SAN DIEGO'S HAUNTED WHALEY HOUSE

The Haunted Whaley House

Hi all:  Ever heard of this place?  It's one of my favorite 'haunts' from when I was a kid.  It's reputed to be the most haunted house in the U.S., according to several sources. The United States Chamber of Commerce has declared the Whaley House as being genuinely haunted. It also happens to hold the distinction of being the oldest brick structure in southern California. The house has all of the signs of being haunted. Apparitions, cold spots, feelings of being touched (or hung!) unexplainable lights, footsteps, rappings, objects moving, odd smells and feelings of being watched.  All of these have been observed, felt or heard in the Whaley House since it opened to the public in 1960.

Located in San Diego's Old Town, the house dates back to 1857 and it also includes an attached courthouse where, from what I've read and heard, frontier justice was most harshly and swiftly dispensed in its day. The Whaley House grounds even had their own hanging tree.  Wasn't that convenient?  When the gavel came down and a guilty verdict was announced, the hapless unfortunate was oft times dragged out into the courtyard for sentencing.  No wallowing in jail cells for the convicted.  

One of their more famous ghosts is named Yankee Jim, who was hung on the property, actually before the house itself was built.  He was hung for supposedly stealing a boat.  There was never any hard evidence found and Yankee Jim went to his death proclaiming his innocence.  It was not an easy hanging.  Sketchy history reports claim that Yankee Jim was a very tall man with unruly blond hair, and the law miscalculated his height. When they pulled the wagon out from under him, supposedly his feet still touched the ground.  He was reported to have actually strangled to death, slowly.  Lillian Whaley, the owner's daughter who lived in the house until 1953, claimed it was Yankee Jim's footsteps she heard at night walking the floors.  Today loud footsteps are heard upstairs when you're downstairs, and vice-versa.  And sightings of a tall man with messy blond hair are reported frequently.  His laughter is said to be heard echoing through the hallways.  Several other ghosts are said to haunt the house, including Mrs. Anna Whaley, who likes to play the piano.  Some of their children have been spotted, all of them having died bizarrely, along with the family friend of Anna's who accidentally hung herself on Anna's clothesline. And if that weren't enough, there are spirits of those who were actually hung where the parlor now stands, and that makes the parlor area the most haunted area of the house. Some have actually reported the sensation of a noose slipping about their neck when visiting the parlor rooms!   The gavel has been heard rapping in the courthouse, the privacy ropes keeping the public away from the judge's podium and out of the pews are frequently seen swinging; all in all a very creepy place.

The Haunted Parlor

I lived in San Diego until I was twelve and visited The Whaley House many times with my friends. And I have been back to visit a handful of times since moving away.  I have to say that never once did any of my friends nor myself ever see or experience anything in the Whaley House, though many, many others have.  

I had a ridiculously hard time ever getting hubby to go through the Whaley House with me in all the years we revisited San Diego.  He was always nervous about the spirits lurking around the place and didn't want to be susceptible to them.  It wasn't until our girls became teenagers and each took a friend, that those extra four voices were able to add their whining insistence to mine and pressure him into going in. We got out of the front door without incident, although once we returned home and had the pictures we took inside the house developed, we noticed a very definite shady outline of what looked like Thomas Whaley against the wall in the front parlor.  Above the painting.  I posted the picture below but the image is so subtle I know you won't be able to see it.  However, I find myself looking at the picture and skeptically analyzing it, questioning the authenticity.  Because, being a painter, I could see where someone could paint this very detailed outline in a slightly different shade of white . . . so close to the original color the naked eye probably couldn't see it, but it would be picked up by a camera.  Yup, that's me . . . after all I've experienced at our place my first reaction is still to be skeptical.  But, skeptical or not, it still makes for a creepy-fun afternoon!

The Haunted Parlor (faint image is above the painting)

So, don't miss a trip through the Whaley House, if you dare, on your next visit to San Diego.  Events do not occur there every day.  In fact, sometimes weeks pass without a spectral 'gotcha,' according to the historians who greet those touring the house.  But unlike myself, you may just walk through at the precise moment you're given a memorable, spine-tingling experience!  Later, friends.

Had to add this, also from that trip . . . someone's huge yacht planted in the middle of the freeway.  That's something else you don't see every day!