Manteca has a history of hauntings and one of those places is the building that was formerly known as Kelley Brother’s Brewery. The picture above is Deanna Jaxine Stinson, Psychic Medium at a doorway of the former brewery. According to the website “Haunted Places” a visitor to the site wrote this: “This former brewery is now a restaurant, but even before then, there was a theatre that burnt down on the original site. It is believed that the ghosts of people who died in the inferno still haunt the building, including fire fighters and movie patrons in period clothing.
After receiving some reports on the paranormal hotline, Deanna Jaxine Stinson – Psychic Medium, me and our two ghost hunting dogs Story and Hannah headed out to these two addresses:
112 E Yosemite Avenue, Manteca, CA
100 E Yosemite Avenue, Manteca, CA
Before we arrived to the addresses above, we stopped off at French Camp Chinese Cemetery. Deanna detected a male spirit at the cemetery walking around. I was unable to capture any evidence of this spirit. The dogs got excited and started chasing something that I couldn’t see. Story has a good sense of picking up on entities. After our impromptu investigation at this cemetery, we headed over to what was once known as Kelley Brother’s Brewery Company. When it was Kelley Brother’s Brewery Company, this is what they had to say about themselves:
“Kelley Brother’s Brewing Company has been brewing award winning, hand crafted beer for over eleven years. Our brewers have over 30 years of brewing experience and take pride in having one of the best equipped microbreweries and the best brews in the state. Our food is top notch too! We cook all of our meats in a very distinct way. Our grandfather built his first Chinese Oven nearly 3 generations ago and we have continued the tradition of his fine art of slow cooking meat that not only enhances the flavor but also locks in all of those great natural juices that will have your mouth watering and your appetite satisfied. We are a family place that has a true passion for great food, drink, service and fun. We treat everyone like family and look forward to fixing you a great meal served with an ice cold handcrafted brew that will make you wanting more.”
Stan Hecklum from Stockton says that he and his two buddies went to the building that was once Kelley Brother’s Brewing Company late at night. Stan says it was around 11pm. The date was 12/22/2020. As they walked around the building and being curious if the building was truly haunted, they attempted to get some EVPs on their smart phone. After several attempts, Stan captured an EVP that said “good food, you stay”. The EVP was a man’s voice. As they walked around the building, they felt intense heat and just for a few seconds saw a raging fire manifest out of nowhere. On this night, it was very cold, but the heat for a few seconds was so intense that Stan thought he would get burned. Stan reminded me that at this location, there was a major fire at the movie theater that once stood at this spot. I searched the internet and found this information in regard to the fire:
For more than 40 years, the El Rey Theater, built in the 1930 was one of the most popular and most beautiful movie theater in the Central Valley. The dream ended 1975, when a fire gutted the entire theater. The event of course made the news, especially due to the rather ironic fact that the fire started during the last screening of “Towering Inferno”.
For 22 years, the theater remained a ruin, until Kelly Broth. rebuilt it as a new brewery and pub.
It opened in 1999 and quickly became one of the most popular hangouts in Manteca. Then, in 2003, it made the news again in 2003, when on the morning of February 2nd, another fire broke out; this time in the pub’s oven. According to the fire departments report, the sprinkler system worked and an automatic fire alarm system enabled firefighters to quickly extinguish the fire. However, this kind of “lightning striking twice in the same place” created a ghost story, stating that the building sits on a hotspot that frequently ignites.
Fact is, fires broke out at least twice in this place. The first one, in 1975, ended the buildings history as a movie theater, the second one, in 2003 almost destroyed the brewpub that is now in place of the old theater.
The first fire ironically happened during the last screening of “Towering Inferno”. That fire was certainly devastating, as it gutted the entire building, but we couldn’t find any records of casualties. However, local folklore (also reported at unsolvedmysteries.com) has it that “…ghosts of dead firefighters and movie patrons are said to wander the restaurant looking for a way out.”
Deanna and I, walked around these buildings and attempted to get some EVP evidence, unfortunately there was too much car noise contaminating our recordings. I interviewed a guy walking down the sidewalk near the former brewery, his name is Hardy Wilcox from Lodi. Hardy says that he has family in Manteca and comes to Manteca on a frequent basis. He says that on one night, around 8pm, he was walking near the brewery and felt a tugging on his pant’s leg. He looked down and saw the smiling face of a little girl. He could only see the head of the girl and she had curly blonde hair. She appeared for a mere couple of seconds and then vanished. Hardy says this area is definitely haunted.
After our investigation today, we all stopped at KFC in Manteca and I shared my chicken strips with my hungry ghost hunting dogs. It was a nice day for a paranormal investigation.
Some years back, HPI investigated a haunted warehouse and here is one of the videos from that investigation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OOmyyJo4qw&feature=plcp
Paul Dale Roberts, HPI’s Esoteric Detective
Halo Paranormal Investigations
www.cryptic916.com/
Sacramento Paranormal Help
www.facebook.com/HaloParanormalInvestigations/
