HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
A 1920s-era Bastrop storefront where a man named Jack Black died falling from the roof; staff named their ghost after him and kept his photograph on the wall.
905 Main St, Bastrop, TX 78602
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Café and bakery; breakfast and lunch pricing typical of a local diner.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Ground-floor café on a flat downtown Main Street block.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1920 · Historic commercial district, Bastrop Main Street · Oral tradition of Jack Black's rooftop death
Bastrop's Main Street developed as the commercial heart of Bastrop County in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the block where Maxine's Café operates dates to that period. The building at 905 Main is a vernacular commercial structure typical of small Texas towns from the 1910s–1920s, with a flat facade and ground-floor retail space.
The café takes its name from Maxine, the woman who originally built the business's local reputation. It has operated for years as one of Bastrop's more established breakfast-and-lunch spots, drawing both local regulars and visitors from the Austin metro, which is roughly 30 miles to the west.
The dark history attached to the building centers on a man named Jack Black, who died after falling from the roof of the structure. The precise date of the fall is not documented in sources accessible during this build; staff learned of the death through local oral history rather than a formal historical record. After discovering the account, café staff made the deliberate choice to acknowledge the building's past: they named the reported ghost 'Jack,' hung a photograph of him in the café, and have since relayed the story to curious visitors.
Sources
The ghost at Maxine's Café has a name — Jack — and a face: a photograph of Jack Black hangs inside the café as an informal memorial to the man who died falling from the building's roof.
Staff first became aware of the death through Bastrop oral history. After learning the story, they connected it to the unexplained incidents they had already been experiencing: hubcaps mounted on the wall that reportedly flew off on their own, and objects moving without any physical cause. The naming of the ghost — a deliberate act by the people who work there daily — reflects a kind of institutional acknowledgment that something unusual has been happening in the building.
The specific incidents documented in firsthand accounts from a 2017 travel blog visit focus on the flying hubcaps and object movement. No more dramatic events (apparitions, voices) appear in the documented record. Jack's photograph on the wall gives the building's paranormal reputation a specific human anchor rather than a generic haunted-restaurant framing.
Notable Entities
Have breakfast or lunch in the 1920s-era storefront where staff first named their in-house ghost 'Jack' after learning about the fatal rooftop fall. A photograph of Jack reportedly hangs on the premises. Paranormal reports have included hubcaps flying off the wall and objects moving on their own.
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