PHILADELPHIA, AMERICA'S MOST HAUNTED CITY

Academy of Music

CURTIS PUBLISHING BUILDING

Date:October 1972 Location: Curtis Publishing Building ~ Washington Square- Philadelphia Located on the northern part of Washington Square, a stones throw from Independance Hall, the Curtis Publishing House, one of the most beautiful of buildings in all of Philadelphia.

The Curtis Publishing house was home to the Saturday Evening Post, the Ladies Home Journal and Jack and Jill magazines.

In the eastern lobby is a giant glass mosaic called "The Dream Garden" it is 15 feet high by 49 feet long, it consists of 100,000 pieces of hand fired glass which are of 260 different colortones, It was made by the Tiffany company based on a painting by Maxfield Parrish, in the front of the glass mosaic is a reflecting pool, all of this is set in white marble, a most beautiful sight .

Our story was told to us by Leon Thompson, a former security guard at the building;...." I was always a very private person, I would always mind my own business and just go about and do my job, I really did not go out of my way to make friends where I worked, but in the time I was at the Curtis building one young couple that I did befriend and they in return me , will always stick out in my mind.

His name was John and he was a copywriter, he worked right here in this building, he was a very nice person , a gentleman, he always treated me with a lot of respect, we would always talk about sports or politics or whatever were the hot topics of the day .

Her name was Sally, she worked as a secretary at the Penn Mutual company which is across the street, she was a very sweet person, a beautiful girl.

It was in October of 1972, the 14th,that they met, It will become clear later why I remember this date, October is very beautiful around here, the leaves are changing, the sky is a crisp clear blue, the first day they met you knew that they were destined to be together, they would often meet for lunch or breaks right in that lobby that has that glass mosaic, every time you turned around they were right there on that bench.

It was one year from the date they met that John shared with me that he was going to propose to Sally, I remember it so clear, as if it were yesterday, when John popped the question in the lobby, she of course said yes, they were both so happy, that he picked her up and swung her around, they both fell into the reflecting pool that is in front of the glass mosaic, I heard this splash and laughing and I came running in to investigate , what a happy scene!

. Well their engagement lasted one year and on the 14th they were married at City Hall and they came here to take pictures, it was really funny , they took a photo of themselves standing in the reflecting pool. .

For their honeymoon they were going to Mexico, but what should have been a very happy day was a tragic day, their plane that they were on crashed, with no survivors, what a sad day, I still grieve them. .

I don't expect anyone to believe me but for the five years that I worked at the Curtis building after that tragedy, every October 14th at 6 pm there is a visible splash at that reflecting pool and the faint sound of laughter could still be heard, I think it is their way of telling me that everything is ok.

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