Holy Ground

Located in San Diego, California, the Whaley House has earned the title of "the most haunted hause in the U.S." The hause was built in 1857 by Thomas Whaley on land that was partially once a cemetery. The hauntings of the Whaley House have been reported on numerous television programs and been written up in countless publications and books since the house first opened as a museum in 1960. The earliest documented ghost is "Yankee Jim". James Robinson was convicted of attempted grand larceny in 1852 and hanged on a gallows off the back of a wagon on the site where the house now stands. Many visitors to the house have reported encountering Thomas Whaley himself. June Reading, former curator of the museum, said "We had a little girl perhaps 5 or 6 years old who waved to a man she said was standing in the parlor. We couldn't see him. But often children's sensitivity is greater than an adult's". The ghost of Anna Whaley has also been reported, usually in the downstairs rooms or in the garden. In 1964, her drifting spirit appeared to Regis Philbin. "All of a sudden I noticed something on the wall. There was something filmy white, it looked like an apparition of some kind, I got so excited I couldn't restrain myself! I flipped on the flashlight and nothing was there but a portrait of Anna Whaley, the long-dead mistress of the house." Other visitors have described seeing or sensing the presence of a woman in the courtroom. None of the Whaleys fit her description, but the house was rented out to numerous tenants over the years. Perhaps the mysterious woman in the courtroom was one of these. Author Traci Regula relates her experiences with the house: "Over the years, while dinning across the street at the Old Town Mexican Cafe, I became accustomed to noticing that the shutters of the second-story windows would sometimes open while we ate dinner, long after the house was closed for the day. On a recent visit, I could feel the energy in several spots in the house, particularly in the courtroom, where I also smelled the faint scent of a cigar." Another presence reported by visitors is that of a young girl, who is usually found in the dining room. Psychic Sybil Leek encountered the spirit during a visit in 1960s. "It was a long-haired girl. She was very quick, you know, in a long dress." Urban legend has it that this is the ghost of a playmate of the Whaley children who accidentally broke her neck on a law-hanging clothesline in the backyard, and whose name was either Annabel or Carrie Washburn. There are no historic records of any child dying this way at the Whaley House; nor is there record of any family named Washburn residing in San Diego at the time. Even animal spirits have been reported. A reporter saw a spotted dog, like a fox terrier, that ran down the hall. When they lived in the house, the Whaley's owned a terrier named Dolly Varden.

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