Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener, discretion is advised.
I've always known I was not into the idea of provoking spirits. For one, I find it disrespectful, and secondly, if I can't see who I'm talking to, if I can barely even prove they exist, why on earth would I try to get their attention by berating them. This episode's location really drove that home for me. I first
investigated it years ago on the show ghost Hunters. It was one of my first cases on the show and on national television, to be frank so, even though I'd been on many teams and had investigated for years, I was the new beat here, Which was why when my partner on the show, who was definitely just trying to have some fun with me, told the ghosts we were looking for that I wanted to burn the whole place down, I got a wee bit offensive. This was my reputation
on the line here. It was also in that moment we heard slamming noises in the room with us. Whoever was there did not like the idea of this preciously historic building burning down. Nor did I, of course, so we'd gotten a response, which I suppose is what anyone could want on an investigation, especially one on reality television. But truthfully, even though I don't think there was any real ill intention, I didn't feel great about the way
we'd composed ourselves. And that's why the Cuban Club in Ebor City, Florida cemented my decision to never antagonize a spirit without reason Again. I'm Amy Bruney, and this is Haunted Road. From the outside, the Cuban Club in Ebors City, Florida looks like a stately old library or museum nestled in a historic Hispanic neighborhood in northeastern Tampa. The structure is made of bright yellow brick with white trim. Two twin staircases, one on the right and one on the left,
meet in front of its raised front door. The columns to either side of the entrance each stand two stories tall. They frame the door, as well as a stained glass window depicting the Cuban coat of arms. The inside is equally elegant, think tiled floors, stairways with wrought iron balustrades, a cantina that dates back to the late thirties or early forties, and a theater that can seat four hundred and seventy five people and fills two stories of the building.
It has an elaborately carved priscinnium surrounding the plush red curtain. Just outside the theater. There are white ticket booths by both the main and balcony entrances. The top floor holds a ballroom with a fantastic view of the Tampa skyline, plus a terrace. All this in a four story, thirty
seven thousand square foot Neo Classical Revival style building. If you visit one of its many bars or gathering spaces, it's not hard to picture people meeting here seventy or eighty years ago, smoking, drinking, eating, and having a wonderful time. Built in eighteen ninety nine, the Cuban Club was supposed to provide both fun and financial stability to the residents of Ebor City. At that time, the community was considered
the cigar capital of the world. According to the National Park Service, Many of the six thousand residents worked in factories where they made cigars. Thanks to restrictions on Cuban imports, there was a high demand for American made ones Clubs like the Cuban Club, which was renamed a couple of times through its existence, popped up to offer locals a place to gather and socialize, but also it provided benefits and support that people might not otherwise get at their
working class jobs. As reported by Lucy B Wayne and Lauren Krebs in a report for the US Department of the Interior, who joined the Cuban Club didn't just have a place to enjoy a drink and watch a show. They could also attend English lessons, access the library, and set up death benefits. The Cuban Club even offered its members healthcare. The organization occasionally hired doctors and operated an
on site clinic. They helped their clients pay for surgeries and other care, and if someone couldn't work because they were too sick, the club would give them financial assistance. Authors Mark Munsey and Carrie Schultz described the organization as one of the first HMOs in the country. In light of all this, it's fairly unsurprising that the club was incredibly popular. In nineteen oh two, just three years after
it opens its doors, it had three hundred members. A little over a decade later, in nineteen fourteen, that roster had swelled to about one thousand people. Local law at the time dictated that light skinned and dark skinned people could not congregate together, so even though skin tones within families would cover a range of human colorations, the Cuban Club was for light skinned Cubans. Another local club was for dark skinned Cubans. Despite this, residence flocked to the
Cuban Club. Even a fire in nineteen sixteen couldn't dissuade people, and the rebuilt building reopened its doors the following year. The decade after that, the club's treasurer, Enrique Santa Cruz, embezzled a little over seven thousand dollars or the equivalent of one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars today. The club was still a smashing success. They hosted boxing matches and musical performances and boasted roughly forty five hundred members
