In 1890, 20-25 people died in a fire at Schillings Hardware Store. The cause of the fire was a woman smoking over a barrel of kerosene, said , a paranormal researcher for more than 30 years. Volner is founder and director of Southern Paranormal Examinations And Research, Inc., S.P.E.A.R., which is based in Marietta.
"There weren’t that many people in the building, but when the kersoene exploded, it exploded," Volner said. "Flames went everywhere. It just went going and going and going."
Since the fire, the spelling was changed slightly, and the business was turned into the restaurant , but remnants of the hardware store and earlier years remain. Volner said there are seven ghosts in the building -- three who live upstairs and four who reside downstairs. Six are ghosts of people who died in the fire. The seventh is that of a confederate soldier who died in a hallway -- which was used as a morgue -- during the Civil War.
"It was a cool place to keep dead bodies," Volner said. "He hangs around that little hallway down there in the basement."
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