Austin Ghost Tours offers spooky history lesson

It's only right on Halloween to take a look a couple of Austin's very own haunted houses. The Johnson House and the Patton House are two on the list, and their history goes as far back as the mid 1800’s.

The tour started just off Mopac at the historic Charles Johnson House. The American Legion now uses it and hold events there frequently.

“The house was built in 1858 by a gentleman by the name of Charles Johnson,” said Dennis Foley who is an audio specialist with Austin Ghost Tours.

Johnson lived in the home most of his life and generations of the family did as well. The word around town is you're never truly alone in there.

“The activity happens day and night but a lot of the activity of the staff feels tends to be after hours because that's when they tend to be cleaning the house or closing it down,” said Foley.

There is a room which used to be a dining hall inside the house. One night an investigator said her hair raised and flipped over her face.

“When we started to talk to whatever might have been coming through the room we discovered by asking a series of questions, that it was a little girl,” said Foley.

Paranormal investigators think that girl could in fact be Johnson's daughter. Foley sent photos to FOX 7 of childlike footprints they captured on the upstairs floor.

“The spirits that come through tend to be ones meaning no harm whatsoever,” said Foley.

That may be the case for the most part except perhaps one place.

“The kitchen area where a lot of the staff said they experience what is only described as a dark energy,” said Foley.

FOX 7 even tried an experiment with a transistor radio, playing the number game. A person counts and the spirit, in theory, would say the next number.

Spirit or not? The Johnson House was intriguing so much so that it was on to the next destination, the Patton House, which is now the location for Austin Pizza Garden.

“This particular corner of this building is one of the areas where, since the Austin Pizza Garden has been here, there has been a presence. The belief is that it's an older woman and she's not happy and doesn't understand why she can't enact with anything,” said Jeanine Plumer who is the owner of Austin Ghost Tours and Haunted Texas.

Some employees have reported some experiences of their own. Nicolas White has only been working there a month.

“I proceeded to look down the hallway to our kitchen area and saw someone enter the bathroom. I proceeded to check and our motion light had been turned on but no-one was there,” said White.

Austin may be gaining a lot of popularity and one thing's for sure, the ghosts could be making sure they aren't forgotten either.