submitted by: Jason
I was neither a believer in ghosts nor a nonbeliever, until the Whittier. I was working security for a company that my best friend since childhood was a supervisor for. I lived just outside of Ann Arbor, so I usually took post close to home. My friend asked me one night if I would take a post in Detroit. It was a long drive, but it was more hours and a higher pay. He told me they were having a hard time keeping it staffed because everyone was afraid. They all thought it was haunted. That kind of stuff never bothered me. I never had any experiences, and it was something that I just wasn’t concerned about. So, I accepted the post.
The first few weeks were quiet. I was just a big, creepy, old, empty building. The property was right on the Detroit River, and there was a park across the street. There was a lot of traffic at night up and down that street. I was more worried about someone trying to break into the building than anything. I made my rounds more frequently than I was required to. I wanted the neighborhood to see me moving around so they wouldn’t try to break in and, I was just bored. The front side of the buildings were mostly all large windows. The back side was where all the offices and mechanicals were. There weren’t any windows back there but there were several service doors. The corridors felt like a maze at first. They were connecting the ball room and, dining rooms to the kitchens, laundry, staging and storage areas. It was the corridor that ran the length of the ball room where it all started.
Sometimes late at night when the neighborhood got quiet, I would listen to music on my rounds. It was so quiet except for the sound of the wind coming off the river and whistling around the corners of the building sometimes. I honestly thought that was what I was hearing, at first. One night I heard a tune in the whistling. I naturally assumed it was just mixing with my music. Logical explanation. I told one of the road supervisors about it one night when he came by for a site check. He asked if I had seen any ghost yet. I laughed and said no but I thought I heard one the other night, but it was just my music and the wind. He asked what I meant and I told him it sounded like someone whistling. I watched the blood drain from his face. He said there is a story about a ghost that whistles. I didn’t believe him, I really thought he was just pulling my leg. Then he called the operations manager.
She had spent the first week with the old caretaker when we took over and heard all the stories. They talked on the Nextel two-way radios so I could hear everything. Apparently, there was a contractor that worked there back in the day that always whistled. He was an electrician that worked there during construction and stayed on after the hotel opened as part of the maintenance crew. There was no story about how or when he died. They just said that he had a lot of pride in the building and loved being there. He worked there until he retired. A few years after he retired, the whistling started. I’m not sure I really believed the story, but I was curious.
I started making my rounds without any music. It didn’t take long until I heard the whistling again. I just halfheartedly said out loud, ” How are you doing tonight?” That must have been like an invitation. I started to hear the whistling almost every night. The times were always random and only in the corridor along the ball room. Sometimes I would acknowledge it and say something. I must have made a friend. After a few weeks I stated to hear the whistling in other corridors. It started to sound like it was following me when I made my rounds. I was definitely becoming a believer. I wasn’t that uncomfortable until it started happening on the upper floors. It was still daylight when I started my shift, so I always walked all of the upper floors when I started. The power wasn’t on in the upper levels except for the emergency lighting. There was a stairwell on each side of the tower. I would walk up one flight, check the floor on my way to the other stairwell and walk up to the next floor. Then work my way back down. I started hearing the typical “come here” whistle ahead of me in the upper floors. I really thought there was a vagrant in the building. I started checking every room floor by floor until I ran out of daylight.
There was not a living soul in that building besides myself. No sign of forced entry anywhere. Nothing that would indicate that anyone was squatting in any of the rooms, halls, or stairwells. I was alone. Other things started happening to me all over the property. I started seeing shadows and hearing other noises. One night I swore I heard dishes breaking. I even thought I heard music in the ballroom. The noise that bothered me the most was the ball bouncing in the pool area. That’s another story, but it convinced me to go buy a camera and start taking pictures. I am definitely a believer now. Needless to say, I didn’t stay at that job much longer.
