{"id":4614,"date":"2019-01-08T12:02:10","date_gmt":"2019-01-08T18:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/?p=4614"},"modified":"2019-04-11T12:40:06","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T17:40:06","slug":"castle-ghosts-pythian-castle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/2019\/01\/08\/castle-ghosts-pythian-castle\/","title":{"rendered":"Castle Ghosts: Pythian Castle"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Castle Ghosts: Pythian Castle<\/h1>\n

by Joshua Heston with Stephen Meek<\/strong><\/p>\n

There was a knock on the heavy oak door, a door sheltered beneath massive Carthage limestone. \u201cSo, have you met the ghosts?\u201d The question came from a covey of OACAC non-profit agency employees, former daytime residents of the Pythian Castle \u2014 a monolithic structure of Gothic towers and subterranean passageways now practically sharing space with the Evangel campus in the northern reaches of Springfield, Missouri.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, maybe,\u201d replied Tamara Finocchiaro, a bit taken aback. Finocchiaro, the castle\u2019s newest owner, had taken on responsibility of this historic building after learning it was in danger of being leveled to make yet another parking lot. She would later recall that yes, she had met the ghosts. \u201cWe had paint drapes covering the doorway of the writing room,\u201d an expansive chamber in the west wing of the castle. \u201cWhen I walked back into the hallway, I pushed through the drapes and encountered a physical body standing on the other side. I bumped into it!\u201d Finocchiaro was alone in the castle that day.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4628″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]That was only the beginning. Yes, there had been the whistling melody in the foyer, the droning murmurs of a crowd in an empty room, then the footsteps throughout the place. Finocchiaro had spent an hour checking all the window locks that day, looking for a trespasser.<\/p>\n

The renovated castle was re-opened to the public in 2010 as a venue for weddings, proms and other parties and now regularly schedules history tours, murder mystery dinners and late-night ghost tours. The Discovery Channel\u2019s Ghost Lab<\/span> featured the Castle in 2011.<\/p>\n

The ghost tours are particularly popular come October. \u201cThe phases of the moon change the frequency of the ghost sightings,\u201d sighed Cindy, our ghost tour guide for the evening, \u201cand Halloween is an especially good time for ghosts.\u201d Willowy and animated, Cindy did not disappoint as she led her cadre through the Castle\u2019s professed hauntings and deeper into the building\u2019s extraordinary history.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4629″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]The Knights of Pythias \u2014 a fraternal organization dedicated to loyalty, honor and friendship \u2014 had the Castle built in 1913. In those days, the work of the Knights was highly respected. Springfield outbid Kansas City and St. Louis for this Pythian Castle and promised a trolley line to downtown (a not-inconsiderable distance in those days), the renaming of the street (now East Pythian Street, just off Glenstone), the construction of a nearby school, and the purchase of the 400+acre property, awarding the property to the Knights for only one dollar.<\/p>\n

The Castle served dual roles for the order: a genteel rest home for aging knights\u2019 widows and an orphanage for knights\u2019 children. In the days before social workers and government-funded welfare, a major benefit of the fraternal order was a sense of security for loved ones.<\/p>\n

It could be an imperfect solution. The orphanage was open only to children of a knight. One mother brought her three children to the Castle to learn only two would be allowed. Her third child\u2019s father had not been a knight and therefore was turned away, the family divided.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4630″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]In the impressive foyer, matching staircases rise to the second floor. One for boys. One for girls. During the children\u2019s stay at the Castle, boys and girls were kept separate at all times. One boy ran away when the loneliness simply got too much. His caretakers wouldn\u2019t allow him to see his younger sisters, separated only by walls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was standing in this corner when a child\u2019s voice said, \u2018Hello!\u2019\u201d notes Cindy as we step into the east wing of what was once the children\u2019s second-floor dormitory. I said, \u2018Hello\u2019 right back and looked around. There were no children anywhere to be seen.\u201d Cindy\u2019s festive headpiece of felt bats bobbed most impressively as she shared the experience. \u201cThat\u2019s when I knew I wanted to work here. I don\u2019t like being scared but this place baffles me. I don\u2019t watch horror movies, but there\u2019s something compelling, something that draws me here.\u201d Almost by magic.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4631″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_single_image image=”4632″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Currently, the castle\u2019s magic is augmented by a number of devices, all scorned by traditional science. Throughout the tour, Cindy\u2019s \u201cghost app,\u201d a smartphone application said to \u201cdetect paranormal activity,\u201d beeped, tweeted, whistled and occasionally spouted random words. An EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) recording captured in the castle seems to whisper the word Lillian,<\/span> played to considerable effect during a tour of the theater room.<\/p>\n

