Paranormal invstigation: Among eerie presences in Nobles restaurant, is one Hank Williams' ghost? |

Noble's in downtown Montgomery is one of the city's oldest, most popular restaurants and for years owners, workers and patrons have whispered about possible hauntings. It's the last place on earth that the great country star Hank Williams ever performed, and some people think his spirit may still be playing there.

Among the reports: feelings of being watched and followed, sightings of full-body apparitions as well as shadow figures; hearing mysterious footsteps and seeing unexplained mists -- and in the modern era, electrical anomalies with the computers. Many people who have waited tables, cooked or eaten there have stories of the strange and unexplained. 

Shawn Sellers is a Montgomery man who claims he is sensitive to the presence of supernatural forces, and he is the founder of Southern Paranormal Researchers, an independent non-profit that conducts investigations into reported hauntings.

Here is Shawn's report of his team's investigation at this Montgomery landmark:

This place, one of my favorites in the area, was built in 1909 as a restaurant named The Elite Lounge Casino Cafe. The area above The Olive Room (which is next door to Noble's) was told to have been an upscale department store at one time. The Elite, as Noble's was known for years, was the last place Hank Williams ever played. Hank came in on a Sunday for a song writers association meeting, and he played his acoustic guitar and sang three songs. He left there to do a New Year's Day show in West Virginia and died on the way to the concert. 

I have always heard stories about the place and  I found out that my lead investigator was friends with the owner and she could get us in. I jumped at the opportunity.

We did our walk-thru tour during the afternoon with one of the owners. My lead investigator had a feeling of being followed that was prominent on the first floor in the restaurant area. I had a feeling that whatever the spirit or energy was in this place it liked to be around people and liked being on the first floor in the restaurants where there were people, movement and entertainment.

As we began the investigation, things just weren't going as I felt they were, so I decided to take an unconventional approach and use our psychic energy. Things immediately started to happen: in the Nobles dining room, five investigators upstairs on the balcony/dining area and three on the floor below. I specifically began communicating with a couple of resident spirits here with answers being displayed on dowsing/divining rods handled by one of my investigators. The investigation grew more active after that. 

I picked up on four presences: a woman who hangs around liking to watch people; the man in the "suit"; and two spirits who travel between buildings on Montgomery Street, wherever the highest energy is.

After the psychic session we all took a break before heading down to the basement under Nobles, where we encountered no activity. But when we returned to the dining room and brought with us two Nobles guests, we tried to reconnect with the woman spirit that likes people. At first we got no response, but after asking the spirit to make a noise, we suddenly heard a loud bang.

We thought it might be one of our investigators in another room, but she told us that it was not her, but a chair that was about 3-4 feet from her had inexplicably flipped over on its side. Several witnesses saw it and were visibly shaken. We did not collect any hard, scientific evidence, but the activity we experienced was -- like the chair incident -- anecdotal rather than anything that could be scientifically measured. We were not able to completely disregard the chair flipping because there were a number of witnesses. 

I was disappointed that we did not collect any empirical evidence but I can honestly say that Nobles is a very active place. I feel there are at least four spirits there.  I hope to have the opportunity to continue to research the building and see if the high amount of activity will continue on other nights. In my opinion Nobles has legitimate paranormal activity.