PPI Presents - October 16, 2013

We invite you to join Pacific Paranormal Investigations for an enlightening presentation on 21st century paranormal investigation techniques. Come see and hear some evidence from our most recent cases. Admission is FREE.

The Creole Cafe/Witfeld Drug Store Museum

In preparation for an upcoming paranormal investigation at this location I began researching these intriguing old buildings, and felt compelled to share some of my preliminary findings with our PPI Blog readers. I can see this turning into a full blown research project in the near future, because there is no definitive compilation regarding the history of these buildings, and what little information is available is contradictory. I have an affinity with these buildings going back 30 years when I did volunteer work for the Historical Shrine Foundation of San Diego, who, under the leadership of June Reading, relocated these buildings to the Whaley House grounds in Old Town, and secured funding to restore the buildings from the County of San Diego. Therefore, there should be documents in the San Diego County Archives that address the many questions surrounding their origins, and action taken by the County Supervisors should be reflected in their minutes. Additional information may also be available through the San Diego Historical Society because June Reading wrote extensively of her Foundation's work at the Whaley House. But for time being, the following will have to suffice.  

I have been unable to find any information about the the building that currently serves as the kitchen for the Creole Cafe, but in the late 1970's through the late 1980's the building was used as a coffee shop. It was called "The Spice of Life", and it was a great place to grab a cup of coffee on a cold winter day while investigating the grounds of the Whaley House Museum. June Reading told me that both buildings were moved to the Whaley House property from another location and restored sometime after the Whaley House was restored and opened to the public in 1960 and the San Diego Bicentennial Celebration of 1969. The buildings were pre-fabs that were shipped around Cape Horn to the west coast in the late 1850's or early 1860's. They were basically "kit" buildings that were ordered from a catalog and assembled on site. This type of false front pre-fab building was very common in Old Town in the late 1800's.  

The building which now serves as the dining room of the Creole Cafe was dedicated as the San Diego Drugstore Museum in 1969, and bears a bronze plaque commemorating the occasion. From 1969 through the late 1990's it housed displays assembled by June Reading and the Southern California Pharmaceutical Association. When June passed away in 1998, the Historical Shrine Foundation was disbanded, and responsibility of the buildings was transferred to SOHO. The Creole Cafe opened for business in 2004. 

2013 Tri Quarterly Review

Just wanted to take this opportunity to give everyone update on the state of our paranormal group as we approach the third quarter of 2013.

This has been a challenging year for all of us at PPI, both personally and professionally. We are a very small group and when one or more of us are slammed by outside obligations it has a negative impact on our outreach capablity. Such was the case for 2013, and we had to take a brief hiatus in order to deal with our outside obligations.

During this time the forums on the PPI website were not only silent, but almost totally unused. This was discouraging, because we were battling an evil horde of spammers every day who were determined to overwhelm our defenses. We were averaging between 600 and 1000 forum registrants per week, but they were almost exclusively spambotsbots. Thankfully Karl Sherlock found a solution to this incredibly time consuming problem and the spammers have been forced to look for greener pastures.

We released one incredible podcast in 2013 featuring Edwin Becker, author of "A True Haunting", and we have some raw audio from various get togethers late last year and early this year that we hope to polish before the Halloween season. Our Facebook pages have grown over the year; we now have over 190 "likes" on our Official Facebook Page, and over 280 "likes" on our Group Facebook Page. The PPI Blog has continued to develop and we look forward to adding more articles and material in the coming months. Our affiliation with the TAPS Family of investigators remains strong, and we continue to work with our very good friends from the San Diego Ghost and Paranormal Meetup Group or SDGAP at every available opportunity.

Although many challenges and obstacles remain we look forward to returning to operational capacity. We were honored to do a presentation for Girl Scout Troop 6009 at the Casa de Oro Public Library in Spring Valley on Saturday June 8, 2013, and we have a couple of public presentations that will be announced shortly.

Once again, all of us at PPI wish to thank you for your understanding and patience during this very difficult time. Whether you're new to the paranormal field or an old pro, we encourage you to register for the PPI Forums on our website strike up a conversation with us. We all look forward to chatting with you on the boards. Feel free to resurrect an old thread or start a new one and we will be sure to join the conversation.