Pieces of the Past

Yes, so many things happening in that building that were true. Things we saw, things we heard, things we felt and smelled. We had ghost hunters spend the night with electronic recorders and hearing voices. Seeing things move. Even had a young girl take a picture in the stores back room and got the reflection in a mirror of a young child sitting at a table. When the girl walked around to the table, there was no child. The smell of perfume where the old stairway was coming down from the brothel where the working girl was shot. We had a married couple living up stairs and they had to move out because the ghost loved sleeping with the wife. The ghost would climb in bed and spoon up behind her. Other female tenants also had stories that they didn't even want to share. I totally believe in paranormal because I've seen it. We had customers that said they had telepathic experiences and could see spirits in the store. In this life you can believe what you want but when you've seen it, you can't unsee it.

June 2024

I used to live above Pieces of the Past when I went to college and I can testify that the haunting is true. My roommates and I only experience 2 of the phenomena associated with this building though. What makes it even more compelling is that we NEVER knew anything about the haunting when we lived there. Only after we moved out and someone familiar with the stories brought them to our attention did we put 2 and 2 together. This is the internet, so anyone can say anything, but here’s my story nonetheless:

My roommates and I constantly heard someone slam the 1st floor door and run up the long staircase. We lived on the 2nd floor and kept our 1st floor door unlocked for friends who wanted to stop by. So it was not uncommon to hear someone come up the staircase. The strange thing is that on some occasions, no one would come around the corner to the living room area to say “hi”. When this was the case, my roommate and I would go knock on our other roommates’ doors, to see if it was them who came up the stairs, but no. Their rooms were empty. We were always like, “We heard someone slam the door and come up the stairs right? But where are they?” This happened multiple times and we’d just laugh about it and blamed it on the wind.

Then there’s the story of the ghost who played the Jukebox. This is the one that still gives me shivers. As I said before, we lived on the 2nd floor and late at night we could hear music from the 1st floor (which is now the shop, Pieces of The Past). I remember this happening a lot and I’d put my ear to the floor and my roommates and I could hear music from downstairs as clear as day. I remember one time in the middle of the night during winter, the music was so loud that we went outside in out pajamas to see if the shop on the 1st floor was having a party, but the store was pitch black and there was no music. This one drove us nuts because we could hear the music but could never really figure out where it came from (and we had no neighbors, so we can rule that factor out). The music was always muffled but It was joyful and had a fast tempo. Eventually we moved out and forgot all about this stuff, because again, we just thought nothing of it.

Then one random day in Winona our friend had a book titled something like “Haunted Places in Minnesota” or something the that affect. That’s when we read about the ghost running up the stairs and the ghost who plays music. It still gives me (and I imagine my former roommates too) the shivers. Nonetheless, the ghosts were cool and they can hang out with me anytime. They never bothered us and hopefully they joined us for a party or 2.

October 2023