Casey Moore's Oyster House (W.A. Moeur House)

The story

Before it became a sanctuary for pint-clinking locals and fresh shellfish, 850 South Ash Avenue was built in 1910 as a private residence for William A. Moeur. William was a prominent Tempe citizen whose brother, Benjamin Moeur, would eventually serve as the governor of Arizona in the 1930s. Over the decades, as Tempe morphed around it, the grand home on 9th and Ash stood its ground, eventually transforming into Casey Moore’s Oyster House—a beloved neighborhood fixture wrapped in a broad wooden porch.

The real draw for the perceptive drinker, however, sits up the creaky staircase. Local lore holds that a young woman was murdered in an upstairs bedroom back when the house was still a private residence. Her spirit, by all accounts, never left. She seems to hold a distinct grudge against living romance; couples visiting the second floor frequently report sudden, localized temperature plummets, mysterious taps on their shoulders, and unseen hands tugging at their pant legs when they get a little too affectionate.

It isn't just the guests catching phantom signals. Staff members have long reported oddities that defy simple mechanical explanations—most notably the building’s vintage dumbwaiter, which has a habit of quietly rising and falling between floors on its own accord without anyone pulling the ropes below. Whether you buy into the supernatural or just want oysters under the shade trees, you're drinking inside a piece of Tempe history that refuses to settle down.