Paranormal Investigation and Mediumship Workshop at Pisces Rising

PLEASE READ BEFORE PURCHASING TICKETS!

Location history is after the event description.

Thank you for joining us on a new epic adventure in a brand-new haunted location! This event will feature Jessica Potter's class on developing your mediumship skills. If you have ever been interested in developing your abilities or just curious about what it is all about, this is an excellent opportunity to get some insight.

This event is located in a fully operational restaurant. Please DO NOT call asking to book an overnight as this location does not allow that now. Paranormal events will only be done through me at this time as well. The owner is new to this sort of thing, and we just want to see how it will go. I appreciate your understanding in that it is much appreciated.

Event Tickets will be sold for the mediumship class and investigation separately, so you have the option to go to just one part of the event. I will also add an option if you choose to do both, so you only have to buy one ticket for the full event.

The restaurant kitchen closes daily between 3 pm and 5 pm. This is when the mediumship workshop will be held. If you would like to eat lunch or dinner at Pisces Rising, I encourage you to make a reservation as it is a high-volume restaurant, and not making a reservation could cause you to have to wait up to 2 hours for a table.

The investigation will begin at 10 pm and last til 3 am. I understand that we are in a vacation spot, and you are here to have a good time. Drinking and drug use are banned from the event; however, if you have a drink or two with dinner beforehand, I will not judge you. Please do not come to any part of the event to an unwanted level of intoxication because I will, sadly, have to ask you to leave. I appreciate your understanding in this as it can become an issue of safety.

I will make sure water is provided for the event, but please bring any snacks for yourself that you would like. Event tickets are NONREFUNDABLE. Please make sure you want to come and that you can come before purchasing. All participants will be asked to sign waivers. There will be no children under the age of 16 admitted to either the workshop or the investigation. An adult MUST accompany children 16 and 17 during the ENTIRE time. This is once again for safety issues. Adults will need to sign a waiver for underage participants as well and MUST be a parent.

We do reserve the right to remove anyone from the event at any time with no refund! This would be done in the event of unruly behavior of any kind.

You will not need to print out your tickets. Your confirmation email will work just fine. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions.

Thank you so much for your purchase!! Jessica and I look forward to seeing you at the haunt and sharing in the great paranormal adventure with us!

PISCES RISING LAND AND RESTAURANT HISTORY

Phoebe Annie E. (McDonald) Stone would be the first person to settle in Mount Dora. (Mount Dora was initially named Glenco, but the name changed circa. 1882). This names her the founder of this now booming little vacation destination. Annie’s original home stood on 1872 acres, surrounded by a grove of 400 trees and a short walk to Lake Dora’s shores. It is said that Annie owned 12 slaves and two employees to help her care for her land. She lived here from 1875 til 1881, when her new home was completed, located on Donnelly Street.

Annie Married Willliam Stone on May 14th, 1866, shortly after both of her brothers died in the Civil War. Annie and William had one child, a daughter, Nellie. William moved his family to Mount Dora in 1875, and in 1877, he abandoned his family and vanished. He was never heard from again.

The railroad would appear through Annie’s property in 1887. With it would arrive, former slave Nancy Page, as well as the yellow fever epidemic. The disease spread wildly through the railroad systems between 1887 and 1889.

For a good period of time, Mount Dora became a booming community where all races worked and thrived together without the threat of racism or segregation. Many enslaved people would escape and find themselves in the safe haven that was Mount Dora.

Annie’s land would be partitioned off and sold to various people. The lot Pisces now sits would be part of the Villa Dora Hotel. The Villa Dora Hotel was built sometime after 1890. The property was purchased by Miss Nan Thorne in 1900, and in 1910, she increased the size to house 45 guests. Fred Graves then purchased the property in March of 1915. I have yet to uncover what became of the property after 1915.

The house that now sits inside Pisces Rising was built in 1918. The Back Porch would have been a part of the residence. The Back Proch would initially be a carriage house and the caretaker's residence. The upstairs held a 150-square-foot living space.

The Dudek family primarily owned it. Stella Dudek would be the last person to abide in it as a resident. In 2003, it was purchased and added on to make it a restaurant. In 2017, Josh would buy the restaurant and continue it on to Pisces Rising as it is today.

When I began working at Pisces Rising, I had no idea what I would be walking into. It became a world of paranormal stories from employees and the owner. These stories came from individuals who never wanted to, or tried to have paranormal encounters. The stories just kept coming.

