At an old tavern, some ghostly regulars visited

COEUR d'ALENE — A large black crow swooped from the roof of the old Fort Ground Grill onto River Road, then flew into the ochre foliage of a nearby tree as a magpie cackled among the rustling leaves, setting an eerie mood.

Although the historic 1907 building has been quiet for a couple of years, its resident spirits may still be making themselves known the way former employees remember.

“I definitely think there’s spirits here, I really do," said Diane Beck, who worked at the Fort Ground Grill from 2016 until it closed in 2022.

Visiting the building on a brisk late-Monday afternoon before Halloween, Beck walked through the empty former restaurant and tavern as she shared the frequent supernatural goings-on she and her coworkers experienced.

“It seems like our observations were whatever spirits, ghosts, whatever we may fathom it to be, they were regulars," Beck said. "The same stuff happened, not just single occurrences, things they kind of came to expect. And I think friendly spirits."

Beck mostly worked days, but she heard several spooky stories from those who worked the closing shifts.

One common story was of The Closing Couple.

“Table 17 was right here, a little window table, and this is where The Closing Couple always were," she said, pointing to a southern window that looks out to River Road.

Her colleagues would be cashing out at the till and they could see just out of the corner of their eyes a man and a woman sitting at the table.

“As soon as you looked, there’s nobody there,” Beck said. “They seemed to like this place quite a bit, The Closing Couple." 

The Bathroom Attendant was blamed for the men's room mysteriously locking and unlocking itself. Customers would let staff know the door was locked, so Beck would place a "Please use the ladies' room" sign on the door because she didn't have a key.

The restaurant would be busy and eventually staff would notice guests using the men’s room because the door had come unlocked.

“I’d take the sign down, and go, ‘Hm,’” Beck said. “I put that sign up more than once. I don’t know how it opened itself, so that was always kind of weird.” 

In the women's room, a painting of a regal woman in an orange dress would give customers a sense of reassurance.

“Someone even said they looked up with that feeling and they saw her lips moving,” Beck said.

Before it was a grill or tavern, the building at 705 E. River Ave. housed Gray's Grocery. According to a 2006 Press article, prior to 1967, the store on River Avenue was on the old U.S. Highway 95 that led to a bridge that crossed the Spokane River that washed out long ago. Before that, the building housed a drug and confectioner's store. In 1959, the tavern was added to the west side of the building. Presently, a room accessible only by ladder can be found above the west side of the building.

That's where another entity is said to be found.

“We called him The Bowler because it sounded like a ball rolling across the floor. Sometimes there’d be a little commotion at the end of it, you could hear from the ceiling,” she said, stamping her feet. “Or something was dropped, but there was nothing up there. Our theory was he either bowled a strike or a gutter, and if it was a gutter we didn’t hear anything else, but it did sound like a ball rolling across.”

The butter knife incident was one that still makes Beck laugh. Two of her coworkers were closing one night when they heard sounds coming from the kitchen — dishes rattling, utensils falling to the floor, typical restaurant noises. 

"There was also a mumbled conversation going back there, and it was just the two of them,” Beck said.

The closers asked each other, “Did you hear that?” to see if their imaginations were getting the best of them. They both confirmed what the other was hearing.

With nothing else to protect them, they armed themselves with butter knives.

“That’s how freaked out they were, that there was someone back there,” Beck said. "So they went back with their butter knives into the kitchen and there was no one back there, and they didn’t really see anything too out of whack.” 

The disembodied voices ceased as they investigated, but they were still shaken by the experience.

"When I came in the next day, one of them said, ‘It was so crazy,’" Beck said. "And they were two pretty good-sized guys, too."

Who knows if the Fort Ground Grill's unseen visitors continue to dine and enjoy themselves as the space is free of living occupants?

"My belief is anything is possible," Beck said. "We don’t know much in the whole realm of the universe. The possibility exists; that’s my take on it. I would never negate that.”

    North Idaho College communications coordinator Gerry McCray listens Monday in the empty Fort Ground Grill kitchen as former manager Diane Beck discusses the spooky sounds staff would hear coming from the empty room above the restaurant.
  

    A fading phantom sign that was once on an external wall is a reminder that a confectionary and grocery store was once housed in the Fort Ground Grill building. The sign is pictured Monday from the room above the old tavern, accessible only by ladder.
  

    Diane Beck stands Monday behind where the Fort Ground Grill bar once stood as she discusses a ghostly couple staff members used to see out of the corners of their eyes. “As soon as you looked, there’s nobody there,” she said.
  

    The Fort Ground Grill, where mill workers and college students once drank and dined, is seen here Monday. It has been empty since 2022. Or has it...?