Folklore of Enid's Performing Past:

"Spirited" Stories Surrounding the Places and People of Enid's Oldest Theatres.

A Project for Mythology & Folklore, by Brady Henderson

 Stories of the Knox Building: The Lights

Beginning in the mid 1980s, the top two floors of Enid’s Knox Building, an old edifice all but vanished into the void of Enid’s derelict downtown during the “oil bust,” became the site of an unusual occurrence: someone left the lights on.  This would not have been out of the ordinary, except that the 4^th and 5^th floors of the structure had sat vacant for over 40 years.   At one time these two stories had housed one of the largest Masonic Temples in Oklahoma, a great hall, theatre, and ample rooms and corridors for doing whatever the Masons did there.  The temple thrived until 1946, when, for reasons still unknown even to Masonic historians of Enid, the temple’s owner, Charlie Knox, closed its doors.  Despite many wanting to use or restore the facility for the next 40 years, Knox refused to “ever let anyone go up there again.”

Finally by the 80s the building had changed owners but still lay dormant.  And so one night an area electrician got the call that several lights could be seen burning through the windows.  The electrician unlocked the doors, went down to the basement, and found that, as should have been the case, the mains to the upstairs floors were off.  Upon returning to the street and looking upward, the lights were gone.  This same thing happened at least a dozen more times over the next few months.  Finally, the same procedure of checking the mains then going back outside repeated, this time the lights remained bright.

The Knox Building Interior, as restored by the Enid Symphony.

With no other option but to investigate, the electrician and two colleagues headed up the stairs, keys and flashlights in hand, to see the lights burning on the 4^th and 5^th floors, seemingly without electricity.  Upon opening the dust-covered doors, they found the lights were indeed on in several rooms.  They then went to the breakers for these floors, as it was possible the switches downstairs had been bypassed at some point as electricians often do.  Not only were the switches off, but when the cables to and from the boxes were examined, each one was found to have been cut many times, as if violently.  Instead of running to the boxes, copper was lying in frayed pieces on the floor.  And so with switches turned off, and no electrical wiring, much less electricity, still the lights burned. 

That is why to this day repairmen, electricians, and others will never ascend the Knox’s staircase alone, for they know that unnatural things occur there.  

--Based on an interview with Becky Buller, resident of Enid, Oklahoma,  conducted by Brady Henderson on 9-18-2000.