Iron Island Museum Investigation

The building was built in 1885 and first opened as Methodist Church which later closed down in the 1940s. The building was empty for a few years before being purchased for a funeral home in 1956 through the year 2000. In August of 2000 it was donated by a gentleman named Amigone to the Iron Island Preservation Society for a museum. It was named Iron Island because it was surrounded by railroad tracks.

As the new owners were exploring the location, they made their way down to the basement and found a cupboard. It was there that they discovered cremated remains that families never picked up. One urn had tipped over and the ashes had started to spill out.

Linda worked with the Patriot Guard Riders and started a project to go over funeral logs of people waked out of Iron Island. She was able to find all the families of the remains that were left here. She escorted those remains with a flag to the family members and reunited them. Pictures of these veterans are now on display in the Military Room.

There are a number of interesting rooms in this building including the Chapel Room. The altar in this room today was donated to the Iron Island Preservation Society from a church that was being converted into a private home. After they built their home, it burned down to the ground.

The Terminal Room celebrates the Buffalo Terminal (which is also very haunted). There is an actual model of the terminal in the room. There is a ladder leading to the attic in the corner of this room. If you go up that ladder and look towards the front of the building, you can see a glass window from when this was church.

The Military Room houses a lot of interesting relics, uniforms, medals and even the pictures of those whose remains were returned by Linda. There are other rooms in the building including what is called the Children’s Room and the Basement.

Address: 998 E. Lovejoy St., Buffalo, NY 14206

Telephone: 716-892-3084

Owner: Linda Hastreiter ljhgold@aol.com

Website: www.ironislandmuseum.com

Hauntings: The owner’s son, Jimmy, was waked out of here and seems to go back and forth with Marge and other child spirits as well. A lot of energy goes back and forth from there to here. When they began cleaning up this location for the museum is when all the activity started.

One of those veterans, Edgar Zernicke, whose remains were found in the basement and later returned, walks the building. A six-year-old boy was also waked out of here called Tommy. An EVP was captured by another paranormal team that says, “I’m drowning.” That is the manner in which Tommy died. He has been seen walking the building as well.

Closet Area: This area is allegedly haunted by children’s ghosts. Another great EVP was captured in this area that said, “I’m going on a train.”

Chapel Room: EMF readings on the floor here are caused by the electric lines in the floor from the basement so investigators need to be aware of that.

As mentioned earlier, the altar was donated from a church that later was converted into a private home. Soon after the house burnt down. People have experienced the smell of burning wood. Allegedly a nun was also reportedly communicating in this room with past investigations.

Terminal Room: A dark shadow of a person crouching down with his hands on his knees has been seen in the attic in the past. He sometimes walks from side to side and you can hear him walking from this room. He has been nicknamed, “The Watcher” and is also sometimes seen in the main hallway.

Main Hallway: A paranormal team was investigating here when one saw seven spirits standing in the chapel. Three of them were blocking the doorway. Jimmy’s picture is on the display case here. There have been multiple shadow figures seen near the chairs.

Figures are often seen in the stained glass windows which is impossible due to the height off the ground outside.

Military Room: In this room are the pictures of the remains found in the basement as well as a number of relics and trigger objects which could hold onto place memories. During a past investigation by another paranormal team a team member encountered the image of a shadow person with a wrinkled face and fedora that charged at that person. Another shadow figure was also seen with its arms crossed.

Child’s Room: This room directly across from the Military Room has a lot of activity apparently associated with children. There are a number of toys and balls placed on the floor for the children spirits to interact with. While in this room some have seen spirits watching them from the Military Room. Tommy’s picture is in this room and often people experience the feeling of someone sitting on their lap while sitting in a certain chair.

One day Linda was bringing an item into the room when a picture flew off the table and broke. She recorded it on a camera however it was deleted by a more current file and lost forever.

Basement: In this area is where Linda had found the cupboard of cremated remains in urns. There are also three crawl spaces and at the end of one is a large room where sounds have been heard and people have gotten touched in the past.

In one corner a female ghost has been contacted by other researchers. The smell of perfume has been encountered and that female ghost apparently stays in that one corner and never moves. During a past investigation, a team member captured the reflection of a person’s face in the ductwork. Lots of people just don’t sit down here by themselves. It’s just too creepy.

Equipment setup: Some infrared camcorders and full spectrum cameras were deployed in various rooms during our EVP sessions. A shadow detector was set up in the Military Room on the display case where the pictures of those people whose remains were discovered in the basement.

Mostly hand-held equipment was used: Ovilus X, Phasma Box, Radio Specter, digital recorders and cameras, IR camcorders, REM Epod, Melmeters, laser grids and K-II meters.

Experiments performed: EVP, Ovilus X, Phasma Box and Radio Specter sessions were conducted in the Chapel Room, Attic, Military Room, Children’s Room, Basement and what is known as the Psychic Room.

The Ghost Research Society investigated Iron Island Museum August 11, 2018. Team members included: Barbara Meagher, Michael Wright and Dale Kaczmarek with help from Amanda Pilgreen, Tim Schmudlt, Melissa Johnson and Dean Thompson from Ghost Head Soup

Personal encounters:

Barbara Meagher: First investigation was done in the Chapel where a 15 minute EVP session was done. No EVPs heard on digital recording.

Another EVP session was conducted by this investigator and others in the Military Room. This investigator recorded for 10 minutes, no evidence found.

A 16 minute EVP session was then conducted in the Children’s Room. Several trigger objects and signing of children’s songs were implemented. No findings on the recording.

A 20 minute EVP session was then conducted in the basement; no evidence picked up on digital recording.

This investigator also went up the ladder to the attic and took several digital photos. On 2 of the photos there is a white mist in the far corner of the attic. Copies of photos given to Dale Kaczmarek, leader of GRS.

Mike Wright: This small museum was a church and funeral home before it became the museum. We investigated this location during the day with Dean Thompson’s group Ghost Head Soup. There were four main areas that we investigated; during the EVP sessions we had some notable Ovilus and Phasma Box activity.

The thing that impressed me the most at this location was the number of times I saw shadows, at one point I thought it was a member of our team but everyone was accounted for and the figure just disappeared. I also picked something strange on my digital voice recorder, there was a loud electronic humming that was present during the session, it was so loud I could barely hear the group asking questions, but a distinctive whisper came through the interference, not sure what it said but it seemed to be on different wave length was very intriguing.

Dale Kaczmarek: This was a small but amazing location that I’ve wanted to investigate for quite some time.

While in the Military Room, I had placed a Shadow Detector on a glass display case shooting across a row of pictures of those whose remains were discovered in the basement. The device did alert a couple of times indicated that something quite solid had obscured the beam. Melmeters used in this area fluctuated between 3.5 and 5.3mg. Which is a high reading.

Later when the team was conducting an EVP session in the Children’s Room, I distinctly saw a small shadow figure dart through the Main Hallway from right to left. Nobody was in the hallway at the time.

During an Ovilus X session in the Chapel Room the word “key” came through. I thought that was interesting as Meagher had to stop at an ATM from the Key Bank.

Evidence collected:

Ashes iron.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the Children’s Room, a question was asked “Ring around the rosary. You know that one? Ashes, ashes…” The device responded with, “Ashes.”

Don’t please help iron.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box in the Chapel Room, the device said, “Don’t please help.”

Female voice iron.MPG – while conducting an EVP session in the Attic, a “Female voice” was recorded.

Help me help people iron.MPG – while conducting a Radio Specter session in the Basement, the device said, “Help me, help people.”

Hey Dale I’m frightened iron.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the Chapel Room, the device said, “Hey Dale I’m frightened.”

Hi iron.MPG – while conducting a Ghost Box session in the Military Room, a static IR camcorder picked up a female voice over the static that said, “Hi.”

I love you iron.MPG – while conducting an EVP session in the Attic, a question was asked, “Can you make a noise for me?” A very low voice is says, “I love you.”

Think so iron.MPG – while conducting a Ghost Box session in the Military Room, a question was asked, “Are there any war veterans here?” The device responded with, “Think so.”

Wailing sound iron.MPG – while conducting an EVP session in the Attic, a question was asked, “Can you please make a noise for us? I’m gonna have to go down soon.” A strange low wailing sound was both heard and recorded.

Woman upstairs iron.MPG – while conducting a Radio Specter session in the Military Room, the device said, “Woman upstairs.”

Yes iron.MPG – while conducting a Ghost Box session in the Military Room, a question was asked, “How do you like what she’s done to the building? Do you like it?” The device responds with, “Yes.”

Words spoken by the Ovilus X in dictionary mode: Batteries and key in the Chapel Room; You and flow in the Military Room; Batteries and dominate in the Basement and These and George in the Psychic Room.

Wright’s Ghost Application picked up the words: Just hunting and Soup (which is interesting as part of the paranormal group Ghost Head ‘Soup’ had joined us; Sandy, hip and hop, raid, daddy, to and something in the Basement.

Words spoken by the Ovilus X in phonetic mode: These and cost in the Chapel Room and Terrible in the Basement.

Conclusions: This was to be a long and tiresome trip having traveled almost eleven hours on an Amtrak Train to arrive in Buffalo but it was well worth the trip. Besides this location, we also investigated Rolling Hills Asylum and saw the old Buffalo Psychiatric Hospital and a local well-known statue called the Shark Lady. We did not have enough time to visit the old Buffalo Central Terminal which was a bad call due to this location being so very haunted and we could have taken a walking tour.

If you ever plan to visit Iron Island Museum, it is best to keep your group to no more than 5-6 people due to the size of the place. It is well worth visiting!