Website Claims Silverton's Adolf Wolf Building is Haunted

A website called Oregon Haunted Houses sites the historic Adolf Wolf building to be haunted. The website claims an apparition of an older man wanders around on the upper floor of the building, along with cold spots and a disembodied voice. The website says the activity started shortly after the building went through some renovations.

F.M. Starrett was Silverton's first architect and constructed the building in 1981. The front of the building has cast-iron details. There are wooden pilers in the center of the building made from tree trunks, milled in Silverton. But most of the building was built using resources such as brick from a local yard.

Adolf Wolf was the first owner from 1891 -1899 and had a general merchandise store called Adolf Wolf and Sons General Merchandise. After Wolf, the building had five owners, then in 1984, the build was empty and remained empty until 2004, when Mohsen Salem started renovations of all three building stories to pass inspections. Currently, a business called Maine Street Bistro & Coffee occupies the building.

Adolf Wolf (Curtesy of Silverton Country Historical Society)

Paranormal investigator Sandy Fujan from Northeast Oregon Paranormal says, "I believe renovations can cause the spirits to become more active. I used to live in and home, and any time we would do renovations, the activity would ramp up."

The claim states that the paranormal activity did not start until after the building was renovated. Julia (she did not want her last name used) currently works at the Maine Street Bistro & Coffee. Julia says she is a believer in the paranormal, but she has not experienced anything that she cannot explain in the building.

Reddit user Ditzy_Questions says, "I asked my friend whose uncle used to run the skate shop in the basement there, and his dad had a hardware store above for like 50 years, he said he's never heard of this either. It sounds like someone is getting duped."

Gus Frederick is the president of the Silverton Country Historical Society. Frederick is skeptical about the paranormal, but he did say that tragedy struck Wolf's family with his daughter Sophie's death. Sophie died of breast cancer shortly after she was married to a man named Pearl Geer.

The illustration was done by Sam Ames, third owner of the Wolf Building. Here's the faculty. Sam's daughter Lora Ames is in the lower left. Sophie Wolf in the center, with Pearl Geer at the top. Also in the group, Homer Davenport's sister Alice Davenport.(Caption By Gus Frederick, Photo Curtesy of Silverton Country Historical Society)

Frederick wrote on Reddit, "I suppose the "old man" could be Adolf pining for his dear Sophie," and that many early silvertonians were spiritualists.

Fujan said, "There is a theory that when something intensely emotional happens (good or bad), it can leave an imprint on a building, land, etc."

Although there are claims that the building is haunted, and the building has some of the conditions that paranormal investigators believe can cause a haunting. The activity seems to have calmed down since the renovations in 2004.

“I can only speak from personal experience, but the activity in my old home would calm down a few weeks after we were done renovating,” says Fujan. “That may not be the case elsewhere as every location (and spirit) is different.”

There is no evidence to verify that the building is currently haunted without doing an investigation. Julia says she is doubtful that the current owner would allow an investigation of the structure, so the claim of the building being haunted is currently unchecked.