by the nineteen thirties. During the Cuban Revolution in the nineteen fifties, a large number of its members supported Fidel Castro. This led to some tension as Cuban refugees fleeing to the United States didn't see eye to eye with high ranking members of the club. In July nineteen sixty two, a vandal painted hammers and sickles on the building an unfurled a revolutionary banner. A month later, several leaders resigned because the organization was, according to them, communists dominated, as
reported in the Tampa Tribune. Interestingly, after that summer, the club's politics seemed to mellow. They did more outreach to Cuban refugees who'd fled Castro's rule. This all happened in the midst of an anti communist wave that swept through the whole United States, not just Ebor City. The same year as the vandalism and the resignations, an embargo made it impossible for American factories to import Cuban tobacco. The
cigar plants near the Cuban Club subsequently shut down. It was terrible timing, as a recent highway construction project had destroyed parts of the neighborhood, and a subsequent urban development program displaced nearly one thousand families. While people left Ebor City, fewer locals bought memberships at the club, and it began
to suffer a thirty year decline. In nineteen ninety two, a non profit group bought the building and set about renovating and restoring it while educating people on Ebor City's history. According to Paul Guzo of the Tampa Bay Times, today you can rent the club as an event space. While its ultimate decline was related to finances and the US Cuban relationship, the club suffered its fair share of scandals too.
It stands to reason, of course, a paston popular social club would be a pressure cooker for interpersonal conflict that erupted into violence. In nineteen twenty seven, the club's treasurer, Enrique Santa Cruz, took his own life. He was behind the embezzlement scandal I mentioned before, and when he died, he left a note confessing to the crime. Seven years later, in April nineteen thirty four, the president, Edward Valdez, made the unpopular decision to fire one of the organization's doctors.
He and the other leaders held a meeting to discuss the firing. Over five hundred disgruntled members piled into the packed theater to des gust the situation. Over the course of two hours, the discussions grew more contentious. Accounts vary, but it seems that at one point one or more attendees rushed the stage, or they flocked toward President Valdez when he tried to leave. In one account published in the Tampa Bay Times, a cigar maker and member named
Bellarmino Vallejo led the mob. There's some debate over how things escalated from there, but after a massive brawl broke out among more than a dozen of the attendees, a gunshot rang through the theater. Bell Armino had been shot, but nobody saw who pulled the trigger, in part because Bellarmino had somehow made his way toward the dressing rooms, which had no clear line of sight from the rest
of the theater. He was rushed into surgery at a clinic across the street, but his physicians couldn't save his life. In his final hours, Bellarmino explained how he'd been murdered. According to him, two club directors removed his glasses and held him down while President Edward Valdez shot him. Just before midnight on Friday the thirteenth, bell Armino breathes his last breath, but his testimony apparently wasn't strong enough to convict anyone of his murder. The police never charged anyone
with the crime. There are allegations of another homicide that happened in the club, presumably around nineteen seventeen, but I haven't been able to find any sources verifying that it happened. The accounts say a club president named Albert J. Colby was shot in the face, and his specter is said to still haunt the building. These rumors also imply that his murder may have been related to his involvement in another embezzlement scheme. The problem the club has never had
a president with that name. One leader had a similar moniker, Alfredo J. Coley, but he wasn't murdered, and he lived and served the club for years after the supposed homicide. So it's hard to say whose ghost with a visible wound on his face haunts the club. It's not bel Armino Vallejo. His fatal injury was in his abdomen. That said, Bellarmino's ghost has been spotted frequently in the theater where
he was shot. According to Lloyd Carrera Santos, writing for El Cerulo Cubano in one oh one, he died just before twelve am, and his ghosts trudged back to the club and stepped over the threshold right as midnight bells chimed. Some witnesses have also seen President Edward Valdez, who Bellarmino named as his killer. The Cuban Club hauntings are interesting in that there are a lot of ghosts with names
and backstories that can't be verified. Like the spirit with the facial gunshot wound, their histories and the causes of their debts are mixed with rumor and allegation in a way that makes it hard to say what's true and what isn't. For example, accounts say that in nineteen nineteen, a playwright an actor named Vincent Or Victorio was supposed
