The Pasadena Paranormal Research Society

[PPRS-Gil]

I know that being the member of a paranormal group comes with taking things with a grain of salt, but when that grain becomes a great big SALT LICK, then it's time to step up.
I too, realize that some people put a great deal of credence in some of the more popular websites. Ah, but you have to understand that they are sometimes limited by the source of their information. So, consider that most of what you hear ( or read ) is just hear-say, or conjecture. This brings me to why I put my fingers to the keys. My first case:

SHADOWLANDS : Los Angeles - John Marshall High School - Students believe the fourth floor is haunted because of it being restricted.
April 2005 Correction – The rumor is that a boy was murdered up there in the 4th floor. On the 3rd floor witnesses would hear noises down the hallway, as if someone was touching the lockers. Like someone was trying to open the locker type noise. When the submitter of this update would go to the 3rd floor they always wondered why the stairs that lead to the 4th floor would be caged shut. While they attended that school, not once had they ever seen the stairs that lead to the 4th floor ever cleaned. The 3 yrs they attended the same filth would be there. The school was built sometime in 1936.


I work for the school district and am on that campus quite a bit. I submitted the facts to Shadowlands, but got no response, so now I bring them to you.
First, the school was built in 1931, check the school website. It will tell you when it was built and that it was declared a historical landmark. The oldest building is the MAIN BUILDING, which stands only three stories. NO 4TH FLOOR. I've been on the roof, I know.
There is one building that has a fourth floor, but that's the science building, and the 4th floor has been in use since it was erected in the mid-sixties. There are no gated stairways, unswept for years. The district simply would not permit that from happening.
The listing has been a mystery to the students and staff at Marshall for quite some time. This brings some of this information into question.
What do you think?

[nene]

Salt lick for real! Add a mounted water bottle to mine!

The Internet seems to be a sorry place to research haunted locations unless they're already famous. The popular sites just copy-and-paste information from each other: faulty facts, atrocious grammar and all. Reading the same stories over and over gives a false sense of credence to them, which is probably why the sites gain popularity. But what do you do when so much information just plain sucks?

[PPRS-Gil]

You do everything you possibly can to find out the truth on your own. Since then I've come to realize that the sight in question is there FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. I've sent them the correction and they've chosen to ignore it.

[nene]

Buy a book it is! Any suggestions? I'm tempted to pick up a couple Michael Kouri books since they're specific to my area.

[PPRS-Gil]

Haunted Places: The National Registry by William Hauck, The Encyclopedia of Haunted Places by Jeff Belanger, and even The Idiot's Guide Ghosts and Hauntings. I think Jeff Belanger has a couple of other books on the subject. There's also The Ghostly Registry by Arthur Myers, but that book is very limited.

[HauntHoneyBee]

Great topic! I'm actually putting together a tour of haunted locations in pasadena and alhambra and have been doing quite a bit of research on about a dozen locations. When I first got started I checked out shadowlands to find out what locations were out there. So far my research has revealed that one of their listings is false.

The website lists the Turner & Stevens Mortuary in Alhambra as being haunted, but a simple phone call to the owner solved that mystery. He confirmed that it is NOT Haunted. No one that works there has ever experienced anything to make them believe it is haunted. He also said that he gets a lot of inquiries about it being haunted so I said I'd help try to dispel the rumors, so here I am. We'll see what the rest of my research turns up.

[nene]

I don't believe much that I read about haunted places around Suicide Bridge. They're just too vague or altogether faulty

I researched the history of the appelate court building (the big one southeast of the bridge) and didn't find anything creepy. The most ominous use it had was as a convalescent hospital for the army, for personnel with minor injuries or requiring minimal care. Not to say it can't be haunted, of course, but I had heard it was an asylum or an abby at different times. Nope.

There are a couple houses close to being under the bridges there, but they seem occupied to me. I will tell you that during the day the arroyo is a lovely area, but the one time I approached at night I got a strong sense of dread, as if I was unwelcome or didn't belong.

I don't know much about Alhambra, but Pasadena's my hometown. The Pasadena Playhouse is notorious for being haunted. Also try the Sexton Auditorium at PCC. Nothing else comes to mind right now, but I'm sure there's many more; lots of very old places out here.

[Prydonian]

I find quite a lot of stuff on Shadowlands to be quite dubious and false. Most of the school entries seem to always have the same myths about suicides and rapes.
Heck, my wife used to work for Torrance School District and I told the webmasters at Shadowlands that their info on Torrance High was pure BS.
Their Monrovia High School entry was also debunked as false.

Heck, how many entries are there for mystic hills with invisible ghost kiddies pushing cars and other made up urban legends.

The site seems to run a lot of stuff sent to them by high school kids, to make their hazings look more credible, if their intended victims do an internet search.