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Reported phenomena — as catalogued
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A converted 1956 rail-car diner beside Pine Grove Cemetery in Massena, NY, where staff and customers report lights, stoves, and shoelaces moved by unseen hands.
3 N Main Street, Massena, NY 13662
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Diner pricing; standard menu items
Access
Limited Access
Converted rail car with narrow interior; limited accessibility
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1956 · Converted 1950s American rail-car diner · 69-year community institution · Adjacent to Pine Grove Cemetery · Former site of Massena's first hospital
Spanky's Diner opened in 1956, established by Al Nicola in a converted railroad car on North Main Street in Massena, a small city in St. Lawrence County along the St. Lawrence River. The rail-car format was a mid-century American dining convention, and the building retains much of its original character.
The diner changed hands over the years, passing through the Krywanczyk family — Alex 'Spanky' Krywanczyk giving the place its name — before coming under the ownership of Valery LeValley. It operated as a community fixture for 69 years before closing around Christmas 2025.
Two features of the diner's location have long attracted attention from those interested in its ghost accounts: Pine Grove Cemetery sits directly behind the building, and the site was adjacent to the original location of Massena's first hospital. Local paranormal investigators identified what they described as eight distinct spirits in the building, seven of them children, including the apparition of a girl who drowned in the Grasse River and a patient from the former hospital.
Paranormal investigators from Afterlife Investigators documented activity at Spanky's during a March 2022 overnight session. The diner was also featured in regional coverage as one of the most active reported haunted locations in the North Country.
Sources
The ghost reports at Spanky's Diner are unusually specific. Staff described lights, stoves, and radios activating independently — not the anomalous flicker often reported in older buildings, but full activations of equipment. Orbs with distinguishable features appeared in photographs taken inside the building. At least one seated customer found her shoelaces tied together at the table, with no one nearby who could have done it.
The Afterlife Investigators paranormal team, a North Country investigative group, conducted an overnight session at Spanky's in March 2022. Their assessment identified eight spirits present in the building, seven of them children. Among the named entities were the apparition of a girl who drowned in the Grasse River — a waterway that runs through Massena — and a former patient from the hospital that once stood on the adjacent property, described as having a severe hip or leg injury.
The proximity of Pine Grove Cemetery, directly behind the building, factors into how locals explain the concentration of reported activity. The cemetery serves the broader Massena community and contains graves dating back well into the nineteenth century.
Staff in the kitchen reported the strongest concentration of activity: stoves and other equipment activating on their own, and the persistent sense of a figure passing through the room.
Notable Entities
Eat at the diner and take in the location's atmosphere. The original 1956 rail car sits adjacent to Pine Grove Cemetery and near the site of Massena's first hospital. Staff are generally willing to discuss the ghost accounts with curious diners.
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