Kells Irish Pub & Mercedes on Ghost Adventures
The Ghost Adventures Crew visited Seattle for the Travel Channel. They were locked down in Kells Irish Pub. The episode first aired on December 17, 2010. The episode focuses heavily on the mortuary, in which Kells is a tenant. The building itself has several levels and has been office spaces at the top, and several restaurants below.
The First Avenue side, 1921 First, now under construction, is where the Chapel is located. It has been dubbed "the place restaurants go to die" by a local journalist. Every restaurant has struggled to stay open in the former Chapel space. Could it be that the victims of stravation specialist Linda Hazzard remain in there? The building is the first 'mortuary' in the world. Mr. Butterworth coined the term. A prestigious man who went on to open two additional mortuaries, he was also implicated in one of Dr. Hazzard's murders.
History is often stranger than stories, and that is true of the time period the mortuary was open at this location. Diphtheria, influenza, and murder all were causes of death. $50 was paid for bodies, by the city during the Klondike Goldrush. The offer was extended to all Undertakers in Seattle. It was an offer created by the city of Seattle in order to continue to woo Klondike miners to come through. During the early 1900s, 300,000 men and women made their way through Seattle in pursuit of gold. Dead miners in alleys was bad marketing. That is referenced in several books including Cemeteries of Seattle and this passage from Four White Horses and a Brass Band, "It was not uncommon for a thug to take a drunk for a walk and push him off a pier. An associate waiting below in a rowboat took good care that the victim drown and then tied the corpse where it could be handily located the next day."
Some of the incidents the mortuary were involved in were shady but Mr. E.R. Butterworth himself often forgave debts and was involved with charitable works. His descendants still live in Seattle. To call his dealings corrupt is a bit of a stretch. In truth, corruption was rampant in Seattle. The streets were filled with con artists, thugs, and swashbucklers yielding "medical licenses." Doctor Linda Hazzard is a very good example. If you want to read more about her, pick up a copy of Starvation Heights by Gregg Olsen.
The building has had many tenants, both living and dead. It remains a curious place today. Below is a compilation of articles, blog entries and you tube videos about Kells and the former mortuary.
Kells
12.15.2010 
E.R. Butteworth & Sons, Undertakers, painted into the building above Kells
The Ghosts of Post Alley Past
By Antonia Greco
"When people say the Pike Place Market has a lot of soul, you have no idea how right they are. Day to day, amongst the hustle and bustle of the khaki-offending tourists and locals adrift, the market is abundant with the presence of restless spirits and ghosts alike.
“They’re all around us. They only make their presence known when they have something to tell us,” says Karen McAleese of Kells Irish Restaurant and Pub.
Kells, which resides at 1916 Post Alley, is the ground floor of the 5-story hulking, brick edifice formerly known as the E.R. Butterworth funeral home. 1921 First Avenue, which is the buildings main entrance, was the former chapel area of the funeral home and in more recent years, was the former location of the now closed Starlight Lounge. Kells, on the other hand, occupies the former embalming room of the funeral home, making it a haven for un-earthly like occurrences."
Read the rest of the entry by clicking HERE
12.15.2010 Ghost stories haunt Pike Place Market
By Stuart Eskenazi / Seattle Times / June 2007
"You are never alone at Pike Place Market. Even when you are by yourself.
Karen McAleese swears to it. On All Saints' Day a couple of years ago, she is certain she saw someone — something? — amble out of the kitchen at Kells Irish Restaurant & Pub, her family's place. "He was a tall man who looked like he was part black, with a suit jacket on," McAleese says in her thick Irish accent. "He had very thin hands. He walked to the end of the bar and just kind of faded." It scared the bejeebers out of her.
Nina Menon doubts no more. The co-owner of Bead Zone in the Market's DownUnder was in her shop having a rather agitated phone conversation when strands of red beads hanging on a wall hook came crashing to the floor. "I was a healthy skeptic, but seeing was believing," Menon says. "There was no way these beads could have just slid off." When people say Pike Place Market is full of spirit, they have no earthly idea how true that may be. We mere mortals may not be the only ones lurking in the Market's nooks and crannies.
This article appeared during the Market's 100 year anniversary." To read more CLICK HERE.
Ghost girl teaches living girl a new game
12.14.2010 I've been a Market Ghost Tour guide for about a week now, and have been focusing on the 5:PM tours, with one or two 7:PM tours thrown in for good measure. Throughout my life I have had a couple of inexplicable experiences that most people would call "ghost encounters", but ghosts and the afterlife just don't really fit into my worldview. So I have written these experiences off as inexplicable, but not proof that my entire mechanistic/humanist worldview is wrong.
On August 17th - the Pike Place Market's 103rd birthday - I led a Ghost Tour at 7:PM for nine tourists. Outside of the old ER Butterworth Mortuary on 1st Ave, I told about the history of the building and some of the spookier things that have happened in there. People were very interested and wanted to see in the windows (which are, sadly, papered over), but I told them that we would go down into the bowels of the building. So we walked around the corner and into Kells Irish Pub, which is on the bottom floor and accessible only from the back alley.
I like Kells because it is dark, and clearly a fun Irish bar... but there is also this sort of "compressed" feeling in there. Ghost Stories just seem more believable in there. I led my group to the back of the room (as usual), and that was where we saw a little blonde girl about 2 years old, or so, playing with... nobody.
There was nobody there, but she was clearly interacting with someone...Her family came up to me very excited (I am somewhat recognizable as a Ghost Tour guide, with my handlebar mustache and kilt from Utilikilts!), and told me how their daughter - this little girl - had been playing with a ghost for the last hour or so!
I have seen children play with invisible friends, and this was not like that. The nice thing about an invisible friend is that they are wherever you want them to be. For example, if a kid is playing with their invisible friend in front of them, and then the child turns 90-degrees, their invisible friend is still in front of them.
But this little girl I witnessed playing with a specific geographical space, and interacting with it like she was talking and playing with another person! She said that the person she was playing with was a little red-haired girl that is older than she is, and they were playing games together.
Her older sister and mother excitedly told me that the little girl had learned a new game from her ghost friend, and she taught it to them. They checked with the whole family (who was all at Kells having dinner) and none of them had played this game with the little girl!
Needless to say, this knocked me for a bit of a loop... how do you continue talking about ghost stories when we have all just seen someone interacting with a REAL ghost?!?
I took a quick photo of the family at the back of Kells, and then led my tourists on to the next stop on the tour.
After work, I talked to a bartender at another bar about the experience, over my whisky-ginger ale. He smiled a knowing smile and told me about the conversation he had heard clearly coming from the middle of the downstairs dining room in his restaurant... when there was nobody there. He walked all over the place and found the exact point where the speakers were talking, but there was nobody there.
I am really looking forward to doing more tours and having more inexplicable experiences! Now I'm going to keep my new iPhone on Video Mode all the time!