The owner, Josh, told me stories of seeing an apparition of a woman standing near the fireplace. Josh no longer walks through that dining room alone at night. Management had reported lights turning on by themselves and even had video of dishes being pushed off shelves when no one was in the building.

Other employees have talked about hearing a baby cry during closed hours, bathroom doors opening, and toilets flushing on their own (and no, the bathrooms do not have automatic toilets and sinks). Employees have reported hearing footsteps, voices, and other ghostly phenomenon when no one else is in the building.

There was a cook that was employed there that repeatedly saw a young boy in the basement that would turn into a black shadowy mist and charge him. He eventually left the job due to those occurrences. There have been several other reports of employees seeing a young boy. There is a story of a young boy who drown in the lake but I have been unable to confirm the validity of that story. Every day that I work there, I am told more stories of the hauntings that exist within the walls of Pisces RIsing.

MOUNT DORA’S DARK HISTORY

I want to give you a quick timeline of Mount Dora's history. The Dark period really exists in the time of Sherif Willis McCall. Until his stay in office, Mount Dora relatively lived in peace without desegregation or racism. People of all colors lived and worked together in relative fairness and peace. Mount Dora was even a safe haven for escaping slaves.

In 1920, a land boom happened, and it was decided that blacks would have to be relocated out of the downtown area. They were removed from their homes and forced to be moved to the east side of town. This would become known as East Town. The center of East Town would’ve been located at about 11th and Clayton. (It took me a good while to figure out where it was because no one seemed to want to discuss it or put it in the history books).

The black community would suffer from this, but they were determined to make the best of it. Many of the residents would continue to build a community and businesses for themselves even with the struggles they now face. Cauley Lott arrived in 1938 and lobbied to replace the school that was found to be in deplorable conditions. It would be the Milner-Rosenwald Academy.

In the 20s and 30s, Mount Dora would be mainly sheltered from the violence of the Jim Crow laws. Even though East Town had been created, many Mount Dora residents still fought for the black community. There was a lot of pushback against the government for how they were being treated.

Unfortunately, somewhere in the early 20s, the KKK would still seep its way into the primarily peaceful town. The town of Pistolville would develop next to East Town. Violence would break out several times due to Sheriff McCall's willingness to follow the Jim Crow laws. Lynchings would take place, as well as other killings related to racial tensions.

In 1923, men from Pistolville rode into East Town looking for a black man who had danced with a white woman. He was found, shot and killed. Pistolville was known for moonshine trafficking, illegal gambling, and hell-raising. One man propositioned a back-married woman. The woman's husband stabbed and killed the man. KKK residents from Pistolville rode to East Town In retaliation, but the residents stood firmly on their porches with shotguns, scaring the invaders away.

In 1941 three young black men were arrested for the rape of a woman. Sheriff McCall hunted down the fourth. McCall is said to have shot the boy so many times that his body was unrecognizable. The other three men were taken to a cellar in Lake County and were forced to stand barefoot on broken coke bottles and beaten with lead pipes until they confessed.

In 1958 another rape occurred, and McCall falsely arrested a mentally challenged white boy, Jesse Daniels. McCall forced him to confess and the boy was sentanced to life in a mental hospital. He was released 14 years later after Mabel Norris Reese fought to prove the boy's innocence.

In 1972, McCall was finally indicted on murder charges for the death of Tommy J. Vickers. Vickors was a mentally challenged black prisoner. It was found that McCall beat him to death. McCall was finally removed from his lifelong criminal career acting as a sheriff.

In 1975, Ed “Possum Slim” was convicted of shooting two of his friends. Ed was 105 at the time of the shooting. He claimed that they were stealing money from him and that it was all in self-defense. Ed would take the life of 57-year-old Louise Stewart and wound her companion, Sammy Talbert. He was sentenced to probation and banned from Lake County. Ed passed on natural causes at the age of 113.

In 1922, a fire broke out in downtown Mount Dora. The fire occurred between 4th and 5th Ave on the east block of Donnelly St. The fire began due to an unattended iron and would completely demolish the town hall.

In 1961, a secret and private bomb shelter would be built underground to accommodate 25 of Mount Dora's most prominent families. Today, that shelter is known as the Mount Dora Catacombs. There are many theories of where that catacomb is located. It is most likely on a private property, and no one has been allowed to see it in years.

This is a small timeline of some of the history I have gathered in a short amount of time. I hope that through investigations, we can discover more of the pieces to the history of Mount Dora. It has been interesting so far. As we investigate this hunted location, let us keep an open mind and ask the spirits for help. Let's ask for the real stories of Pisces Rising and Mount Dora.