Barley-Sheaf Theater Investigation Report

Location: Lionville, PA

Date: Friday, October 18, 2002, 8 p.m.

Moon Phase: Full

Solar Weather: Solar x-rays active, geomagnetic field unsettled

Investigators present: Hillary M., Paul M., Randy G., Bob R.

Equipment: Olympus C-3000 digital camera, RCA digital voice recorder, Sony digital video camera with Nightshot, Pentax PC-550 35mm camera, Extech EMF meter, Olympus 2000 Digital Voice Recorder, Radio Shack motion detectors, Sony NightShot video camera (Hi 8), Panasonic digital audio recorder, Sony stereo cassette recorder, Night Owl nightvision scope, Sony Mavica digital camera, Keystone Easy Shot 500x with fixed 38mm lens, Kodak Gold 400 speed color film, E.L.F.-Zone EMF meter, Sony mini recorder, Cyclops Compact Nightvision Scope, Radio Shack brand digital thermometer and hygrometer, Olympus D-220L digital camera with no strap, Radio Shack motion Sensors, Radio Shack EM86 digital recorder.

History: Very little is currently known about this building. It is believed to have been built in the mid to late 1800s, and was some sort of meeting place in years prior to 1973. In 1973, it was purchased by the Barley-Sheaf Players and was then known as Oddfellows Hall.

The strange happenings that have been witnessed here range from voices, footsteps and other strange noises, to lights flickering on and off. People also get a very strong feeling that they are not alone in the theater, even when they know that they are. As far as we know, no apparitions have ever been witnessed here.

