The Byrish Haus Restaurant & Pub located at 1341 Patton Ave featuring German dishes is now closed, perhaps a victim of COVID-19. Its prospects for the future are unknown. But what is known is that the paranormal activity at the facility attracted considerable attention. It started with objects being tossed about in the kitchen area and barstools being knocked over by some unknown force. Then, there were reports of shadowy forms moving around the building. The owners reached out to Joshua Warren, an author and a worldwide recognized expert in paranormal investigations.
Asheville, no stranger to the paranormal, has been called the most haunted place in the United States. So, Warren had no trouble organizing a séance with a variety of psychics, sensitives, and practiced ghost hunters. Marla Hardee Milling in her book, Legends, Secrets and Mysteries of Asheville, reported that as the séance began, things started to change—electromagnetic meters registered activity, a pendulum held by a woman began swinging, another psychic burst into tears experiencing an intense feeling of grief. Some reported feeling touched by something. The temperature in the room suddenly became very cold and a vibration was felt through the table. A Ouija Board spelled the letters O H. Someone in the group suggested O.C. Hamilton as a possibility for the meaning of the letters O H. Subsequent research disclosed that O. C. Hamilton was, in fact, John Joseph Carroll, a Roman Catholic priest who assumed the new name to keep his secret that as a priest he had impregnated a woman lover who he married as Hamilton and moved from Chicago to Asheville.
However, there was another connection. In about 1897, Hamilton build a home that Gus Adler and wife, Emma, purchased in the late 1930s and converted it into a wine and dine restaurant. Initially, it was called the Old Heidelberg, but Adler changed the name to Sky Club in 1942 due to the growing anti-German sentiment of World War II. Gus died tragically in a 1952 fire caused after he fell asleep in bed with a cigarette. Emma continued running the Sky Club frequented by stars Robert Mitchum, Fess Parker, Susan Hayward, and Grace Kelly when in town filming movies. The theory was put forth that Adler’s spirit could be connected with the Byrish Haus haunting. Adler had been close friends with the prior owner of the 1341 Patton Ave property, Gus Kooles. And he frequently visited what was then the Barbeque Inn. There is also the heavy German connection between Adler, Kooles and the opening of this new German restaurant, the Byrish Haus.
Joshua Warren organized a blessing of the place to make peace with the spirits. While Hamilton’s spirit may have been among those troubled souls remaining in the restaurant, the owners were convinced that Gus Adler was also one of the spirits involved. They placed a framed announcement on the wall that included Adler’s picture and biographical information as well as an explanation that the building was haunted. The Byrish Haus building currently has a sign in the window advertising its “Availability” to anyone interested in reopening the restaurant or acquiring the property. Whoever does may get more than they bargained for!