Linden Street Coffee House

THE GHOST POST - Chapter VI: Burned Basement Beams

How did those beautiful, heavy beams in the basement of Linden Street Coffee House become charred?

Honestly, I haven't found anyone in Lamoni, Iowa, who can answer that question ... who can tell me what happened in our building long, long ago.  I know that there was a fire.  The evidence is there.  The basement, which is two rooms and a crawl space, now houses our stockroom and a storeroom.  The door between the two rooms is an old-fashioned one, made from heavy beams and swinging with a hand-tooled, iron hinge.

The "second room" has a low ceiling.  Really low.  Even those of us under 6' have to duck.  Imagine what Erich and Tyson have had to deal with (they're 6'5").  The door remains open 24/7, but the staff requested that we put up a curtain or partition because - in their words - it's "creepy."  So, rather than shutting that old, hinged door, I hung a sheet there.  It's flowery and cheery and not creepy at all.

As you enter the second room, you can see where a fire has swept through.  The ceiling beams and the old door are charred.  If you let your mind wander, you can imagine the terror someone must have felt decades ago when they realized the building was burning.  During that era, that probably meant someone's home and/or livelihood - or life - were in jeopardy.  Today, it would probably just mean the headache of working through the bureaucracy of paperwork, insurance, etc.  In this day and age, smoke alarms and other gadgets would hopefully prevent any loss of life, but the loss of this beautiful old building would sure be painful.

Why am I including this in our Ghost Post?  Because I - and others - have often wondered if the fire in our building is the origin of our ghost.  Did a child die in the fire, or as a result of injuries from the fire?  Did a mommy and daddy mourn?  Or was it just a quick coal fire - the coal bin (see photo at left for a similar type of bin) is in the very location of the charred areas.  It's possible there was a quick, intensely hot fire but no loss of life or even property.  We are, after all, still using that room and the beams, though charred and sooty, remain strong enough to hold up this beautiful old building.

There could be a sad answer to our question, "How did those beautiful, heavy beams in the basement of Linden Street Coffee House become charred?" or there could just be an uninteresting story from yesteryear.  I like a good mystery, but I'd sure like to know the answer to this one.

THE GHOST POST - Chapter V: Trying Out the New A/C Unit

I would love to say that this is a photo of Mitch at the exact moment the ghost came to visit him at Linden Street Coffee House.  It's not, but it is a cute picture.  :-)  One day last week, we finally, finally, finally put the window a/c unit in the kitchen at the coffee house.  Yea!  Summer in Iowa can be brutal!

So Mitch is enjoying a day at work ... and a day with the new air conditioning.  Smoothies are whirring in the blender, the scent of baking scones is in the air, and customers are enjoying our famous coffees and Ashby's ice cream.  As Mitch walks toward the back of the kitchen, he realizes that the cool air he'd been enjoying had suddenly stopped blowing.  He thought, "a blown fuse, perhaps?" and "did the unit come unplugged, perhaps?" but no ... the a/c was turned off. 

Mitch called me.  "The ghost came to visit.  He must have a sense of humor, because he turned off the air conditioner."  Then he said ... are you ready for this ... "It was cool!"