Investigation: We arrived at the Hall just before 8 p.m. After introducing ourselves, our hosts, Jessica and Tim immediately took us on a tour of the building. Bob and I then sat down to interview our hosts, Tim and Jessica. During the course of the interview, Bob noticed a flash of movement towards the back part of the main theater. Without looking in the direction of this movement, he reached over and grabbed his camera. He took one picture and that picture showed a blue orb. We continued on with the interview.
At 8:25, I set up my video camera in the basement, Bob set up motion detectors in the doorways, and we all settled down in the main auditorium for a recording session. We began by sitting in silence for about ten minutes, then started asking questions. A minute after we turned out the lights, Randy began getting orb moving around the room on his NightShot video camera. After another five minutes, Randy said he was watching an orb move around me. I told him that I had been getting an overwhelming feeling that someone was standing over my left shoulder, and he confirmed that was where the orb was! Thirteen minutes later, some of us started to hear fairly loud noises behind the stage. The noises lasted for about three minutes. In the middle of those three minutes, three of us heard a whistle, which was not picked up by our audio or video recorders.
At 9:25, I moved my video camera to the main auditorium, we again set up motion detectors in the doorways, and we went downstairs to start an EVP session. The basement consists of two areas: a large, main room, and two small dressing rooms, painted bright red and bright green, which are separated from the main room by a hallway and wall. We all sat in silence for several minutes in the main room. Roughly ten minutes into the recording session, Bob and Randy got up to move into the dressing room area. Bob went into the room that was painted red and Randy went into the doorway of the one painted green. At almost 9:40, Bob began to hear something. It sounded like creaking shoe leather. Bob asked Randy if he heard this and he did not. Bob also asked him where he was standing and this was not the same area from which he heard the noise. The four of us in the large room began to hear noises above our heads, in the auditorium. Four minutes later, while sitting on the floor, Bob heard the creaking sound again and this time it was much louder. Almost instantly he felt something brush against him as if it were moving towards the door of the room.
After Bob made a remark about this occurrence, Randy moved into the red room and turned on the light, and I went down the hall and took a picture of the two of them. I got a large, but faint orb between them. Then the light in the room began to flicker. Bob began asking whether or not someone was controlling this. He began asking questions of the spirit. He asked it to try to manipulate the light, and the light continued to flicker. At one point he asked if whoever was controlling the light could turn it off or better yet, blow the bulb.
I took two pictures at this time…the first showed a strange glow right in front of Bob. I thought it was maybe glare off the paint on the opposite wall, so I took another picture from the same vantage point. Now the strange glow was still in front of Bob, but significantly lower. I began to take more pics, but the glow was gone. I left the room to see if anything was going on in the large room.
Shortly after I left, the light bulb completely shut off. Randy and Bob started to laugh about this actually happening. It was almost too good to be true. When I got to the end of the hall, I heard Bob say, "Hillary, get in here, you've got to see this!" I stumbled around in the dark for a while, then finally made my way back down the hallway. When I got close to the room, I saw the light come back on from a few steps away from the doorway. The light was off for approx. 30-45 seconds. Feeling like I was being avoided, I once again returned to the large room and asked the entity if they could replay the events with the light bulb. Unfortunately, though, nothing more happened in the basement.
At 11 p.m., we headed to the landing at the top of the steps to the second floor. Many people had gotten strange feelings from this area when they first walked in the door to the playhouse, like someone was looking down at them. Randy stayed at the bottom of the stairs with his video camera, and Bob began asking questions. I did get a pink orb moving around the ceiling during this session, but we didn't have anything strange happen.
At 11:10, we moved into the costume/prop area on the second floor. Bob smelled a musty odor upon entering, but it quickly dissipated. We got a few orbs here and heard some sounds which we were unable to explain, but that was about it.
At 11:20, we decided to try an EVP session again in the main auditorium. A few minutes into the session, we all heard clicking noises moving around the darkened auditorium. At 11:29, we heard noises above our heads in the prop room, and began to feel like we were being watched through the trap door in the ceiling. Two minutes later, Bob and I, who were sitting on the stage, began to feel very cold. The batteries were dead on my camera (from natural causes, I believe), so Bob handed me his camera. I slid off the stage, took a few steps forward, and turned around to face Bob. I began taking pictures. Three minutes later, we heard a fairly loud noise between Bob and I. We were not more than four feet apart. I actually asked if he made the noise, and he responded that he thought it was me. I took several more pictures on the 35mm camera, and then turned on the lights. Bob checked his digital thermometer and found that there had been a large temperature jump (to 86 degrees) during our recording session. This was a 22-degree jump off of ambient. We thanked our hosts, gathered our things, and left just before midnight.

Afterward: We did not obtain any EVPs that night, however, after reviewing my infrared video, I found that we did obtain something strange. When I set up the video camera in the auditorium before we all went downstairs, I immediately began to record orbs moving quickly around the room. This lasts for a few minutes after we leave the room, then, you see something that looks like a twisted ribbon moved in front of the camera. It enters the frame from the top, and curves out of the frame on the bottom. It resembles a piece of twisting crepe paper, but does not float or twist. It actually moves so fast that it is only in two frames, and lasts about .5 seconds. Honestly, we are baffled as too what this could be. We did not find any crepe paper on the floor around the camera. Being that the walls, floor, and ceiling of the auditorium are all painted a matte black, a piece of crepe paper would have stuck out like a sore thumb. Did we catch a vortex on video? Good question. I will say that after the "thing" appears, the orb movement completely ceases. A picture of the video frames can be seen with the other investigation pictures.

Conclusion: Considering the video, the moving orb pictures, and the activity we experienced first-hand, I would have to say that there is something going on in the playhouse. The entity or entities here apparently want to make their presence known and seemed to want to communicate with us. I do not know exactly what we caught on video, but would love to hear from anyone who has a suggestion. I would also like to learn just what kind of rituals the Oddfellows practiced in this building. Hopefully we will get a chance to further investigate this site.

Thanks very much to the Barley-Sheaf Players for allowing us to investigate this building, and especially to Tim and Jessica for putting up with us.

Submitted by Hillary Murdoch as a compilation of reports.