HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Old Town Spring's 1948 community building houses a hand-cranked Victrola belonging to Marie Bailey — a relic locals say plays on its own and draws the dancing couple back on full-moon nights.
403 Main Street, Spring, TX 77373
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free admission; donations accepted. No admission fee.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Single-story building on a level Main Street lot
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1948 · Texas Historic Landmark · Old Town Spring Railroad Community Heritage · North Harris County History
Old Town Spring grew around a Southern Pacific railroad junction established in the 1880s, about 20 miles north of Houston. By the early twentieth century the town had become a modest commercial and agricultural hub — feed stores, small hotels, the Wunsche Brothers saloon and cafe, modest houses on unpaved streets. The railroad activity declined through the mid-twentieth century, and the downtown area entered a long commercial slump.
Revitalization of Old Town Spring as a tourist shopping district began in the 1970s and gathered momentum through the 1980s and 1990s, converting many of the surviving historic commercial buildings into shops, galleries, and restaurants. The Spring Historical Museum was founded in 1995 within a building completed in 1948 — a structure that had previously functioned as a church and then as a community courthouse before the museum took it over. The building is now designated as a Texas Historic Landmark and painted a distinctive bright yellow visible from Main Street.
The museum holds digital archives with thousands of documents and photographs documenting the town's history, a model train display, and a collection of household and commercial artifacts from the early twentieth century. Docent-led interpretation is available. The museum is operated by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization staffed entirely by volunteers.
Sources
The Spring Historical Museum's paranormal reputation centers almost entirely on a single artifact: a hand-cranked Victrola from around 1900. According to local oral history documented by the Woodlands Online and retold on ghost tour circuits, the phonograph belonged to Marie Bailey, who traveled from St. Louis to Spring to be with a man named Albert Paetzold — identified as Albert Faetzhold in some accounts — over the objections of her father. The couple married and remained in Spring together until their deaths in the 1970s. The Victrola was donated to or otherwise acquired by the museum after their deaths.
Staff and visitors have described the phonograph starting without being wound — playing music from its scratchy record without anyone activating it, reportedly most often right after the museum closes for the day. A separate account, cited in the Woodlands Online feature and on local ghost tours, claims that on full-moon nights, visitors looking through the museum's windows from outside have seen what appears to be a young couple dancing — the woman in white satin and lace bridal attire, the man in formal dress. The story places these apparitions as the spirits of Marie and Albert, reenacting a ritual from their shared life.
Old Town Spring has a broad paranormal reputation. The ghost tour circuit describes it as the sixth most haunted Old West town in the United States, and at least three separate Main Street buildings carry haunted-location designations. The Spring Historical Museum's story is among the gentler in that catalog: a love story with a phonograph that doesn't stay quiet, rather than anything violent.
Notable Entities
The Spring Historical Museum preserves documents, photographs, and artifacts from the Old Town Spring railroad community. Among the permanent collection is the hand-cranked Victrola once owned by Marie Bailey — an early-1900s phonograph that staff and visitors have reported starting on its own.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Houston, TX
The Julia Ideson Building opened in 1926 as the central library of the Houston Public Library, designed in Spanish Renaissance Revival style by Ralph Adams Cram of Boston. It served as Houston's central library from 1926 to 1976 and was renamed in 1951 in honor of Julia Bedford Ideson, the city's first professional librarian. It now houses the Houston Metropolitan Research Center.
Crosbyton, TX
The Crosby County Courthouse in Crosbyton, Texas was completed in late 1914, designed by Fort Worth architect M. L. Waller in the Neo-Classical style. It is the third courthouse to serve Crosby County, following county seats at Estacado and Emma, and was built after Crosbyton won an election to become the new county seat in conjunction with the arrival of the Crosbyton-South Plains Railroad.
Corpus Christi, TX
Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas is a public community college serving South Texas since 1935. The East Campus Memorial Classroom Building is a historically designated structure on the campus, notable for hosting meetings and speeches during the Chicano civil rights movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.