Slab spooks

POST FALLS - Deborah Berlin apologized to a couple of wary visitors for the cave-like darkness as they stepped inside her cavernous bar for the very first time.

The bar, the longtime Slab Inn in Post Falls, is haunted, she said Tuesday afternoon. In the spirit of Halloween, she invited the guests to come by and have a look around.

"The (ghost) stories actually go way back, so there's like a trillion of them," Berlin said. The Slab turns 80 in June, and she has owned it with her husband, Randy, for the past 17 years.

In addition to being haunted, it has its share of poltergeist activity, including objects flying off the walls and TVs turning on by themselves. Occasionally, the sound of a piano can be heard, lightly tinkling toward the back, though it has been a long, long time since the place had a piano.

A girl haunts the place, Berlin said. She's not spooky, she's just little. One of the multiple groups of paranormal experts who conducted investigations inside the bar (one just six months ago) detected her diminutive shadow, she said.

The little girl often can be heard, and sometimes seen, on the left side of the music stage, or quietly and quickly slipping through a back hallway.

A longtime doorman, Art Hoffman, also haunts the place, said Berlin.

"I have had several people see him sitting here (by the front door) since he's passed (away)," Berlin said. "We know Art's still around here."

Overnight paranormal investigations inside the bar have detected a lot of sound from spirits, far more than Art and the little girl could produce alone.

"They got a lot of stuff, and it's all recorded, and it's really freaky," Berlin said. "I kept accusing them of being the ones who were talking, because I didn't really believe" what she was hearing on the recordings they captured.

She believes now.

A group of paranormal investigators one night reported voices repeatedly crying out, "Just breathe!"

The investigators pointed to the location in the bar where the voices were strongest.

Call it an eerie coincidence, but Berlin said it was the exact location where a woman fell off her barstool and died despite efforts by emergency medical personnel.

Another woman died in the bar of a brain aneurysm.

Rachel Kulczar, who investigated the Slab as part of the group formerly known as the Coeur d'Alene Paranormal Society, said she detected distinct "chatter."

"It sounded like maybe two entities were carrying on a conversation," Kulczar said Tuesday.

She said her group, now known as the North Idaho Paranormal Squad, also detected distinct piano music.

"There's no piano, but you can hear it plain as day," she said.

She said it was a pretty active first night.

"It's not like just because we were there they'll play," she said.

"Most of the people that people think they see or hear were regulars here," Berlin said.

One of the old-time regulars, a guy named Bud, occasionally pinches rear-ends he likes.

She laughs when asked if she has ever experienced any paranormal activity first-hand.

Reluctantly, she answered, saying that one morning she came in through the front door early and heard someone call out her name. Nobody was there.

She said there was another time she was walking out after closing. She headed out the back door, "and right behind me, someone goes, 'Get out!'"

When the Slab opened it was tiny compared to its current size, and it faced Mullan Avenue not Seltice Way as it does today.

It was built out of slabs for $3,000, and construction workers labored for 75 cents a day.

The first owner, Curtis Maxon Chase, had to pay the construction workers off after the business opened. Business was brisk at the beginning, so it wasn't a problem.

The country had barely been lifted out of prohibition when the place was built.

Patrons loved the Slab Inn's roast pork sandwiches and hamburgers, which were served with potato chips and pickle slice.

Bands entertained customers at dances on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

Years later, when Don O'Neill owned the place, it grew in size. Between 1965 and 1972, nine additions were built into the Slab. It went from seating 50 people to about 300 or more.