Coldwater, MI – Theater and a Haunted House

Visit Coldwater to do some sightseeing. Coldwater is the home of the Tibbits Opera House. Opened in 1882, it was a stopping point for vaudevillians and thespians going between Detroit and Chicago. Some of the personalities who graced the stage were the Barrymores, Eddie Foy Jr., Joseph Jefferson, Chicago Symphony, etc. The Opera House is undergoing a major restoration project. Free tours are given when there is no rehearsal going open. The main drag is called Chicago Road, AKA as Sauk Trail. This is the same Sauk Trail which was only a block from our old house in Park Forest. Almost like a dirty penny, shows up everywhere.

Visit the Wing House. The house was constructed in 1875, by the son of the first mayor of Coldwater. He built it for his ‘mail order bride’ from New York. The house is like a French Cottage. It looks more like a Parisian house of ill repute. Obviously the architect did not understand the psyche of a woman: small rooms, gaudy colors, little room for a growing family. The bride did not care for the place and the local women shunned her. She left her husband and went back to the Big Apple. Supposedly she was not the runt of the litter, but comely and well dressed.

The guide, also the curator, was very knowledgeable about the house. The piece de resistance is that the place is also haunted. The haunting have been verified on film and sound. More interesting is that the woman who haunts the house never lived there. But she was one of the relatives.

write by Bevis