to star in his debut play. According to a story on Fox thirteen, he forgot his lines during the performance, w h umiliated, he took his own life, and some telling he waited until late that night when the theater was empty. In others, he died by suicide on stage during the show, right in front of the horrified audience members. However, there aren't any contemporary records to validate any part of
this story. Likewise, many visitors have claimed to see a woman in a white dress and red heels in the ballroom. Local lore suggests Her name is Carlita or Rosalita, and she attended an event at the club in the twenties. A man asked her to dance, and when she declined, he flew into a rage and pushed her off a third story balcony, killing her. However, there's no record of such a murder happening, nor is there any evidence to support the rumors that her vengeful brother killed the man
the next day. Additionally, there are no records of anyone ever drowning in the club's pool, which is in the basement, but many visitors claim they've seen an eight or nine year old boy named Jimmy playing with the ball where the pool used to be. Guests looking at the club from the outside have also seen Jimmy peering out the upstairs windows at them. Beyond that, there are many supposed spirits whose identities aren't known. Sometimes they sound like a
woman screaming for help or an unseen person singing. When guests walk by paintings, they get the sense that the subject's eyes are following them. The piano in the theater often plays by itself. The elevator tends to malfunction between four and five am, and these technical problems have been blamed on different ghosts, depending on who you ask. Occasionally, visitors catch a whiff of smoke on the air, like a spectral memory of the fire that burnt the club down.
Other times, a man who smells of pipe tobacco, dressed in a suit in Fedora has been sighted rushing past visitors then disappearing. All to say, the building seems positively crowded with spirits. In fact, a local ghost tour guide is speculated that there was something like three hundred specters in the building, and the Travel Channel has dubbed the Cuban Club one of the top ten most haunted locations
in the United States. Perhaps the area is just as brimming with people after their deaths as it was during their lives.
Up next, we will be.
Talking to local ghost tour guide Steve Stamberger. He has spent countless hours in the Cuban Club and given that he's one of the most well known ghost tour guides in Ebor City, he has some very colorful stories to tell. That is coming up after the break. So I am now joined by Steve Stamberger, who is a ghost and historic tour guide.
In Ebar City.
Very familiar with the Cuban Club and so we're so happy to have him. Thanks for joining us today, Steve.
It is my pleasure to be here with you.
So fun fact, I actually investigated the Cuban Club a number of years ago with Guns. I want to say this was like two thousand and eight, two thousand and seven. I was still fresh on the scene with the show, and I just remember a having a little bit too much fun in Ebors City, which I feel like is par for the course.
And then I also remember having.
Some really great activity in the club itself, and it was one of my first kind of moments where I was investigating I believe with Chris on the show, and we had a lot of things happen in that ballroom upstairs. We had a lot of footsteps, we had bangs, and it was a really fun time. So I'm kind of jealous you get to go in there so often.
It's quite a joy to be in that building and touch base with the history and the heritage.
Yeah, but as a believer in the other side, it's wonderful to be able to interact with that and to bring our guests into that atmosphere where they can actually touch the other side capture.
Images and in Iraq, it's quite an experience on our ghostores.
Okay, Now, if someone going into the Cuban Club rother on a tour otherwise, like, what do you say, are like the kind of the most common types of activity people experience there.
Well, before we enter the building, we give an overrun on the history of the building as well as what goes on on each of the four floors. It is estimated that there are three hundred spirits that call that building home. But there are certain superstars in that building who are very interested in showing themselves to people in that building, whether you work in that building or whether
you're a guest in that building. So every floor has something special, some superstar spirit who really likes to take the stage on that particular floor.
So we cover the history of the Cuban Club in the first half of the pod. So we're pretty familiar with the backstory, which is it's very interesting. But what I find kind of unusual, not even really unusual because this happens quite often, but the fact that so many of the spirits there there isn't like actual historic record to link the spirits to like something that has happened
like they're not identified in some way through research. So what do you think brings so many spirits to the Cuban Club.
