The Blue Ghost of Morgan’s Alley

A bit of history in Lewiston, Idaho

The Blue Lady Ghost of Morgan’s Alley still walks the hallways and climbs the stairs of what was once a lively saloon and gentleman’s club in Lewiston. Garry Bush, local historian and tour guide, has been present at several sightings of her.

He hasn’t seen her himself, but he has felt her presence and knows when she is there. She appears to others as a blue mist, blue smoke, a mysterious orb of blue light, or a soft blue full-bodied apparition. Once she came as a white light when a woman asked her to appear in her hand.

Those who have seen her say she arrives in a high-collared blue dress and wears her hair up. Women have gone into the ladies’ room and seen her in the mirror. Bush says that she passes him on the stairs while he is giving his tours. He watches his customers get distracted and follow her with their eyes.

Others might see a light turn on in a room with no electricity. They might feel a light breeze or hear whispers, footsteps, or the sweet sound of a piano playing on the third floor. They might turn to greet a friend, only to find no one is there. She has a benign presence, nothing dangerous, just a sense of urgency.

At first, people thought she was a prostitute who worked in the upstairs rooms of Morgan’s Alley and remained to finish some unknown task. Curious about the Lady in Blue, Bush invited a medium to investigate. The medium found just the opposite.

The Lady in Blue had not been a prostitute but a deeply religious woman who was trying to permanently shut down the saloon and gentleman’s club and eliminate prostitution. The medium thought she was the ghost of a woman named Mary Spalding, a woman who lived in Lewiston at that time.

Bush has given tours of historic Lewiston for more than twelve years. He says that the Lady in Blue is a kind spirit. She was “a campaigner, a do-gooder who was not happy with what was happening.”

Prostitution was allowed at the time, and the Lady in Blue wanted it abolished. She may have died when the town was still wild and somewhat lawless. Not knowing that the brothels have been closed, she remains to complete her life mission.

Lending credence to this theory, author, and historian Steven Branting notes that Lewiston was home to Idaho’s first chapter of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Francina Buck, an early pioneer, arrived in Lewiston with her husband in 1882. She helped organize the first chapter of WCTU in Idaho and was elected president of the chapter in 1883.

She also worked tirelessly for women’s suffrage. Idaho women won the right to vote in 1896, twenty-four years before the Nineteenth Amendment secured it nationally. If the Blue Ghost of Morgan’s Alley was a friend or a student of Francina Buck, she would have known there was still a lot of work to do. With so much left undone, the Blue Ghost of Morgan’s Alley is still hard at it.

Read more about Lewiston’s rarely told history in my book Idaho Madams.

Visit my website at milanamarsenich.com to learn more about me and my writing.