Whaley House, San Diego

The Whaley House is not only a museum that showcases the life and times of the Whaley family, but also a site of paranormal activity that has attracted ghost hunters and curious visitors for decades.

The Whaley House was built in 1857 by Thomas Whaley, a successful merchant and businessman who wanted to create the finest home in Southern California. The two-story Greek Revival house was made from bricks that Whaley produced in his own brickyard, and featured elegant furnishings and modern amenities. The house also served as a general store, a courthouse, a theater, and a community center.

However, the Whaley House also has a dark and tragic history that dates back to before its construction. The land where the house stands was once the site of a public gallows, where a notorious horse thief named Yankee Jim Robinson was hanged in 1852. According to legend, Whaley witnessed the execution and was unfazed by it. He bought the land and built his dream home on it, unaware of the curse that would haunt him and his family.

The Whaley family suffered many misfortunes while living in the house. Their second child, Thomas Jr., died of scarlet fever at 18 months old. Their daughter Violet committed suicide by shooting herself in the chest after a failed marriage. Their son Francis died of scarlet fever at 22 years old. Their daughter Corinne died of diphtheria at 18 months old. Thomas Whaley himself died of natural causes in 1890, followed by his wife Anna in 1913.

Many people believe that the spirits of the Whaley family and Yankee Jim Robinson still linger in the house, along with other unknown entities. Visitors and staff have reported hearing footsteps, voices, music, crying, laughing, and other strange noises. They have also seen apparitions, shadows, orbs, mists, and objects moving by themselves. Some have even felt cold spots, touches, pushes, and scratches.

The Whaley House is open to the public for daytime self-guided tours and evening guided tours. You can explore the interior and surrounding grounds of the house and learn about its history and hauntings. You can also join a paranormal investigation tour with an experienced guide and use ghost hunting equipment to communicate with the spirits. You might even witness some paranormal activity yourself.

The Whaley House is one of the most iconic attractions in San Diego and a must-see for anyone interested in history or the paranormal. Whether you are a skeptic or a believer, you will find something fascinating and thrilling in this haunted house. Just be prepared for some unexpected surprises along the way.

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Suicide Bridge - Colorado Street Bridge - Pasadena, California

Colorado Street Bridge, constructed over the Arroyo Seco River in 1912, is also known as Suicide Bridge. The nickname was acquired because of the around 100 folks said to have committed suicide by jumping from it, starting in 1919. Reports say that almost 50 of the jumpers died during the Great Depression, and at least one legend blames the bridge’s troubled past on a worker who fell and landed in wet cement below the bridge and left to die. Ghost stories abound in these parts, of course: The apparitions seen here range from a man in wire-rim glasses to a woman in a flowing robe, who leaps from the top of a parapet.

Address:

W Colorado Blvd over S. Arroyo Blvd

Pasadena, CA

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The Queen Anne Hotel in San Francisco, California

In 1890, the Queen Anne hotel in San Francisco was an etiquette school for girls. Today, it has 48 rooms for guests, though some believe the ghost of Miss Mary Lake, the school's headmistress, still lingers. Folks who stay in room 410, Miss Mary Lake’s former office, have woken up to find their blankets closely tucked around them in bed or their clothes unpacked.

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Los Feliz Murder Mansion in Los Angeles, California

During the mid 20th century, this large Los Feliz home was the (seemingly) happy home of Dr. Harold Perelson and his family, until the horrific night of December, 6, 1959 when he murdered his wife in her sleep with a ball-peen hammer and attempted to murder his three children before drinking acid to kill himself.

Fortunately, his eldest daughter let out a scream when he struck her in the head, waking up the younger children who then walked into the hallway to find out what was going on. During the commotion, they were all able to flee. Before the murder-suicide, he was a successful doctor who invented a new type of syringe after investing most of money into its research and production, but he got screwed out of the rights, leading investigators to blame financial problems. Other creepy details include a passage of Dante's Divine Comedy left open on his bedside table.

