The Downtown Historical Square is the core of the city of Ocala where businesses, shops, pubs extend all around for 1000 feet. We are not going to talk to much about the history of Ocala on this page since that will be saved for a future investigation of downtown. However I want to talk a little bit about the Square itself. Its amazing how some people everyday pass through here and probably do not realize the significance to such a small little park like area. Everybody people visit all the little old shops and drink at some of the bars probably never thinking about a haunted square. 

The opera house  in the 1830s was host to the National Farmers Alliance which had 88 delegates and Semi-Tropical Exposition.  The plaque is posted in the square on how the Ocala Demands were delegated here which was economic and political reforms for farming. This served as a platform and public square in 1846.

In the mid 1800s a  courthouse stood within the downtown square. In honor of General Francis Marion a county seat was newly formed in Marion county so this is the reason for its construction. It was the Marion County Courthouse which served the city of Ocala. Around the courthouse the city and historic district expanded.  This was the original site of Marion Counties first permanent courthouse which was built in 1851. The courthouse was a two-story frame building with a colonial design. Then a second courthouse was erected on this site in 1884 which was a two-story brick cube like structure. In 1906 the public was dissatisfied with the space so a third courthouse was built. This structure had a roman design with a clock dome and a veneered walls of Indiana Sandstone. In 1965 when the courthouse no longer in use or needed it was demolished despite the public efforts to save it. Marion County gave the site to the city of Ocala and once again it became a public city square park just as the original founders of Ocala had planned.

In the center of town on Thanksgiving Day of 1883 a fire broke out destroying everything surrounded the town square and courthouse. Downtown was rebuilt with brick and fire resistant materials used instead of lumber. Ocala was named the Brick City. Today if you stood in the square and looked all around you will see many brick buildings just a few stories high with dozens of small shops, restaurants, and bars much like downtown DeLand.

Today if you were to walk through the historical city park you would see large oak tree canopies, park benches for outdoor events, a wood frame gazebo which is a reproduction of the original bandstand, circa 1888. Recently a monument was put in for The World Wars, Korean War and Desert Storm. Also on the site is statues of horses of many different breeds which are painted with art work and acrylic finish. I assume the reason for the horses is that Ocala is the horse capital they say of the nation with over 450 horse farms in Marion County alone.  During Christmas the square is complete decorated with 1000s of Christmas lights. The gazebo is used for live bands and other events downtown. Just a few blocks away are many old Victorian homes which today are all restored back to there old historic look.

You will see from our first investigation we only captured two Ectoplasmic mist shots but with all the history surrounding the square there is no doubt that some kind of energy resides within the downtown square where it has watched almost two hundred years of events. Now we have a chance at bringing you this history most have forgotten and the ghost that haunt this little city park just waiting, watching, quietly as lovers hold hands and kiss under the moonlight, jazz music plays, and many walk around the square shopping in the historical town of Ocala.

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Rick-AngelOfThyNight