Sioux City History and Culture by Bicycle Part 86: Sioux City's Haunted History Part 8: Leflur/Lefler House

Leflur/Lefler House is located in Morningside near Morningside College. The hosue is surrounded by death and seems to be cursed because of it. There is a red glow that is often seen in the upstairs. When ever workmen that have had to do work on the house left their tools there they would be found in the basement the next day. If anyone has ever tried to keep a bird as a pet, the bird would die a premature death for no explained reason. Dogs refuse to go in the house. In the middle of July, one of the hottest times of the year for Iowa, in the attic, usually a very warm place in a house, it gets so cold you can see your breath. To date there have been 7 entities there believed to be from the many murders that have occured there in the past.

The home was originally a stop for street cars back when they were operating in Sioux City during the turn of the century in the 1900's.

In the 1960's and 1970's there were a couple of sightings and the a friend of Julie Lefler, one of the Lefler daughters, experienced something as well. She was in the house with Julie, standing at the table making something to eat and felt what seemed to be a cat pacing and rubbing along her legs. When she complained about it, Julie said that is impossible because the Lefler's had no cat. Another instance was the girls were in the living room watching T.V. All of a sudden they heard the washing maching start to run. When they went to check it out they saw it running but neither girl had started it. They tried to turn it off but could not, they unplugged the power cord form the wall but the washer continued to run until it was finished. After that Julie's friend no longer went into the house.

The 2 girls are not the only ones who have experienced strange or haunted occurances in the house. Mr. Lefler reported 2 occurances. One was the mom and dad were home playing cards with some friends when a marble came flying across the room, hit the radiator and landed on the dining room table. The second was Mr. Lefler saw a lady in a blue dress walk out of their bed room and down the hallway and it was no his wife or anyone he knew.

One of the known deaths that had occured was one of the girl's ex-boyfriends choked another male friend to death in his car while it was in the driveway during the late 1970's or early 1980's.

It is unclear as to how the name of the house is spelled, it is either Lefler or Leflur, I have seen it spelled both ways. The house is located at 3427 Garretson.

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