was not happy to have us and several investigators were told to get out and the F bomb was dropped continuously. I'm not sure if this was Steven, George or a third spirit.

The Guyer Opera House is a charming old building and once you step into the building you really feel as if you stepped back in time.  I would not hesitate to go back.

Stan Suho: A great old Theater house right out of the roaring 20’s. Located in a 1 stoplight “and I mean 1 stoplight” town. Attached is an old bank dating from the same era. I can just hear Dillinger walking in the door and saying “you’re going to remember this day for the rest of your lives “. The theater is on the second floor up a loooong stairway. Greg and I decided to setup our Cameras in the theater where a young buy was reportedly shot. It has been haunted ever since. Greg focused his Night Shot camera down in front of the seating area, and I pointed my Night Shot camera up along the rear wall where there were reports of shadow people appearing.

Dale and the EVP team set off to explore the rest of the building including the bank. The evening passed quickly with very little interface between the two groups. No Command Post was setup because of the long cable runs. After several hours we packed up and headed out of town, hoping to miss that 1 stoplight. 

Conclusions: Upon reviewing my videos I did not find any shadow people. I think we covered this theater pretty well and I recommend this place to other groups.

Dale Kaczmarek: A very unique and large opera house in a very small town. I had met Mr. Phillips at several Hannah House Meet & Greets, talked with him for some time and finally decided that it was time to investigate this marveled building.

There was another building attached to the opera house that once served as a bank. To get to that we had to walk through a pretty cluttered room filled with costumes. In the Vault Room, I momentarily saw a stick figure appear on the X-Cam SLS system but when the device was started, I was unable to capture any.

While conducting the initial walk-through of the building and just before we all came back onto the stage area, I caught a glimpse of a small dark shadow quickly darting from left to right about the size of a small boy. Unfortunately my hand-held camera wasn’t facing in the exact same direction and did not capture this sighting. This is right by the location that our host told the group that they often encounter the apparition of a young child. This was at 3:30:58 on the video.

Evidence collected:

Are those your lights guyer.MPG – while conducting an Ovilus X session in phonetic mode in the Dressing Room, a question was asked, “Are those your lights?” A faint voice in the background says, “Yes.”

Both of you guyer.MPG – while conducting an Ovilus X session in phonetic mode in the Dressing Room, a question was asked, “Are we annoying you?” The Ovilus responded with, “Both of you.”

Dressing room fuck you horrible guyer.MPG – while conducting an Ovilus X session in phonetic mode in the Dressing Room, a question was asked, “How about on the count of three, get out?” The Ovilus responded with, “Fuck you horrible.”

I hide here guyer.MPG – while conducting an Ovilus X session in phonetic mode in the Dressing Room, the Ovilus said, “I hide here.”

Members guyer.MPG – while conducting an Ovilus X session in dictionary mode in the Vault Room, a question was asked, “Do like to try on these clothes? Are you an actor?” The Ovilus responded with, “Members.”

Small figure guyer.MPG – during the initial walk-through and just before coming back on stage, Kaczmarek saw a small dark figure quickly dart from left to right however the camera was not pointed in that direction at the time.

Vault Room hi people here guyer.MPG – while conducting an Ovilus X session in phonetic mode in the Vault Room, a question was asked, “Can you say hello?” The Ovilus responded with, “Hi people, here.”

Vault Room loud noise guyer.MPG – while conducting an EVP session in the Vault Room, a question was asked, “Can you make a loud noise?” Several seconds later and near the end of the clip a loud noise was clearly heard.

Vault Room noise guyer.MPG – while conducting an EVP session in the Vault Room, another noise is heard in the background.

Vault Room suit guyer.MPG – while conducting an Ovilus X session in dictionary mode in the Vault Room, a question was asked, “Can you point to your favorite costume?” The Ovilus responded with, “Suit.”

Words spoken by the Ovilus X in dictionary mode:

Vault Room: Lord, stone, these, result, members, suit and tied.

Stage area: Sip, comfort, carbon and members

Dressing Room: Steven, George and seek.

Conclusions: A fun place to investigate with lots of room loaded with trigger objects from the theater’s past including costumes, stage lights and other artifacts. Locations that have a concentrated array of personal objects tend to be extremely haunted.

Kos captured what he believed was pebble being thrown but after reviewing it, the sound most closely resembles a paint chip or mortar falling from the wall. Our host has mentioned during the initial walk-through that this sound has been heard and recorded in the past.

The Ovilus X was most active in phonetic mode during our last session in the Dressing Room where it apparently said a lot of curse words mostly directed at Kos. For a while it was almost non-stop.

This would be an interesting follow-up whenever we might be back in this neck of the woods.