Credit: Carl Schierhorn

On the small-town road of Canal Street in Canal Fulton, there looms a spooky building with notorious historical tales, setting the perfect atmosphere for a night with a psychic.

Built in 1906, the warehouse on Canal is an eerie-looking place that has been attracting sell-out crowds from the time the psychic night event began in December 2004.

Since Ken Roberts, the owner of the historical warehouse, began the psychic nights and ghost tours, the house has been packed with eager and intrigued guests for what he calls “a spiritual journey.”

“This is no pun, but even in the dead of winter, we get people from other states coming here,” Roberts said. “The interest is that great in this.”

“People who come here are into it,” he said. “They want to believe it. Everybody looks for a different answer. Anne (Miller) is like a tour guide into the unseen world.”

For a $15 fee, anybody can get into the psychic night.

Dining experience

Although the outside of the building may seem frightening, Let’s Mango Tea Garden and Tavern restaurant, where the psychic nights take place, has a warm Caribbean theme. It’s a fun, unique restaurant vacation ers would expect to find in Myrtle Beach, S.C. There are antiques and hats hanging on the walls along with the Caribbean-style plants that dot the creaky floorboards.

The night began with an optional Caribbean-themed dinner with a menu special to psychic nights. A majority of dishes had plantains – a fruit related to the banana – as a highlighted item.

The Punta Cana, a drink filled with peach schnapps, pineapple juice, orange juice, grenadine top and rum, was excellent and the alcohol was hard to taste. It tasted like a fruity Tropicana blend.

There’s also the much stronger Apple Mojito, a Cuban drink filled with apple rum, lime juice, soda, key lime, special mint mixture and rimmed with sugar and lime. This was much stronger and was slightly overwhelming.

The service was fantastic and the staff was extremely hospitable making their guests feel as welcomed as family members would.

As the dinner and spirits died down, psychic Anne Miller, was introduced to the crowd.

Psychic journey

“I’m looking around. Lots of spirits back there,” said Miller, a psychic who, according to Roberts, has been in the business for more than 60 years.

The room was darkened with the exception of a small table lamp that was splashing an eerie glow on the table in front of her. She began the evening’s program by giving everybody the chance to ask her a question.

First, everybody in the room wrote down a question on a numbered piece of paper and placed it in a box. Then, Miller pulled out each one, read the number (so people knew if it was their question or not), closed her eyes and gave advice or insight by answering the question. Through doing this, it was a way for each person to have a quick “private” reading with her.

As certain answers came about, shocked faces began to spread across the crowd.

Next came psychometry, where each person could bring an item for the psychic to touch giving her insight into the history of that item.

“When Anne (Miller) touches it, she senses the different vibrations and it kind of flashes in her head who has been attached to it,” Roberts said. “Whoever has touched it, their energy is there.”

People brought forward teddy bears, rings, necklaces and pictures for Miller to rub between her fingers and hands to feel the vibrations.

At one point while performing psychometry, Miller said, “You’ve got to have patience with the young woman.” The person she was reading turned and looked at her group of friends and said, “Oh my God.”

“Anne (Miller) was accurate on several personal issues,” said Barb Steiner, returning guest to the psychic nights. “She was right on regarding the need to be patient in my personal life. She told me my brother was going to be robbed. Even though the circumstances were not exactly as she had indicated, there was money stolen.”

Steiner said questions about her grandparents were answered accurately too.

“When I asked about my grandparents who had passed, Anne (Miller) indicated that she saw my grandfather in a garden holding a large tomato,” Steiner said. “This was very true. Also, she indicated that my grandmother, who had rheumatoid arthritis, had very beautiful hands now. She could not have known about her illness.”

Another guest summed up her experience in a few simple words.

“Awesome, dude,” Ellen VanDriest said. “Anne (Miller) is spectacular. Very, very accurate.”

Ghosts of the warehouse

Guests who stayed around after the psychic event were treated to a ghost tour of the warehouse.

Visitors were lead down in the basement to a former mortuary, complete with a wooden coffin, dim lighting and a black-veiled mannequin.

It’s said that Lester is the ghost who haunts the area of the mortuary and people have claimed to feel as if they are being pushed.

“Lester thought he owned the building,” Roberts said. “He freaks out when people get near the coffin.”

It is believed that Lester operated the mortuary.

Upstairs on the third floor is the ghost of Nate, 25 or 30 year old man with Down syndrome. He likes when women are around him.

“Once, there was a girl upstairs and the back of her hair was total static electricity,” Roberts said. “Her hair stood up in frozen-like layers.”

The future of the location

Although these ghosts don’t seem to leave, Roberts will be leaving the building behind as he has recently agreed to sell the building.

As for what will become of the building in the future, nobody knows yet.

This leaves Miller looking for another location to have her psychic nights, unless the new owner decides to continue to hold them there.

Only time will tell.

For more information on the Warehouse on the Canal, visit the Web site at www.ghostsofcanalfulton.com.

Contact ALL correspondent Ryan Haidet at [email protected].