HAUNTED LAWRENCE

If you were to take a stroll up Massachusetts Street, you would eventually
pass in front of a massive stone edifice with beautifully arched windows.
This is the old Merchant’s National Bank building, where for over one
hundred years people deposited their money for safekeeping. Today,
however, it is the location of Merchant’s Pub & Plate, an eatery serving
many of Lawrence’s hungry citizens. But if the rumors are to be believed,
hungry patrons are not the only beings wandering the building’s halls.
The bank was originally founded by G.W.E. Griffith in 1872 under the
name the State Bank. Five years later, during the Panic of 1877, Griffith
and his associates reorganized the institution. Newly rechristened as the
Merchant’s Bank, this iteration would go on to be a rousing success,
and by 1886, a national charter had officially been granted to the
establishment. Two years later, the lovely stone building that still stands
today was constructed.
In 1921, at the onset of the Roaring Twenties, the institution fell into
the hands of Kansas banker V.K. Hoover, and within a decade, it had been
passed on to William Docking, whose family held on to it for about twenty
years. During the 1950s, controlling interest in the bank was purchased
by the Keystone Corporation, owned by the famous Kemper family of
Kansas City. They in turn sold it to the equally famous Hall family (of
Hallmark Cards Inc.) in 1963. Near the turn of the millennium, the old
bank building was sold and converted into a fine dining establishment
known as Teller’s. This restaurant lasted until 2013, when it was replaced
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by a gastropub dubbed Merchant’s (a reference to the establishment’s
name between 1877 and 1930).
Over the one hundred years it has been around, the old bank building
has been the site of many historic events. But one of the more colorful
incidents only became public knowledge in the mid-1990s. In 1996, John
Neal Phillips published a book titled Running with Bonnie and Clyde, which
details the life story of Ralph Fults, an outlaw who was an acquaintance of
the infamous Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. This book, part of which
was based on a twenty-hour interview with Fults himself, claims that the
First National Bank of Lawrence was the first financial institution that
Barrow, Fults and another outlaw named Raymond Hamilton had ever
robbed. According to the book, sometime in 1932, the trio of bandits stayed
a night at the Eldridge Hotel and scoped out their target. The following day,
they jumped Docking, demanded the contents of the bank’s vault ($33,000
at the time, the equivalent of almost $585,000 in 2017 dollars) and drove
off. Luckily, no one was injured. However, there is one rather puzzling
aspect of the story: no extant recollection of it exists, outside of Phillips’s
book. This has led some Bonnie and Clyde experts to argue that either the
tale is a tall one or that Fults was mistaken.
Street-front view of Merchant’s Pub and Plate. Author’s collection.
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The purported heist is not the only peculiar story attached to the old
bank. A wide variety of paranormal activity has been reported by both
those who have worked at Merchant’s and those who have patronized
the establishment. Witnesses have reported hearing loud footsteps with
no logical source, as well as the sound of disembodied voices echoing
throughout the building. Sometimes, these specters can be troublesome;
during one particularly violent incident, light bulbs are purported to have
exploded in the building’s elevator.
Several of the stories involve full-body apparitions. One spirit is fond
of materializing on or near the top of the building’s staircase. Some have
reported seeing the specter of a woman in the women’s restroom. Once, a
worker at the establishment noticed a man strangely dressed in clothes from
what appeared to be the late 1800s or early 1900s standing with a bicycle.
When the worker went to investigate further, the man promptly vanished.
Cathy Ramirez, the founder and operator of Ghost Tours of Kansas,
decided to get to the bottom of these odd events, and so in 2011, she
performed a thorough investigation of the building.
First, she set up a laser grid on the stairway. These lasers were arranged
so that they projected small dots of energy along the wall. Ramirez was
hoping that a somewhat opaque specter might float in front of one of the
lasers and break its beam. Much to her excitement, she observed what
she refers to as a “shadow person” interfering with the grid at the top of
the stairway.
Ramirez also used cameras to document the interior of the building.
While taking pictures of a window, Ramirez noticed that in one photo, the
blind was down all the way, but in the next, the blind was up roughly two
inches. To make matters even more bizarre, in the third picture, the blind
was once again all the way down.
As to whom these spirits might be, the answer is not quite clear. Perhaps
they are the shades of former employees or owners, like William Docking,
lingering in the mortal realm to protect their beloved establishment and keep
would-be bank robbers far, far away.
Merchant’s National Bank is located at 746 Massachusetts Street.
Merchant’s is currently a restaurant, and those interested in going inside are
also encouraged to set up a lunch or dinner reservation.