I have a personal opinion on that, and what I tell my guests on the tour is that I remind them about vinyl records, and I remind them how vinyl records absorb the sound, the melody, the voices, and I share that buildings such as the Cuban Club, those walls, those floors, and ceilings act just like a vinyl record, and over the decades that the Cuban people have called that place home, the music, the voices all are built and absorbed into those walls. The social clubs of mister
Ebors City were the center of each immigrant peoples. They provided everything right, not just social life, but medical care and hospitalization. They were the heart and soul of each of those people, and those hearts and souls still resound in that building.
That makes great sense, actually, because that's kind of kind of a path we go down often on Hunted Road and other areas where I investigate is that you know, it's not always a place where someone passed or where
a tragedy happened. It can always be you know, a location where someone just felt particularly drawn to it, like it was the place of you know, happiness in their life, great memories, and like why wouldn't you want to take a moment and kind of relive that if you have that a So that does make sense, So kind of along those same lines. So we were kind of getting into it briefly. You said, there's like different spirits that kind of on each floor seem to make themselves known
the most. Can you kind of go into a couple of maybe your favorite ghost stories or interactions that you've had there over the years, or other people have kind of parleyed to you.
Oh. Absolutely, Because we are the only ghost tour in mister Eboards City with access to that building. We have a lot of people come on our tours and a lot of them are repeat customers. They want access to that building and it's only through our ghost tour they can do that. And so they bring that magic with them, that ability to interact with the other side, to sense it,
to relate to it. And when a person like that is in the building, they are like a candle in a dark room and the spirits are drawn to them. They are drawn to the life, and so we have people on our tours who actually will freeze as they are actually expressing an interaction with a spirit. In that building, he started with the ballroom, and of course, the young girl's name is Rosalita. She's known as the woman in White.
She was tragically murdered. She was thrown out of the fourth floor ballroom window because she refused to dance with
a particular gentleman. As the story has evolved, it's quite possible that she was with child, unmarried, supposedly a stunning beauty and a great dancer, and while she's at that fourteen foot long French door, perhaps catching a breath of fresh air or a sip of cool water on a hot Sunday evening, she declines a gentleman's advances for a dance, and she's thrown out of the window, and she dies at the foot of the steps on the north side
of the building on Palm Avenue. She's known in that building as a woman in White and has often been seen and captured on film and digital photography in a flowing address. It's the ballroom, It's where she was the happiest. She's often been seen from across the street the people look up to the ballroom, and once you understand the layout of the ballroom, the only way she could be seen as if she was on a twenty foot ladder, and when you go in there, there's no twenty foot ladder.
And yet people have seen her at the top of those magnificent windows, and so people will have interactions with her. A few months ago, I had a young girl on the tour. She was actually Haitian and Dominican. She has both parents from both sides of that island, and she had beautiful, beautiful, dark hair. While everyone's up there and taking pictures and videos, and of course they're using our emf meters, she screams at the top of her lungs
and faints on the floor. And when we brought her back, she said that ROSALIEA actually approached her and she could see her face and Rosalie reached out and stroked her beautiful hair, and of course at that point she screamed and passed out, and that is what she told us
when we revived her. And so we have different levels of interaction with people, and a lot of times the more open and better able to interact those types of things happen right in that building and on the tours, and those things also happened with the people that work in that building. They're constantly having interaction with the spirits in that building.
That's what was my next question was I wanted to know kind of how that affects employees. They're like what it's like for them working in the building on the day today, like what I'm sure quite unexpected fashions. These spirits kind of make themselves known to them. Have you heard any stories from folks who work there.
Sure. The woman who is the office manager of the building, she's in there early in the morning, and she will often have interaction with the young boy himI, who drowns in the swimming pool in nineteen thirty in the gymnasium of that building. And the boy is always friendly. He's an eight year old boy. She's had interactions as she's going through the different floors of the buildings to where she hears voices, she'll hear noises, and she'll talk to
the people and wish them a good day. It quiets down. I think we both understand that spirits don't try to hide. They want us to know they're they're and as a result of that, if we ignore them, they make a lot of noise. If we speak to them and give
them what they want recognition, they quiet down right. Actually, the gentleman is the maintenance engineer of that building, will often have to work in the evenings and getting the building ready for some type of event or visitation, and so he works during the night hours, and he will often find himself dealing with footsteps on the stairs, he's had furniture move while he's working in a particular room,
the sound of voices and different things. And so none of us fear the spirituality of the building, but we have a great deal of respect for that spirituality. We know those spirits are there, and if you spend any time in that building, you will never question whether or not that building is the fourth most haunted building in the country.
