Indiana Urban Legends: The Strand Theater
Halloween is right around the corner. What better time to learn about some Hoosier haunts than now??
I love Halloween. It's my favorite holiday. I especially enjoy all of the ghost hunting shows on tv this time of year too. But what gets me super excited is when I'm watching one of these shows and the investigators go "We're in (enter city here), Indiana..." and I'm like "HEY! I LIVE THERE!!!"
So I decided to put my ghostly investigative pants on and find some Indiana haunts that you may or may not know about.
Like The Angola Theater.
When I first looked up this urban legend, I was a bit confused. While it's listed as the haunted "Angola Theater", the actual theater is called the Strand Theater. And then I googled that and google said that the Strand Theater was actually in Kendallville, In. Which is a little ways southwest of Angola.
After a bit of researching, I found out that there are TWO Strand Theaters (one in Angola and one in Kendallville) and they are BOTH haunted. What are the odds?? (That actually might be why they call the Strand in Angola "The Angola Theater"...To help stop the confusion...)
Rumor has it the Strand Theater in Kendalville is haunted by a ghostly white female apparition. And I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't the only spirit roaming the building because the Strand is one of the oldest continually operating movie theaters in the US. It opened as an opera house in 1890. So, the place has a history.
Supposedly, a woman entered the theater one day and never came out. (OOooOOooOooooohh!!! Spooky!) Many residents who live in the building have reported seeing a woman walking through walls on the third floor.
The Angola Theater has an almost equally as long history, opening in 1914 and recently closing it's doors in 2016. This theater reportedly has a male spirit with a long red beard that is looking for his lost love. He's seen pacing the top of the theater calling out for a woman named "Maria". You can also hear him crying in the back of the theater during movies. Is he crying for a lost love? Or is the movie really that bad?
Maybe Maria is the female spirit at the Kendallville theater! Maybe they planned to meet up at the Strand and didn't specify which one and got confused like I did!!!