Grand Ghosts:
Haunting experiences at Oshkosh’s Grand Opera House
by Alison Trachta

The Grand Opera House is a building full of history … and, some say, ghosts. Photo courtesy of the Grand Opera House

A few months ago, Bob Destocki sat alone in the darkness of the old, quiet Grand Opera House, collecting his thoughts. As he stood up to leave, he got that bone-chilling feeling that there was something behind him.

“Whatever it was, I saw something,” says Destocki, executive director of the Grand Opera House in Oshkosh, in reference to the peculiar experience he had that afternoon. “As I was walking up the aisle, something inside of me told me to turn around. I saw a wispy, white fog go across the stage and into the wings.” He was startled and didn’t know quite what to make of it, but he was certain he hadn’t imagined what he saw.

“I thought maybe some stage hands had played a trick on me because I was the new guy. But when I went outside to talk to them, it became clear pretty quickly that it hadn’t been a joke. I said, ‘You got me. Good job, guys,’ but they had no idea what I was talking about. They swore they didn’t do it.”

A common occurrence
Most of Bob’s coworkers weren’t surprised to hear that he’d seen something strange in the theater. Several have had hair-raising experiences. According to Destocki, common legends involve a ghost dog that roams the theater as he pleases and several people in late 19th century clothing known to make appearances. Percy worked as a stage manager at the Grand Opera House from 1895 until his death in 1967. Some believe he still watches over the theater he loved so dearly. Those who claim they have seen Percy consistently describe him as wearing a white shirt and small wire-rimmed glasses. Like most of the other ghosts, Percy isn’t known to be malicious. According to legend, he simply cared deeply about the Grand, perhaps so much that his life’s work continued after death. “I guess he just decided to stick around,” Destocki says.

Destocki has never come across the ghost of the old stage manager, but he knows of a sly gesture Percy sometimes makes. “All of the seats will be up except for one in the first or second row that will be down,” says Bob. “Even when you put that seat up, you find it down again later. Some say that Percy Keene used to sit in that seat years ago.”

The Grand’s ghost stories intrigue many people in Oshkosh, and Destocki doesn’t see much reason to discourage them. Some establishments downplay rumors of haunting because they’re afraid the stories will hurt business. But Destocki doesn’t see this happening.

“If anything, [the ghost stories] help business because people are intrigued by them,” Destocki says. “It adds to the lore of the place.” In fact, visitors sometimes come in wanting tours of the theater because the legends of haunting caught their interest.

The Grand is one of dozens of sites in Wisconsin that ghosts supposedly haunt. Regardless of whether the stories are true, the place has a subtle, eerie vibe that’s difficult to ignore. When standing in the still, almost pitch-black theater, it’s hard to shake the feeling that something may be lurking in the shadows.

A spirited state
But even for those who think ghost stories are ridiculous, rumors like those that surround the Grand are hard to explain. Rick Hendricks of Madison looks into that very issue. Hendricks founded www.weird-wi.com and is a connoisseur of knowledge about the paranormal. His interest was piqued during childhood because his mother ran Cedar Lodge, a saloon in Ladysmith believed to be haunted. “Many of the customers had strange experiences with lights flashing, banging sounds and feeling cold spots in the bar,” Hendricks says. That experience taught Hendricks to look for natural or psychological explanations before jumping to any conclusions when he hears a ghost story. Since then, he has collected a wide variety of information about bizarre places and events in Wisconsin, which he details on his Web site.

Another such ghost enthusiast, Michael Norman, did a great deal of research and countless interviews when writing his book, Haunted Wisconsin, which features ghost stories from all over the state. Norman takes no stand on whether ghosts exist or not, but he does provide insight into why people find the paranormal so fascinating. He says that tales of paranormal experiences spark interest about what happens when people die, but in a way that isn’t too threatening. “We like to be scared, but not feel endangered,” Norman says. In his book, he explains that though it is commonplace to equate ghosts with UFOs and Bigfoot, those who have had paranormal experiences tend to be convinced that what they saw was real. “If they didn’t believe what they saw, they wouldn’t be telling me about it,” Norman says. Such is the case with Bob Destocki.

Though skeptics may snub him, Destocki knows he is completely sane and says he knows what he saw. But even if no apparitions are visible, no phantom dogs, no Percy Keenes, the Grand can give anyone goose bumps just by walking through it. Its immense size, its history and its character give it life. Whether there are spirits or not, the Grand Opera House has a soul.

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