The spiritualist movement of the 19th and 20th centuries claimed that adherents could communicate with the so-called spirit world. From its inception, the movement was controversial, with many calling it witchcraft. One of its most high-profile critics was Wisconsin native Harry Houdini, who toured the nation debunking spiritualist claims.
But Wisconsin is also home to the first school of spiritualism. The Morris Pratt Institute was founded in Whitewater in 1889, before moving to Wauwatosa in 1946. Tea Krulos wrote about it for this month's Milwaukee Magazine, and he joins Lake Effect’s Joy Powers to share more.
“Very quickly, whispers started to go around town about what was going on inside of this building,” he says. “They were like, ‘There’s these women that are leading this group of people, they’re speaking to the dead, it must be witchcraft,’ so the locals nicknamed the building the ‘spook temple.’”
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