10/09/2026
News from 208:
For Immediate Release
Museum of Haunted History, St Petersburg soft opening
Oct. 23 and 24, 6 - 9 PM
4754 1st Avenue North, St. Petersburg
For more information, contact Brandy Stark at [email protected]
Dr. Brandy Stark, the founder of the SPIRITS of St. Petersburg and author of Supernatural St. Petersburg and Paranormal Pinellas Vol. 1 & 2 (winner of the Best of the Bay award 2026, Best Book by a Local Author) is pleased to present the latest edition to the paranormal scene: The Museum of Haunted History, St. Petersburg.
This is a long time dream for Stark. In 2019, she won a grant from the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance to do a pop up paranormal museum in her studio at ArtLofts. Now, after years of searching she is preparing to open a more finalized project.
The museum will be housed in a 1939 bungalow. It was sold to a developer and slated to be torn down 3 times, but never was. The land was not large enough for the planned development into a series of townhouses. The house was vacant for a time. It fits with one of Stark’s personal goals: to save a building from the 1920s or 30s from demolition. After other sales fell through, Stark seemed to be the one destined for the property. Her bid was accepted and, after a strange series of developments, the purchase went through.
The house also appears to host its original owner, decades after he lived there and sold the property in the 1970s. A mysterious figure who identifies as “William”, possibly the William listed as the original property owner in ‘39, has made himself known. He has stated his name on the spirit box, and left soft electronic voice (EMF) recordings. He has been picked up along with at least one other spirit by the SPIRITS’ sensitives. Handymen working on the building report hearing mysterious knocking sounds that, when they go to check, stop and sometimes move to another part of the house. This is another marker that met the team’s goal: to own and protect a haunted property.
The time from first visiting the house in August to its purchase on September 2, with upgraded electric, water, the installation of the air conditioner, and (the now being installed) roof has moved incredibly quickly. It seems appropriate that, though the property has more development in store, it can have a soft opening during the Halloween season.
Future renovations include the establishment of a safe zone/spiritual apothecary/classroom/psychic reading room, a haunted doll adoption center, and displays with haunted and/or historic items detailing various forms of the paranormal. She hopes to host small classes and seminars, ghost tours (the team’s tour, St. Petersboo, was the winner for Best Walking Tour for Best of the Bay), overnight investigations, meeting space, and even cooking classes at the location. It will also be part of the haunted history tours that she does for the St. Petersburg Museum of History.
In addition, Stark hopes to gather pieces of haunted properties that the team has investigated to integrate into the site, thus keeping the story of the location, the legends, and the team’s findings alive for another generation. A garden with donated plants from these properties will also be established. The team will move the Little Free Library of Supernatural Stuff to this location and plan to add a supernatural trinket trade drawer and a windphone to the site.
The free-standing garage, with a storage area and attached bathroom, will be converted into a rentable artist studio. Stark will be moving her artist display space into the kitchen area and will add pieces throughout the museum as well.
For the soft opening, there will be some haunted item displays, including Irene, the haunted wedding dress. Haunted dolls will be part of a haunted-doll-adopt-a-thon sale. Each doll was marketed as having only positive attachments, and each has been tested by the SPIRITS team to see if it registers with paranormal equipment (some do, others do not), resonates with the team's sensitivities, or matches with the “origin stories” that many of them came with.
The official opening will likely fall in February 2027 with the newly relocated Valentwe’en 2027 art show, Love Letters to the Dearly Departed, featuring art celebrating the lives of celebrities that have passed in recent years. Attendees will be able to write love letters to attach around the art, and any pieces sold will include these love letters as part of the sale.
