The Northern New York Paranormal Research Society

Post-Investigative Report

Client:  Plattsburgh Air Force Base, Old Gym, Plattsburgh, NY

Date:  10/11/08

Referred by: Erin Connors, WPTZ Channel 5 News

History:  The Gym was built in 1933 and opened in 1934.  At the time it was the largest building in all of Plattsburgh.  It had two sections, the main gym and a theater.  The gym had bleachers and a basketball court upstairs with changing rooms, a weight room and a bowling alley in the basement.  The theater section, although attached, technically had a separate entrance.  Under the stage, was a holding area for actors and actresses that would get to the stage by a spiral staircase in the back corner of stage left.  Sometime in the 1950’s, 2 handball courts were put in where the theater seats were.  Then, it is believed that in the 70’s or 80’s 2 more racquetball courts were installed in the rest of the theater’s seating area. 

Reported Activity:  People claim that the area under the stage was a morgue for mangled body parts at one time.  People have claimed to hear banging and screaming coming from this area.  Workers have reported hearing many sounds throughout the building when they believed they were alone.  Sounds include whistling, conversations, banging, weights clanging, and footsteps.  There are two reported visual phenomenon.  The first was a report of seeing what was believed to be a soldier walking on the indoor track on the second floor.  The other visual report happened in the weight room.  A former employee that we spoke to claimed to see a man walk past the weight room in the hallway.  He saw this in a mirror.  He said later it happened again, the opposite way.

Investigation:

Members Present: 

Merrill, Dave, Randy, Sarah, Brian Le., Todd J., Rebecca, Jim, Sean

Others Present:  Steve the City of Plattsburgh Rec. Director, Erin Connors, and Jamie, the WPTZ Cameraman

Equipment Used:

Video: CCTV DVR with 4 IR capable cameras, 2 Sony HandyCam Hi8 camcorders,

Photo: Multiple Digital Cameras, one 35 MM camera
Audio: 4 Digital Voice Recorders (3 Olympus, 1 RCA)
EMF: 1 Extech EMF Detector, 1 Natural Tri-field Meter, 1 CellSensor, 1 generic CellSensor, 1 Magnetic Shield Corp ef-401
Temp.: 2 Raytek Mini-temp Non-contact IR Surface Thermometers, 1 Fluke Non-contact IR Therm., 1 Temp/Humidity Data Logger, 1 Ambient Temp. Thermometer

Other:  Laptop Computer, notebooks and pens, 2-way radios

Time Started:

6:10 PM: Initial Walkthrough
6:45 PM: Equipment Setup (Base EMF, Surface Temps., Ambient Temps. taken at this time as well)
7:30 PM: Split into three teams to initiate investigation
10:45 PM: Equipment pack up begun
11:15 PM: Left Gym, Begun brief investigation of the Base Cemetery
11:45 PM: De-briefing

12:00 AM: On-site investigation completed

Personal Experiences:

Brian heard what sounded like voices coming through a door, from an office that was unoccupied. However, with the acoustics and other various factors, it is very possible it was not paranormal. Other than this, no other personal experiences occurred.

Debunked:

This building never housed a morgue of any type.  We were able to debunk almost every audible report. The acoustics of the building were incredible. Someone can be outside whistling, talking in a normal voice, and it could be heard clearly up on the track and on the basketball court, even with all windows closed. Also, the sounds of voices, heating duct "bangs", lockers closing, weights slamming from downstairs would all carry extremely well to the main floor area, as well as in the main office. The number of reflective surfaces in the areas where apparitions have been spotted could very easily create an image that, in an old, supposedly haunted building would appear to be ghosts. In the weight room area, the report of looking at the mirror and seeing someone pass in the hallway could very easily be explained by the distortion of the particular mirror, the witness admitting there were people in the room across the hallway, and reflections of other mirrors in that general vicinity.

Initial Conclusion:  It is the general consensus of NNYPRS that all stories surrounding this property are of an "urban legend" variety, or the result of the minds ability to perceive a sound to be paranormal when in a large, "spooky", supposedly haunted building when you are relatively alone.  No data was acquired that could be considered paranormal in nature.  Only one reliable source could be found that had claimed to experience a paranormal event.  NNYPRS was able to find natural explanations to all of his reports.  Any other report of activity is of the “friend of a friend” variety, and not able to be substantiated.