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Haunted Houses

Written November 2002

Before she got married and had three babies, my friend Jessica was a ghost hunter. She traveled all over America, Canada, and Mexico in search of ghosts. Even though she visited some of the most haunted and scariest places around, she never found a single restless spirit. I accompanied her on several trips, and Halloween season got me thinking about sharing some of our stories.

The first ghost-hunting trip we took together was to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. Taking a walking tour of this house was a bizarre experience, and the story behind the house is even more outlandish. It all started with Mrs. Sarah L. Winchester, who was the widow of William Wirt Winchester, son of the manufacturer of the famous Winchester Repeating Rifle, "the gun that won the West." In 1866, Sarah's only daughter died at the age of one month, and in 1881, her husband died, leaving her a very rich woman, as she was the sole heiress of the Winchester fortune. However, many people believe that Sarah's grief and despair at being left alone drove her insane.

Three years after her husband's death, Sarah consulted a psychic, who told her that her family had been killed by the spirits of the people and animals that had been injured by the Winchester rifles. The psychic warned Sarah that the same fate was in store for her unless she could confuse the spirits and keep them from reaching her. Sarah took this crazy advice to heart, and bought an eight-room farmhouse in San Jose. She then hired dozens of craftsmen, artisans, laborers, and construction teams to build additions and make renovations seven days a week for the next 38 years. By the time Sarah died at the age of 82, the eight-room farmhouse had been converted to a bizarre 160-room maze, with windows built into floors, doors that led nowhere, and staircases that led to nothing. Her employees were so anxious for a day off that at news of her death, they simply stopped whatever they were doing. To this day, there are nails left half-way pounded in, and rooms that are half-painted.

While Jessica and I saw nothing but the building itself that was out of the ordinary, the House's staff claim that mysterious organ music can sometimes be heard and that one of the kitchens (there are six in the house) that is never used frequently smells of chicken soup. Other reports of haunting include the suspiciously clichéd rattling chains, cold spots and whispers.

Another trip took us aboard the RMS Queen Mary, supposedly one of the most haunted places in the world. The luxury liner is permanently docked at Pier 7 in Long Beach, California. There are allegedly at least 600 ghosts wandering around on board, from crew members killed in accidents, to children who drowned in swimming pools, to women murdered by jealous lovers. There are extensive Web sites dedicated to vistors' otherworldly Queen Mary tales, but we had no luck whatsoever. After awhile, we got bored and even risked sneaking past velvet ropes and the like into places that were reportedly so disturbing to visitors that they are no longer open to the public. Nada.

Determined not to give up, we spent a week wandering the oldest parts of North Carolina. We visited the Tryon Palace in New Bern, and the ticket included tours of three nearby houses, all of which were supposed to be haunted. Again, nothing. Although the Tryon Palace was decorated for Christmas and was absolutely beautiful. We also paid a visit to the Bellamy Mansion in Wilmington. This place gave me the creeps just looking at it, so my ghost-hunting hopes were up. Once inside, the cheerful docent offered us a choice of a guided tour for $10 or a self-guided tour for $5. We took the self-guided tour, hoping to pull our old Queen Mary tricks out of the bag and find something off the beaten path. The best part of the tour was when Jessica pushed aside a velvet rope keeping her out of a dusty, unused room. She leaned inside the room hesitantly and looked around, then started to a step inside. Just as she did so, the newly installed central heating kicked on, and she jumped and screamed, then ran down the hallway. So much for old ghosts.

Before leaving Wilmington, we decided to take the ferry to Bald Head Island, where the lighthouse is supposed to be haunted by the ghost of a woman who threw herself into the ocean because of a broken heart. Modern-day Bald Head Island is populated with upscale resorts and shoppes but, from what we could tell, no lost souls. Again, zilch.

So, what did we learn from all these fruitless trips? Well, visiting "haunted" places isn't necessarily scary, but it is educational. We both learned a lot about history from a pretty unique viewpoint. And the lure of seeing a ghost made the whole lesson more interesting than sitting through a history class.

Best Web sites:

• Winchester Mystery House [new window]
• RMS Queen Mary [new window]
• Tryon Palace [new window]
• Bellamy Mansion [new window]
• Bald Head Island [new window]