A 1920 Enid mercantile building, now a children's science museum, where owner Harry Alton died by suicide in 1924 — and where staff still report a self-running freight elevator and phantom phone calls.
200 E Maple Ave, Enid, OK 73701
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Standard museum admission; see website for current pricing.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat, urban downtown building. Freight elevator on premises.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1920 · 1920 commercial mercantile building in Enid's downtown district · Site of Harry Alton's death by self-inflicted gunshot in 1924 · Repurposed as Leonardo's Discovery Warehouse, a nonprofit children's museum
The two-story brick commercial building at 200 East Maple Avenue in Enid was built in 1920 and opened as Alton's Mercantile, a retail dry-goods operation. Harry Alton ran the business until 1924, when he died on the premises from a self-inflicted gunshot wound — a detail confirmed by the Enid News and Eagle's reporting on local haunted-site histories.
The building passed through several subsequent commercial uses before finding its current purpose. Leonardo's Discovery Warehouse, a nonprofit children's science and discovery museum, has operated in the space for several decades, filling the historic mercantile building with interactive exhibits aimed at young visitors.
The freight elevator installed in the original commercial period remains part of the building's infrastructure. Enid, a railroad and agricultural hub in Garfield County, developed rapidly in the Oklahoma Land Rush era; its downtown district retains a number of early-twentieth-century commercial buildings, of which the Alton's Mercantile structure is one of the more intact examples.
Sources
The paranormal reports at Leonardo's Discovery Warehouse cluster around two areas: the freight elevator and the upper floors. Staff have described receiving phone calls from inside the closed building when no one was present, and the freight elevator has reportedly moved between floors without being called or operated.
Multiple witnesses have reported seeing the figure of a man in a white butcher's coat moving through the upper-floor spaces. Local accounts connect this apparition to Harry Alton, the original mercantile owner, who died on the premises in 1924. The Enid News and Eagle documented these accounts in a feature on local haunted sites, noting the specificity of the white-coat detail across independent witness reports.
The museum does not operate the building as a paranormal attraction; the ghost stories circulate through local word-of-mouth and press coverage rather than from any official programming.
Notable Entities
Leonardo's Discovery Warehouse operates as a hands-on children's science museum inside the 1920 Alton's Mercantile building. The upper floors, where staff have reported the white-coated apparition and unexplained elevator movement, are part of the working museum space.
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