Now do you think that? Do you think the spirits then become pretty familiar with people they see on a daily basis. I'm sure they kind of start to kind of grow an affection toward employees or maybe even tour guides like yourself, Like, do you find that you have maybe the same kind of interactions over and over again, or they might make themselves known to you or others in a special way just out of familiarity.
I believe that that's the case that over the years there has been a welcoming to the living beings that visit work in that building. On more than one occasion when those people are on our tours that have that ability, I have been told that there is an older Cuban gentleman that follows me around the building and watches out for my safety while I'm giving tours. And trust me, I don't doubt that.
Thet Yeah, that's really interesting. So now just on the day today, Like obviously, these are very profound, very spiritual kind of types of experiences. And you know, like I said, when I investigated there many moons ago, you know, I remember just kind of being there late at night and it can.
You know, thankfully we're there late enough.
I do remember, like it's busy downtown, but we were there late at night that things kind of started to get quiet and we were able to really experience the building itself, and it does have kind of a special feeling to it. But I do remember too just there being a lot of noise, like a lot of a lot of footsteps. I remember hearing footsteps a lot. I
remember hearing knocking. There was one point where the person I was investigating with she she kind of made this She said that I was going to burn the club down, which clearly I was not, and I remember just being like, very defensive, because I don't like provoking when I'm investigating at all to try to get a rise out of us spirits. So I just remember being like, no, I am definitely not doing that, And right at that moment, there was this massive bang that happened in the building.
And so do you see things like that very often? Maybe not even on tours, but when you're in there on your own or with other business.
Let me share this with you, and I rarely share this information. I wear hearing aids. I will not wear them in the building. I do not speak a word of Spanish. When I have my hearing aids on, and I've worn them in the past, I can hear that I'm being spoken to in Spanish, and I do not speak Spanish. But when I have my hearing aids on, I can actually hear the Spanish language being spoken, and I know it's being directed at me personally, and so
it doesn't scare me. But it is distracting when you're trying to give a tour someone is speaking Spanish in your ear and you know that it's not a living person.
So that is fascinating because, like, I have never even thought about that.
That's the first time I've heard that.
Where hearing aids, because you know, we so often when we investigate, we're using you know, electronics, we're using recorders, we're using cameras, and I honestly never even occurred to me that hearing aids could amplify something like that. And I'll be curious if anyone's listening who's had this experience, because this is something I'm going to follow up on.
I am.
So my interest is like hugely piqued by this, to be honest. And so that's so you can't even wear them in there because it's it's so difficult for you to kind of concentrate on what you're doing because you're hearing other things.
Yes, it's very distracting because you know you're trying to communicate with.
You That's very interesting. I mean I I honestly, like I said, I had never even thought of that. It makes me wonder how many times, like people wearing hearing aids, like turn them down because they're here something they don't realize they might be hearing something kind of otherworldly.
Sure it could be.
Yeah, okay, so now I thought you told me about the girl who actually fainted on a tour. Now have you ever had anybody just kind of go in there and just say, nope, I'm getting out.
This is not for me this building.
Okay?
How often does that happen?
It's a fairly common occurrence. When we get to the Cuban Club, it's generally our final destination. So we have been on the streets, visiting other locations, sharing the stories and the hauntings of those locations in the streets. And so by the time we get to that door, and we have explained to the people what we are going to experiencing, what door we are going in, what happened here,
what happened there. On more than one occasion, and again rather frequently, there are people of all ages, from children to grown adults who have had to go in the building. And I've had people wait for their friends outside it would not go in the building.
That actually makes sense, because you know, you've had this incredible build up where all you've talked about is ghosts and hauntings, and then they're actually faced to the idea of kind of entering a building with known activity, And I could see how some people would just say, you know, I'm miss sit this one out.
