The haunted history at Minnesota's Lexington Restaurant
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Since 1935, the Lexington Restaurant on Grand Avenue has been a place where generations of customers have come to celebrate special occasions with signature dishes like the smoked chicken pot pie and Steak Diane.
The restaurant's hall of fame is filled with some of the faces that have come through its doors, but other visitors are more elusive to the naked eye.
Within its walls, there are secret compartments from the Lexington's alleged past as a speakeasy during prohibition. But not all of the skeletons in the restaurant's closet have been exposed to the light of day.
"My feeling is the Lexington has been a place where people have made such great family memories and celebrated so many milestones for so many years, why wouldn't you want to just stay here forever?" said Minda Sherman, events manager for the Lexington.
Sherman says she started having eerie experiences at the Lex almost immediately after she started about a year ago.
"I first started noticing it when I would be setting tables and would feel somebody walk into the room with me and I would look up and nobody would be there," said Sherman.
She says her encounters with the building's unseen inhabitants continued in her office on the second floor. which used to be apartments and storage until a renovation in 2017.
"I will be at my computer and I'll be on speaker phone and I will be yapping on the phone with a bride about floral arrangements and wedding decor. One time while I was doing it, 3 of my vases just toppled off the shelf here and fell to the ground. It felt like it was an announcement of some kind to be quiet or to be done with my conversation and I was like I will call you back later," said Sherman.
Other employees have reported similar strange occurrences.
"Glasses have been stagnant on the bar and suddenly they fly off on their own," said Sherman.
Like the night the operations manager was watching security cameras and noticed table cloths in one of the empty event space swaying back and forth on their own, while the air conditioning was off and there were no open windows.
"His theory is that it was kids running under the tablecloths and he thinks they're playing tag and having a little good time in the middle of the night. Ghost kids," said Sherman.
Paranormal investigators Chuck Love and Kelsey Mead recently spent a couple of nights at the Lex for an episode of their online series Midwest Paranormal.
They believe they contacted several spirits during their time in the local landmark.
"There was never any moment really where we weren't picking up on something," said Mead.
"It was active. It was very active," said Love.
In fact, they say one of the most active rooms is in the basement where the restaurant stores old windows and furniture.
We visited the "antique room" with Love and Mead where their equipment picked up several readings they say indicates they were in touch with the other side.
While communing with the dead may seem scary, the paranormal pair say at the Lexington that wasn't the case.
"We picked up on a lot of spiritual communication that was very lighthearted and almost comical at some point," said Mead.
Sherman believes the ghost stories make the Lexington's rich history a little richer.
"It's just another little cherry on top. A little seasoning. Right on top of something that was already great. Just gives it a little sparkle," said Sherman.