Pedestrians cross the street to the Orpheus Building built in the 1930s which at the time featured Day’s Drug Store on the first level and a pool hall upstairs Friday morning on Jackson Street. Every once in awhile visitors to the building are rumored to hear the ghostly clicking of the pool balls. (Denise Cathey/The Brownsville Herald)
HARLINGEN — Ghost stories can be more than mere tales.
Investigating them also can be lucrative business, and in Harlingen, there’s no more likely place to find restless spirits than old downtown.
The Downtown Improvement District board heard a pitch Tuesday from ghost-hunters Lysa Hillestad and her husband, Darrin Bippes, who together operate Leaux Leaux (pronounced lu-lu) Paranormal Investigations LLC.
Their idea?
“We are ghost hunters. We’re paranormal investigators for over 20 years, and we’ve been all over the United States and Canada,” Hillestad said. “We’ve investigated homes, businesses, but now that we’re older, it’s harder for us to do the all-night-long staying up.”
“We didn’t want to give up our hobby so I just retired from the medical field, we just moved here in March, and we noticed that y’all did not have a haunted walking tour in the historical society,” she added. “When we travel we always go to those. We travel to all the haunted places mostly, but we’re interested in the tours.”
Hillestad said she and her husband are seeking approval from the downtown board to embark on similar paranormal tours right here in Harlingen.
“What do you need from us?” asked Lars Keim, chair of the board.
“Permission,” Hillestad answered.
“It’s like a public sidewalk,” Keim noted.
“The thing is that we try to respect everybody and their space, and even if it is a public sidewalk, if I said Mr. John Smith owns this building, he has seen three ghosts, once a little girl, one rattled its chains, you don’t want me to tell what you told me unless you give me permission, right?” Hillestad replied.
The board took the presentation in a light-hearted manner and seemed enthusiastic about partnering with the ghost-hunters, although Keim noted this was just a presentation and no vote would be taken.
“You would find that a lot of people pay a lot of money for things that have to do with ghosts,” Hillestad said. “What we would do is split 50-50 with the historical society. We will do all the work, we have the equipment, but we would have to get extra equipment for people on the tour so that they could participate. We’ll pay for all of that.”
“All you have to do is allow us to stop in front of your building, say what it is, interview anyone who’s had a ghostly phenomenon happen, and that’s what we do,” she added.
The board directed Hillestad and Bippes to meet further with Downtown Director Alexis Riojas to firm up an operational plan for the ghostly tours.
Bill DeBrooke, a board member who owns several dozen properties in the downtown district, said there could be something to the claims of the paranormal sleuths.
“Let me see. Ghostly properties. You know the building on the corner here, the antique shop (Jackson Street Antiques), that building was built in 1909 by three brothers, a doctor, a dentist and a pharmacist, so between all three of those, if you don’t have any ghosts I think you’re just not trying,” he said following the meeting. “I’m pretty sure that building would.”
“And Lars, Lars Keim, that second floor, that’s pretty ghostly up there,” DeBrooke said, referring to Keim’s business, Jackson Street Cork N Craft. “That used to be a pool hall and every once in a while you hear the clicking of the balls.”
Hillestad mentioned to the board that ghost tours are quite popular, as well as being real money-makers, with participants often willing to pay $100 for a four-hour investigatory visit inside a haunted building.
“And there are stories about the tower (Baxter Building).” DeBrooke said. “The Rialto? I bet that the Rialto, my gosh, they would have ghosts. The Plaza Hotel. I’m pretty sure you could have a fun tour,” he said.
DeBrooke, like all board members, is acutely aware that marketing the downtown district and encouraging new visitors is always a priority.
“The worst-case scenario is some of the restaurants will get customers,” he said. “This sounds like it will always be at night, but people will come back and go to the shops, so it’s a win-win.”
