HOUSTON - Around this time every year, one of Houston's most historic buildings becomes the focus of ghost hunters and paranormal investigators. It's the original Jefferson Davis Hospital just north of downtown.
From the start, the hospital had good intentions.
"It was the first joint city-county charity hospital," said Historic Preservation Specialist Anna Mod.
It was beautifully built with features resembling The Parthenon, Mod said.
The lobby is actually on the second floor.
"We were in a period of segregation so the raised basement was for the African-American patients," Mod said.
Underneath the basement, were, and still are, graves.
"Many, many people were buried here, some in large mass graves," Mod said.
There were cholera and yellow fever outbreaks in Houston and the Civil War. The cemetery filled up fast, then closed. When it was time to build a new, modern hospital in the 1920's, Houston's old graveyard was selected as the site. It was a different time and no one bothered to relocate the graves, Mod said. A family plot in the front of the property is the only visible evidence that the graves remain.
"The hospital served its intended purpose for only 13 years," Mod said.
The city was growing fast. A new hospital by the same name was built on Allen Parkway.
The old Jeff Davis Hospital became a psychiatric hospital, then a juvenile detention center, then a drug and alcohol rehab facility and finally, it was abandoned.
In 2005, the building re-opened, restored, as residential lofts for artists as part of a HUD program. The building has original brick, floors, plaster and doors, but an old reputation for being haunted.
Residents say that reputation is now unwarranted.
"My daughter loves it here," said artist Claire Richards. "She's never seen anything and she loves scary movies and all that. She'd be looking-nothing, nothing."
Perhaps the scariest thing that might happen on the grounds these days is that trespassers could get a citation. Residents as well as the property manager, Suzie Branch, said it is extremely intrusive to have busloads of ghost hunters show up at the front door. Branch said some have been unruly and intoxicated. She said the artists and their families have formed their own neighborhood watch and are diligently on the lookout for trespassers.
Besides, Richards said, "It's honestly the most boring haunted place I've ever lived in."
