Est. 1865 · 1865 Red River Era Commercial Building · Scottish Immigrant Business History · Downtown Alexandria Historic Commercial District
The building at 924 Third Street dates to 1865 and was purpose-built as a jewelry store by Scottish immigrants who saw the site's commercial potential near the Red River, then a hub of shipping activity serving central Louisiana. The Red River trade made Alexandria a viable market for fine goods, and the jewelry store operated successfully in the building for more than a century.
The business passed through different owners over the decades. Carl A. Schnack, a German immigrant, ran the jewelry operation through the mid-twentieth century, maintaining the building's original commercial character. In the mid-1990s, Schnack's jewelry business relocated. The historic building was subsequently purchased by a local attorney who was a descendant of the original Scottish builder.
The attorney converted the space into an upscale restaurant and named it The Diamond Grill — a deliberate nod to the jewelry heritage of the address. The building's Art Deco structural character was preserved in the restaurant conversion. The Diamond Grill became part of Alexandria's downtown dining scene and figures in the Louisiana History Museum's annual Halloween ghost scavenger hunt, which uses it as one of its central stops alongside the Hotel Bentley.
Sources
- http://hauntednation.blogspot.com/2016/08/diamond-grill-alexandria-la-dinner.html
- https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/food/louisiana/historic-building-turned-restaurant-la
ApparitionsObject movementShadow figures
The presence at 924 Third Street goes by 'Stella' — a name given by staff to a well-dressed, sophisticated apparition who has been described as appearing to belong to an earlier era. Her primary documented behavior is the movement of jewelry: pieces are found in locations other than where they were left, and the displacement is consistent enough that staff have come to treat it as a pattern rather than coincidence.
The connection to the building's jewelry-store past is the interpretive frame that local accounts apply most often. A woman with such a clear attachment to jewelry — moving it rather than taking it permanently, and moving it within the building — fits an 'intelligent haunting' pattern in which the apparition acts on emotional rather than random logic.
Beyond Stella's apparition, staff and guests report a black mass on the third floor and moving objects including candlesticks. The phenomena cluster in the building's interior spaces rather than in the restaurant's public dining area. The account was documented in detail by the hauntednation.blogspot.com site, which covered the Diamond Grill as a dedicated entry in 2016.
Notable Entities
Stella (unidentified apparition)