St. Mary's Orphan Asylum was wiped away by a powerful hurricane in Galveston in 1900. A Walmart now stands at the location where it once was, earning it the 'creepiest' Walmart in America moniker by locals and online stories.
@parahan251 TikTok/Tupungato Adobe StockA paranormal investigator says the Galveston Walmart, which now stands at the site of an orphanage wiped away by the 1900 hurricane, is ‘probably the most haunted place in America.’
In 1900, a hurricane ripped through the city of Galveston, Texas, killing an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 people. An orphanage with 90 children and 10 nuns was among the casualties. A Walmart now stands at the former site of the orphanage, and it’s being referred to as the “creepiest” Walmart in the United States.
Self-described paranormal investigator, cryptozoologist, and occult specialist, @parahan251 makes the claim that it’s “probably the most haunted place in America.”
The Galveston Hurricane Of 1900
On Sept. 8, 1900, one of the most devastating hurricanes in American history made landfall.
Wikimedia CommonsA house sits on its side, uprooted from its foundation by the 1900 Galveston hurricane’s powerful winds and floodwaters.
“Winds of 120 mph slammed the city with flying debris that cut through homes like shrapnel. Waves crashed onto the streets, leaving the city 15 feet underwater at one point. And, worst of all, virtually nobody had the foresight to evacuate,” All That’s Interesting’s Joel Stice previously described.
Resident Louisa Rollfing, who survived the storm by taking shelter on the second floor of her home, said it “sounded as if the rooms were filled with a thousand little devils, shrieking and whistling,” per the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
Wikimedia CommonsA family combs through the wreckage, looking for any valuables that might have survived the storm.
The hurricane was incredibly powerful, partially due to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico being warmer than usual. Compounding the problem was that U.S. meteorologists brushed off warnings from Cuba due to high tensions following the Spanish-American War.
Galveston’s St. Mary’s Orphan Asylum
Operated by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, St. Mary’s Orphan Asylum was an orphanage on the present site of the Walmart. According to 1900storm, nuns tied themselves to the children via clothesline in a desperate attempt to keep them from drifting away in floodwaters.
However, the orphanage was destroyed during the storm. Of the estimated 100 children and 10 nuns inside, all but three boys drowned.
There are reportedly remembrance ceremonies for the victims held in front of the Walmart every year.
Is The Galveston Walmart Haunted?
According to Han, even now, over 100 years later, people say that the spirits of those children haunt that Walmart. “If you go to this Walmart, you’ll notice it’s kind of eerie,” he says.
Then he described a deeply unsettling incident but doesn’t detail where he got the story from.
Joni Adobe StockA Walmart located at 6702 Seawall Boulevard now stands around the site of the tragedy.
“There was a story from one of the workers who worked the night shift,” he said. “They were restocking the children’s area where the toys are located. And as this worker goes over to their pallet, they begin to hear children laughing. And they hear all these toys turning on.”
The employee goes over to this aisle, and allegedly they see about six or seven children playing with the toys who are dressed in 1900s-era clothing. Next, the employee runs and gets the general manager, while telling him, ‘There’s something weird happening in the toy aisle.'”
By the time the employee and manager got back to the children’s section, all was silent, according to @parahan25’s retelling. But, “there are all these toys, laid out on the floor, as if someone was playing with them,” recounted Han.
His video has since gone viral, with over 1.2 million views.
The internet is ready to believe his tales. Store employees and shoppers who frequent that location have reported seeing or hearing strange, childlike things — especially in the toy aisle.
“I am currently the overnight manager at the Galveston Walmart. Yes it is very haunted. They love playing in the toy section and automotive,” @james_mccorkle claimed. But take this with a grain of salt, as there’s nothing on his TikTok to verify or refute this claim.
And another viewer shared a now-eerie memory, “Hear me out. As a kid being in that toy [aisle] I always thought the toys had batteries never questioned why the toys would go off.”
How Many People Believe In The Paranormal?
Psychology Today reports that 70% of Americans believe there can be some sort of communication between the living and the dead. Of those Americans who believe, 44% say they’ve felt the presence of a deceased person.
But belief isn’t fact. In the absence of proof, psychologists say that not only is it normal to believe, but that it can provide comfort, too. “From a psychodynamic perspective, believing is ‘motivated reasoning’ that may reduce grief, existential anxiety, and fear of death,” the site reports.
Additionally, “there is some evidence of brain differences between believers and non-believers.”
The findings of a brain study indexed on the National Library of Medicine found that “frontal brain function may contribute to paranormal beliefs.” The frontal brain is largely understood to be where the executive brain functions.
All That’s Interesting reached out to Han via TikTok direct message and to Walmart via email.
Whether or not ghosts are real, belief in them, or even the willingness to suspend disbelief, points to deeply human curiosity. Most cultures have tales of ghosts or of the undead, and we can likely understand them as a combination of fear and longing. A kind of terrible hope that we are not lost forever, and neither are our loved ones. And ghost stories themselves surely deliver a delicious little shiver.
