The Ghosts
As of this writing, four spirits are known to reside at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center at 930 Tenth Avenue in downtown San Diego.
To know the ghosts at The Tenth, one must have some knowledge of the history of the site. The First Baptist Church was the original owner of the building.
Since the 1800's, the First Baptist faithful worshipped in the large church next door
(south) to the building that now holds the Tenth Avenue Arts Center.
In the mid-1920's, a generous member of the congregation donated money so that
the church could build a chapel. The benefactor's intent was to provide a 24 hour place
of worship for the military personnel of San Diego. The thought was that if sailors
arrived in port at three in the morning, they should be able to come to a house
of worship for comfort, prayer and motivation. The chapel was a way for the First
Baptist Church to achieve this goal without the need to open the large sanctuary in the main building.
And so, in 1928, the church opened the doors of the chapel and realized the dream of the generous member of the congregation. The building not only became that
place of solitude for our military arriving home from a long stint at sea, but it also became a building utilized by a variety of service groups and youth groups
such as the boys scouts and youth clubs sponsored by the First Baptists.
Now that there is somewhat of a back story of the site, the history of the ghosts
of the Tenth makes some sense.
Ghost 1- The British Lieutenant
During World War II, a Navy doctor had a special tradition. Upon returning to the
United States (after his trips to the Pacific Theater) he would go to a nearby church
and pray for the men he treated, but could not save. One particular soldier had
suffered a gruesome chest wound. The doctor desperately worked to save the man's
life to no avail. The doctor was cupping the soldier’s heart when he felt the heart
give its final beat. The doctor simultaneously felt some odd sensation throughout
his body. He just chalked it up to the stresses of a battle field hospital.
When the doctor returned to port in San Diego he set out to fulfill his solemn tradition
of praying for the souls of his fallen comrades. He did this at the chapel of the
First Baptist church. He gave church officials the following account. He reported
that he entered the sanctuary and sat down in a pew at the back row. He knelt to
pray and was suddenly rocked backwards against the pew. As he gazed to the ceiling
with his eyes and mouth wide open, he felt that same odd sensation that he experienced
back at the field hospital on Okinawa. A church official found him slumped to the
floor and unconscious where he had been kneeling. It seems as though the spirit
of the British Lieutenant had entered the doctor's body back in that hospital and
was now free and had taken up residence at 930 Tenth Avenue.
Following this doctor’s visit to the chapel, the eerie echo of a British officer’s
voice has been heard throughout the building. At times, it sounds like the officer
is barking out orders as if in battle. Other times, the voice seems to be keeping
soldiers marching in unison with a staccato march cadence. He has even been heard
singing pub songs as if celebrating the victory in the Pacific over Japan.
The Lieutenant has never been known to be frightful or mean. He seems to be content
with his home in the building, but has been known to get a little testy with those
who have been heard speaking ill of subject matter related to the United Kingdom.
Ghost 2- Missy
When the building was occupied by the First Baptist Church, the rooftop was used
for a variety of outdoor activities. The church surrounded the roof deck with a
chain link fence and installed chicken wire over the top of the court to keep any
stray recreational equipment from falling to the streets below. The church youth
took advantage of the great downtown playground for such games as basketball, badminton,
volleyball, and shuffle board. On one particularly hot day in October, a girl named
Missy had had enough fun on the roof and wanted to go back downstairs to get out
of the heat. The pastor supervising the handful of kids on the rooftop reassured
Missy that right after the current basketball game ended the group would be going
down to the social hall on the second floor for refreshments. Missy was a bit of
a precocious child and didn’t feel comfortable with that time frame so she bolted
for the staircase.
The pastor excused himself from his referee duties and asked one of the older
kids
to let the game play out and bring the kids downstairs. The Baptist pastor
ran after
Missy. In the stairwell, Missy had made it down the first flight of stairs.
When
she heard the pastor calling her name, she turned the episode into a game and
yelled
out to the pastor “Catch me if you can!” The pastor quickened his pace down
the
stairs and as he rounded the landing between the third and second floor, he
heard
the last words of Missy’s young life. All she was able to shout was “Catch
me…”
before the pastor heard a small shriek, then a series of dull thumps.
Missy’s body was found at the bottom of the stairs on the second floor, her head
split open and leaking blood. The horror-stuck pastor scrambled down the
stairs
to the twisted body of the dead girl. He would never be the same.
