Looking For Ghosts In the Neighborhood? Try 123 On The Park

In a neighborhood as old as ours, you’re bound to hear some ghost stories. After all, we’ve got graves that are hundreds of years old at the Flatbush Reformed Church; a former pre-Revolutionary War estate where American soldiers were supposedly tortured and killed and a mistress starved to death in a secret room; and Victorian homes that, with their spider-web style windows and nearly never-ending hallways, are the perfect backdrop for tales of the supernatural.

And then there’s the former Caledonian Hospital at Parkside Avenue and St. Pauls Place, a place that saw many a death — and which was shuttered, to much consternation, in 2003 after nearly a century of serving the community. The space was purchased for $15.6 million in 2007 and turned into an apartment complex, 123 On The Park, that opened last summer.

Back in 2013, when we wrote about some spine-tingling spots around our neighborhood, we  said we weren’t gonna be jealous of anyone who ended up living in the sad and spooky spot — and it turns out we have a pretty good knack for sensing the undead in our neighborhood.

The New York Post published an article this week, sounding the alarm about the tortured souls taking the reigns at the old hospital and driving out staff with “eerie visions, sounds and even smells.”

The Post reports:

After developers transformed the Flatbush building into a luxury rental and reopened its doors in July 2014, tales emerged of strange voices and mysterious footsteps — which are being blamed on the ghosts of former patients, sources told The Post.

At least three doormen have left in the past six months, according to a janitor who works in the building.

Another doorman who has yet to be chased out by ghosts told a nearby superintendent that the apartment complex is a “messed-up place to work because it’s haunted,” the Post wrote.

That superintendent spoke to the news outlet:

“He said he was doing routine security walks in the basement and the back of the building, and every time he would go down there by himself, he would hear footsteps echoing around him,” the superintendent explained.

“He told me he felt like a presence was following him.”

Aleksandra Scepanovic, the managing director of Ideal Properties Group, admitted to the Post that there’s been high staff turnover there, and he also noted that the building has had issues renting apartments. 123 On The Park’s website currently has five apartments listed for rent, with the most expensive unit being a one bedroom apartment for $3,877 and the cheapest being a $2,310 one bedroom unit.

When we dropped by yesterday evening to chat with neighbors about the ghosts, almost everyone had either read, or knew about, The Post’s article.

“I’m gonna go out on a limb and say not everything The Post prints is always entirely accurate,” laughed one tenant in the building. “If there are ghosts, they haven’t said anything to me yet. Should I be offended by that?”

Another tenant said she didn’t know much about the building before moving in and has been “spooked” the more she learns about it.

“There’s a weird feeling around here,” she said. “But it’s a really nice building. But, yeah, it’s strange to wonder what happened here before it became apartments.”

Crystelle Johnson, a 48-year-old neighbor who has lived in the area her entire life, said she’s pulling for the ghosts’ persuasion skills.

“Maybe they can spook them into reopening it as a hospital,” she said.