Some paranormal experts believe ghost activity is concentrated where there were once many intense emotions, particularly at the time of death. A good portion of the \u201cscience\u201d is simply historic research to uncover what happened within a certain space. But perhaps the ghosts are here for more primeval reasons. The heavy Carthage limestone from which the castle is built is said to focus \u2014 and possibly entrap \u2014 spirit energy.<\/p>\n

However, we scarcely need mystic limestone for the memories trapped in this place. There were children who spent their entire childhoods here. What would that have felt like? We know they worked hard. There were cows to be milked, weeds to be picked. The gardens and livestock mean the location was also a farm and largely self-sufficient. No Sysco food truck for these kids but rather pails of steaming milk on the frigid winter mornings. There would be black snakes curled up under the strawberries, yellowjackets in the trees, and the first of the spring radishes, the last of the summer tomatoes. Many children would grow up to remember their years here fondly.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4633″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]And yet, those moments, thousands of them, were contrasted with the elderly living here simultaneously, musing, recollecting, reflecting on their lives. Had their lives been lived fully? Did they feel satisfied with the conclusion? For that is what they were here for \u2014 their conclusion. Put out to pasture, waiting to die. All our lives are spent creating a sense of meaning and hope. But their arrival, no matter how beatific the organization, was unmistakable. Their races were to conclude here, possibly far away from their children or grandchildren.<\/p>\n

How different did those elderly lives end, here in a castle near now-downtown Springfield, from their hillbilly counterparts only a few miles away in the hills? Those poor hillfolk, often surrounded by the younger generations they had sired, may have weathered away on a rough rope bed. Perhaps the hounds bayed when the moment of death arrived. There is a strange juxtaposition here \u2014 remnants of a formal, Edwardian age replete with gentility coexisting with a nearby near-Elizabethan culture, of mountain life not-far removed from Appalachia or the dirt-poor of the Celtic Isles.<\/p>\n

But regardless, those elderly in this old building died here. Were their passings peaceful? Hopeful? Sad? Angry? With 80 documented deaths in the Pythian Castle, that\u2019s a wide gamut of emotion. Regardless of what anyone believes about ghosts, this is high drama within the walls of one of the most evocative structures in Springfield, if not all the Missouri Ozarks.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4634″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]In 1942, the Castle\u2019s story would change dramatically. The US government expropriated the building, converting the farm into a troop camp of sorts, mainly for injured servicemen. There was an army hospital here as well and \u2014 to further the place\u2019s drama \u2014 captured German, Italian and Japanese soldiers were kept as prisoners. \u201cThe high ranking Germans treated the nurses very badly,\u201d shared Cindy as we worked our way through the basement prison cells. \u201cThey screamed at the nurses, spat at them. The Japanese soldier, however, was well regarded and treated those around him with great respect.\u201d So much so, he was allowed paints and paintbrushes, resulting in a gentle mural of mountain and sea on his cinder block cell wall.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4635″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_single_image image=”4636″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Viewing the artwork can be unsettling. This man, so far from home, a prisoner in an alien land, whiling away his time in a tiny cell, waiting to return to a place he would find irrevocably changed. The peaceful realm he painted on this cinder block Missouri wall was thought an impregnable and sacred island stronghold \u2014 the one place on earth no enemy could touch. This reflective solder would return from his Ozarks imprisonment to find his cities burned to the ground, irradiated, devastated, leveled with bombs both nuclear and incendiary. Who was this man? What became of him?<\/p>\n

