THE LUCAS HOUSE
Location: The Lucas Brothers (aka JONAS) preside in a restored and converted fire house (formerly Firehouse 25) in Teaneck, New Jersey; because of their status as celebrities, we have been asked not to reveal their address or location.
Description of Place: A one story former garage with a two-story attachment, the Lucas House is a converted fire house converted into a residence. Elements of the former construction include three fire poles for the brothers to descend into the main living quarters (the former garage area). The location includes three bedrooms, a kitchen area and recreation room.
Ghostly Manifestations: Kevin, Joe and Nick Lucas of the band, JONAS, have something in common with their fellow celebrities Mena Suvari, Neve Campbell and Regis Philbin: they all had encounters with ghosts. Mena's childhood home was reported to be haunted. Neve Campbell thought her Beverly Hills home was haunted, and when Regis was still a young and coming new talent. he saw a ghost at the haunted Whaley House in San Diego. In Hollywood, comedian Blake Clarke of the TV Series "Home Improvement" experienced ghost as the Comedy Club in Los Angeles. Actor Dick Christie shares his home with the ghost of Silent Film star, Buster Keaton. It seems not even celebrities are immune to seeing ghosts.
According to legend, a volunteer firefighter named William Russell Smith haunts former Fire House 25, now the home of the Lucas Brothers. On April 15, 1927. he was washing windows at the fire station when he decided to have a break, go upstairs and rest for a while. By dinnertime, it was noticed that no one had seen him in a while, and when the staff checked on him, they realized that he had quietly passed away in his sleep. Since then, Volunteer Fireman Smith goes on unaware he has passed over, doing his duties and and generally making himself known to the living. According to tradition, his apparition is particularly active around the anniversary of his death, and for a short while at least, the brothers celebrated their local haunt with a local basement Halloween attraction.
Since then, there have been a number of stories about people who knew Smith and then gaze up to the southwest corner of the building where the bunk room is located to see him still looking down on him. Most of these tales actually occurred during the Fifties, the last period of time since anyone had seen or heard of the ghost.
"If people don't believe in ghosts when they come here, it doesn't take too long before they do," Retired firefighter Amos Tisdale remarks. "There is something here that can't be explained."
"I was up late one night," Tisdale continues. "It was about one in the morning, and I was alone watching television. All of a sudden, I heard a door open behind me. I could hear a door open behind me, the latch turn and the sound of footsteps. I called out, 'Who's coming in?' and nobody answered. The inside door was open, but the outside door was locked. Another fireman was asleep in a room on the main floor; I could hear him snoring. Two other guys were asleep in the bunk room on the second floor, but no one else came in."
Frank Earles, another firefighter, used to bunk in Fire Station 25. One night, while at the station, he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. It was misty and misshapen human figure. He tried to ignore it, only to realize something strange was happening.
"I stood up and looked at it and said, 'What the heck is this?' but then it vanished." Earles adds the shape was humanlike and had a defined head. He also told of getting up at night and finding the refrigerator door open. He would close it, and upon passing by on the way back to his bunk, it was open again. A hungry ghost? Or one just repeating the traits it had when it was a real person? When he was alive, Smith did most of the cooking for the other fire fighters, and for at least a year after he died, his fellow fire fighters could still smell the scent of his chili wafting through the place. New men who never knew Smith also came in time to time looking for chili being cooked on the stove but never found it.
"The property backs the football fields of the local school house plus there are residences just a block or two away." Tisdale figures. "We wondered if that was where it was coming from."
In 1955, several fire fighters reported hearing footsteps when no one was there, and another fireman, Leon Musso, described having the feeling of being watched during his time at Fire Station 25. He's lucky that's all he experienced. Tisdale tells a story of a firefighter he once spoke with who had the terrifying experience of being pinned to his bunk by an unseen force.
In October 2004, Charley Staub, a firefighter at Station 25 beginning in 1958, recalled five accounts of firefighters being pinned down in bed. He spoke to one of them.
"He said it was like someone was
sitting on his chest, and he couldn't move and could barely breathe," Staub
recalled. "I know he was so scared after that he would only sleep in the
day room." He went on to say practically every October, the instances
of being pinned down would be repeated with nine different firefighters, none of
whom, he said, had prior knowledge of such phenomenon. Each gave nearly
identical accounts of how something very powerful and unseen held them firmly to
their beds, but no one knows what these attacks could possibly mean.
"No one knows..." Chief Walter Cyrus
remarks in 1976 interview. "I don't believe in ghosts and not that one (the
Fire Station 25 ghost) in particular." He was the the fire chief from 1965
to 1975 when the station closed down, replaced by a large more recent one in
another part of Teaneck. While the legend of the firehouse ghost has a long
history on Jonas Street, Chief Cyrus said he hasn't heard of any recent
sightings.
"I haven't really heard too much the past couple of years," He told the Collinsport Ghost Society. "I thought maybe the ghost would move to the new fire station once it was completed, because it was so much nicer, but all's been quiet here."
In 2008, Tom Lucas purchased the old firehouse in the residential district of Teaneck for his family and had a hand in re-designing the location into a home. The old lockers upstairs were torn out and turned into a recording studio. The bunk room was turned into living quarters for his pop star sons while the old garage area was converted into living quarters. A few things like bells, the fire hoses and fire poles was saved to keep up the ambience of the structure. About the only room that stayed relatively intact was the recreation room in back with the pool table and television area.
"Yeah,
the real estate agent told me about the alleged ghost." Tom confesses.
"I'm not sure if it's still here. Sometimes a light that's been turned off
comes back on or we hear footsteps going across the top floor, but other than
that, I'm not really worried about it. Just recently, I was taking the trash out
while the boys were out and I noticed a strange figure blocking out the light of
their room upstairs. Could it have been the ghost? I guess, but... I'm not
really that concerned about it."
History: According to local records, before the firehouse was built on the location in 1895, a previous structure once sat on current lot. It was an apartment house that housed Civil War veterans, but it burned down in 1888. Before that, there are rumors of yet another more older farmhouse on the property back when the entire area was farmland, but there are no current records to confirm that.
Identity of Ghosts: Volunteer Fireman William Smith is the more popular ghost, but psychic Dawn Rochner of the Collinsport Ghost Society claims she also saw the apparitions of two Civil War veterans who had died in the earlier structure. She also described another much earlier revenant she named Sadie Winters. Allegedly, Sadie's husband accused her of witchcraft in October 1786 in order to get rid of her and marry another woman, but this can't be confirmed because her husband, James Winters appears in census records with only one wife. One wonders of Sadie really existed and was just erased from the records and history itself. According to legend, Sadie swore she would return and attack any man living on the site. It's possible she's the presence who has attacked the nine men. Nevertheless, one resource that republished the CGS investigation seems to have merged all the stories about the ghosts with Volunteer Fireman Smith.
Source/Comments: JONAS TV-series (Episode: "Tale of the Haunted Fire House") Activity loosely based on Fire House 18 in Syracuse, New York, Fire House 107 in Chicago, Illinois and Fire House 1 at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.
"Ghosts, Ghouls and Cleanest Hot Dog Stands of New Jersey" by Farm Fresh Foods, Distributors of Mr. Piggy Hot Dogs