HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
An 1886 coffee shop whose 19th-century literary tenants may not have fully left — workers report random object movement, lights turning themselves back on, and a young woman's presence.
600 SE 2nd St, Evansville, IN 47713
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Coffee shop; pay for food and drink. Ghost walk stop adds separate tour ticket cost.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Ground-floor coffee shop on a flat downtown street
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1886 · Home of author Annie Fellows Johnston · Connection to 'The Little Colonel' children's book series · Riverside Historic District
The building at 600 SE 2nd Street dates to 1886, part of the dense residential and commercial fabric that grew up in Evansville's Riverside neighborhood in the decades after the Civil War. The building's most notable historical resident was William Levi Johnston, who operated a pharmacy on the first floor and lived upstairs with his three children. He married his cousin Annie Fellows Johnston in 1888. Annie Fellows Johnston (1863–1931) was a prolific author best known for 'The Little Colonel' series, a sequence of twelve novels beginning in 1895 that followed the adventures of a Kentucky girl nicknamed the Little Colonel. The books were widely read across the country in the early twentieth century and were later adapted for film.
William died four years after marrying Annie, after which she turned her writing hobby into a career. The literary connection gives the building a documented historical significance beyond its architecture; it was a working author's home during a productive and nationally recognized phase of her career.
The building later passed through other uses before becoming Penny Lane Coffee. The Riverside Historic District location kept the structure standing through Evansville's various urban renewal periods, and it retains its late-Victorian street presence on SE 2nd Street.
Sources
The stories at Penny Lane Coffee come from a 2017 account and from the people who work there rather than from outside investigators. Staff members have reported heavy objects falling in ways inconsistent with simply being knocked over, and lights turning themselves back on after being shut off at closing. Both types of phenomena have been documented consistently enough to get the building onto the radar of Evansville's ghost tour operators.
A 2017 account described a young woman's presence detected in the building. People at Penny Lane have named the figure many believe haunts the café Fletcher, though many think it is actually Annie Fellows Johnston; the connection is not established in the available sources, and the ghost walk's Annie and Hallie characters are theatrical portrayals rather than a documented attribution.
The building's placement on the Haunted Historic Evansville ghost walk, which returned in October 2022 after a hiatus, puts it in documented company with several of the city's most consistently reported paranormal sites. Coverage by both Evansville Living and the radio station WGBF-FM confirmed the stop's inclusion in the tour.
Notable Entities
Penny Lane Coffee operates as a working coffee shop in this 1886 building. Drop in during business hours for coffee and a look at the historic interior where workers have reported unexplained object movement and lights switching back on after being shut off.
A theatrical walking tour of Evansville's Riverside Historic District, portrayed by Evansville Civic Theatre actors, with Penny Lane named as a stop for the Annie Fellows Johnston and Hallie Eaves Johnston ghost characters. The October 16-17, 2026 walk departs every 20 minutes from 6-9 p.m., starting at First Presbyterian Church. Book through the ghost tour operator.
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