Located in historic
Old Town San Diego, the “birthplace
of California,” the Whaley House stands
today as a classic example of mid-nineteenth
century Greek Revival architecture. Formally
dedicated as a historic house museum on
May 25, 1960 and open to the public ever
since, it is one of San Diego’s most
popular visitor destinations. Over 100,000
people visit the Whaley House annually,
with guests traveling from across the globe
to experience this world-renowned museum.
It is owned by the County of San Diego and
since November of 2000 Save Our Heritage
Organisation (SOHO) has managed the property.
SOHO, a non-profit organization, has lead
the community as a powerful catalyst for
historic preservation by raising awareness
and appreciation of our region's architectural
and cultural heritage since 1969.
Few houses in San Diego
are as historically important as the Whaley
House. In addition to being the Whaley Family
home, it housed a granary, the County Court
House, San Diego’s first commercial
theater, various businesses including Thomas
Whaley’s own general store, a ballroom,
a billiard hall, school, and polling place.
Significant events, such as the siezure
of the court documents and records in 1871,
and the suicide of Violet Whaley in 1885
profoundly affected Thomas and Anna Whaley.
These events, as well as the hangings which
occurred on the property before the house
was constructed, have suffused the Whaley
House with an air of mystery and added to
its reputation as something more than just
California State Historic Landmark #65.
According to the Travel
Channel’s America’s Most Haunted,
the house is the number one most haunted
house in the United States. The alleged
hauntings of the Whaley House have been
reported on numerous other television programs
and been written up in countless publications
and books since the house first opened as
a museum in 1960. Although we cannot state
positively that the Whaley House is really
haunted, the voluminous documentation of
paranormal occurances at the site makes
a compelling case. But, if there are ghosts
at the Whaley House, who are they and why
are they here?
The earliest documented
ghost at the Whaley House is “Yankee
Jim.” James (aka Santiago) Robinson
was convicted of attempted grand larceny
in San Diego in 1852, and hanged on a gallows
off the back of a wagon on the site where
the house now stands. The local newspaper
reported that he “kept his feet in
the wagon as long as possible, but was finally
pulled off. He swung back and forth like
a pendulum until he strangled to death.”
Although Thomas Whaley had been a spectator
at the execution, he did not let it disuade
him from buying the property a few years
later and building a home for his family
there. According to the San Diego Union,
“soon after the couple and their children
moved in, heavy footsteps were heard moving
about the house. Whaley described them as
sounding as though they were made by the
boots of a large man. Finally he came to
the conclusion that these unexplained footfalls
were made by Yankee Jim Robinson.”
Another source states that Lillian Whaley,
the Whaleys’ youngest daughter who
lived in the house until 1953, “had
been convinced the ghost of “Yankee
Jim” haunted the Old House.”
A visitor to the museum in 1962 mentioned
that “the ghost had driven her family
from their visit there more than 60 years
[earlier]… her mother was unnerved
by the phantom walking noise and the strange
way the windows unlatched and flew up.”
Many visitors to the house
have reported encountering Thomas Whaley
himself. The late 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.”
However, many adults have reported seeing
the apparition of Mr. Whaley, usually on
the upper landing. One said he was “clad
in frock coat and pantaloons, the face turned
away from her, so she could not make it
out. Suddenly it faded away.”
Whaley
House ghost Photo Sent to us by Mary Franks
The specter of Anna Whaley
has also been reported, usually in the downstairs
rooms or in the garden. In 1964, “Mrs.
Whaley’s floating, drifting spirit
appeared to [television personality Regis]
Philbin.” “All of a sudden I
noticed something on the wall…,”
Philbin reported. “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 [flash]light—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. “I see a small figure
of a woman,” one visitor said, “who
has a swarthy complexion. She is wearing
a long full skirt, reaching to the floor.
The skirt appears to be a calico or gingham,
small print. She has a kind of cap on her
head, dark hair and eyes and she is wearing
gold hoops in her pierced ears. She seems
to stay in this room, lives here, I gather…”
None of the Whaleys fit this description,
but the house was rented out to numerous
tenants over the years. Perhaps the mysterious
woman in the courtroom was one of these.
Whaley
House Ghost Photo Sent to us From Mike Davis
Another presence reported
by visitors and docents is that of a young
girl, who is usually found in the dining
room. Psychic Sybil Leek encountered this
spirit during a visit in the 1960s. “’It
was a long-haired girl,’ Sybil said.
‘She was very quick, you know, in
a longish dress. She went to the table in
this room and I went to the chair.’”
Urban legend has it that this is the ghost
of a playmate of the Whaley children who
accidentally broke her neck on a low-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. It is believed
that the legend was believed to have been
started by a one-time employee of the Whaley
House, in an effort to add to the house’s
mystique.
Even animals aren’t
left out of the singular occurances. A parapsychologist
reported he saw ‘a spotted dog, like
a fox terrier, that ran down the hall with
his ears flapping and into the dining room.’
The dog, he said, was an apparition. When
they lived in the house, the Whaley’s
owned a terrier named Dolly Varden.
The Whaley House stands
silently watching over San Diego Avenue
as it has done for a century and a half.
Every day visitors come from around the
world to tour the historic museum. It contains
so much history within its walls, that even
the non-believer will enjoy the tour. For
believers and sceptics alike, the house
draws them back time and again, in search
of those elusive ghosts. As Regis Philbin
once said, “You know a lot of people
pooh-pooh it because they can’t see
it. But there was something going on in
that house.”
Whaley
House Ghost Photo Sent ot us from Janice
Potter
The house is now
in the process of a major restoration. Our
interpretive period is from 1856 when construction
began on the house to 1885 when Thomas Whaley
moved his family to a new home on State
Street, with a focus on 1868 to 1871, when
the Whaley House was not only the Whaley
family residence, but also San Diego’s
first theater, the county courthouse, and
the Whaley and Crosthwaite General Store.
The building was started
with the construction of a granary which
later became the courtroom. The two-story
house and store addition was designed by
Thomas Whaley himself and constructed in
1857. It was the first two-story brick edifice
in San Diego, and was built from bricks
made in Thomas Whaley’s own brickyard.
The Whaley House has been
structurally altered several times in its
150 years of existence. Thomas Whaley himself
made changes to accommodate his businesses
and growing family, including bricking up
the south window of the original granary;
one second floor wall was removed and a
set of exterior stairs were added to the
front of the house in 1868 to accommodate
the Tanner Troupe Theater; Frank Whaley
conducted a major remodel in late 1909-1910,
altering the doors and windows on the front
façade as well as the front porch;
and a wooden “lean-to” structure
that probably housed a bathroom was added
at some point in the first half of the 20th
century. Finally, in the late 1950s after
the County purchased the property, many
more changes were made to prepare the building
to function as a museum: the existing porch
was removed and replaced; the original lean–to
kitchen was demolished, as was the latter-day
bathroom; a doorway was added to the wall
dividing the courtroom and the general store;
the roof was replaced; a back window was
changed to a door; a new flight of stairs
was added to the back of the house; and
inside courses of bricks were removed from
the outer walls (and used for patching)
and replaced with steel and concrete.
Whaley
House Ghost face in window. Sent to us by
Gerard French
SOHO’s long-term
goals for the house include rebuilding the
Whaley’s lean-to kitchen, restoring
the front façade and porch to its
original 1857 appearance, replacing the
window on the back of the building, removing
the back stairs, returning the grounds to
a period style, and a complete interior
makeover that will take the museum out of
the 1960s and into the 1870s.
About the Whaley House
Museum Complex
The Whaley House Complex
consists of:
The Whaley House
Museum, a not-to-be-missed experience that
will be enjoyed by persons of all ages.
Whaley
House Haunted Piano Ghost Pocture, Sent
to us from Terry.
The historic Verna
House, which houses the SOHO Museum Shop.
This 1870s French Mansard was moved to its
current location, right next to the Whaley
House, to save it from demolition in 1965.
The Museum Shop features Whaley House souvenirs
and t-shirts, an eclectic assortment of
gifts and greeting cards that will appeal
to everyone, and a large selection of books
on San Diego History, architecture, children’s
books, art, and L. Frank Baum’s famous
Oz books.
Two historic 1870s false-front buildings
of which there are only one or two others
in San Diego, moved from downtown San Diego
to the Whaley House Complex in the 1960s
to save them from demolition. The two at
the Whaley House Complex currently house
the New Orleans Creole Café. The
Café offers indoor and outdoor patio
dining.
Whaley House Courtroom ghosts
sent to us by Dan Manahan
A replica nineteenth-century
rustic gazebo seating area is the perfect
place to relax after a hearty meal or a
walk through Old Town State Park.
The historic Derby-Pendleton
House. Although this 1852 wood-frame and
adobe structure houses SOHO’s offices
and is not open to the public, it provides
a classic backdrop to the Whaley House grounds.
