On the corner of West 118th Street and Watertown Plank Road in Wauwatosa sits a two-story building labeled the Morris Pratt Institute.
Angela Wagner drives by it a few times a week. "It seems to be well-maintained. The grass is always cut, everything looks really neat and clean, but I never see anyone go in or out," Wagner says.
So, she turned to Bubbler Talk for answers.
The Morris Pratt Institute’s story begins in 1889 in Whitewater, Wisconsin.
It was designed to teach Spiritualists.
Carol Cartwright is the president of the Whitewater Historical Society. She explains what Spiritualists believe.
"They see it as a way to communicate with spirits, deceased people, through the means of a medium," Cartwright says.
A medium is someone believed to be able to communicate with spirits.
"And they do this primarily through seances, but also through other types of activities. And most of the Spiritualists were very serious about the idea of being able to speak with people who had died because they felt that they could get some insight into the world that they were living in as well as help people who had passed out of this world into the other world," she adds.
It's believed that modern Spiritualism began with two sisters in upstate New York in 1848. They were reportedly communicating with a spirit living in their home.
The girls, known as the Fox sisters, would do public demonstrations of what were called rappings.
"They set up a communication system with this spirit by virtue of knocking—you know, once for yes, twice for no. That kind of thing. And people were very interested in that," Cartwright says.
Morris Pratt was a businessman and farmer who moved to Wisconsin from upstate New York.
He was interested in the budding Spiritualist movement at the time.
"And he started attending Spiritualist circles, is what they called them. And he particularly was an advocate for a woman in the Lake Mills area who ran a Spiritualist circle. And he always said, well, if I made money, I would build a building for Spiritualism."
Pratt did make money from investing in iron ore mines. As promised, he built what he called the Temple of Science on the corner of Center and Third streets in Whitewater.
The building had dorms, lecture halls and a séance room. It hosted guest mediums and teachers, and Spiritualists could practice their craft there. Cartwright says Pratt was especially interested in trying to heal people, and sick patients would stay at the temple for Spiritual healing.
The temple operated in its original form until Pratt’s death in 1902. Then it became a school.
"And the school was kinda like a junior college. They had classes in standard education like literature and mathematics and science, etc. And then they had another set of classes that was all about Spiritualist practices."
The school was successful up until the 1930s. But the Great Depression, coupled with dwindling interest in Spiritualism, forced the institute to close.
Pratt’s legacy lived on outside of Whitewater. The current Morris Pratt Institute in Wauwatosa was erected in 1946. It hosts Spiritualism classes—but these days, only online.
Here’s the institute’s office administrator, Ashley Moore:
"You have the option to be a healer, which is basically people who lay hands on people to heal them through Spiritualism. We have the mediums, and then we also have the complete course, which is basically both of those together. You get your grades and stuff like regular; you get progress reports and all of that. Graduation—there is not one, unfortunately. But you still do get certificates and all of the plaques and fun stuff at the end."
The Morris Pratt Institute is open to the public. There are libraries with centuries-old books and artifacts, and a gift shop.
Maybe the spirits will guide you there to learn more.
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