By Carina Arias and Clara Fouser, MHM Staff Members
Haunted Houses of Monrovia by Michael J. Kouri
As docents who assist in the archive, Clara and I have come across some incredible historical pieces. One thing for certain: we knew that the October newsletter needed to feature something from our archive, but with a spooky touch. We immediately searched through our museum collection database to locate anything that fits within the theme of Halloween. We typed in “Halloween”, “ghost”, “witch”, “pumpkin”–you name it! But nothing came up. Finally, we typed in “haunted” and our database revealed a book by Michael J. Kouri called “Haunted Houses of Monrovia”. Clara and I gasped with excitement. The author, a psychic medium from Los Angeles, wrote this book in 2000 to document ghost stories in historic places in Monrovia. He mentions a variety of buildings– some that no longer exist–but all with spooky ghost-sightings. That said, Clara and I thought we would share our favorite stories from the book!
Carina:
Interior photos of the Aztec Hotel from a real estate listing, published likely sometime after 1978, when the site was added to the National Register. Most Monrovians will not be shocked to see the Aztec Hotel mentioned in this book. Kouri states that upon arrival, he felt an eerie presence. A spirit communicated to him that she was once a guest at the Aztec Hotel, murdered by a jealous boyfriend. The murder was covered up by the hotel, thus her spirit remains deeply angered. Another spirit approached him with a bloody face, holding a pistol. The spirit stated he took his own life in the 1930’s after losing everything and trying to find work in Hollywood. He couldn’t bear to face his wife and children, therefore leading to his horrifying death. The basement, however, seems to be the most haunted space in the hotel. For example, an employee shared with the psychic medium that a little boy will often appear. Kouri did not see the boy for himself, but he did find himself in front of what looked like a scene from a 1920’s film: men and women dressed in fancy 1920’s outfits, smoking and chatting. What were they doing in the basement? That remains unclear. Perhaps they are still in there today, reliving their days from the Roaring Twenties. Kouri was not shy to share all that he experienced at the Aztec Hotel, and I’m sure there are many more scary ghost stories to be told...
Clara:
Monrovia Telephone Company at 417 N. Myrtle Ave. circa 1905. Property of Monrovia Historical Museum My favorite story in this odd little book is that of Mystic Sisters, which offers a different ghostly perspective. Longtime residents may recall Mystic Sisters, a spiritual bookstore located at 417 Myrtle Avenue–today, Merengue Bakery–that closed in the late 2000s during the Great Recession. Yelp reviewers remember it fondly as a friendly store with a wide variety of magical items, including tarot cards and crystals.
Kouri describes unintentionally stumbling upon a spirit in the shop as he was browsing the merchandise. He felt a “tightening” in the chest that indicated a ghost, feeling first a feminine and then a masculine presence. Following a calling to the basement, he further divined that the male spirit was named “Jim Patton” and that he had been working on the building as a contractor since he was alive. Kouri spoke with Jim, who said that he was ready to “cross over” except for feeling like he needed to protect the kind people who worked in Mystic Sisters. Kouri then shares that he researched the building, and discovered it was first leased to the Monrovia Telephone Company in January 1912 and worked on by a building contractor named J.W. Patton.
Our museum records cannot confirm this, though we do have materials from the Monrovia Telephone Company. A 1905 photograph depicts the Myrtle location, prior to the company’s move to Lime Avenue. If you visit our Lost Businesses of Monrovia Exhibit, you’ll find a safe belonging to the company that likely was kept in that original location. For examples of the telephones and switchboards used by an early twentieth-century company, you can visit our Telephone Exhibit in the West Wing, which sourced the items from other Monrovia contemporaries. As any MHM tour guide will tell you, these switchboards were typically operated by women, an unusually feminine-coded profession. Perhaps the female presence Kouri felt was a switchboard operator staying to work like Patton?
Despite our lack of corroborating evidence, what fascinates me is that this is just one of several anecdotes in the book that depict ghosts not as scary entities, but as ambivalent or even benevolent, carrying on with what they did in life. As far as Kouri recounts, there was no bloody betrayal or terrible tragedy that kept Jim tied to 417 Myrtle–the man just returned to a work site and stayed because he wanted to protect the good energy there.
Kouri describes unintentionally stumbling upon a spirit in the shop as he was browsing the merchandise. He felt a “tightening” in the chest that indicated a ghost, feeling first a feminine and then a masculine presence. Following a calling to the basement, he further divined that the male spirit was named “Jim Patton” and that he had been working on the building as a contractor since he was alive. Kouri spoke with Jim, who said that he was ready to “cross over” except for feeling like he needed to protect the kind people who worked in Mystic Sisters. Kouri then shares that he researched the building, and discovered it was first leased to the Monrovia Telephone Company in January 1912 and worked on by a building contractor named J.W. Patton.
Our museum records cannot confirm this, though we do have materials from the Monrovia Telephone Company. A 1905 photograph depicts the Myrtle location, prior to the company’s move to Lime Avenue. If you visit our Lost Businesses of Monrovia Exhibit, you’ll find a safe belonging to the company that likely was kept in that original location. For examples of the telephones and switchboards used by an early twentieth-century company, you can visit our Telephone Exhibit in the West Wing, which sourced the items from other Monrovia contemporaries. As any MHM tour guide will tell you, these switchboards were typically operated by women, an unusually feminine-coded profession. Perhaps the female presence Kouri felt was a switchboard operator staying to work like Patton?
Despite our lack of corroborating evidence, what fascinates me is that this is just one of several anecdotes in the book that depict ghosts not as scary entities, but as ambivalent or even benevolent, carrying on with what they did in life. As far as Kouri recounts, there was no bloody betrayal or terrible tragedy that kept Jim tied to 417 Myrtle–the man just returned to a work site and stayed because he wanted to protect the good energy there.
Do you have any spooky legends? Any mystical occurrences in Monrovia? And of these stories, what is their tone? Are they macabre like those at the Aztec Hotel, or surprisingly mundane like those at the Monrovia Telephone Company? At MHM, we’re always delighted to hear the tales that get passed around our community and excited to research the possible origins. Come by to visit us and see if you get any ghostly vibes from our collection!
Sources
- Kouri, Michael J. “Haunted Houses of Monrovia,” supplement chapter in Haunted Houses of Azusa Township, Michael J. Kouri, Tapestry Autumn Press, 2000.
- “Mystic Sisters.” Yelp, https://www.yelp.com/biz/mystic-sisters-monrovia. Accessed 20 Oct 2024.
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