Do YOU Believe in Ghosts?
Since my family happily flew to Taiwan for their glorious spring break without me, I'm staying at school for the weekend, and I went to visit the haunted Whaley House with two of my suite mates today. In case you don't have any prior knowledge of this establishment, the Whaley House is considered to be America's #1 haunted house. Yes, my first visitation to a haunted house, and it just so happens to be the worst one out there.
The Whaley House is a modest two-story brick house situated in between several Mexican restaurants and little gift shops that sell everything from sea shells to moccasins. It doesn't look haunted, just old and quaint like a reconstruction of a historical house. The staff wore costumes relative to the time period the house was constructed (1860s or so), except for our tour guide, who, for some reason, chose to don an old-fashioned Chinese jacket instead. The well-lighted gift shop adjacent to the house appropriately sold a variety of morbid wares. I saw tarot cards, spell books, T-shirts that said "Got Ghosts?", and a black book entitled The History of Death with a cheerful skull on the cover to give it extra emphasis.
My suite mates and I made it in time for the 8:30 tour, and with a group of other curious tourists/visitors, we walked around the house, snapping multiple pictures and trying to see if we could capture some sort of apparition floating by. We didn't, but our tour guide told us that visitors frequently caught strange and unexplainable things on their cameras. Some pictures of these ghosts are apparently so clear that they're not allowed to show us because the family felt uncomfortable with it.
The Whaley House was not just a house. There was a theater, a court room, a liquor and general store, and many other rooms that were built right into the house. The tour guide told us that there were four recognizable and definite spirits in there:
-Thomas Whaley: the owner of the house and one of the founders of modern San Diego. His greatest concerns in life were his business and his money, and this is supposed to show up in his personality as a ghost. Many people have reported to feel this overbearing presence over their shoulder as if someone were looking down on them in suspicion. His ghost is also said to peer at people from the front windows of the house.
-Yankee Jim: He and two other accomplices were accused of attempted robbery, but because he showed up drunk to his own hearing and was rude to the judge, the people sought to make an example of him. While the other two were thrown into prison for a year, the judge gave him an execution sentence by hanging. However, they failed to write down his correct height and weight so when he was dropped, the rope did not break his neck. Instead, he slowly and agonizingly suffocated to death over a period of 40 minutes. His spirit is said to be malicious, and whenever anything is knocked over or out of place, people blame Yankee Jim. He is also known to be more hostile toward men than women. When his spirit is especially strong, people can feel pressure around their necks as though they have a rope there, and sometimes, it is so strong that imprints of the fibers of the rope remain on the skin.
-The Little Girl: She was the great granddaughter of Thomas Whaley, and as the stories go, one day while she was playing in the garden, she accidently ran into a clothesline, which either cut into her windpipe or decapitated her. However, our tour guide debunked this story and explained that the little girl had in fact died 10 days shy of her third birthday from arsenic poisoning. Her spirit is said to be playful and more prone to seeking out women, tugging at their clothes or tapping at them to get their attention.
-Anna Whaley: Wife of Thomas Whaley. When her presence manifests fully, you can smell her lavender perfume, and the temperature of the room usually drops. She is also not malicious but more so curious of who is in the house and what business they have. People have also said that they feel a heavy weight on their chests when she's there.
Among the other spirits that reside in the house, there is the family dog, which is supposed to be the most spotted ghost on the property, and Violet Whaley, Thomas Whaley's daughter. She left with a man at the age of 19 and halfway across the country, he abandoned her. She is said to have been a depressive girl, and she could not bear the fact that she had been thrown away by her husband. Violet threw herself from her bedroom window on the second floor into the well but was rescued before she died. She attempted suicide again and this time, she left a note for her family and shot herself in the chest in the outhouse. When her father and sister found her, she was still alive but died soon after. Her spirit is supposed to roam the yard.
For all its history and amount of paranormal activities, the Whaley House actually isn't even that big. The tour only lasted a little over 30 minutes, but it was interesting. After the tour, we ate at a Mexican restaurant called The Alamo, where I had fish tacos again. I'm getting a little sick of them, sadly. We drove back to our dorm after eating, expecting to watch two movies I checked out today, The Prestige and The Day After Tomorrow, but darn it! My other suite mates came into the living room with huge bottles of vodka and started to make a riotous mess. In fact, their drinking party is going on as I type.
