Ghost Stories from the Conrad Mansion

The Conrad Mansion was the home of Charles E. Conrad, who is considered to be the founder of Kalispell (Salish Indian name meaning "prairie above the lake"). Charles and his wife, Alicia (nicknamed "Lettie), moved with their two children into the Flathead Valley in 1891. This grand home (13,000 sq. ft) was designed and built by Spokane, WA architect Kirtland Cutter in 1895, and sat on Conrad's 72 acre estate.

Charles and Alicia established a solid reputation for hospitality and generosity in the community. We were told that Alicia's favorite holidays were Halloween and Christmas.

I'm going to add this piece of history here, as I found this quite interesting. Charles had been married once before Lettie. He was married to "Sings-in-the-Middle", the daughter of a Blackfoot leader of the North Peigan. Mr. Conrad's first son, Charles E. Conrad, Jr. born in 1876, was from this union. Sings-in-the-Middle returned to her father’s tribe in Canada, where she died prior to 1881, when her son would have been only 5. Charles Jr. remained with his father, but died just 3 years after his father at the age of 29.

The Conrad's had 3 children -- Charles (mentioned above), Kate (born at Fort Benton in 1885), and their youngest, Alicia Conrad Campbell (born in Kalispell in 1892). Alicia lived in the Conrad's home until 1964. In 1974, she donated the home to the city of Kalispell to be maintained in perpetuity as a historic site in memory of her parents. It is said she loved this home.

Charles Conrad lived in his beautiful home for only seven years. He died in 1902 in his bedroom of the home at age 52 from complications of diabetes and tuberculosis. His wife Lettie died in the same bed in 1923.

I mention this last item because the family has been see in the home many times by the director, the guides, and the visitors. I took the opportunity to buy a ticket for the "Haunted Ghost Tour" of the Conrad Mansion. I didn't realize that the mansion was considered haunted, but the stories of encounters are quite amazing.

The mansion has had the Montana Paranormal Society (called M.A.P.S) come to investigate the paranormal activity of the mansion. We saw several recordings, one of which you could see a ghostly face come through the door. Because you can see a mustache, this is believed to be Charles Conrad.





(The beautiful large stone fence surrounds the mansion)


Apparently many people have experienced rooms turning cold, felt the brushing of shoulders as they went up and down the stairs, heard footsteps on the floors and stairways, felt someone's hand being put on their shoulder, a head laid on their shoulder, etc. And many of the people who work in the mansion have seen apparitions of Charles, his wife Alicia (Lettie), and the young daughter, Alicia. Both Charles and his wife died in the mansion, but it is unusual for the daughter to be haunting the mansion, as she did not die in the house.


(Alicia Conrad, 22, on her June 10, 1914 wedding day to Wally McCutcheon. This union ended in divorce in 1924. She later married George Campbell of Great Falls, MT - picture taken from the Conrad Mansion web site)


So let's start......we went through the kitchen into the servant's anti-room, from which the servants could enter the various rooms in the house. We were told the story that happened to the "former" director of the mansion. She was alone, doing some chores in the anti-room and had pulled out the sweeper. Several years ago, a stray cat named Sweety Pie "adopted" the mansion. Apparently Sweety Pie got past the director and ran up the stairs to the upper floors. The director decided she would finish her chores and then go upstairs to find the cat. All of a sudden, the cat came running down the stairs and into what they call the "Grandmother" hallway. The director looked up, and saw the ghost of Alicia running after the cat into this hallway. Alicia loved cats, and while she lived as a child in the mansion, she had about 13 cats. The story was the director quickly gathered up the sweeper, left the house, and didn't return for 2 days. I don't know if it was at this time the director became a "former" director -- but it would make sense!!

As we went up the stairs to the 2nd floor and the bedrooms, we saw what they call the "Antique" bedroom, which was used for guests. It is the largest of the guest bedrooms, and Teddy Roosevelt used to stay in this room when he visited the Conrads. There have been "vapors" spotted in this room.

There are several other guest rooms on the 2nd floor, and the best ghost story of the evening was told by an elderly gentleman who spent many hours alone in the home painting the inside of the house. It gave me "chills" listing to the tale directly from the person who experienced it.

Once when he was painting in the main entrance way, he saw a rocking chair "rocking" with no one in it. As it turns out, during Christmas (Lettie's favorite holiday), the family always had a two story Christmas tree in the entrance, and back in the late 1800's, they used 100s of real bees wax candles on the trees, and a China-man would sit in that rocking chair watching that the candles didn't catch anything on fire.

