A Great American Haunting: The Bemberg Factory (Author Unknown)
The Now Vacant Bemberg Facility
The Old Factory
In the early 1920's a German company called, J.P. Bemberg came into the area and started construction on it's newest American factory. The factory made rayon, a synthetic type of silk. The rayon was mainly used for parachutes at the time the plant was opened in 1926. By 1928 the factory employed over 2,500 locals, even surviving several small strikes. Labor problems would continue to dominate throughout the history of the factory. In early 1929 a violent strike broke out and resulted in several deaths. My Great Uncle ,who was employed at the factory, said that 10 people were killed during this strike.
In 1931, the corporation experienced a surge in production of the synthetic silk yarn. After an explosion and huge fire in 1932, nearly 100 people lost their lives. Reconstruction of the factory lasted several months and construction workers said that they would hear phantom screams inside the building at night, if they were working later into the evening.
Falling Woman
Bemberg has stood with a void since the mid to late 70's. The building was condemned in the late 1980's. Since the factory was shut down it began to be a place for homeless people to stay. Local businesses would report to the police that they would see people going in and coming out of the condemned factory, forcing them to go in and remove the folks that were seeking refuge from the outside. But the continuous patrolling of the area wasn't always enough to stop it.
In 1998, a homeless woman, her true identity unknown- locals called her "Martha", fell from an upper story window to her death. Not really sure if she "fell" or if she was pushed. The trajectory of where she landed suggests that she could've been pushed, but the case was ruled a suicide. There are two businesses that operate on the property of Bemberg. A construction company and a fencing company. A woman, whom wishes to remain unnamed stated that she seen a woman falling from a window in the old factory. Once her and another associate ran to the scene, they found nothing.
A local city employee, (who will remain anonymous) said that he was in the area one late evening and saw a woman falling to the ground. He ran to the scene, calling for emergency units to come to the area, but found nothing. "I saw her, plain as day, falling in front of the building. There was no body, no blood, no nothing. Nobody could fall from that height and walk away without a scratch." The last sighting of the falling woman came on February 25, 2006.
The Phantom
I was down at the site a few weeks ago taking photo's and. With the building in condemned status, no one is allowed inside due to safety reasons and you cannot obtain permission to go inside, but the area around it is fair game.
After I took a couple of photo's, I decided to walk along the outside of the building. I had nothing from the east end all the way down three-quarters of the factory. I hit one area that picked up a small reading, but it wasn't enough for me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something move. Once I looked I saw nothing. The further down the west end I walked, my detector started hitting. I made it down to the end of the building, reading minimal and I turned seeing a black fog like object rushing towards me. Once I turned facing the area it was gone, but EMF was hitting hard. I felt an odd feeling- described as best as I can describe it, and thought it was time to leave. I took several more photo's of the area from my car before I left, hoping to pick up some little something to prove that I wasn't just giving myself the creeps, but after studying the pictures, I found nothing, but a lot of them were blurry. Which is odd considering I have a pretty steady hand. Some of the photo's looked like I took them while I was running past the building.
I can't say that this place has something going on inside, but there is reason to believe that there is.
Conclusion
Nobody has reported any kind of sightings for awhile now, but hopefully we can research the area a little more and pick something up definite. Will we see the Phantom or will we see the falling woman? Nobody knows for sure that we'll see anything, but the best part is the wait.