bankstreet

Bank Street became New Milford's major business street in 1840, shortly after the Housatonic Railroad was finished. The line for the Housatonic
railroad runs a few hundred feet from the theater. Then in 1902, New Milford's greatest disaster struck when the "Great Fire" almost completely
leveled all of Bank Street. All the buildings had to be torn down and rebuilt, and one of them was Bank Street Theater. It was originally used as a
performance theater until the 1970's when it was made into a movie theater.

In this movie theater is where the haunting story begins. I don't know when the sightings and sounds started, but they are currently very active.
My brother works there, and he says the activity there is nightly. Managers refuse to stay there alone after closing hours because of the noise.
They keep the basement locked not only because that is where they store things, but every time you go down there, you can feel unseen hands
touching you all over your body. They also commonly hear a person talking with a "metallic" voice, but the words cannot be understood. My
brother has said it even happens when you have other people with you when you go down there. You can hear conversations throughout the
movie theater even after closing hours when no one else is there. Every evening there is a loud banging on the second theater door like someone
has been locked inside the theater, but there is no lock on the door, and there is no one in the theater when they open it.

There have been two separate visible apparitions, and one was just a one time occurrence by a girl who worked there. She went to walk up the
stairs in the building, and she saw a man in a trench coat walking up the stairs in front of her, and she looked down for a second to see where
she was walking and then she glanced up, and he was gone. The second apparition has seen by many different workers. My brother has seen
the apparition on a couple occasions. This man is seen sitting in one of the corners in the backstage area. When you go over to investigate and
see who is sitting there, he disappears. They keep the backstage area locked, so no one else could be in there except for the individuals who
unlock the door. This "trenchcoat man" has also been seen in the same seat on numerous occasions in the second theater. As soon as you
notice him he disappears.

There have been numerous other sightings, and sounds by everyone throughout the theater. I sent my brother there with our digital camera to
see if he could get any shots for the Tangled Forest and he had a few experiences while he was taking pictures. While he was taking pictures
inside one of the theaters with his friend Dan, they heard a man walking behind them limping, almost as if he was dragging one of his feet, they
turned around and went towards the noise, but no one was there. They took a picture right where the noise was coming from and absolutely
nothing showed up on the camera.

Another interesting instance was when my brother was there with one other worker, and a manager. The other worker went to go to the bathroom
before finishing cleaning up for the night. Keep in mind this individual had never witnessed any of the ghost activities, and was a skeptic before
this happened to him. He walked into the bathroom, he heard the door close, and as he was going to the bathroom, he heard the door open up
and someone walk in, he swung his hand back to hit whoever came in to bother him, and no one was there. He then ran out of the bathroom
panicking and left.

New Sighting- August 19, 2003

This "trenchcoat man" has been seen a couple times on the security cameras in the theaters. The most recent occasion happened on 8/19/2003
to one of the girls working at the theater. She looked at one of the monitors and she noticed that a man in a trenchcoat was walking into the
lobby (right near the stairs that he has already been seen going up in the past). She looked closer because she hadn't seen the man before and
it was ninety degree weather, and she noticed that you could see light through him, and you could even see the tiles on the floor through him as
if he was a shadow. As soon as she realized this, she ran out of the security room screaming and crying so I don't know if the ghost continued
up the stairs like he has before or he just disappeared. More pictures are hopefully going to be taken soon to see if anything shows up. Most of
the last ones have not come out, and ones that did didn't show anything abnormal. This ghost seems to show up sporatically, but can almost
always be sensed.