Rumors of hauntings haunt houses in Amarillo, including one of the most prominent buildings downtown, which houses prominent organizations.
The Lee and Mary E. Bivins home at the corner of 10th Avenue and Polk Street sizzles with stories about a ghost who fries bacon, rings phones and rides an elevator.
Living in the house now are the Amarillo Chamber of Commerce, the Amarillo Symphony and Center City Amarillo.
The house was constructed in 1905. After the heirs died, the building was given to the city of Amarillo, which used it as the city and county library from 1955 to 1976. The building was registered as a Historical Landmark Dec. 31, 1974, and has housed the Chamber for the past 24 years.
“The most popular story is about the smell of bacon frying,” said Becky Zenor, the Chamber’s vice president of quality of life & arts. “I haven’t personally heard of any other things happening.”
But others who have worked late at the Chamber say more goes on in the dead of night.
Rumors of the house being haunted have been around for many years, said Dianne McClish, the Chamber’s vice president of finance & administration.
And she said she has experienced some of the supernatural signs of haunting.
“I’ve never seen any apparitions,” McClish said. “But I have smelled frying bacon before. Another night, when I was working late, I did hear the sound of the elevator going up by itself, which scared me.”
The unused third floor is home to assorted old Christmas decorations, a small kitchen and two life-sized wooden cowboy cutouts. Before the house became home to the Chamber, the third story was a ballroom. A small kitchen, part of maid’s quarters tucked in the southeast corner, is thought to be the source of the smell of frying bacon.
The elevator played a role some five or six years ago in another mysterious event. A call button in the elevator alerted the Amarillo Police Department. When police arrived, no one was in the building but a janitor, who had no idea the button had been pushed.
Working late another night, McClish saw the phone line of an office down the hall lit up as if it was being used. Though she knew no one was in the office, she checked anyway, but found an office dark with the door locked. McClish put it out of her mind and went on with her work. This went on for several days before she decided to take a more hands-on approach.
“I went over and unplugged the phone, and put it in a box in a corner, but a few minutes later, the line still lit up,” she said.
While working at the Chamber, Daphne Adkins, now the Texas Travel Information Center supervisor on Interstate 40 East, became involved with the idea of starting ghost tours of local buildings. The idea fell through, but the Bivins house was on the list of stops, said Mindy Bradley, director of convention services.
“Five or six years ago, Diane Bosch tried to get me to spend the night in the house with her. She always said you could feel a cold breeze walking by the stairs leading up to the third floor,” Bradley said.
While a “ghost hunter” has never checked out the house and no one knows for sure if the house is actually haunted, McClish may have an explanation, at least for some of the events.
“When you’re working late, your brain gets tired and you start thinking you hear things in the house,” McClish said. “It’s all just fun stuff. When things happen, we just blame it on the ghost in the house.”