But that was just the opening story. It was towards the end of the day, around 4:30, and he was looking forward to finishing work for the day and going home. He was alone in the house, in the guest bedroom painting, and he heard footsteps coming down the hallway, and sounds of crinkling paper. He looked up from his painting to see the apparition of a lady dressed in Victoria dress, with her hair piled on her head in the style of that time. She was walking down the hallway, swinging her arm, and she stopped at the door, and looked into the room. Needless to say, the painter had dropped his jaw at this sight. The lady was Mrs. Conrad. He felt she was there inspecting his paint job. She turned and continued to walk down the hallway, and down the stairs which led to the kitchen.

He said he was shaken, and tiptoed to the doorway in time to watch Mrs. Conrad go down the stairs. Normally this gentleman was very fastidious, always leaving his brushes cleaned....but on this day he said he dropped his brush in the paint bucket and left. He was suppose to go out of the house through the kitchen and lock up that door. But instead, he headed in the opposite direction, down the main stairway, taking 3 steps with each stride. He went out the front door and did not look back!!!

There is a beautiful billiards room on the 2nd floor, and the wall next to it is a full mirror. Several visitors have told the staff that they have seen a man smoking a cigar in the reflection of the billiards room in this mirror, but when they looked directly into the room, there was no man.

On the other end of the 2nd floor are the bedroom suites for the family. They all have a bath (I would think this unusual in 1895), and they all have connecting doors. The first room is that of the daughter Alicia. There are pictures of Alicia in the room, and they say several young girls who visited the house have seen a young girl (looking like Alicia) rocking in her rocking chair, reading a book.

The next room is that of Charles and Alicia (Lettie) Conrad. As I mentioned earlier, both of them died in their bed in that room. Lettie died in 1923, and she was in the bedroom resting, when her health took a turn for the worse. Her breathing was labored, and friends and family were summoned as it appeared she might not make it. Her brother, Harry, was with her when her breathing became better and she sat up in bed. She looked towards the east window, held her arms out as though to greet someone, and said, "Oh Charlie......you came for me". Then she laid back and died. Harry was not a religious man, but he apparently saw the ghost of Charles Conrad coming back for his bride.

The next room belonged to the daughter, Kate, and is called the Rose Room. The staff has reported on several occasions hearing noise in this room, and when they entered the room to check, they found the candle sticks that had been sitting on the fireplace mantle thrown across the room. Before Christmas, they hold a Christmas Bazaar in the home (which I attended), and this was held several weeks ago. During this bazaar, they would find vendor pictures moved to different places and turned face down on the floor -- 2 days in a row.

(I tried to get a picture of the 18 foot Christmas Tree which is put up during the Bazaar -- could only get a portion)

Another example of items being moved comes from one of the carriage houses across the street. It has been enlarged and is now a retail outlet. The Assistant Director said she wanted to visit the house and see the original part of the building. When she visited, the people who ran the store told her that every evening they would lock up the store, and the next morning, a stack of hats was always thrown across the room. They also told stories of seeing ghosts walking up the stairs to the door, and then finding no one there.

The next stop was to the attic, which has many stories. There is a children's play room in the attic, and at one point, workmen were repairing the roof, and there was a hole in the roof where they could look down into this playroom. They saw the ghost of Alicia waving at them.

Another guide reported that several times when she was in the attic guiding visitors, she would feel a tickling on her ear -- kind of like a bug was on her ear. She would just try to wave it away. This happened on 4 or 5 tours. On the last time, she was leading the group out, walking backwards through the open attic. She bumped into something, which felt like a person. It physically stopped her progress, and she turned around to apologize -- but there was no one there. And the tour group witnessed her "bump" into what looked like open air.

Another guide in the mansion, had actually known Alicia and her second husband, George, when he was a boy. He had come to the attic to make sure the emergency exit door was locked, and saw the ghosts of Alicia and George. They spoke to him and said they were so happy the home was being used. Now that is spooky!!



So......believe it or not, these stories gave me chills up my spine, even as I was driving away. I almost felt disappointed that I had not felt a ghostly hand on my shoulder -- ALMOST.

(Gazebo on the property)


I didn't get a chance to really see the house, as we toured in minimal light (really, it was dark). But I could see some of the beautiful woodwork and stained glass in the house. The Christmas tours start after Thanksgiving, and I can't wait to go back to really see the house and hear the stories of the family.