Two years later, it was sold to the Enriquez family, who used it as "storage unit," and their son continued to to do so until he sold it to a couple in 2016 who had plans to fix it up. But it seems to have scared them off because within a few years it's on the market again. Photographers also report a feeling of needing to "run away" from the house when they get close up to it.

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Hotel Cecil in Los Angeles, California

More cursed than haunted, downtown L.A.'s Hotel Cecil got such a bad rap that it actually changed its name to Stay on Main. If you're a true crime and paranormal super fan, you've likely already heard of it. Where to begin? So many bad things have happened here—there's literally an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to its violent history. The first recorded death by suicide is in 1931, followed by a long string of similar deaths in 1932, 1934, 1937, 1938, 1939, and 1940.

At some point in the '30s, one man was pinned to the exterior wall by a truck. A woman murdered her newborn in the building in 1944, and the pattern of suicides continued into the '60s. In 1962, a woman jumped from the ninth floor window and landed on a pedestrian, killing them both. It's worth noting that two of the women who died by suicide apparently jumped while their husbands were asleep in the room.

In 1964, tenant Goldie Osgood was brutally murdered, a crime which has remained unsolved. Next, in the '80s, the infamous serial kill Richard Ramirez (the "Night Stalker") stayed at the hotel and in the 1990s, Austrian serial killer Jack Unterwege lived there. Other weird things kept happening but the weirdest is definitely the disappearance and death of 21-year-old traveler Elisa Lam.

A few weeks after Lam went missing, her body was discovered in the rooftop water tank after visitors and tenants complained about a funky taste. They later found odd footage of her in the elevator from the night of her disappearance. It's difficult to make out what she's doing; it looks like she's either playing hide-and-seek with someone outside the elevator, or she's frightened and attempting to hide from someone but the doors won't seem to shut. Authorities ruled the death accidental drowning—but because you need a key to access the roof, many suspect foul play.

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Jean Harlow House in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles is one of the best destinations for haunted-house hunting, and this Bavarian-style home in Beverly Hills has a particularly gruesome history. In 1932, it was home to the iconic Jean Harlow and her abusive husband Paul Bern when he shot himself in the head while standing in front of the mirror. Their butler discovered him and called MGM instead of the police, so there were tons of rumors that it wasn't actually suicide. Many suspected Bern's ex-girlfriend, a suspicion exacerbated by her jumping off a boat to her death a couple days after. Jean moved out after his death but died only a few years later at the age of 26.

But wait—it gets creepier. In 1963, celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring bought the home and lived there with his girlfriend, Sharon Tate, until she left him for Roman Polanski. They were still friends, and remained so until both of them were murdered by the Charles Manson cult. Tate was the same age as Harlow when she passed.

But back to when the couple lived in the Harlow House. Tate told several friends of creepy occurrences in the home and even mentioned it in interviews. For example, once, when she was sleeping in the master bedroom alone, she saw a "creepy little man." Her friends say she she believed it to be Paul Bern's ghost. She was so freaked out when she saw the alleged ghost that she ran out of the room and then saw a hanging shadowy corpse with its throat slit in the hallway. There are also stories about two other people dying in the swimming pool over the years.

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The Spook Of Misery Hill

Tom Bowers, who mined on Misery Hill, near Pike City, California, never had a partner, and he never took kindly to the rough crowd about the place. One day he was missing. They traced his steps through the snow from his cabin to the brink of a great slope where he had been prospecting, but there they vanished, for a landslide had blotted them out. His body was exhumed far below and decently buried, yet it was said that it was so often seen walking about the mouth of his old shaft that other men avoided the spot.

Thriftless Jim Brandon, in a spasm of industry, began work on the abandoned mine, and for a while he made it pay, for he got money and squared accounts with his creditors; but after a time it appeared that somebody else was working on the claim, for every morning he found that the sluice had been tampered with and the water turned on. He searched for the trespasser in vain, and told “the boys” that if they called that joking it had grown tiresome.

