The Telescope

Issue Date: 10/26/09

Haunted San Diego

Beautiful hotels, homes and haunted woods are bound to draw the living as well as the dead.

By Graianne Ward

Media Credit: Roynon Tilton

Click here to view as a PDF

The El Cortez
The El Cortez hotel was opened Thanksgiving day in 1927 and hosted stars, celebrities and even presidents, but by 1981 the grand hotel was no more. It fell into disrepair and anytime before 2000 you could find news of how haunted the El Cortez was.

Thanks to renovations in the early 90's until 2002 the real estate companies covered up the fact that several bodies were found on several of the top floors after it had been a crack house, drug haven and homeless retreat. There's said to be a presence of a young boy around the age of six and a woman who may be his mother that may have died in the '80s haunting the place. The El Cortez is now an apartment building, however, so access to go ghost hunting is limited.

The Robinson-Rose House
Construction on the Robinson-Rose house was finished in 1853 by successful lawyer Judge James W. Robinson, who died four years later. After his death in 1857, Robinson's widow, Sarah Robinson sold the abode to Louis Rose. A fire destroyed the roof in 1874 and the building fell into ruins by the turn of the century. Other abodes were built on top of the foundation throughout the years.

Judge Robinson and his wife Sarah are said to haunt the abode in the form of cloud vapors, dressed in their 18th century attire, let their footsteps be heard, tug on women's hair and play with the lights. They are also said to "enjoy an unauthorized ride up and down the elevator on occasion," as the lifts inexplicably move on their own from time to time. The now-free visitor center is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The house is located at 2645 San Diego Avenue, San Diego.

Whaley House
Suicide, executions, accidental poisonings and unfinished business - check. All the things needed to make a place haunted the Whaley House has. The Whaley House was doomed to have ghosts wandering its grounds since before the house was built with the execution of Yankee Jim (a man hung for stealing a boat to steal a bigger boat). While walking up the stairs guests have reported feeling a choking sensation just like he did while he slowly suffocated to death because the rope was too long for his tall stature.

Doors opening by themselves, heavy footsteps on the steps, music and singing, children laughing, a crying toddler in an upstairs bedroom, whistling, the smell of cigar smoke, the fragrance of perfume and the wonderful aroma of baking coming from the kitchen are all said to happen in the former theater, courthouse, and store that fell into disrepair and has now been turned into a museum. The cast of ghosts include Yankee Jim, Mr. Whaley himself, Whaley's wife, several unknown apparitions, a little girl, and two of the Whaley's children, one who died from scarlet fever, and the other that committed suicide. The Whaley House is located at the intersection of San Diego Avenue and Harney Street, in the heart of historic "Old Town" San Diego.

El Campo Santo Cemetery
El Campo Santo Cemetery was a Catholic cemetery that was started in 1849. Many early founding San Diegans were buried in this Cemetery. Only 447 graves are now visible even though the land all the way up to Old Town Avenue have bodies buried deep underneath them.

Since 1889 commercial businesses and San Diego Blvd. have rested atop unmarked graves the spirits of the bodies that lie beneath have found a new place visit. Poltergeist phenomena, unexplainable problems with lighting, electrical power, appliances and alarms, apparitions in the graveyard in full dress or half bodied, cars won't start if parked near the graveyard and spots that will freeze to the bone. El Campo Santo Cemetery is located at the 2400 Block of San Diego Avenue, San Diego, California 92110.

Horton Grand Hotel
The Horton Grand Hotel is a product of the Brooklyn Hotel and the Grand Horton Hotel being forged together in 1980's. The hotel was reopened in 1990 a few blocks west of the heart of the renovated Gaslamp (historical red-light) District, rebuilt on the same plot of land where Ida Bailey's original 1880 - 1912 "cat house" once stood, during the wild booming days of San Diego's rapid growth period. Roger Whitaker (a man whose death is up for speculation) haunts room 309 and the hallway where one finds the room. He appears in person, shakes the beds, opens the armoire's doors, turns the lights on and off and moves objects. Sounds of someone playing cards can be heard when the room is locked and vacant. An indentation of a form can be seen on the bed, sometimes just after the maids make the bed. Madam Ida Bailey (who had a brothel on the site before the hotel was built) is said to welcome guests just as she did when she was alive. The hotel can be found at: 311 Island Avenue, San Diego, California 92101

Hotel Del Coronado
The Del, as the hotel is known, was built in 1888 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977. Ask for Kate Morgan's room, a young woman who in 1892 checked into the Hotel Del Coronado to meet her estranged lover for Thanksgiving. He never arrived to meet her, and a few days later, she was found dead on the hotel steps near the ocean. Since then, guests and staff of the Hotel Del Coronado have noticed strange breezes, ghostly noises and the pale figure of a young lady walking in a black lace dress. Within room 3502, more than 37 abnormal readings were taken by parapsychologists in a single day. Morgan's also been known to walk with people if they walk near the beach late at night.

Elfin Forest
The Elfin Forest was rumored to be inhabited by Gypsies and their social kin at the turn of the 19th century and well into to the 20th century, legend has it that when other natives of the land and citizens of local communities came in and drove off the Gypsies, slaughtering those who stood in their way, the Gypsies cursed the land of and around Elfin Forest. Apparently it was this curse that has caused many of the urban legends and paranormal activity that has been reported throughout the years. Coincidentally, there are also accounts of native Northern Diegueno Indians who once inhabited this land, dating back 9,000 years. There are legends of abandoned insane asylums, gigantic owls that come down and swarm on helpless humans, and a witch that marks visitors the first time they enter the forest and if they return will kill them without hesitation.

The Hunter Steakhouse
One installment of Oceanside's Hunter Steakhouse chain was once the site of the Buena Vista Cemetery, encroaching development made it very profitable to move the graves elsewhere and reuse the land once reserved for the dead. According to the construction crew, not all of the graves were moved and this oversight was covered-up in order to keep the project moving along. Employees sometimes report hearing their names called when alone in a room, witnessing chandeliers and fixtures move without obvious cause, doors slamming, and unexplainable chills. The steakhouse is located at 1221 Vista Way, Oceanside, CA 92054.

Star of India
The Star of India is the oldest working sailing ship in the country. When John Campbell decided to stow away on the ship as a teenager he had no idea he would be caught and put to work to earn his keep. While tending to the masts (100 feet high) he lost his footing and fell to the deck breaking his legs and dying three days later in extreme pain. The living can feel a cold hand on their shoulder when they're near John's mast, possibly a warning not to climb, or to let his presence be known. A Chinese crewman was crushed to death when another crew member brought up the anchor while he was in the area. Since the anchor took up the entire room the man had nowhere to go. There seems to be a constant cold spot in this area often felt by the living along with the smell of bread cooking that can be smelt from the desolate kitchen as well as many other manifestations and many other reasons for the dead to go about their business on the spooky ship. The Star of India sailing ship is docked at the Maritime Museum of San Diego at 1492 North Harbor Drive, San Diego, CA 92101.

For more haunting tidbits from Graianne, check out her blog!

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools