Touring Eloise

We were driving home from camping in Ohio on September 17th when I first saw the Facebook post about touring Eloise. OMG?? I checked the dates, almost all were sold out except for the October 21st session that had only 4 spots left. I asked Bill if he wanted to go, but he wasn’t as much into this kind of thing as I was. So I hurried and snatched up my ticket as we bounced our way up I-75 with the trailer. Many more Facebook comments in the days to come would be from people asking when more dates would be released.  The tours were selling out in minutes.

Wow. I was going to get to see Eloise. Legally! I’m not one for sneaking into abandoned buildings, as much as I’d love to explore them, for these reasons:   1) Bill’s family has a house, barn and several outbuildings in rural Kentucky, home to his family cemetery plot, and there has been vandalism. If we don’t want anyone trespassing on his property, then I don’t have any business trespassing on anyone else’s. Though I’d only take photos and never disturb anything, the owners don’t know that. 2) At 45, I’m a little too old to be facing a judge for a misdemeanor trespassing ticket, and I’ll be happy without the fines, probation, and possible jail time, thankyouverymuch.

But now I’d have the chance to see it in person. The history of Eloise has been written a million times over, so instead of rewriting it (and possibly getting the facts wrong), I’ll share with you the following links. For those of you non-Metro Detroiters, Eloise is a long vacant psychiatric hospital, in a nutshell.

Eloise – Wikipedia

Friends of Eloise

Michigan Roots

I arrived at dusk for the 7pm tour of the Kay Beard building, built in 1931, and joined about 20 other people in a waiting area after signing in. Our tour guide, from Detroit Paranormal Expeditions gave us a brief background on each floor and/or points of interest, and then we had about 20 minutes or so to roam the halls and rooms on our own.

The first and second floors had been used more recently, and in one of the offices sat a desktop computer, monitor and keyboard, back when Dell made them in charcoal gray.

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But as we ascended flight after flight, we explored floors that had not been used since the 70s, per our tour guide, 3 through 5, if I’m not mistaken. In one of the offices on the fourth floor, a lone typewriter sat amidst the dust and other supplies in a corner office.

I had my speedlight on my camera tonight – I was more concerned about documenting as much as I could and knew I wouldn’t get much just with my flashlight.  All the photos I took below were in completely dark rooms and halls – I couldn’t see what was in many of them until I captured the photo. With the flash and my camera settings, they look as if they were taking during the day or with lighting.

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I tried to be mindful of everyone’s eyeballs, since I was the only one using an external flash (or any kind of flash for that matter). So I waited until I had a room or hallway to myself before I snapped the shutter, or put my camera well inside the room from the doorway, using the walls to block the flash from everyone else. I did blind one lady in a commons area, who commented, “THAT was bright!” as she talked with her friends.. “Sorry!!” I replied.. Laughter..  Ah, good.. My intent was not to annoy anyone.

Speaking of annoyances, I was SO happy that my group was made up of semi-serious people, who were all about walking through, relatively quiet, shining their flashlights around and grabbing an occasional pic with their phones. It’s always a gamble when you partake in something like this that you’ll get some jackwagon that thinks the whole thing is funny and tries to scare those in the group, or otherwise act like an idiot when everyone else is serious. Luck was on my side! Plus it was nice to have the room to get away from the crowd.

On the third floor, some of the attendees entered a large room with dividers off to the right. Just as I clicked my flashlight off to join the others in the room, well illuminated by several flashlights, I heard a sound in the darkness. I’d guess it was about 20 – 30 feet in front of me, a faint sound, like a cardboard box being dropped down several steps. Let me just say I could not get my flashlight turned on fast enough!  The light pierced the darkness, but there was nothing, just an empty hallway.

I stepped into the room to hear our tour guide tell a story of one of their investigations where, when the cameras were left running and unattended, shuffling steps could be heard. No one was in the room or anywhere near the room at that time (they had camera footage to prove it).

So. It could have been another person on the tour, as later I found several people milling around with the flashlights OFF (OMG, how???). Or maybe someone moved something in a nearby room down the hallway? So I don’t know what it was exactly, but the sound was unmistakable.  Later in the evening I came close to a heart attack when a dark figure came down the empty hallway. It was a guy on the tour, with his flashlight off. It took a minute for my pulse to come back down.

I did get some photos with my phone throughout the evening, to illustrate the darkness of the building and the glow of everyone’s flashlights.

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This was probably the fastest two hours of my life. Before you knew it, we were ushered to the next floor, and then on the fifth floor, after what seemed like just minutes, it was time to go. Our tour guides were wonderful, and if you have any interest in this historic building, I’d recommend going. As of the time of this post there are still spots open.

Out in the parking lot, I joined several others who were photographing the exterior of the looming brick building, as the clouds slid past in the night sky.