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Haunted Houston #4 The Esperson Building Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

West Texas Reviewer: Cache Owner (CO) has not responded, so the cache is being archived to keep it from continually showing up in search lists, and to prevent it from blocking new cache placements. If you wish to repair/replace this cache sometime in the future (not to exceed 15 days from the date of this entry), just contact me (by e-mail), and assuming it still meets the current Guidelines, I will consider unarchiving this cache.

Please be advised this is not a guarantee that this geocache will be unarchived. Many factors will go into my decision. The most important of which is how you responded to geocachers who tried to communicate with you regarding the problem(s) with this geocache hide and how you communicated with me, the West Texas Reviewer.

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Hidden : 9/2/2009
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

Magnetic Altoids tin.

Yes, it might be the story from a bad romance novel, but yet it’s true. Mellie Kennan moved with her parents from Kansas to Oklahoma, where she met Danish immigrant Niels Esperson. The two were married in 1893. Together they moved across the American West, settling in Houston by 1903, where Niels began his career in the nascent oil industry. Over the next two decades, oil made the couple rich. In 1922, Mellie lost her partner. Mellie married Harry Ewing Stewart, twenty years younger than her, three years after her husband’s death, but this didn’t stop her from using her fortune to build a monument to her first husband.
Mrs. Esperson engaged the services of Niels’s favorite architect, Austrian John Eberson. Together, with Mellie giving much input, they designed the exuberant, over-the-top Niels Esperson Building. The lit cupola crowning the building, along with the Gulf Building, defined the Houston skyline for three decades. Now ringed by even higher skyscrapers, the cupola is only glimpsed, most unexpectedly, peeking between. Roof gardens grace the 17th, 22nd, 25th and 29th floors. The keystones on the lower floors look somewhat like Texas longhorns, but are actually Roman ox skulls. The interior retains some of their 1930s detail – the metal grills on the elevators, the linoleum floor, and the light fixtures. The Art Deco detail carries over to the basement.

Legend has it that Mellie Esperson's spirit still roams the building's halls and elevators (which are said to manifest cold spots). The elevator has been known to malfunction, and employees report feeling watched.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Zntargvp. Guvax terra.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)