I hope the party ends soon. I really want to watch the movies. （´Ａ`；）
The Whaley House is a modest two-story brick house situated in between several Mexican restaurants and little gift shops that sell everything from sea shells to moccasins. It doesn't look haunted, just old and quaint like a reconstruction of a historical house. The staff wore costumes relative to the time period the house was constructed (1860s or so), except for our tour guide, who, for some reason, chose to don an old-fashioned Chinese jacket instead. The well-lighted gift shop adjacent to the house appropriately sold a variety of morbid wares. I saw tarot cards, spell books, T-shirts that said "Got Ghosts?", and a black book entitled The History of Death with a cheerful skull on the cover to give it extra emphasis.
My suite mates and I made it in time for the 8:30 tour, and with a group of other curious tourists/visitors, we walked around the house, snapping multiple pictures and trying to see if we could capture some sort of apparition floating by. We didn't, but our tour guide told us that visitors frequently caught strange and unexplainable things on their cameras. Some pictures of these ghosts are apparently so clear that they're not allowed to show us because the family felt uncomfortable with it.
The Whaley House was not just a house. There was a theater, a court room, a liquor and general store, and many other rooms that were built right into the house. The tour guide told us that there were four recognizable and definite spirits in there:
-Thomas Whaley: the owner of the house and one of the founders of modern San Diego. His greatest concerns in life were his business and his money, and this is supposed to show up in his personality as a ghost. Many people have reported to feel this overbearing presence over their shoulder as if someone were looking down on them in suspicion. His ghost is also said to peer at people from the front windows of the house.
-Yankee Jim: He and two other accomplices were accused of attempted robbery, but because he showed up drunk to his own hearing and was rude to the judge, the people sought to make an example of him. While the other two were thrown into prison for a year, the judge gave him an execution sentence by hanging. However, they failed to write down his correct height and weight so when he was dropped, the rope did not break his neck. Instead, he slowly and agonizingly suffocated to death over a period of 40 minutes. His spirit is said to be malicious, and whenever anything is knocked over or out of place, people blame Yankee Jim. He is also known to be more hostile toward men than women. When his spirit is especially strong, people can feel pressure around their necks as though they have a rope there, and sometimes, it is so strong that imprints of the fibers of the rope remain on the skin.
-The Little Girl: She was the great granddaughter of Thomas Whaley, and as the stories go, one day while she was playing in the garden, she accidently ran into a clothesline, which either cut into her windpipe or decapitated her. However, our tour guide debunked this story and explained that the little girl had in fact died 10 days shy of her third birthday from arsenic poisoning. Her spirit is said to be playful and more prone to seeking out women, tugging at their clothes or tapping at them to get their attention.
-Anna Whaley: Wife of Thomas Whaley. When her presence manifests fully, you can smell her lavender perfume, and the temperature of the room usually drops. She is also not malicious but more so curious of who is in the house and what business they have. People have also said that they feel a heavy weight on their chests when she's there.
Among the other spirits that reside in the house, there is the family dog, which is supposed to be the most spotted ghost on the property, and Violet Whaley, Thomas Whaley's daughter. She left with a man at the age of 19 and halfway across the country, he abandoned her. She is said to have been a depressive girl, and she could not bear the fact that she had been thrown away by her husband. Violet threw herself from her bedroom window on the second floor into the well but was rescued before she died. She attempted suicide again and this time, she left a note for her family and shot herself in the chest in the outhouse. When her father and sister found her, she was still alive but died soon after. Her spirit is supposed to roam the yard.
For all its history and amount of paranormal activities, the Whaley House actually isn't even that big. The tour only lasted a little over 30 minutes, but it was interesting. After the tour, we ate at a Mexican restaurant called The Alamo, where I had fish tacos again. I'm getting a little sick of them, sadly. We drove back to our dorm after eating, expecting to watch two movies I checked out today, The Prestige and The Day After Tomorrow, but darn it! My other suite mates came into the living room with huge bottles of vodka and started to make a riotous mess. In fact, their drinking party is going on as I type.
I hope the party ends soon. I really want to watch the movies. （´Ａ`；）