newsminer.com

In October 2004, News-Miner staff writer Mary Beth Smetzer wrote a story about "Mabel" a ghostly presence in the basement of the Co-op Plaza in downtown Fairbanks. In honor of Halloween, I am reprinting the story. Happy hauntings!

'Mabel' raises goose bumps at Co-op Plaza

FAIRBANKS -- According to legend, a ghostly presence has been hanging out in the murky, underworld depths of the Co-op Plaza on Second Avenue for decades. Her name is Mabel, and goose-bump-raising tales of paranormal appearances and shenanigans abound among tenants and former employees. "She's a friendly ghost," insists Betty Stewart who has worked in the old building since 1956. "She lives down in the dungeon, and she just flits around and distracts you once in a while when you are in the basement. "The boys, who used to check in merchandise down there, they would always see something out of the corner of their eye. I would see her out of the corner of my eye, too, so we named her Mabel and she's still here as far as I know." Today the Co-op Plaza, which contains shops and offices, is actually housed in two buildings—the original Co-op building constructed in the mid-1930s and old Empress Theatre, the first downtown all-concrete building put up by Austin E. "Cap" Lathrop in 1927. The two structures were joined in 1961. Since buying the Plaza about four years ago, owner Dave Somer said he's heard two different versions of Mabel's origins. "One story is that she was the original organist at the Empress Theatre, and after she died, she wanted to stay with the building," Somer said. "The other story is that the reason the Co-op was so successful when it opened during Prohibition, was because it sold a special tonic that had alcohol in it. And Mabel was the one who made up the concoction that made it taste so good ... She's been around here ever since." Some of the plaza tenants still store supplies in the 8,000-square-foot basement, so avoiding the subterranean rooms isn't an option. "It's a little offsetting. It's dark and dimly lit," said B.J. Brenner, who works at 2 Street Station Coffee. "I feel like I'm being watched. It's like something is watching you down there." Brenner's reaction is shared by others who relate similar experiences. However, Angelee Heinemann, didn't have go downstairs to meet Mabel. About five years ago while working at Yukon Willie & Jake's, a former gift shop in the Co-op, she had stayed late to decorate the store for Christmas when the jukebox at the nearby diner blared into life. But Heinemann's spine didn't start tingling until she went to inspect the jukebox and found it was unplugged. "I saw the resident ghost another night," Heinemann said, "Again I was working late doing something when I saw a person with a long flowing white dress walking along the second floor balcony." Heinemann didn't investigate further. Mike Brooks and his brother Roger worked at the Co-op Drug Store during the 1960s. "It got kind of eerie, especially when you were there late at night," said Brooks, owner of Fairbanks Sign & Graphics. "You could get lost down there. There was stock from floor to ceiling, and I'd be hearing weird noises when I knew nobody was there. Sometimes we'd find stuff moved around, and everybody blamed it on Mabel. At the time you never thought much of it. It was just a big joke, Mabel was around." After the Co-op closed in 1991, Phil Cole was involved in refurbishing the building, often heading up crews working into the wee hours of the morning. "It started out," Cole said, "with a couple of different employees who went downstairs and would come up and say someone was down there. They'd see someone out of the corner of their eye, and one thing was consistent. It was a woman." Cole said he started asking questions to old-time employees like Stewart and Bill Kennedy, and learned about the legendary Mabel. He too sensed her presence when he would go up to the balcony area and look down to decide where to put walls. "The first time I did that, I got the sense of someone moving down the hall and around the railing." Another time, Cole said, one of his crew went downstairs to pick something up during his lunch break, and came back up white as a ghost. "He said, 'I saw it. I'm gone.' And he left. "And he was a good employee," Cole added. But Cole's eeriest experiences occurred in the early morning hours a week apart. The first night, Cole's crew was taking a break, sitting in a booth in the rear of the diner when a CD player they had set up started blaring. A week later, the same thing happened, but this time a pile of CDs sitting next to the player flew across the room toward the men sitting in the booth. "It freaked them," Cole said, "and they headed out the door." After that, Cole said, at the end of the work day, he'd plug a couple of quarters into the jukebox and say, "Good night, Mabel. Take care of the building. We're just here to fix it up." Charlotte Bowen, owner of Styles by CB & Company, and a Co-op tenant since 1991, talks to Mabel regularly. "Mabel is a friendly ghost. My shop used to be upstairs and Mabel was definitely there," Bowen said, along with steampipes that clank night and day. "I'm never afraid here. I talk to her, especially when I go downstairs. I holler, 'Mabel I'm coming down the stairs.'" Bowen, like other Co-op tenants, say that Mabel likes to tease them and play games. Tim Staton, owner of Alaska Gold 'n' Gems, blames Mabel for night noises, open doors, and electrical eccentricities. "Sometimes there are things moved or misplaced overnight," Staton said, "but nothing missing." Somer served as tour guide Friday, descending without trepidation into the building's cavernous belly. "I used to worry about the ghost," he said, "but I don't anymore. Mabel is a very benevolent spirit—nice but ornery." However, Somer admits to being puzzled about many unfathomable features in the shadowy labyrinth, pointing out a cement, L-shaped sunken corner area, a freight elevator that stops working from time to time for no reason, stairs and doors that go nowhere, and drips with no source. A crudely knocked out concrete wall separating the original buildings could creditably dress up a horror movie set. "I've found 13 bathrooms throughout the place," he said. An area directly below the Co-op Diner emits an eerie energy that Somer and others believe is Mabel's lair. Later, upstairs, Frank Eagle, a Co-op office tenant, stops to chat and blames Mabel for hard drive troubles he's experiencing with a new computer. "Maybe she doesn't like new things," Somer jokes back.