One night he loaded his rifle, and, from a convenient nook, he watched for the intruder. The tamaracks crooned in the wind, the Yuba mumbled in the canon, the Sierras lay in a line of white against the stars. As he crept along to a point of better vantage he came to a tree with something tacked on it–something that shone in the dark like a match. In its own light he read, “Notice! I, Thomas Bowers, claim this ground for placer mining.” Raising his hand to tear off the paper, he was amazed to feel a thrill pass through it, and his arm fell palsied at his side. But the notice was gone.

Now came the sound of water flowing, and, as he angrily caught his gun and turned toward the sluice, the letters shone again in phosphorescence on the tree. There was the sound of a pick in the gravel now, and, crawling stealthily towards the sluice, he saw, at work there, Tom Bowers–dead, lank, his head and face covered with white hair, his eyes glowing from black sockets. Half unconsciously Jim brought his rifle to his shoulder and fired. A yell followed the report, then the dead man came running at him like the wind, with pick and shovel in either hand.

Away went Brandon, and the spectre followed, up hill, in and out of woods, over ditches, through scrub, on toward Pike City. The miners were celebrating a new find with liberal potations and a dance in the saloon when, high above the crash of boots, the shouted jokes, the laughter, and the clink of glasses, came a sound of falling, a scream-then silence.

They hurried into the road. There lay Brandon’s rifle, and a pick and shovel with “T. B.” cut in the handles. Jim returned no more, and the sluice is running every night on Misery Hill.

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Suicide Bridge – Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena, California

The majestic 1913 Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena, California not only wowed early travelers crossing the causeway but soon took on a more sinister note when people began to leap from the 150-foot bridge to their death. Within a decade of its construction, locals had begun to call it the “Suicide Bridge,” and as you can imagine, legends began to abound that the bridge was haunted be those unfortunate souls.

The beautiful concrete bridge spans 1,467 feet across the Arroyo Seco, a deeply cut canyon linking the San Gabriel Mountains to the Los Angeles River, and containing the intermittent Arroyo Seco Stream for which it is named. The bridge is often incorrectly referred to as the “Arroyo Seco Bridge.”

In Pasadena’s early days, before the historic Colorado Street Bridge was built, crossing the Arroyo Seco was an extremely difficult task. Horses and wagons descended the steep eastern slope, crossed the stream over a smaller bridge, and then climbed up the west bank through Eagle Rock Pass.

The bridge was designed and built by the J.A.L. Waddell firm of Kansas City, Missouri and named for Colorado Street (now called Colorado Boulevard,) which was the major east-west thoroughfare through Pasadena. Known for its Beaux-Arts arches, ornate lamp posts and railings, the initial design proved difficult due to finding solid footing in the Arroyo bed. However, when engineer John Drake Mercereau conceived the idea of curving the bridge, he created a work of art.

Colorado Street Bridge, Pasadena, California

The first tragedy on the bridge occurred before construction was even complete. Allegedly, when one of the bridge workers toppled over the side and plunged headfirst into a vat of wet concrete, his co-workers assumed he could not be saved in time and left his body in the quick-drying cement. His is only one of the many souls said to haunt the “Suicide Bridge.”

The first suicide occurred on November 16, 1919, and was followed by a number of others, especially during the Great Depression. Over the years, it is estimated that more than 100 people took their lives leaping the 150 feet into the arroyo below. One of the more notable suicides was when a despondent mother threw her baby girl over the railing on May 1, 1937. She then followed her into the depths of the canyon. Though the mother died, her child miraculously survived. Evidently, her mother had inadvertently tossed her into some nearby trees, and she was later recovered from the thick branches.

By the 1980s the historic bridge had fallen into great disrepair as chunks of concrete began to fall from its ornate railings and arches. After the Loma Prieta earthquake near Oakland in 1989, the bridge was closed as a precautionary measure. Eventually federal, state and local funds provided some $27 million dollars in renovation costs and the bridge was reopened in 1993, complete with its original detail, plus a suicide prevention rail. Though the number of suicides throughout the years has decreased, the bridge continues to retain its nickname and its ghostly legends.