Missy has been known to only roam the stairwell. The thought is that she is
playing
in that vertical playground for eternity. While traveling the building’s
stairwell,
a person might have the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the little girl peering
around the corner of a landing. She’s easy to recognize. She had mid-length
dark
hair with straight bangs across her forehead. She also sports a white head band.
She’s wearing a green and white striped dress and will draw attention with her whimsical
smile.
Ghost 3- The Baptist Pastor
As mentioned, the pastor who ran after Missy never recovered from the idea that
he had caused Missy’s death. After the tragic accident, he agonized over the fact
that he should not have run after Missy, rather he should have just walked down
the stairs to meet her. By running, Missy’s playful mind turned this moment in time
into a game. And the memory that really tore at the pastor’s mind was the final
utterance from Missy.
“Catch me…” echoed in the pastor’s brain, just as it had echoed off the smooth,
plaster stairwell walls. The pastor would agonize over those two words twisting
their meaning into Missy’s desperate call for him to catch her from falling
to her
death. Eventually the pain and guilt reached a level that was intolerable for
the
pastor.
On the morning of Monday, November 25, 1963, the church secretary unlocked the
front
door to the church and proceeded up the stairs to her mezzanine floor office.
She
was still thinking about the inspirational sermon the pastor had given the
day before.
He spoke beautifully about the need to be strong after the horrible
assassination
of President John F. Kennedy that had occurred on Friday. The secretary put
down
her purse and knocked on the pastor’s door. There was no response. She walked
back
down to the first floor and entered the sanctuary and called out for the
pastor.
She noticed a dim light glowing from a cloak room on the side of the alter.
Thinking
that the pastor was organizing the choir robes from the day before, the
secretary
walked down the side aisle of the large chapel and called out to him. She
entered
the small room and uttered the pastor’s name again. Suddenly she recoiled in
horror
as she stared up at the dead body of the pastor hanging from a storage loft
access
ladder. It is presumed that the pastor had gone to try and apologize to Missy
for
causing her premature death.
Ghost 4- Carol
Little did Mr. and Mrs. Lorac know that christening their baby with the name “Carol” (thus creating the clever palindrome Carol Lorac) would result in a lifetime of strife and agony. Mind you it’s not a palindrome on the level of-
'Eva can I see bees in a cave?'
Still the Loracs were proud of their effort. Who knew that an act as benign as giving your child a name spelled the same forward and backward would be a tragic mistake. That seemingly innocent gesture planted the obsessive notion in Carol that everything in her life had to be in perfect order. Yes, that innocent naming created an obsessive-compulsive disorder of the most extreme nature.
Carol was a member of the First Baptist Church that occupied this building. Fellow parishioners were graciously tolerant of Carol’s obsessive ways and though, at times, her behavior was tedious they made her feel at home with in the group. Her fellow church goers patiently coped with her incessant straightening of their articles of clothing that might be slightly askew or her demands that people sit in alphabetical order. That being said, there were some advantages to having an OCD person in the ranks. The church was always kept in pristine condition. Choir robes were always well organized. Hymnals were continually arranged by color and size.
One particular issue that Carol could not correct was the errant rehanging of a bathroom door stall. All the doors on the bathroom stalls in the building swing into the stalls. For some reason, a repair man mounted a third floor bathroom stall door to swing out. When Carol noticed this error she demanded the repairman fix it. The man refused. Carol went to the Pastor with her complaint. The Pastor investigated and was not too concerned with the mistake. He truly was not interested in spending church funds to have the door rehung. He tried to be as persuasive with Carol as possible but she would have none of it. The issue would grind at her obsessive nature until her dying day.
Most, if not all the congregation attended Carol’s funeral (held right here in this building). They were kind to her to the end. There was undoubtedly relief for Carol when she finally left this world. However, it has been reported that her spirit remained in the building still bothered by the stall door. It has been said that she inhabits the bathroom stall with the errant door. It’s as if she is waiting for the repairman to return. Her spirit is in the stall or in the little passageway between the men’s and women’s bathrooms. Mysterious complaining noises emanate from that narrow space.
More research is pending on the existence of these four spirits at The Tenth.
As more information is gleaned from the building we will be posting it here.