AUBURN — Brandon Chaloux is building manager at the Community Little Theatre, but there’s parts of the building he stays away from.

One of them is a basement shower with no working lights that was once part of the former high school’s locker room. The basement is used primarily for theater storage for stage items like scenery and props.

Chaloux, who also serves as the theater’s vice president, said he often hears noises in the basement — the sounds of shuffling feet and footsteps, or scenery sets clanking against each other.

“I’m not a big ghost person,” he said. “I didn’t really believe in it, but it’s one of those things that once you experience it, all of a sudden you believe in it.”

Apparently, he’s far from the only one in Auburn who believes.

As Halloween approached this year, Auburn city staff used social media to ask residents to name places with reputations for being haunted. It received more than 100 comments, some that even surprised staff members. The Community Little Theatre was listed often, as was the Auburn Public Library, which is known to have an in-house librarian ghost, Central Maine Community College and the Engine House on Court Street.

“It was fun and more than a little intriguing, reading all of the comments,” said Liz Allen, Auburn’s communications director. “Every community has its ghost stories and Auburn is no exception. If that post is any indication, there are certainly some folks here who have experienced things that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.”

Last year, Central Maine Ghost Hunters, local paranormal investigators, filmed an episode of its web series at the Community Little Theatre. The group captured audio that purports to show spirits talking, as well as video clips of light anomalies. At one point, a drone used to take footage of a hallway took on “a mind of its own,” according to an investigator.

On Friday, Chaloux showed the Sun Journal around the building. It was the original location of Edward Little High School, and then served as Great Falls School before being turned over to the theater. After some convincing, Chaloux walked down to where most people familiar with the theater know to be haunted — the basement. To reach the open basement area, he first walked through a dark hallway, full of echoes.

He described his feelings in the building as “not really being alone,” or like he’s being followed. But he said he never feels like he’s in danger.

Chaloux turned on every light he could, but it didn’t do much to shift the atmosphere. He pointed out an adjacent darkened room that features a shower. When the Sun Journal asked to see it, Chaloux said he’s only been in there a couple times because it’s so creepy.

More than a handful of comments on the city’s original social media post mention the building, including one from Alex Bisson.

“When I was a kid and did theater the place was so scary to be alone in, I refused to go down any of those hallways by myself,” he said.

In 2012, the Sun Journal tagged along with paranormal investigator Howard Labbe to the Auburn Public Library, who had previously found that the building’s balcony is haunted by the ghost of Annie Prescott, its first librarian. Labbe ended up doing a presentation at the library about his work.

On Friday, library Director Mamie Anthoine Ney said she’s heard all the stories and was well-versed in librarian Annie’s hold on the original section of the building. She said supposedly things have been moved or disappeared, but she’s never seen anything ghostly. The library’s bookkeeper claims to have seen Annie, she said.

“I think it’s possible, but I don’t worry about it,” she said.

Chaloux, who has been with the Community Little Theatre since 2008, said he’s pretty much used to it by now.

“It doesn’t really phase me anymore, but sometimes someone who’s new to the building will say they’ve heard doors closing or footsteps, and I always tell them, ‘It’s nothing to worry about, probably just a ghost,'” he said. “I think it comes off as a joke, but I’m not joking.”

After all — as Auburn staff pointed out — the high school mascot is a ghost, right?

Staff photographer Andree Kehn also contributed to this story. 

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