The Whaley House

The Whaley House or The Thomas Whaley Mansion was built in 1856 by Thomas Whaley, a merchant from New York, the house was used for business purposes as well as the family residence. This mansion, completely furnished with antiques from the days of early California, is also considered to be a haunted house. Immediately after its construction was completed in 1857, the mansion became the center of business, government, and social affairs in Old San Diego. The oldest brick house in Southern California served as a courthouse, a courtroom, a theater, and a boarding house—as well as the family home of Thomas and Anna Whaley and their children. The property was the town gallows before the house was built. The most regular spirits present today are: Thomas Whaley, Anna Whaley (wife), James Robinson (hung on the property before the house was built), and a small girl (around 3 years old). Today, no one is allowed in the Whaley House after 4 P.M., but police officers and responsible citizens say that someone—or something—keeps walking around half the night turning all the lights on.

(Image credit: Encyclopedia of Haunted Places : “Ghostly Locales From Around The World” compiled & edited by Jeff Belanger page 203)

Located at 2482 San Diego Avenue in Old San Diego, the Whaley House has been restored and is now owned and operated by the San Diego Historical Society as a tourist attraction. Often, while conducting tours through the old mansion, members of the society have heard eerie footsteps moving about other parts of the house when the rooms were visibly unoccupied. June Reading, a former director of the Whaley House, told of footsteps being heard in the master bedroom and on the stairs. Windows, even when fastened down with three four-inch bolts on each side, would fly open of their own accord—often in the middle of the night, triggering the burglar alarm. People often reported having heard screams echoing throughout the second story of the mansion, and once a large, heavy china closet had toppled over by itself. Numerous individuals had sensed or psychically seen the image of a scaffold and a hanging man on the south side of the mansion.

According to Reading, 10 years before Thomas Whaley constructed his home on the site, a sailor named Yankee Jim Robinson had been hanged on the spot of what would later become the arch between the music room and the living room in the mansion. Whaley had been an observer when Yankee Jim kept his appointment with the hangman. Some visitors to the Whaley House have reported seeing a gaudily dressed woman with a painted face lean out of a second-story window. In Reading’s opinion, that could well be an actress from one of the theatrical troupes that had leased the second floor in November 1868. The Court House Wing of the mansion is generally thought to be the most haunted spot in the Whaley House, due to the violent emotions that were expended there in the early days of San Diego.

An 1872 map of the Whaley House identified a contemporaneous feature, marked by a circle inside of a square, approximately 20' behind the house. It was directly in line with the eastern wall of the structure. On the basis of its size, shape, proximity to the main structure, and alignment with the drainage gutters that currently run down the edge of the house, Mallios, Coons, and Christenson deduced this figure to be the cistern to the Whaley House.

Many individuals who have visited the old house have heard the sounds of a crowded courtroom in session and the noisy meetings of men in Thomas Whaley’s upstairs study. According to many psychical researchers, the fact that this one single mansion served so many facets of city life, in addition to being a family home, almost guarantees several layers of psychic residue permeating themselves upon the environment. Many sensitive visitors to the Whaley House have also perceived the image of Anna Whaley, who, some feel, still watches over the mansion that she loved so much. And who, according to a good number of those who have encountered her presence, deeply resents the intrusion of strangers. Reading remembered the night in 1964 when television talk show host Regis Philbin and a friend saw Anna Whaley as they sat on the Andrew Jackson sofa at 2:30 A.M. The ghostly image floated from the study, through the music room, and into the parlor. At that moment, Philbin, in nervous excitement, dissolved the apparition with the beam of his flashlight.

Whaley House Map
(Image credit: Whaleyhouse.org)

In the fall of 1966, a group of newspeople volunteered to stay in Whaley House to spend the night with Yankee Jim. Special permission was granted to the journalists by the historical society, and the ghost hunters settled in for their overnight stay. The wife of one of the reporters had to be taken home by 9:30 P.M. She was badly shaken and claimed that she had seen something on the upper floor that she refused to describe. The entire party of journalists left the house before dawn. They, too, refused to discuss the reason for their premature departure, but some people say the ghost of Yankee Jim, still protesting the horror of his death, confronted them. Since that time, night visits have not been permitted in Whaley House. In addition to the sightings of the primary spirits of Thomas and Anna Whaley, Reading said that the other ghosts most often seen include those of Yankee Jim, who walks across the upstairs sitting room to the top of the stairs; a young girl named Washburn, a playmate of the Whaley children; and “Dolly Varden,” the family’s favorite dog. And then there are the screams, the giggles, the rattling doorknobs, the cooking odors, the smell of Thomas Whaley’s Havana cigars, Anna’s sweet-scented perfume, the sound of footsteps throughout the house, and the music box and piano that play by themselves.

In 1993, Bonny Vent (Spirit Advocate, San Diego Paranormal Research Project) visited the Whaley House. Some might remember that there used to be some very spooky-looking mannequins in the upstairs bedrooms. She walked past the master bedroom and she heard the spirit voice of Anna Whaley. She explained to Bonny that she did not like her dress on that mannequin and that people visiting were spooked by the mannequins. She found it disrespectful. So Bonny went up to the caretaker and said, “Excuse me, I hope you do not think I am crazy, but Anna told me she doesn’t like her black dress on that mannequin.” The caretaker looked at her and said, “I believe you. Not many things in this house actually belonged to a Whaley family member, but that is indeed Mrs. Whaley’s dress.” The lady also remarked that she and Anna were the only ones who knew that fact, so of course she believed her. This caretaker was June Reading, who was instrumental in saving the house.

Bonny came back to the house a few months later and found that all of the mannequins had been removed, and the black dress was now laid out on the bed. As she was standing there, Anna’s spirit thanked her for delivering her message. Little did she know that in the year 2000, a battle would ensue in court over what was and what was not Whaley property. She told every docent who would listen to save Anna’s black dress. To this day, she do not know if it was her insistence or some documentation left by June Reading, but the dress was saved. There is a theater stage there now, but if you look at old pictures of the Whaley House, you will see Anna’s black dress laid out on the bed.

Up to this point, Bonny only had a spirit voice and the word of June Reading, who passed in 1998, as proof of that being Anna’s black dress. In August of 2003, she was researching through newspapers from the 1887 to 1888 timeframe. In the San Diego Union she found an article about a Gala Ball held at the Hotel del Coronado in 1888. Anna is included on the guest list. There is a detailed description of Anna’s black dress! This must have been the occasion that caused her to buy the dress from Paris. Ten years after first communicating with Anna’s spirit, Bonny have found tangible proof of what she told her in a local newspaper printed in 1888.

Sources : 

Encyclopedia of Haunted Places : “Ghostly Locales From Around The World” compiled & edited by Jeff Belanger

Encyclopedia of Unusual & Unexplained Things

http://whaleyhouse.org/archeology.htm