Forepaugh's Resturant

Forepaugh's is the former residence of St. Paul pioneer Joseph Lybrandt Forepaugh, who built this elegant Victorian house in 1870 for his wife Mary and their two small daughters. It was  an impressive home - built at the cost of ten thousand dollars - entirely suitable for the family of a successful entrepreneur. Forepaugh, then thirty-six years old, was senior partner in the firm of J. L. Forepaugh & Company. It was the first exclusively wholesale dry goods house in Minnesota - the largest in the Northwest. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

In 1886, the house was sold to General John Henry Hammond, a retired Civil War Veteran. Forepaugh and family were traveling to Europe "for an indefinite time". They returned in 1889 and built a second palatial home at 302 Summit Avenue, overlooking the city and his first home. On July 8, 1892, Joseph L. Forepaugh took his own life. Plagued by a severe depression, he felt that his business interests were doing poorly. His body was found in a nearby park with a bullet in his head and the gun still clenched in his hand.

Some claimed that Forepaugh worried needlessly about his financial affairs, leading to his suicide, but others whispered that his death had more to do with an affair of the heart than money. And they may have been right.... upon learning of his death, one of the household maids, a young girl named Molly, also killed herself. She was found hanged from an overhead light in an upstairs room. The other servants in the house believed that Molly and Forepaugh had been having an affair and the man killed himself realizing that the two of them could never be together.

Many believe that it may be Molly's ghost who has come back to haunt the place. Restaurant owner James Crnkovich recalled a special event at the place where the servers wore l9th century period clothing as costumes. As a waitress was setting up for dinner, an unknown woman in the same type of clothing (although not a dress supplied by the costume company) walked down a nearby hallway and disappeared. Staff members also talk of unusual events that happen with the customers and other employees like lights turning on and off in the basement, cold chills, strange noises and of course, the ghost of Molly.

(Forepaugh's Resturant is located at 276  South Exchange ST , St Paul Mn. Phone:(651)-224-5606.  while you are there ask to see the wedding photo that has the ghost of molly in it.)