This was the same basement wherein a neighbor boy during the \u201960s would sneak in to play with his \u201cfriends.\u201d \u201cI would break in all the time,\u2019 he remembered. \u201cIt was great fun.\u201d When reminded the Pythian Castle was deserted during that time and certainly no children were there, he recalled, \u201cThat\u2019s funny. They moved my toys around on the floor like real kids!\u201d Children\u2019s toys have been found in the walls down here.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4637″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Upstairs, however, the scene during the war years was more convivial, though perhaps no less reflective. In good farmboy fashion \u2014 for that is what most of our troops were in those days \u2014 the square columns of the formal dining room were roped off… for a boxing ring! Dances were held here regularly, as the prettiest and most eligible of Springfield\u2019s young women arrived to flirt with handsome and willing soldiers. Bob Hope even entertained here, upstairs, in the theater which also served as a church sanctuary. \u201cThey held funerals here,\u201d said Cindy, her felt bats continuing to bob cheerily as she pressed play on the EVP recording that whispered one word: Lillian.<\/span> \u201cWe don\u2019t know who Lillian is yet.\u201d But the skeleton band on the stage was churning out Freddie Mercury\u2019s Another One Bites the Dust<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>as we filed out.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4638″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]\u201cIt\u2019s an orb!\u201d breathed the woman next to me, waving her iPhone in front of her, tracking strange light artifacts through the room. Orbs are \u201cballs of light found in photos of allegedly haunted places,\u201d according to TheShadowLands.net. Cindy called them \u201clight caused by spirit energy flowing through the air.\u201d In the east wing of the second floor, the light sources were many, casting weird shadows in all direction. \u201cThere\u2019s another one! At my feet!\u201d exclaimed the woman. This crowd of Springfield couples \u2014 looking for a little excitement on an otherwise boring Friday night \u2014 were beginning to think their smartphones were showing more than they may have bargained for.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4639″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Such experiences lead to reflection. Who were these people, out for a little Friday night fun? Average couples, professionals, perhaps \u201changing on in lives of quiet desperation,\u201d as intoned by Pink Floyd. We are a people living socially prescribed lives, often feeling disconnected from the enchanted, the magical and, quite possibly, the hopeful. We want to touch the \u201cother,\u201d and chill with delight. But when the tour began and actual ghost experiences were described, the crowd\u2019s mood began to shift. Perhaps this is real?<\/i> Yes, there was a desire to touch magic, enchantment, a welcome change from the cubical, the mortgage, and the unruly teenager. But there was also a sudden ripple of fear that this magic might \u2014 just might \u2014 be real.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4640″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Almost in relief, the payoff came in grainy iPhone light artifacts which gave an intellectual sense of \u201csomething more\u201d but did nothing to enlighten or ultimately remove us cursory ghost hunters from our de-sacrelized world. But that is not surprising. Rarely are mortals allowed to view upon the otherworld, not because the otherworld isn\u2019t there but because we really are too irrevocably harnessed to our cubicals, our mortgages and our unruly teenagers. It would permanently unhinge us to find that for which we seek.<\/p>\n

But there is a melancholy irony in ghost hunting. If one compares the limitless aeons of time with our own spare moments on earth, it is not the supernatural that is largely absent from the great history but rather our own fleeting \u2014 should we say ghostly? \u2014 traipse through mortality.<\/p>\n

\u2014 originally published October 28, 2015<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Castle Ghosts: Pythian Castle by Joshua Heston with Stephen Meek There was a knock on the heavy oak door, a door sheltered beneath massive Carthage limestone. \u201cSo, have you met the ghosts?\u201d The question came from a covey of OACAC non-profit agency employees, former daytime residents of the Pythian Castle \u2014 a monolithic structure…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180,943,944,582,581],"tags":[591,587,588,590,589,586],"class_list":["post-4614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arcaneozarks","category-ozarkghoststories","category-ozarkparanormal","category-sotoarchive","category-sotofeature","tag-bob-hope","tag-carthage-limestone","tag-discovery-channels-ghost-lab","tag-freddie-mercury","tag-knights-of-pythias","tag-pythian-castle","category-180","category-943","category-944","category-582","category-581","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4614"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6433,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4614\/revisions\/6433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}