Real Haunted House
Lillian Collins Hospital
Turlock, California
By Robin Wright
Originally the Sierra Building
In the 1920’s, this was a small town hospital that cared for the citizens of Turlock, California. According to a recent ghost hunting expedition done by American Paranormal Investigations, it seems that the building still cares for their spirits, though both their bodies and the hospital are long gone.
Built in 1918, The Lillian Collins Hospital was located in what is now the Sierra Building and currently contains Coldwell Banker Endsley & Associates. The hospital was best known for the doctor who created the MedicAlert bracelet when his daughter (who also happened to be the granddaughter of the hospital’s founder) had an allergic reaction to a drug while there in 1953. The hospital, which only had 40 rooms in the two-story building, eventually became too small for the city and was abandoned. In 1994, it was purchased by Bob Endsley and the downstairs was completely remodeled. The upstairs was left the way it was, and local charities used the space to host a haunted house fundraiser. It was during these fundraisers that the odd goings on in the building were first noticed.
While preparing for a haunted house event items would go missing when left alone for only a few moments. Cold breezes, footsteps, unexplained noises, and even unpleasant physical feelings have been reported. The owner of the building has had the motion detectors go off when no one was there. The events coinciding with the annual haunted house fundraisers ceased earlier this decade, but the strange happenings did not. That was when Endsley contacted API.
The investigation, which included video, photography, psychics, Electronic Voice Phenomena recordings, as well as a group whose purpose was to find logical causes for some of the stranger things discovered, came away with plenty of evidence that the hospital was still up and running on the second floor.
On video, they asked a spirit to come closer to their electro-magnetic field device. The EMF device recorded a dramatic spike in its levels. Geiger counter readings flared and diminished within moments and without the investigator moving.
Each and every photo captured orbs, or balls of light, somewhere on the photograph. But the truly amazing piece of evidence is the 11 second recording of a beautiful voice singing a French lullaby. The investigator was alone at the time. This recording is one of the longest pieces of EVP ever to be captured.
Other EVPs recorded were of female and male voices talking to each other, as well as male voices communicating with the investigators. One of the investigators said that the sounds on the tape remind him of what he’d expect from a 1920’s hospital.
Dark, human shaped masses were seen floating throughout the building and some investigators felt nauseated while on the second floor, feeling better when they returned downstairs.
The investigators sent to unmask the ghosts were only able to explain away the cold breezes as drafts from windows. The rest seem to be of truly supernatural origins.
27 comments on this haunted house. Share your story »
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myrna says: |
November 10, 2009, 1:20 am |
One day I stay at my sister in law’s trailer to help her clean her house..Time went by got very late so I stayed over..We where all in bed when we heard nocking at all the windows and doors..We thought someone was playing a joke at us so we started to look out the windows of room..As we started to go down the hall the freaken trailer started to shack sideways..was no earthquicks cause we dont get them…all the sudden all the dogs started to park and haller.. She’s heard noices before this incident they even called the ghost Goerge, but never like this day scared the living crab out of us..Her daughters where all scared and my brother was working graveyard…It was a very bad experience…
Jennifer says: |
November 10, 2009, 10:51 pm |
I live like five minutes away from this place and pass by it every day.
It’s a really pretty building. Never been in it though. lol.
Michael says: |
November 15, 2009, 1:16 pm |
I live in Turlock less than a block from where this hospital used to be. I’ll never forget getting woken up one early May morning to fire truck sirens as I came outside and looked down the street at the blazing flames I realized it was the old collins hospital in burning to a crisp.. At that time there had been only homeless living in the vacant hospital for several years and it was always said to have been haunted. Now stands a new building housing retired elderly. If you want to see a picture of the old hospital
Gert says: |
November 15, 2009, 2:52 pm |
I know I believe for I have seen more than one person can believe. I have always lived in a haunted house one place or another. As now I still live in one. I can remember when I was 8 years old. We moved into this one house, I could just feel something was wrong. The first night we slept there I started to hear this noise. A woman was screaming. The screams got closer and closer, It scared the **** out of me just hearing this Then I noticed it was coming to my bedroom. I looked up and I seen this man chasing this woman and as he caught her at my window he cut her throat. This happened everynight at 12:05. We didn’t live there very long about a month. When we moved it was as before a haunted house but just something different this time. Each house has been different each place. Some weren’t as bad as others
Myrna says: |
November 27, 2009, 8:18 pm |
Im from a very small town Douglas Az. its a historic town…The Gaston Hotel came out in unsolve mistory supposely it has three ghost…The front desk keeps a notebook of all the costumers experienced they had in this haunted rooms I’v gone to the rooms to see if I feel anything or see no luck yet lol. I work for a company named C.E.P.E.S. with disable people we just moved to a new house that the company bought them instead of paying rent..well anyways all the consumers where sleeping all ready and all staff where taking a break at the kitchen just minding are owen business..When all three of us heard a big loud laugh right next to me and it sounded like it ran away..the next day staff saw a little girl at the laundry room and ran to a closet of one of the consumers closet..One of the staff “”supposely asked the little girl why she was laughing little girl just shook her shoulders and ran away and started laughing again…
becka says: |
January 30, 2010, 7:44 pm |
ok? i don’t no if thats true or fulse? its pretty scarey though
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*~Jessica~* says:
November 6, 2009, 10:21 am
This stuff is awesome, I’m the kind of person that wants to do this when I grow up. Me and my family moved to a haunted house at one time, it scared my mother so much that we had to move out. I REALLY wanna go back, but can’t.