According to the tales, a number of spirits are said to wander the bridge itself as well as the arroyo below. Others have heard unexplained cries coming from the canyon. One report tells of a spectral man that is often seen wandering the bridge who wears wire-rimmed glasses. Other people have claimed to see a woman in a long flowing robe, who stands atop one of the parapets, before vanishing as she throws herself off the side.

In the arroyo below, phantom forms have been seen walking the river bed, a number of unexplainable sounds are often heard, and the atmosphere is often described as “thick.”

The Colorado Street Bridge was part of Route 66 until 1940 when the Arroyo Seco Parkway opened. Today, the bridge has received a Civil Engineering Landmark designation and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena, California by Jim Hinkley.

The Mother Road Icon was the center of tragic news again in late October of 2015 when noted Actor, Model, and Musician Sam Sarpong took his own life by jumping off the bridge.

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A Cold Greeting in San Francisco, California

This is a story told by the late Benson Foley of San Francisco:

In the summer of 1881, I met a man named James H. Conway, a resident of Franklin, Tennessee. He was visiting San Francisco for his health, deluded man, and brought me a note of introduction from Mr. Lawrence Barting. I had known Barting as a captain in the Federal army during the Civil War. At its close, he had settled in Franklin, and in time became, I had reason to think, somewhat prominent as a lawyer. Barting had always seemed to me an honorable and truthful man, and the warm friendship which he expressed in his note for Mr. Conway was to me sufficient evidence that the latter was in every way worthy of my confidence and esteem.

At dinner one day Conway told me that it had been solemnly agreed between him and Barting that the one who died first should, if possible, communicate with the other from beyond the grave, in some unmistakable way–just how, they had left (wisely, it seemed to me) to be decided by the deceased, according to the opportunities that his altered circumstances might present.

A few weeks after the conversation in which Mr. Conway spoke of this agreement, I met him one day, walking slowly down Montgomery street, apparently, from his abstracted air, in deep thought. He greeted me coldly with merely a movement of the head and passed on, leaving me standing on the walk, with half-proffered hand, surprised and naturally somewhat piqued. The next day I met him again in the office of the Palace Hotel, and seeing him about to repeat the disagreeable performance of the day before, intercepted him in a doorway, with a friendly salutation, and bluntly requested an explanation of his altered manner. He hesitated a moment; then, looking me frankly in the eyes, said:

“‘I do not think, Mr. Foley, that I have any longer a claim to your friendship, since Mr. Barting appears to have withdrawn his own from me — for what reason, I protest I do not know. If he has not already informed you he probably will do so.”

“‘But, I replied, I have not heard from Mr. Barting.”

“‘Heard from him!” he repeated, with apparent surprise. “Why, he is here. I met him yesterday ten minutes before meeting you. I gave you exactly the same greeting that he gave me. I met him again not a quarter of an hour ago, and his manner was precisely the same: he merely bowed and passed on. I shall not soon forget your civility to me. Good morning, or–as it may please you–farewell.”

All this seemed to me singularly considerate and delicate behavior on the part of Mr. Conway.

As dramatic situations and literary effects are foreign to my purpose I will explain at once that Mr. Barting was dead. He had died in Nashville four days before this conversation. Calling on Mr. Conway, I apprised him of our friend’s death, showing him the letters announcing it. He was visibly affected in a way that forbade me to entertain a doubt of his sincerity.

“‘It seems incredible,” he said, after a period of reflection. “I suppose I must have mistaken another man for Barting, and that man’s cold greeting was merely a stranger’s civil acknowledgment of my own. I remember, indeed, that he lacked Barting’s mustache.”

“‘Doubtless it was another man,” I assented; and the subject was never afterward mentioned between us. But I had in my pocket a photograph of Barting, which had been enclosed in the letter from his widow. It had been taken a week before his death and was without a mustache.

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Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel - Los Angeles, California

Brief history: Located on Hollywood Boulevard and opened for business in 1927, the Roosevelt Hotel is one of the most famous hotels in Los Angeles and one of the most haunted places in the world. It has long been a hangout for Hollywood's biggest stars, and the popularity of its trendy Teddy's nightclub still attracts the glitterati.

