Leslie Brand

"SOMETHING GHOSTLY THIS WAY COMES" By Nancy Garza Accent Reprinted with permission Glendale News Press, October 30, 1993

It was a dark, moonless night. Everyone had left Brand Library hours ago. Everyone, that is, except Joe.

Joseph Fuchs, Library Services Administrator, sat at a desk in his office high in the library tower. It was an isolated room, accessible only by climbing a narrow and winding staircase.

By 8 p.m., he was ready to go home. So he put his things away, picked up his satchel and started out. He stopped at the office door for a few moments to gather his thoughts and make sure he had everything he needed.

Suddenly, he heard a low, moaning voice coming from below. "Joe!" it said.

"That's weird," he thought. "Everyone left two hours ago ' "

But he figured it was a clerk who had come back for something, and seeing the light on in the tower, wondered if Joe was still up there.

"Yeah? Hi! Who is it?" he yelled.

No answer.

It struck him that what he heard had not come from the ground floor but from the center of the staircase, which was clearly visible from where he stood. Yet no one was there.

Then another realization: he had assumed the voice had said "Joe!" But actually, it had said "Go!"

Heart pounding and flesh tingling. Joe somehow made his way down the staircase. To avoid walking through dark, empty rooms he switched on one light, then went back to turn off the previous light, continuing like that until he finally, got out the front door and into the safety of his car.

Was this just the imagination of an over-tired individual? Or is there really a ghost that haunts Brand Library? Before deciding, consider the following story told by Lisa Blessing, senior customer service representative for the library:

"One afternoon I was working in the room at the bottom of the stairway. I was carrying books to a table when suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a male figure climbing the stairs. I was about to tell him that the upper floor was off limits to the public when I realized there wasn't anybody there. But I strongly felt, and still do, that someone was there."

Consider also the strange observations of other staff members. Some say they've heard footsteps coming from the room overhead. Others say books have suddenly fallen over. A clerk says he once saw shadows on the stairs. In each case, no one was there.

Still another person recalls a cat who lived in the library a few years ago whose hair would stand on end when it entered certain parts of the building. In fact, almost every, staff member admits to feeling "some thing there" in the older sections of the library.

Then there are the stories about the tower.

Before it was converted to an office several years ago, the tower was a storage room. According to Fuchs, few staff members were willing to work up there.

"There seemed to be a feeling of a presence," he said. "And there was a kind of cold air that all of a sudden would come out of nowhere and sort of move by you."

He also recalls that in the past, when the custodians worked the night shift, the crew supervisor had to clean the tower room alone. He told Fuchs that his men wouldn't do it; they had been up there and didn't like what happened.

So, do all these stories add up to a real ghost?

Ghost-hunter, lecturer and author of the soon-to-be released "The Haunted Southland" (Charon Press), Richard Senate, thinks so.

"You've got the outline of a classic haunting here," Senate said. You've got drafts of cold air, the feeling of being watched, the voices and a very loose apparition. All these are indicative of a true haunting. And the fact that you've got multiple people having different experiences is substantiating.

Of course, there's no scientific proof that ghosts exist, Senate says. They can't be put in a bottle or a cage to be examined. But they can be studied by their behavior. And based on how cases have been reported over 130 years, this is a typical sort of haunting, he says.

But if there is a ghost haunting Brand Library, just who is it?

"We think it's the ghost of L.C. Brand," Fuchs said, referring to the early Glendale developer who died in 1925. "Not Mrs. Brand but Mr. Brand. And that's in part because of the voice that's been heard and people catching a glimpse out of the corner of their eye ' Also, Mr. Brand died here in this building, whereas Mrs. Brand died in an auto accident in Arizona."

Senate agrees. "Since he died in the house, that's a pretty good indicator that it might be his presence."

But many library staff members need no convincing. They just have a feeling that Brand is still around, One of them is customer service representative Amy Wilson. She tells this story:

"I work a lot at the circulation desk. On the wall behind the desk are two paintings: One of Mr. Brand and one of Mrs. Brand. When I'm up there and sometimes when I'm walking around, I feel like Mr. Brand is watching me. It seems like he's alive in the picture. But for some reason, Mrs. Brand is not. I've always felt that way."

Now, before making your final decision as to the authenticity of this ghost, consider this last piece of evidence: The library itself.

Before becoming a public building, Brand Library was the mansion of Leslie C. Brand. He built the house in 1904, modeling it after an East Indian palace with crenelated arches, huge domes and minarets. The interior was richly decorated with silk damask wall coverings, handcrafted woodwork and Tiffany leaded glass windows.

The house contained five bedrooms, a solarium, parlor, living room, drawing room, dining room and music salon. On his expansive grounds, Brand built a clubhouse, tennis courts, a swimming pool, kennels, a dog graveyard and a family cemetery. He even built an airstrip and hangar for his airplane collection.

Considering all Brand did to make this house so spectacular, 'could it be that he was reluctant to leave it - even after death? If this is the case, no one's complaining.

"Everyone who works here is so protective of the building and so proud to work here that its almost like we're happy he still feels he wants to be here," Fuchs said. "It's kind of like 'Well, of course he'd want to stay!'"

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