West Chester, Pa Business

By Lee (Investigator)

History

                            West Chester was originally known as Turk's Head, after the inn, of the same name located in what is now the center of the borough.  The Turk's Head Inn now houses a Barnaby's Pub and eatery.

                                                 West Chester has been the seat of government in Chester County since 1786.  West Chester was settled in the early 18th century,  principally by members of the Society of Friends.  In the heart of the town is its courthouse,  a classical revival building designed in the 1840's by Thomas U. Walter, one of the architects for the capital in Washington, DC.  West Chester is part of the rapidly growing suburban complex surrounding Philadelphia. 

                                                  CJ's Restaurant located in the center of West Chester is one of the first buildings built in West Chester, Pa. on the corner of East Market ST. and Walnut ST.  It was built to be a private home in 1847 by Thomas U. Walter.  The first owners were Joseph Baily,  wife Margret Baily.  With in a unknown date the building was sold to the Chester County bank on East Market ST.

                                                   The new railroad had enormous effect on West Chester.  Even before it was finished, optimistic investors began to construct Price's Boarding School and the Mansion House Hotel.  the borough created an official market on South ST. (modern West Market ST.) and William Everharts lots  began to lay out streets and sell building lots in the southwest part of the borough.  Beginning on 1834, the railroad hauled limestone and marble from local quarries for the construction of several monumental buildings in the center of town.  (Secondary effects included the acquisition of a town clock in 1835, the construction of a county prison in 1838 and the creation of two new fire companies (Good Will in 1833 and Fame in 1838).

                                                   After the completion of the new design of the town, the Chester County banks building was started in the 1840's and was opened in the town of West Chester in the 1870's. The Chester county bank bought land from the railroad across the street on West Market ST. and built a larger bank and built it in 1899 and moved in 1903 and opened the doors for business as the Chester National Bank.

                                                   The old Chester building was turned into the Chester Trust Co. which was run by Walter Evans, Walter also was the president of the Chester railroad.  Walter Evans grew up on a farm and left the farm at a young age for a political roll in West Chester and he past on in the year 1945 at the age of 76.

                                                   In the 1930's the Chester National Bank and the Chester Trust Co. merged in 1930 and was renamed the Chester Bank and Trust Co., but it still could not come out of the depression slump and went out of business in 1935.  The new building was torn down in the year 1936.

                                                   The bank on East Market was sold to Marshall Shaw a wealthy butcher in 1930.  He and his wife and daughter Samantha moved into the old bank building and made it their home, Marshall's daughter then committed suicide.  The Shaw family then sold the building in 1932.

Investigation#1

By David Miller

                                                    We arrived at CJ's around 7:00pm on Tuesday Feb. 10, 2009.  We started by taking a tour of the building with the owner.  The building had 3 floors and it was a lot bigger than what I thought.  The first floor had a large bar and tables for people to sit at.  The second floor had a pool table room and also another room with more tables for people to enjoy something to eat and drink.  The basement had the kitchen and a lot rooms for supplies and electrical boxes.

                                                     There were four investigators there for this investigation.  Dave (Lead Investigator/Medium), Lee (Investigator/History searches), Darren (Investigator/Equipment specialist) and David (Lead Investigator).  As we started to get the information about the paranormal activity the owner told us that there is a lady in a white dress that walks up the stairs towards to roof.  Most of the staff have seen this lady as a full apparition.  There is also a man with a top hat that has been seen around the bar area.  In the center of the building they have a elevator that goes from the basement to the room, stopping at all floors.  One of the employees was provoking the spirits and got in the elevator to ride down to another floor when the elevator stopped and filled up with mist or smoke.  The doors finally opened and the employee got out.  The strangest experience they had though was the owner was holding a glass beer mug full with liquid and for some reason the glass split in half, like someone cut down the center of the glass with a laser.

                                                          I've worked in kitchens since I was 16 years old and I've never seen a beer mug split like this one did.  As I took my finger down the broken part of the mug, it was very smooth.  From the story the owner gave me about it just braking in half, I would call this a strange occurrence.

                                                          We started by putting up camera's in four different areas.  The first camera was placed on the first floor over viewing the bar and a small dinner room where the man with the top hat was seen.  The second camera was placed on the second floor stairway facing up the stairs.  The third camera was placed on the second floor stairway facing down the stairs.  The final camera was placed on the roof where our medium told me the lady in white jumped to her death.

                                                           When we started the investigation everywhere we went you could feel that there was something there.  The energy in the building was very high.  Our EMF detectors were up to 30guass in curtain areas of the building.

                                                            Midway through the investigation we all took a break and went into one of the rooms on the second floor, where we had our computer hooked up.  As we were talking we heard something metal being dragged across the floor, earthier above us or below us.  We split up into teams and looked all around the building to see what made the noise.  We never found anything.  Dave and myself tried to mimic the sound by dragging tables and chairs across the floor, but nothing sounded like the noise we heard.  I do know that there was no one else in the building with us that was alive.

                                                            My best friend Dave, that is our medium, aloud the spirit of the man to enter his body to see what he would say.  The outcome was very interesting.  Our historian had some trouble finding the history on the building, so we didn't know any names of the old owners of the building when we got there.  As Dave talked to us, he told us that the mans name was Walter.  Later, that week we got some information and it told us that when the building was a bank, the president of the bank was Walter Evans.