Haunted & Paranormal

Maine has its share of industry, some current and some obsolete. Over the last century, many industrial practices have grown and flourished while others have vanished entirely. Likewise, state institutions have seen vast changes in their structures and methods of operation.

Changes to our industry and institutions have left behind artifacts of a bygone era. Many of these artifacts are demolished, replaced, or vanish further into obscurity. This book offers a visual tour of our forgotten past and practices in hopes of preserving history to prevent it from vanishing entirely. Readers will explore an abandoned jail built in 1873 (in which its first prisoner was convicted of killing two people with an axe), the North Maine Woods in search of ghost trains abandoned in the wilderness close to a century ago, and more.

Forgotten Industry and Institutions of Maine contains images, interesting facts, personal anecdotes, and the stories that make these places unique and give them their distinctive character.

One night in 1874, a murderer crept into a New Braunfels home and killed twelve-year-old Emma Voelcker with an axe. The prime suspect was a family friend named Faust, lodging in the nearby Magnolia Hotel. A future governor prosecuted Faust, and an unknown assailant snuck past thirty-six armed guards to assassinate him. More than a century later, when Erin Wallace and her husband, Jim Ghedi, began restoring the hotel, first opened during the wild days of the Texas republic, they experienced eerie echoes from the past. One presence in particular cut through the chaos of slammed doors and roaming shadows to guide them to the Magnolia's darkest mystery. Wading through trial transcripts, newspaper archives and messages from disturbed ghosts, they discovered a secret history of Emma's death, a possible cover-up and its continuing legacy.

Brooklyn. The most populous borough in New York City. Birthplace of the Dodgers, Sweet'n Low, and Season 21 of "The Real World.'? With more than 400 years under its belt, the borough is filled with a history of both sweet and savory moments.

It's hard to imagine Brooklyn as anything other than a concrete jungle. Who would guess that that first battle of the Revolutionary War was fought here? Or that the world's oldest subway is hidden beneath the streets of Boerum Hill? Or how an airplane fell from the sky and landed in the middle of the street in Park Slope? Hundreds of people pass by the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park everyday. Virtually no one stops to read the plaque. If they did, they would learn that it is actually a grave, holding up to 15,000 bodies.

Author Allison Huntington Chase, Brooklyn's own Madame Morbid, takes readers on a journey beyond the brownstones, to discover the hidden, macabre and bizarre throughout Brooklyn history.