Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainA century-old Delano-district commercial building, longtime home of the Central Plains Novelty costume store, with decades of reported period-clothed apparitions and disembodied footsteps.
905 W Douglas Ave, Wichita, KS 67213
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Spektrum Muzik has relocated to 811 W. Douglas; it's unclear what, if anything, currently operates at 905 W Douglas. Check locally before planning a visit.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Storefront, ground-floor retail.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1900 · Century-old Delano-district commercial building · Longtime home of family-run Central Plains Novelty costume store · Documented in KMUW reporting on Delano hauntings · Anchor stop on the Wichita Ghost Tour route
The commercial building at 905 W Douglas Avenue dates to roughly the turn of the 20th century and has been in continuous use as Delano-district retail space for more than a hundred years. Its best-documented tenant is Central Plains Novelty, a family-run costume and novelty business that occupied the storefront for approximately six decades before closing in the 2010s.
Central Plains Novelty was owned by the Lawrence family, including longtime owner Nancy Lawrence, who told KMUW Wichita in 2013 that her family's experiences with paranormal phenomena in the building stretched back generations. The family kept the ashes of their deceased mother in a back room of the store, a fact Nancy connected publicly to some of the reported activity.
Following Central Plains Novelty's closure, the building was reoccupied by Spektrum Muzik & Printing, a Wichita-based record store and small-format printing business.
The Delano district itself has a long frontier-era history of saloons, gambling halls, and storied 1870s figures including Edward T. 'Red' Beard, providing thick local context for the broader concentration of ghost stories along W Douglas Avenue.
Sources
The 905 W Douglas storefront's haunted reputation was best documented during the building's long run as Central Plains Novelty. KMUW Wichita reported in 2013 that owner Nancy Lawrence — who ran the family business for years — described mysterious perfume scents, footsteps in empty upstairs apartments, and unexplained object displacement. The Lawrence family kept the ashes of their deceased mother in a back room and believed at least some of the activity represented her continued presence.
Customers and staff over the decades reported figures dressed in period clothing — Victorian-era women and men — appearing and disappearing throughout the store, as well as strange lights and orbs. Paranormal investigator Laurie DeWinkler's Moonlit Ghost Hunts team documented multiple EVPs in the building during formal investigations, per KMUW's reporting.
The US Ghost Adventures Wichita Ghost Tour continues to feature the building as a stop on its standard route, drawing on accounts compiled during the Central Plains Novelty era.
Because the building has hosted continuous retail use for over 120 years and stands in a Delano district shaped by frontier-era violence and the late-1800s shooting of Edward T. 'Red' Beard, several investigators have suggested its activity may reflect general layered residual energy rather than a single named entity.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Spektrum Muzik has relocated to 811 W. Douglas; current access to the 905 W Douglas building is unclear. The address is long known for Central Plains Novelty, the costume shop whose decades there are the source of the building's reported paranormal activity.
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