While public record has expunged the dark early years from history, stating a construction date of 1898, the breathtaking Koeffler family mansion, now the Dubbel Dutch Hotel, a crowning achievement of Milwaukee’s architectural legacy, ascended majestically at 819 N Marshall Street in 1889. Shared between siblings, its opulent north wing housed Hermine and her family, while the south wing echoed with the presence of her brothers, Charles Jr. and Hugo. Yet, beneath its majestic exterior lurked a darkness that would forever haunt its halls. 

Just a year prior, in 1888, the family patriarch, Charles Koeffler Sr., succumbed to despair, taking his own life with a Colt revolver. His tragic end cast a long shadow over the family, and as a liquor magnate and distillery owner, he was known for his success but also for a chilling fascination with the mysteries of life, science, and the art of distillation. Following his death, strange rumors began to circulate—whispers that Charles Sr. had been researching something far more profound than mere spirits. 

Grief-stricken and driven to madness, Charles Jr. retreated into a secret world, determined to uncover the secrets of the afterlife and time itself. In the mansion’s basement, he built a hidden laboratory, a space thick with tension and dread, where he sought to perfect an elixir capable of transcending life and death. 

As the months dragged on, Charles Jr. descended deeper into madness, his experiments growing increasingly reckless. Seldom seen outside the basement, he became a ghost within his own family, lost in a delusion that  consumed his very soul. 

Then, one fateful night, Hermine, drawn by an inexplicable compulsion, ventured into the dark abyss of the basement. What transpired remains a haunting mystery. She returned pale and shaken, forever changed by the horrors she had witnessed. From that night onward, she isolated herself in the north wing, her silence thick with unutterable dread. Charles Jr. was never seen again, the official story claiming he had left for Europe, yet the truth gnawed at those who knew the family. 

The basement lab was hastily sealed, its door locked and forgotten, the mansion never to be the same. Hermine, now a living specter, spent her days in a shroud of silence, burdened by secrets that would never be told. 

Even now, the mansion hums with an eerie energy. Those working in Agency’s basement, where Charles Jr. once danced dangerously with the unknown, often report hearing unsettling footsteps from above, echoes of a presence that lingers in Hermine's former domain. Objects shift without explanation, and ghostly whispers seem to drift through the halls when no one else is around. Some say Charles Jr.’s final experiment worked in ways he never anticipated– leaving behind an essence that still haunts the mansion. Or perhaps did Hermine take it upon herself to free her brother from his torturous mind? Or did he escape to Europe just in time?