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 structure's most notable historical resident was Annie Fellows Johnston, who lived here with her sister Hallie Eaves Johnston. 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.
Hallie Eaves Johnston shared the household with her sister during part of the period when Annie was producing the series. 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 primarily 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.
Paranormal investigators working through the Haunted Historic Evansville ghost walk have detected what they describe as a young woman's presence in the building. Whether this figure is connected to Annie Fellows Johnston, her sister Hallie, or some other historical occupant is not established in the available sources — the ghost walk materials identify the building by its literary connection without making a specific attribution for the detected presence.
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.
The building is a named stop on the Haunted Historic Evansville ghost walk, which visits several of the city's most documented paranormal sites. Book through the ghost tour operator.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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