Orpheum Theater

Built in 1926 for $750,000 — about $12 million today — this lavish theater was Madison's crown jewel of entertainment and has been drawing crowds for nearly a century.

The Orpheum Theater was designed in 1925 by C.W. and George L. Rapp of Chicago, the same architectural firm behind the Chicago Theatre and Radio City Music Hall, and opened its doors on March 31, 1927, with a program that included a newsreel, the silent film Nobody's Widow accompanied by organ, and live vaudeville acts. Financed largely by dentist William Beecroft, nicknamed "Mr. Theater," the $750,000 construction created a French Renaissance interior behind a limestone Art Deco facade, with a 2,186-seat auditorium, grand staircase, chandeliers, a cosmetique salon for ladies, smoking lounges for both sexes, and the first air conditioning system in a Wisconsin building, occupying an entire basement level. Named for the Greek hero Orpheus, whose statue overlooks the entryway, the theater hosted performers from Johnny Cash to Ray Charles to Bette Davis. A fire damaged the structure in the 2000s before developer Gus Paras purchased and extensively restored it in 2013. The National Register of Historic Places listed the Orpheum in 2008 as Madison's best surviving representative of the movie palace era.

The most active spirit is Projectionist Pete, believed to be the ghost of a former projectionist who hanged himself in the projection booth. Modern projectionists report Pete moving things around behind them in the booth while they work, and the sound of film reels clicking continues in the now-digital projection room. Most who encounter Pete describe him as a benevolent presence, but not everyone shares that warmth. A night housekeeper responsible for cleaning both projection booths made the booth her last stop each night, uncomfortable with lingering in Pete's domain after dark.

A former head usher who fell to his death from the upper balcony haunts the area near the soundboard, appearing in mid-twentieth century clothing. According to staff accounts, he spends his afterlife cleaning the floor where he fell. A former night manager continues his nightly rounds, heard conversing at the bar, walking the hallways, and jingling his keys as if checking on the building. A well-dressed woman from the 1930s materializes near the right-side bar entrance before vanishing. A red mist attributed to a child's spirit haunts the same bar area.

The furnace room and the downstairs restroom area generate the most visceral reactions from the living. A contractor named Matt, described as an entirely practical man, reported overwhelming dread in the furnace room without logical explanation. A visitor named Bill experienced sudden nausea in the octagonal waiting room near the restrooms, and his wife fled the ladies' room visibly distressed. Staff report muffled conversations in empty hallways, phantom footsteps, and the distinctive jingle of keys carried by no living hand.

Ghost tour guide Lisa, whose accounts were documented by Tobias and Emily Wayland for A Singular Fortean, has collected years of staff and visitor testimonies, all pointing to the same cast of spirits. The Orpheum is featured as a stop on the Lost Souls of State Street ghost walk by American Ghost Walks, and Wisconsin Life produced "Emily and the Haunting of the Orpheum Theater," a radio drama inspired by the theater's paranormal reputation. The building at 216 State Street remains Madison's most haunted venue, its spirits apparently as devoted to the theater in death as they were in life.