Staunton's first original town clock was installed in 1854 as part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at the location where the current clocktower building is today at 27 West Beverly Street. The clock would ring at the top of each hour, both day and night. However the clock was inaccurate as well as inconsistent which was frustrating for city residents. In 1890, the building was demolished and the Lutheran Church moved away. The current clock tower building was built by Architect S. W. Foulke in 1890 and was remodeled by T. J. Collins around 1916. The original purpose for the building was to house the local YMCA, the second of its kind in the state of Virginia. It included a gym, a running track, a lending library and various meeting rooms on the upper floors. In 1914 the YMCA moved their organization to a larger space called the McCormick's building on Augusta Street. Over the years retailers have occupied the street level space at the Clock Tower, one of the most noteworthy was Woolworths, a retail store more known as a five and dime store. This retailer occupied the Clock Tower from the 1930's to the early 1980's. All that remains is the red and silver marquis over the door located on the Central Avenue entrance. Today the clock tower building houses a convenience store, apartments and the Clocktower Eats and Sweets Restaurant and Bar. The building has often been mentioned as being haunted by many of the locals here in Staunton, particularly the restaurant and bar area. Historical speaking, there are stories that an elderly man died in the basement of the building from a heart attack shoveling coal as well as a very young girl, possibly 6-7 years old that died in the building as a result of falling down a coal shute. However there is no physical documentation of either of these events ever taking place. There simply are no reports of such that we know of. It was thought that perhaps these events might have taken place in the original building many years before 1890 and simply were omitted. There is one documented death, that of a young woman who fell from one of the apartment's top floor windows many years ago. Apartment tenants have reported several incidents of what they describe as the sound of a very young child crying on the staircase late at night. When an attempt is made to find out who may be on the staircase so late, there is no one to be found. Reports of paranormal activity have come from restaurant employees as well as apartment tenants. Many restaurant employees are particularly uneasy in the basement which is an area of storage of supplies, alcohol and other beverages. One waitress reported that there is always a heavy, depressing feeling when in the basement. Some waitresses have been touched in the basement or pinched from behind as they walk up the stairs from the basement. One vendor who was delivering supplies to the basement area when he heard a male whisper that angrily said "Get Out". There was absolutely no one in the basement when this event occurred other than the vendor himself. Another vendor, once delivering supplies to a storage room on the first floor of the restaurant witnessed a set of tongs levitate and hoover in mid air. He immediately left and never came back. The vending company had to replace him with another employee on this particular route. He refused to go back to the clock tower building again. The bar area has seen its share of unusual occurrences over the years. A bartender once witnessed a bottle of wine very quickly move across the bar and shatter upon contact with the floor. A drinking glass that hangs above the bar area where many other glasses are stored securely, fell and shatter upon contact with the bar. Pictures on the wall in bar dining area will randomly be found on the floor face down with no glass shattered or broken. It is almost as if someone just gently placed it there to be discovered. Security employees in the restaurant have heard the voice of a little girl in back stage area of the restaurant after closing hours. There are no children in the area at the time. No young children are allowed in this area to begin with. During after hours when the restaurant is closed and empty, the security alarms have been triggered and gone off numerous times which brings a response and visit from the Staunton Police Department. With each occasion the police department have been unable to discover any intruders or any attempts to enter the restaurant either. On two occasions, security cameras within the bar and restaurant have captured what appears to be the figure of a semi-transparent shadow man moving through the dining room at a rapid pace. It appears to be the ghostly image of a man, only it is very dark in appearance. Again with each incident, there appears to be no signs of forced entry into the bar or restaurant areas. Last, a restaurant cook while alone in the kitchen very early into his shift one day, witnessed a large knife fly across the room as if someone had thrown it. "It scared the hell out of me!" replied the cook. The cook insisted he was alone in the kitchen at the time of the event. Several years ago, a medium was brought into the building and did a walk through in the basement and restaurant area and bar. She also patrolled the back stage area of the bar which features live music and entertainment. Her impressions of the basement were negative in nature, of someone hiding, eluding caputre. One interesting, historical note that was uncovered from the buildings early history was discovered. Several Western State Lunatic Asylum patients would somehow get into the basement during routine visits into downtown as part of recreational excursions. These patients would simply hide out and feared the aspect of having to return back to the asylum. The medium also detected the presence of a very young girl with blonde hair that she believed might have been from turn of the century timeline. The paranormal group, Black Raven Paranormal has had the opporuntiy to investigate the Restaurant and Bar on four occasions since 2011, the last took place in 2017. Black Raven Paranormal is closely associated with the Ghosts of Staunton Ghost Tours and many of our guides are actually paranormal investigators. EVPs better known as electronic voice phenomena is what paranormal researchers and investigators believe to be the voices of the deceased captured on an audio recorder during an attempt to communicate with the afterlife. In rare cases, these voices can be heard in real time when they are captured. This is what is referred to as a disembodied voices. Incredibly from our 2017 investigation, we were able to capture the voices of a very young girl and an older man on an audio recorder in the back stage bar room. These were both captured in an upper balacony area of this large room. These responses were intelligent in nature, were captured during the same conversation leading the team to believe that both of these paranormal entities were present at the same time. Both of these responses are clear and easy to understand. They were captured using a device known as the spirit box. A spirit box is a device that uses radio frequency, what is referred to as white noise that allows spirits to openly communicate. An investigator was in the balcony area alone using this device during the investigation. He asks the question if anyone could hear that (referring to the spirit box). A young girl responds "no", so the investigator asks the same question again. This time, an older male responds "Hear What?" The paranormal investigation in 2017 was filmed and documented as part of a television series called the Black Raven Chronicles. It can be found on Amazon, Amazon Prime and most recently youtube. The four investigations of the bar and restaurant have produced additional audio responses, many quite clear to understand. While we do not have the historical documentation of past events that may have occured in building, we do have paranormal documentation of a young child and older gentleman. Maybe, just maybe these stories might be true