For years, visitors to have claimed to encounter ghosts at the Vogelsang complex in Downtown Rosenberg.
A LITTLE PIECE OF HISTORY | By Joan Frances –
Have you ever walked into a room and felt as if someone was watching you, but no one was there? Have you noticed a shadow out of the corner of your eye or a cold spot in the room? What about strange noises or random articles falling off the wall, misplaced or missing? No, you are not losing your mind. You may be in the company of ghosts. Fort Bend has some of the best haunted places in the area. Ghost hunters have spent nights in these old buildings and have confirmed that Rosenberg and Richmond are haunted.
Doctor F.E. Amman’s office in Rosenberg, now occupied by Another Time Soda Fountain.
Most of the 100 year-old buildings in Downtown Rosenberg have stories of strange occurrences. In the 1800s, the Vogelsang complex on Avenue G was originally everything from a mercantile to a saloon, so it is not surprising that people have encountered a few ghosts. The upstairs of Cast Theater was the meeting place for the Masonic Order, whose members sealed the windows with bricks for privacy. Today, theater members have seen a shadow of a man in the theater late at night. Keys
disappear and are most of the time never found. There is also a photo capturing an apparition of a small woman looking out of the upstairs window late at night. None of these spirits are malevolent, but they seem to inhabit the building.
A July 1888 newspaper advertisement for Mini Ghost Hunts at the Exchange Hotel.
At Red Queen’s Attic on Third Street, there is documentation of a little girl roaming the rooms, turning the radio on and off and being very playful. Another Time Soda Fountain on Third Street was once the office of Doctor F.E. Amman. His practice was upstairs in three separate rooms. On many occasions, the smell of smoke from a pipe permeates what was the patients’ room only. There is also a mysterious energy force that opens the back door of the restaurant and slams it shut from time to time.
Richmond has experienced its share of unexplained phenomena as well. The Italian Maid Café occupies a building on Morton Street that was a bar in the 1980s. A male patron was shot and died near the front door. Workers have seen a strange, ghost-like figure of a man lingering in the kitchen. Before the Treasure Hunters retail store opened, Lucille Davis Flower Shop occupied the space. Owner Mary Doggett Morgan claimed a young man in his 20s with dark hair would peek around and smile. He never seemed to be a threat to anyone.
The 1886 Exchange Hotel is located above the Italian Maid Café and Treasure Hunters. It is a 26 room hotel that is exactly like it was back in the 1800s. The paranormal energy is exceptionally active. It is told that Jane Long ran this hotel for a time, and a suicide took place in the southwest corner room that faces Morton Street. Now, people claim to see an apparition of a very nervous woman in that room walking back and forth in front of the windows. A little girl around the age of nine named Sarah is said to roam the halls of the hotel as well. Buried at Morton Cemetery is a girl by the name of Sarah Jane Sullivan, Jane Long’s granddaughter.
So, next time you get “creeped out” around town, think about where you are and the possibility that it is not
a coincidence. These historical buildings in Rosenberg and Richmond
are only a few of many places of documented hauntings in the area. Email HistoryHauntsRichmond@gmail.com for local ghost tour schedules.