Ghosts: The Roosevelt is nearly as famous for its big-name ghosts, including Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift. 

Haunting activity includes:

*Marilyn Monroe's ghost has been seen reflected in a mirror in room 229 and dancing in the hotel's ballroom.

*Montgomery Clift's ghost is thought to haunt room 928, where he stayed whilte filmingFrom Here to Eternity, and can still be heard playing his trumpet. His spirit has also been spotted on the eighth floor.

*One guest who stayed in room 928 felt patting on her shoulder by an unseen hand as she lay in bed reading.

*There is an eerie cold spot in the Blossom Ballroom that is about 10 degrees colder than the rest of the room.

*The ghost of a man dressed in white has been seen standing near a piano in the Blossom Ballroom. When guests approached the man, after hearing piano music, he vanished before their eyes.

*The ghost of glamorous movie star Carole Lombard, wife of Clark Gable, has been spotted on the 12 th floor, where she and Gable often stayed.

*Former Saturday Night Live cast member Ana Gasteyer, while staying one of the hotels's suites, encountered a piano that played by itself and the full-body apparition of a maid in a hall closet.

*Security guards have seen a ghost at the hotel's pool. It could be seen on security cameras, but when a guard went to check it, he could see no one -- although it still appeared on the security monitor.

*The ghost of a pony-tailed little girl named Caroline has been seen skipping and singing around the fountain in the lobby.

*Guests returned to their rooms only to find them locked from the inside.

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Moss Beach Distillery - Moss Beach, California

Brief history: During Prohibition in the 1920s, the Moss Beach Distillery in Moss Beach, California became one of the most popular speakeasies on the West Coast when it was known as "Frank's Place," frequented by silent film stars drinking its illegal booze. After Prohibition, the place continued as a successful restaurant, which it remains today. Ghosts: The Blue Lady is the Distillery's most famous ghost and has been investigated by such prominent ghost hunters as Loyd Auerbach as well as the Unsolved Mysteries TV show. According to legend, in the 1930s a beautiful young woman, possibly named Cayte, fell for a piano player of questionable character and they began an affair, even though she was already married. She was killed by an unknown assailant on the nearby beach, and it is thought that her spirit -- dressed in blue -- still searches for her lover. Ghostly activity reported by guests and restaurant staff includes: Sightings of the Blue Lady herself A levitating checkbook Doors that impossibly lock from the inside Mysterious phone calls Disappearing earrings that later show up in one place Glassware moving During his 1999 investigation, Loyd Auerbach reports that he experienced the ghost "walking through" him several times Anomalous magnetic field and temperature changes. Note: The Distillery has various haunting "effects" set up throughout the restaurant, and these were "discovered" in the Ghost Hunters episode about Moss Beach. But as Loyd Auerbach points out in his article, "A Visit Does Not an Investigation Make," he (and others) have written about these effects well before the Ghost Hunters visit, and the genuine haunting activity has been reported and investigated before these effects were installed -- since the 1930s.

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5 W Live Oak Ave - Arcadia ,California

Every Business that is built here starts off good but eventually goes down and they are forced to go out of business! It doesn't matter what business it is, it will go under! The land is small, at the corner of the street, and surrounded by a brick wall all around! The source of the curses power is this brick wall! It is rumored but not proven that the curse will be lifted once the wall comes down!! But no one is certain! There was once a gas station, then a Walgreen’s pharmacy and now a Famima food mart.

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The Arcadia Poltergeist - Arcadia ,California

In May 1976 on a memorial night Rocks of all sizes started lifting off the ground and hitting places,people, and breaking windows to cars and houses. No-one was able to explain it. It was happening off and on for three months. It happened in Arcadia, California and was investigated by Duke University and was written up in the LA Times, (apparently a six week series) there is not much info on this event. There was no explanation given to the people who were attacked by this strange occurrence. It was merely Covered up and forgotten.

