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The Washington House

West Bend WI

The Washington House

History:

The Washington House was once one of the most well renowned buildings in West Bend. Built in 1852 by Balthasar Goetter as a wooden-frame hotel, the building did extremely well until it burned to the ground on New Year’s Day 1864. After the flames settled, all that remained of the building was a cast iron stove, which was ironically blamed for the blaze. Balthasar was not deterred, however, and rebuilt a 3-story brick hotel the same October, which is what remains today. 20 years after reopening, Balthasar’s son, John, unexpectedly passed away and the family chose to sell the hotel and retire the following year. The building has since been home to several different businesses. Purportedly it was used for bootlegging in the 1920’s. John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan have both stayed at the hotel, and the basement even housed a nightclub called “Lucifer’s” in the 1980’s. Currently, the building is being used as apartments in the upper floors and 6thAve Bar & Grill is on the main floor.


Reports:

- Jeremy, owner of the 6th Avenue Bar & Grill, lives upstairs in one of the apartments. One night, as he was drifting off to sleep, he distinctly heard footsteps in his bedroom. Assuming it was his wife coming home from work, he turned to look and found that no one was there.

- Christine, a former apartment resident, claims to have seen a stick of deoderant slide two feet across her bathroom counter.

- In the main bar area, in front of multiple patrons, a bottle of gin flew off the shelf and hit a bartender.

- Also in the main bar area, a case of beer inexplicably tipped over, though it was full and on a level countertop.

- In the kitchen, a bottle of worchestershire sauce tipped over in the middle of the night and was caught on security camera footage.

- During business hours, patrons watched as a salt shaker flew off of a shelf near the wait station.

- In the band area, bartenders that are working the late and early shift have reported hearing footsteps after hours, and feeling a presence approach them as they are trying to sleep on the couches.

- In the basement, Brittany, the building owner’s niece, claims to have had a female voice whisper “bitch” into her ear in the liquor room

- General feelings of heaviness and a presence is sensed in the basement area, which comes and goes.

- Door to the furnace room has closed on its own

- Stacked chairs have tipped over with no one in the basement (see security camera video below)

-Knife was stabbed into a box of beer in the storage room. Employees weren’t sure how it got there.


Experiences:

USPR visited The Washington House in January 2025. Although the basement area and main floor were both investigated, our main focus was the basement which is where we experienced all of the activity that night. Multiple female investigators reported having their hair touched or played with. All investigators were touched or jabbed and had feelings of heaviness or a sense of presence in the basement storage area. While touring the basement, we stood by the stack of chairs that had inexplicably fallen over and were trying to debunk how they could have tipped over by themselves. In that moment, the stack of chairs tipped over again without anyone touching them.

When shifts began, the girls started downstairs and the guys investigated the main floor. In the liquor room, the girls had a couple of ghost balls light up. They also debunked the knife in the box, as there was a hole in the ceiling that led to a hole behind the bar upstairs. Although it was probably a rare circumstance (unless someone was trying to be funny), it is possible to drop a knife through the floor and have it stab directly into the box. (See photo below).

During the Estes Method, Suzanne heard the words, “Here. Behind you,” as Freddy heard a shuffle behind her. The Spirit Box also had a very dark focus, as we heard the words, “Kill.” “Go.” “Leave.” “Injure him.” “Motherf*****”, and “Kill him.” We also heard laughter and the names “Jesse” and “Paul” come through (we are unaware of any history regarding these two names).

Later in the night, when Bryan and Tony were in the basement, they heard a REM pod sound come through the Spirit Box. Although this seems normal on the surface, these two pieces of equipment operate on very different frequencies (radio waves and EMF). Team members could not explain how the sounds could come through the speakers of the Spirit Box.

Bryan saw two brief shadow figures in the storage area of the basement, along with whispering and shuffling feet. Later in the night, multiple investigators witnessed or felt a “crawling” shadow figure in the same area.

Tony witnessed a ball of light come out from under a stack of chairs and fly across the room. Later, he saw lights in the back storage area where old bikes were stored.

Overall, it was a very active night and all team members agree, there is definitely something otherworldly in the basement of The Washington House and it is not friendly. Whether this is the ghost of Balthasar Goetting or something more sinister, the team does not yet know.

EVP Evidence

The following files are believed to be evidence of Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP), or unexplainable sounds or movement in rooms where no investigators were present at the time of the recording. Although we believe the files to be unexplainable, use your own scientific judgment to decide.

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Low growl

00:00 / 00:13
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2 sighs, then you hear the REM pod going off through the Spirit Box

00:00 / 00:19
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Multiple noises

00:00 / 00:32
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Ball of Light seen by Tony

00:00 / 00:44
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"Yeah" in the background, then later there are voices in the background

00:00 / 00:42
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No audio recorded

00:00 / 00:04

Video Evidence

The following is video evidence collected beforehand by the client, or during our investigation. Make sure your volume is turned up, as some videos include unexplained noises.

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