The Ghost in the Window (OT)

Okay, so people didn't like the idea in the previous post. That's fine. I'm just interested in the problem of how to raise the stature of top-level inkjet printing to where I feel it deserves to be. The technology—and the results—have gotten very very good. I should mention, however, that "IHD print" will be on the year-end TOP trivia quiz.

Although the thought did occur to me, driving home from the store at twilight, that maybe we should do the opposite, and revel in the downmarket, populist, working class associations of inkjets. It's the peoples' medium; common and despised; and power to the people.

Above is one of our local haunted houses, the Wirtwerth mansion. The bit on the left is not original; that was the location of the sunroom, where town merchant Angus Wirtwerth caused his own death by means unknown in 1892, after which old Mrs. Wirtwerth went mad, it is said. The sunroom was lost to fire, and the current addition is crude and not in keeping with the architecture of the house. Mrs. W. lived all the way until 1924, tormented by students from the nearby Central High School (now Central Middle School). Halloweens were said to be hard on old Mrs. Wirtwerth. Allegedly she threatened any children brave enough to come to her door.

Then in the late 1950s and 1960s, by then considerably run down, it was first a rental boardinghouse and then a halfway house for sex offenders from Milwaukee County. It was abandoned in 1972.

At some point, the story began to circulate that the ghost of Mrs. Wirtwerth could occasionally be seen in the upper right of the two pairs of windows.

Then, in 1978, a 13-year-old boy named Russell Branconier disappeared from town without a trace, and his disappearance was troublingly tied up with the old house. The evening he went missing, he and two friends had secretly made plans to break in to the Wirtwerth mansion, at midnight—on the night of a full moon no less—to confront the ghost head on, if she were indeed to be found there. Once on the scene, as the clock ticked toward midnight, with the looming clouds scudding across the moon and eclipsing its light, the two friends both held back, and finally chickened out and went home. Neither, however, believed their friend Russ would carry out his plans alone—that was according to their later interviews with police.

There are many opinions about the fate of Russell Branconier. Some consider it obvious that his demise was caused by the ghost of Mrs. Wirtwerth, with a minority opinion holding that it might have been Mr. Wirtwerth's ghost; others say Russell was killed by a sex offender who had taken to sheltering in the abandoned house, nights—although no evidence pointing in that direction was found. And some say Russell planned the stunt to create confusion to mask his plan to run away from home.

There are also divergent opinions as to the identity of the ghost that appears in the window. A few hold it is Angus; many feel that it is Russell Branconier, eternally 13 years old and trapped inside; but most people think it is the malevolent widow, still angry at being mistreated by the town's teenagers, peering out at the street, pining for someone to dare to enter the house again—at night, when the moon is full.

The now decrepit house is almost lost between two very ugly 1970s-era office buildings, and is half hidden by the large tree on the left. Many people who live in town, and even some who drive by it every day, hardly know it is there.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

DavidB: "Is it cheap? Could be TOP's New headquarters. Looks big and think of the stories you could tell—you might even be able to charge admission!"

HT: "Hmmm, are you saying...no. No, it can't be that."

Comments

[Ryan Nielson]

Thanks for the post Mike, ghost stories are fun.

[Michael]

Thanks for that spooky story. Good for a campfire and a flashlight pointed up under the chin.

[Doug Howk]

A fixer-upper that would be perfect for TOP headquarters ;-) Plenty of bandwidth available with the office buildings flanking it. Since internet sites are expected to be 24 by 7, could recruit a ghostly crew for the night-shift.

[Mark Scholey]

Is this new TOP Head Office? ;-)

[cfw]

The new TOP world headquarters, maybe?

[Sylvain]

I vote this place for "New TOP HQ".

[Skip]

Hey Mike! Can you buy it for cheap and fix it up for yourself. It should have a lot of room for an office.

[Stephen F Faust]

Hmmm...I'm sensing that this post is really our first introduction to the future TOP World HQ. Hopefully the price is reasonable and it won't take too many more print sales to close the sale. Bonus: The house comes with unpaid interns to help around the office!

[Mitch Cohen]

Sounds like you could get it for a song. New TOP World Headquarters?

[bongo]

looks like a fine place for the new T.O.P. headquarters

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Hmm. Strongly reminds me George and Mary Bailey's house in It's a Wonderful Life.

Perhaps the ideal site for the new TOP HQ?

[Jayson Merryfield]

Looks like a nice place for the new TOP HQ. I wonder if the widow Wirtwerth has picked up any office assistant skills in her decades stuck in limbo.

[robert e]

I've said it before, but you really do have a way with the middle and low tones, Mike.

[Crabby Umbo]

...sounds like a page from Wisconsin Death Trip...

[Ed Hawco]

Mike, it's staring right at you: TOP World Headquarters! Buy it for a song, do a bit of reno, and Bob's your uncle! If the ghosts get restless just put them to work. Or go for tacos at Taco John's down the street until they settle down. Do it!

[Nicholas Condon]

I bet you could get this place real cheap, and it looks like it would be big enough for TOP World Headquarters, and I'm gonna guess that you wouldn't be particularly spooked by thoughts of ghosts...

[Dwain Barefield]

This structure reminded me of growing up in Chicago in the '50's. When I was around 4 yrs. old, my father moved us to a neighborhood on Chicago's Westside near Garfield Park, Garfield Park conservatory and Lucy Flower High School which was in the next block from our house.

Lots of old mansions at the time. The house next door was a 3-story structure with a long driveway and what may have been stables converted to car garages. Anyway, the family I suspect were descendants of the architect Martin Roche. As kids, we mispronounced the name (Roach) but thinking back it was probably Roche. Why? Because the house occupied a huge lot, the structures I mentioned previously(stables) and several Packard and Ford automobiles from the '20's & '30's one in particular was a 1939 Packard Twelve Town car. That was a neat car. I've never seen one like it since.

[Robert]

Sounds like it could be had for a song. New TOP HQ perhaps?

[Phil Maus]

Okay, so how many votes for TOP HQ does that make now?

And all along I thought the post was just supposed to be an interesting local lore ghost story to go along with an interesting photo of an old house.