HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Morgantown music club at the center of Marsha Ferber's 1988 disappearance, still unsolved
123 Pleasant Street, Morgantown, WV 26505
Research updated June 2026
Age
Varies by event
Cost
$$
Cover charge varies by show; many events 18+ or 21+. See the venue calendar for tickets.
Access
Limited Access
Historic downtown commercial building with stairs to the main room
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1891 · 1980s Morgantown music scene · Unsolved missing-person case · Historic downtown commercial building
The building at 123 Pleasant Street in downtown Morgantown was constructed in 1891. For most of the late 20th century its name was tied to one person: Marsha Ferber, who opened the Underground Railroad nightclub at 123 and 125 Pleasant Street in 1982. Under Ferber the club booked a wide range of touring and local acts and hosted political and community events, making it a fixture of the city's music scene through the 1980s.
Ferber disappeared in late April 1988. Accounts place her last confirmed sightings around April 23 to 25; her disappearance was reported to Morgantown police on May 1 after a tenant raised the alarm. She left behind possessions that argued against a planned departure: a leather jacket with several hundred dollars in it on a coat rack, her purse in her apartment, and her Toyota Tercel parked in a pay lot where acquaintances kept feeding the meter.
No trace of Ferber has been found. The Morgantown Police Department investigation remains open and is shared through FBI databases; it is cold only in the sense of being old and unsolved, not inactive. The building continued as a live-music room and today operates under the name 123 Pleasant Street, which appears as a stop on Morgantown's ghost tour.
Sources
The paranormal reputation of 123 Pleasant Street is bound up with the unsolved disappearance of Marsha Ferber rather than with any older tragedy in the building. Because Ferber was so closely identified with the club she founded, and because she vanished without explanation, local storytelling has framed the venue as a place where her presence lingers.
The building appears on the Morgantown ghost tour run by Mountaineer Excursions, alongside other downtown stops. The tour treats 123 Pleasant Street as part of the city's darker history, presenting the Ferber case to visitors as the central story of the site.
Reported phenomena described in connection with the club are general and anecdotal, and no documented investigation has tied any specific account to a verified cause. The enduring interest in the building comes less from dramatic ghost reports than from the open question at its center: a well-known figure in the local arts community who walked away from her own club one spring and was never seen again.
Notable Entities
Catch a concert at 123 Pleasant Street, the downtown Morgantown club that began life as Marsha Ferber's Underground Railroad in 1982. The building's reputation as a haunted site grew after Ferber vanished in 1988, and it appears on the local ghost tour. Check the venue calendar for the current schedule.
The exterior of the 1891 building can be viewed any time from the sidewalk on Pleasant Street in downtown Morgantown. Interior access is limited to ticketed events.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Morgantown, WV
The Berman Building, a turreted brick commercial building, was constructed in 1852 at the northwest corner of High and Walnut Streets in Morgantown. Its basement contains a barred cell that local historians believe held prisoners during the Civil War, possibly Confederate prisoners taken during the April 1863 Jones-Imboden Raid on the city.
Kansas City, MO
On June 17, 1933, gunmen ambushed a federal law-enforcement party in the south parking lot of Kansas City Union Station, killing four officers — including FBI Special Agent Raymond Caffrey — and the prisoner they were transporting, escaped bank robber Frank Nash. The FBI attributed the attack primarily to Vernon Miller and, controversially, to Pretty Boy Floyd and Adam Richetti. The killings outraged Congress and directly prompted legislation granting FBI agents the permanent authority to carry firearms and make arrests.
LaGrange, GA
On December 24, 1896, Claude Dunson was shot and killed by Douglas Cooper at this corner in downtown LaGrange, Georgia. The dispute began over a bent dime — a trivial sum that escalated to fatal violence in the public square. The incident was documented in contemporary local accounts and is now a named stop on the Strange LaGrange ghost walking tour.