Today and Yesterday’s Antiques actually resides in what is formerly known as the Brenham Grand Opera House.
Built in 1878, the opera house was a beautiful addition to the cultural life establishing itself in Brenham.
Over the years, the opera house changed hands several times, all the while being privately owned.
Google street
Updated 2/11/2020 – Not long ago, a woman named Bebe Hayward decided to purchase the building, and give the old opera house new life and purpose as well.
She hired a crew to do extensive renovations to each floor of the building.
It didn’t take long for Bebe and the crew to realize that something was amiss.
The crew began to notice a strange presence and odor while they worked on the Grand Opera House.
Bebe began to take pictures of the progress, and started to notice this strange green substance that seemed to appear in every photograph she took of the building.
When she took photos of other objects and buildings, however, the strange substance didn’t appear.
After a few weeks of hard work, the building was freshly renovated and safe for use.
Bebe began assembling an antiques store on the first and second floor of the building.
Now, Today and Yesterday’s Antiques has become a regular business downtown.
But to this day, things continue to be unusual inside.
Bebe is now convinced that the Opera House is haunted by a few spirits who used to work there as performers.
Long time Brenham native Burt, read all about it in a local paper and found the whole thing to be utterly nonsensical.
A Toy for his Granddaughter
“The moment one strange thing happens in a place, a small town is liable to take it and run with it full speed,” he complained, and fished inside his pockets for a pack of smokes.
“Not that I blame Bebe…she was just trying to get publicity for her store, same as I would have done.
But like I said, if one person noticed one strange thing about a place, the next day the whole town will say the building is haunted and that they saw a ghost.
“Anyway, my granddaughter wanted to know if the new antiques store had any china dolls, but she was too frightened to go to the store herself.
Being a good grandpa, I told her I would look for her one day while she was at school,” Burt explained.
“So I got to the store with the intention of finding a doll, getting out and carrying on with my day.
“But that wasn’t meant to be,” he sighed.
“The whole store was so chaotic; it’s amazing anyone can find anything! It took me nearly an hour to find where the dolls were located, on the second floor.
“Soon as I went up the stairs, I spotted them in the corner.
I started walking towards them when I saw these two eyes looking at me through some strange glass cabinet.
Truth be told, I didn’t think anything of it,” Burt said, with an annoyed expression, “just figured it was some little girl or boy, spying on the ugly old man.
“But the longer I looked at those eyes, the less…human they seemed to be.
Finding the stare to be completely unnerving, I started to walk towards the dolls without a word.
I was a few feet away when all of the sudden all of the toys and junk on either side of the aisle fell at once where I walked.
“Mind you, the store used cheap shelves to store the crap, and I’m not ballerina-sized.
But I heard a giggle come out of the strange person with the strange eyes the moment it happened, as if they were the culprit.
“Come here, you!” I growled and I started to stomp after them.
“But the kid disappeared.
And that’s when the store clerk came up and told me that I was her first customer that morning.
There isn’t much that’s weird about Brenham,” Burt said, shaking his head, “but that building is definitely on the list.”