Berkeley Studios - Abita Springs, LA

Date: 9/30/06

Investigators:  Mike, Dave, and Carol

 

Situated in beautiful Abita Springs, we were fortunate enough to investigate a 100 year old building that once housed a tuberculosis hospital.  Reports of apparitions and poltergeist activity have been well documented.  Two nationally recognized paranormal research groups had conducted investigations of this building and one group claimed to have caught some ectoplasm on video.  Even a local police officer apparently had a run in with one of the ghostly apparitions while investigating some trespassers to the property. 

After the business owner (who had just moved out of the building) showed us the house and told us about many of the encounters she had endured we set up our equipment and went lights out.  Unfortunately for us we were not as lucky as others with our investigation.  We did not capture any audio or video evidence.  One of our members, Dave, did report being touched on the leg right after we arrived and we did get an unexplained EMF (electromagnetic field) spike as we were leaving.  We want to thank the business owner for her hospitality and we hope to return one day.   

 

UPDATE:  1/21/08

Investigators:  Mike, Dave, and Kim

On 1/21/08 we were lucky enough to be able to return to this property in Abita Springs.  A new tenant had moved into the building and was reporting much of the same activity as the previous resident.  The building is now home to a very nice art gallery called Berkeley Gallery. 

We conducted another investigation of the building using our infrared cameras, audio, and photo equipment.  Unfortunately, we were not able to capture any evidence during our overnight stay.  However, the owner called the next day to report that the paintings in her gallery were all on the floor when she arrived to open up her gallery.  Even though we have not yet been able to capture any evidence, the large number of eyewitness reports warrants more follow up.  On a personal note, if you are ever in Abita Springs, be sure to stop by and visit the Berkeley Gallery.  We were all very impressed by the quality of artwork in this gallery and were honored to be able to watch the artist while she was working on a new painting.

 

UPDATE:  4/12/08 

We conducted a third investigation of the Berkeley Galleries on April 12th.  The owner was gracious enough to open up her gallery so that we could conduct an investigation and work with some new members of the group.  The night looked like it was going to be very interesting.  Within the first hour two investigators reported being touched by something.  However, after those two events nothing else happened.  We had several instances where we heard strange noises.  One investigator also reported seeing what looked like a shadow move outside on the porch.  After investigating we could not find the source.  Fortunately on this investigation we set up some of our cameras on the porch.  After reviewing the footage, we found that a cat and a dog were repeatedly jumping and running around the porch.  That explained many of the noises we were hearing.  Again we would like to thank the owner of Berkeley Galleries for the great hospitality.