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Sunnyslope Cemetery - Beaumont ,California

There are various types of encounters. Some are cold spots, noises, and eerie feelings, also sometimes you can feel a hand touch you. The cemetery is not visited heavily and sometimes when alone you can see a groundskeeper walking around. However when you try to approach him, he walks into one of the sheds and disappears. When you approach the shed, the door is open and you can knock or call out and you get no response. On one occasion 2 witnesses to this stepped inside to find nobody there. Also, if going at night be sure to go in groups, the residents see to be more forward then. The cemetery is located at the south end of Pennsylvania street, past the railroad tracks.

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Diamond Bar - Brea Canyon Road ,California

Since the road is very dark at least 4 deaths are known of. You can see two crosses next to each other, if you go further there is another cross, and as you continue you see a tombstone. The 3 crosses were of people that died there from car accidents because it's so dark and the tombstone. It is said that at night you can see hikers trying to get a ride. When you look back they are gone. Another freaky thing is that there are many cars that have been on the side for who knows how long. They appeared to have been broken down there for a while. And if you stop by the crosses there is a spine tingling feeling that makes you want to scream.

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Hot Springs Hotel - Byron ,California

This hotel is located on the right hand side of the road about a quarter of a mile back down a long drive way. There is an old orange hotel from the late 1800's that remains are still intact. Legend says that this place is haunted by many who lost their lives in there. So far all that has been seen is an old man wearing white rags, and a young boy who runs up and down the halls. dragging noises have been heard on the first floor towards the main entrance. Dark shadows were seen from a distance and then disappeared after seen. Very active spots. You could tell this wasn't a happy house.

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Old Camarillo State Hospital / now Channel Islands University - Camarillo ,California

This large enclave of buildings in Camarillo is now a university, but were originally built in the 1920s as a state mental hospital. They changed over to a school in the mid 90s. There have been many stories of ghosts over the years of all kinds due to the fact that patients previously lived and died there. Some of the buildings are in the process of being turned into dorms and some students have experienced all kinds of unexplained events. The sounds of children's voices at the children's center, by the Bell tower an old woman walking and asking for directions to the chapel and old woman wearing white wondering the hallways in the daytime. In the restrooms the voice of someone saying, "SSSHHHHH" in parking lot A figure that looks like a man spinning around until it disappears near one of the street lights. objects seen with t he corner of the eye and then when people turn they disappear. Many people have had encounters with ghost at this site,during the day and at night the ghost don't have a preferred time. Some complaints from students and staff are headaches, nausea, feeling of being watched, feeling unsafe, threatened, and extreme tiredness. Also,there have been numerous sightings of at least a dozen different entities in the Bell Tower, Police Station region. (Currently, only very few buildings at the site are used- most are abandoned.) Entities seen range from a beautiful woman in white who wanders both night and day in the hallways in and around the Bell Tower, a man by the bus stop, and a rather nervous entity in one of the women's restrooms in the Bell Tower who not only chatters but makes some kind of rustling sound.

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Soquel Drive - Capitola ,California

This old house marked "20" on the entrance is extremely haunted. There are lots of active orbs and sounds being heard inside of the house while venturing around the exterior of.Upon getting inside of the house things had been moved after going from room to room and noises heard in down below quarters of the house. On the balcony there is a ghost of an old man who stands on the balcony and guards the home from the 3rd story. The only way into this place was to climb.

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Cherokee Cemetery - Cherokee ,California

It is history that the town sweetheart was murdered in the 1800 and her murderer burned alive in his home across the street from the cemetery. If you visit the cemetery during the evening hours, you can hear stomping in this extremely deserted area. Also there grave of a child that passed the same day as his father. If you place flowers on that tombstone, locals say he will visit you that evening and thank you.

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Keller Mansion - Clayton ,California

The Keller house is a house built in the early 1920's and was one of California oldest cattle ranches up to the 1970 s the house was built on a old Indian Grave yard. to this day you can still find bones if you are to dig around in the basement of the old house. It is said that the ghost of the Indians still haunt the old house and tend to move things around. the house is now Property of the city of Clayton in down town Clayton behind the library.

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