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.

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