The Ghost Stories Surrounding This Utah Mall Will Give You Chills
By Catherine Armstrong|Published June 10, 2018
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Catherine Armstrong
Author
Writer, editor and researcher with a passion for exploring new places. Catherine loves local bookstores, independent films, and spending time with her family, including Gus the golden retriever, who is a very good boy.
Trolley Square has a long history going back to the late 1800s, long before it was a shopping destination. Today, it’s a great place to shop, dine, and even buy groceries, but some say that it’s haunted. These ghostly stories will give you chills!
Long before Trolley Square was a mall, it was the site of the Utah Territorial Fair Grounds. The property later served as a maintenance and storage facility for Salt Lake City's trolley cars.
Supposedly, a maintenance man was killed in the 1920s while he was working there. Stories vary; some say that he was killed in a fire; other say he died of a heart attack or other accident.
By 1946, the trolley cars had all been replaced by buses and a few decades later, the buildings were so dilapidated that they were slated for demolition. During that time, a homeless woman was found nearby, frozen to death on a cold winter night. In 1972, Wally Wright purchased the property and remodeled it into a shopping mall, and it thrived for more than thirty years.
As you'd expect with a property this old, throughout the years, people have died nearby in traffic accidents or from medical conditions. On February 12, 2007, a horrific mass shooting at Trolley Square left five innocent people dead and another four wounded. The gunman was killed by police.
After surviving the recession of 2008, the mall is thriving again. It houses shops, restaurants, an event center, and even a grocery store. But many believe that Trolley Square is haunted by several different ghosts.
A middle-aged man wearing coveralls is often seen or heard by security late at night. Sometimes he's mopping a hallway or polishing woodwork; other times people hear him whistling "Danny Boy." A maintenance crew once went to dinner, and came back to find an entire hallway gleaming with fresh wax, and all their mops and equipment neatly stacked against the wall.
Employees in the mall's stores have other strange stories to tell. Store displays are rearranged in the middle of the night, and items fall off of shelves without any apparent reason. Some claim to see a woman who appears to be shopping, but when an employee approaches her, she vanishes.
On the main floor of the mall, both employees and shoppers claim to have seen a dark shadow that darts under staircases and into doorways before disappearing.
Both diners and restaurant staff swear that there's a ghost inside the Old Spaghetti Factory. They report feeling a sudden chill, even during the busy dinner rush. Staff often hears footsteps going down from the second level long after the restaurant is closed. This photo shows a shadow that the photographer says was not visible while he was taking it.
Like all ghost stories, it's impossible to verify if there are actually spirits residing at Trolley Square, and if so, where they came from. Do you think Trolley Square is haunted?
