The Good Old (Ghostly) Alton Town Hall

Alton Town Hall

By Kathi Caldwell-Hopper

Town halls across the state have served their communities well over the years. Those traveling around the Lakes Region will see many examples of the stately old buildings, usually two or three stories tall and made of sturdy brick.

Town halls are still used for a variety of purposes, and many were built to last in the 1800s to the early 1900s. The buildings are usually quite large, constructed of brick or mortar with three stories and in a Gothic design. They are used for, first and foremost, places where town offices, such as the town clerk, tax collector, selectmen, and other local government officials and employees, oversee the business of their town.

Over the years, as towns grew, the need for a place where speeches and plays and musicals could occur was needed. Churches were smaller and simpler in design, and there wasn’t much space for stages and seating for big groups of people. Thus, a section of a town hall was often set aside for public use.

These places were used for public gatherings, often with a large stage and plenty of seating. The town halls in some cases were renamed opera houses, and places like the Franklin Opera House in the area is a fine example of one such building.

Town halls can be imposing structures, and this time of year with Halloween looming on the calendar, they can seem spooky.

Spooky is one thing, but spine-chilling ghostly occurrences are quite another. The Alton Town Hall has a reputation for ghostly happenings and most people would rather not be in the building late at night – alone.

Originally built in 1894, at a cost of around $15,000, you cannot miss the Alton Town Hall, as it sits in the center of the village. Its design is in the Romanesque Revival style, with a brick exterior.

Perhaps the thing (other than a reputation for being haunted) that sets the building apart from more modest halls is the 85-foot tower with a Thomas E. Howard clock. One of the unique things about the hall is that it has clock hands that measure over three feet long on all four sides. If you needed to know the time, all you need do was gaze up at the tower and be informed.

Historically, the building housed the Fire and Police Departments on the lower levels with a jail cell in the basement. In the early days, there was also space set aside for the town’s library and a bank.

Like others, the Alton Town Hall was used as an entertainment and gathering place over the years, with a stage where concerts, local acting groups presenting plays, and even movies and graduation ceremonies took place in an auditorium.

Like all town halls, the building in Alton has long served the community. But it is the ghostly reputation that sets it apart and has gained attention even on television shows and in the news media. The things that have happened – and could still occur – are downright fearful in the old building. How can one explain such things as mysterious voices with not one person who could be talking or furniture moving around?

Just who is the ghost that does all these scary things? Some believe the haunting is done by the ghost of a strong outdoorsman but there may be others at the business of haunting as well.

To explain why groups of furniture have moved around, that woodsman was likely quite strong. Perhaps he had the strength to move furniture around and rearrange chairs when the building was unoccupied.

For a spine-tingling and downright unexplained happening, how about this one? Odd and creepy in the extreme, a local person was said to have heard furniture being moved in the space on the next floor. It was late at night, and the person was alone in the Town Hall. One can imagine they went to explore and see what all the noise was about when they assumed they were alone in the building.

What did they see? Outside the courtroom, the chairs were in the hallway, arranged in a single-file line. Could it be the old woodsman’s ghost, deciding to play a joke on the one living person in the Town Hall that day? Or some other explanation we may never know the answer to in this life.

In other cases, footsteps have been heard in the building when no one was around. This in itself would send anyone from the building – at a brisk pace!

One explanation of why multiple footsteps are heard in the old building is the fact that the space was once used as a school. That might be the reason for all the footsteps. Perhaps ghosts of the former pupils are locked in time in the place, searching for their classrooms and teachers from long ago? One report tells of a child – a little girl – dressed in outdated clothing – gazing down onto the street from a vantage point on an upper floor.

Another report tells of things happening in the Alton Town Hall’s basement. According to www.myluxvaca.com, the basement is not a place anyone would wish to be alone at night. It is said to be haunted by a janitor who died years ago. His spirit is said to lurk in the building and the basement where he might have had an office or stashed his cleaning supplies. (Perhaps he is the culprit of the furniture moving around?)

With such a strong reputation for hauntings and ghostly occurrences, it is no wonder the Alton Town Hall has been the subject of paranormal television shows. What did these ghost hunters discover in the building?

At the least, ghost hunter equipment has captured voices from another world while in the building.

Another tale is that a woman met her end in Alton and her figure is seen on the stairs, leaving a sense of sadness or uneasiness in that spot.

These days, the town hall continues to serve the community, and some people are skeptical of the ghosts said to linger there. The imposing clock tower remains and within the building, town business serves the community as it has done for years, with administrative offices, an office for the tax collector, town clerk and other government and town business.

It seems few people avoid the Alton Town Hall, with some being curious. But locals come and go, conducting business there as they have done for years.

Perhaps the woodsman and janitor and the former students, among others, look down upon the living, and talk among themselves about new pranks and scary things they might do to keep the legends alive at the Alton Town Hall.