The Most Haunted Place in West Michigan? It Might be in Grand Haven

With Halloween just over, we're still thinking spooky stuff. So, haunted places are a good place to start, as people ask, where is the most haunted place in West Michigan.

It could be the Kirby House restaurant in Grand Haven!

WZZM13 did a haunting story about some employees that have experienced unexplainable encounters in the restaurant for decades. Wooooo......

Who doesn't know the Kirby House restaurant on the corner of South Harbor Drive and Washington Avenue in Grand Haven, built well over a century ago, in 1873. It was a hotel then.

Fun Fact! Do you like Win Schuler's, originally spelled Shuyler, Bar Cheese? Who doesn't. Well, the Schuler family owned it way back when, converting the hotel into a restaurant, and created that famous cheese that we still love today today, on the second floor. Go figure!

Now, of course, the Kirby House is owned by the Gilmore Collection, The B.O.B., Blue Water Grill, Bostwick Lake Inn and more.

But, getting back to the haunting, employees have said that weird little things would happen there. A little girl, nicknamed Emily, who has been spotted multiple times over the years in the building by different visitors.

Other alleged sightings include a civil war soldier and a woman dressed in Victorian garb. Oh, my!

One of the employees, Taylor Schippers who had worked her way up from a dishwasher to a manager over ten years at the Kirby House, has said:

"It's mainly just voices, lights flickering, just really bizarre things that you try to rationalize that you can't. I'm a very a logical person and I try to think that everything has an explanation, but after a while here, it's just like, there's no logical explanation."

One day, after a birthday party in one of the restaurant's event spaces, a stray balloon wandered through the restaurant at chest-level, the height it would be at if a child was holding it.

She explains it was quite an eerie sight for her and her coworkers as they watched it work its way through the large dining room. And, people have said the ghost of Emily can typically be seen running up the stairs in the main dining room.

And then, there is the basement wine cellar where some visitors report seeing a Victorian woman.

Still want to eat there? The food is wonderful, staff is great, and it's just a cool place, so who wouldn't mind an extra guest or two once and awhile!