“Dark Echoes Paranormal,” a paranormal investigation series that streams on Amazon Prime, Paraflixx, and will soon be on Apple TV, will be filming at The Bath Exchange in Bath on Sunday.
Owner Lauren Shala said that the filming will hopefully answer questions about odd sightings and noises that she and her husband and co-owner, Christopher, have experienced since they purchased the property in 1999. (The Shalas purchased the property at 204 W. Main St. and ran the business as Kicker’s Pub before shutting that down and renaming it The Bath Exchange in 2019 in honor of the property’s previous identity as The Slate Exchange Hotel.)
Shala said she, her staff and customers have frequently reported mysterious movements throughout the years. “There’s a light that hangs over the pool that will start swinging like crazy, and there’s no wind or anybody around it,” she said. “Once, a book flew off the shelf, and another time, a customer’s silverware flew off the table. My husband was talking to someone once and a penny flew off the table and just kept spinning and spinning.”
The history of the property remains fuzzy. Shala said her research into archival news footage has shown that there was a murder that occurred in 1907 at the spot, and that the property was built with four floors and rooms in 1853.
Sunday won’t be Shala’s first brush with paranormal investigation. “Dark Echoes” came in December to do some preliminary filming; Sunday’s visit will include filming but will primarily be an investigation. In 2010, a paranormal investigation group in Easton stopped by and conducted an investigation, Shala said. A few years ago, members of Palmerton Paranormal also came by; according to Shala, the group was able to detect figures in the dining room, where the murder in 1907 may have occurred. “There was one guy in the corner and a shorter man next to him on the floor just going wild,” she said. “The other figure was very tall and swaying back and forth slowly.”
Shala herself has experienced paranormal activity at the location. “If I go to the dry storage and refrigerator in the basement, I can see a person at the corner of my eye,” she said. “My other employees have also told me they can feel it and don’t want to go back there alone.”
The producers are not aware of these potential clues to where the ghostly presence may be or what their backstories are, however. “We don’t know the story before the investigation,” Stacy Reed, an investigator with the team, said. “We go in completely cold.”
Reed said that the four-person team will join a guest investigator, a medium who will choose to either be blindfolded or not.
It’s also not the first time the “Dark Echoes” brand has come to the region for paranormal investigation. Most recently, in December, “Dark Echoes Paranormal Show” filmed at Salvage Goods in Easton. Reed said her team will be spending part of the weekend in York investigating another potential haunting.
Whether or not the team detects paranormal activity, Shala said that she doesn’t feel like her physical safety is threatened. “They’re not harmful, but they want to let you know they’re there,” she said. “At times when we’re closing you get that eerie feeling that someone is there. You almost try to rush yourself out while you’re cleaning up.”
The Bath Exchange will be closed at times during Sunday’s filming and investigation.