Yeah, and it happens.
Yeah, that makes sense. Has anyone ever made it in and had something happen to them that was enough for them to just like cut out?
Oh, we've had people, We've had people leave the building.
Oh yeah, yeah.
I mean most of the activities seems fairly I don't want to say benign, it's not benign, but it seems pretty friendly and welcoming in a way. Has there ever been anything there that truly frightened you?
Nothing has really frightened me, because when you understand that they just want us to know that they and if you're open to that, there's nothing to fear. It may be a little strange and freaky, but there's really nothing to fear.
No. I echo that sentiment for sure. But there definitely have been some times in my paranormal career where I was like, I need to take a breather. That was a little intense, even for me.
I had one it was probably two years ago, and there was a group of friends. One couple were married. He was returning that from the war in the Mid East, and apparently he had been well. He had died twice in battle, he had been severely wounded twice, and he was written off. But he came back. And we're in one of the early floors when this tour first begins, and I looked around, and his wife went, my husband's missing.
And I said, okay, because no one's allowed to take a rogue tour through the rle And we traveled for the war together, and I make that point very clear. And so we found him up in the ballroom, hiding under one of the bars, under the sinks of the bars, and he didn't know how he got there. He said he felt that spirits came for him and led him
up there. And when you think about it, if a person has crossed over and then came back, as we know people will the spirits know that you've been on their side, You've been in their realm, if only for
a minute. And I think people that have had that near death experience or have crossed over for short periods of time when you're in an atmosphere like that the spirits are aware of that right and the connection, and so that was one of the strangest events that had me very concerned because this veteran was visibly shaken.
Well, that makes sense. I love that building. I need to get back there. When I kind of looked back and I was like, oh my gosh, It's been how many years since I've been in Eboors City. So it's definitely a visit I need to make.
Now.
If other people want to go and check out the Cuban Club and your tour, what do they need to do?
The website is Tampa tours dot com and we do historic tours in the daytime and Downtown Tampa and of course mister Eboors City, and then we also do in the evenings those tours in Downtown Tampa and Mister Eboors City. And so they can go on to Tampa tours dot com and find out which tour they would like to enjoy, and it's easy to book and you will have the right of your life.
I love that.
Well, they should clearly request mister Steve Stamberger as their tour guide because you definitely have a fun flare about you and I love that you're like smoking a cigar while we're talking. It's lovely, But I do want to thank you so much for joining us. It's been a pleasure, and hopefully I will meet you in person someday soon.
I look forward to it, and it has been a pleasure to share the stories with you.
When it was at its peak, the Cuban Club was vivacious and joyful, and these days it seems the spirits have maintained that vibrant party atmosphere. Like Steve suggested, spirits return to the site because they remember the good times they had there. Maybe we could all take a lesson from them that our time on earth is short. That's no reason not to be happy and have fun, even or maybe especially, after our lives have come to their end.
I'm Amy Brunei and this was Haunted Road. Are you tired of the same old vacation destinations and cookie cutter experiences? Do you crave a sense of mystery, wonder and adventure that can't be found in ordinary travel brochures. Do you listen to this podcast and think I'd like to visit that spooky place? Well that's why I started Strange Escapes, a paranormal based travel company that takes you to some
of the most haunted locations in the world. Frankly, it's my excuse to combine all of my favorite things, which is ghosts, beautiful hotels, food and wine, and other weirdos like me.
To be honest.
If that sounds right up your alley and you want to learn more, then visit Strange Escapes dot travel and hopefully you can join us sometime.
Also.
To keep up on all of my upcoming projects and appearances, head to Amybrune dot com. I have some really great things in the works and I don't want you to miss it.
Thanks.
Haunted Roadies. Haunted Road is hosted and written by me Amy Brunne, with additional research by Cassandra de Alba. This show is edited and produced by Rima el Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers Aaron Menke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. Haunted Road is a production of iHeartRadio
and Grim and Mild from Aaronmanke. Learn more about this show over at Grimanmild dot com, and for more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows