Downtown San Diego ­– an easy place to scare up ghost sightings

David Moye | Downtown News

San Diego is famous for having lots of great beaches, perfect weather and the best Mexican food in the world.

It’s also a hot spot for ghosts, according to David Hanson of the San Diego Ghost and Paranormal Group, which held a two-day conference at the Maritime Museum of San Diego last month to explore the spooks that allegedly haunt the Star of India and Steam Ferry Berkeley.

“San Diego may be more haunted than more modern cities in California,” Hanson said just before a midnight investigation of the Star of India. “We go back to the days of the conquistadors. Not to mention the American Indians who were here when the Spanish arrived. I wouldn’t say we’re the most haunted, but we could be in the top 10.”

Besides having a long past, Hanson said the proximity to water may be conducive to paranormal encounters with ghosts and spirits.

“There’s a theory that water flowing underneath the hull of a ship helps exchange ions or some form of energy that provides more energy for the spirits to manifest or to do the things they want to do,” he said.

The Whaley House in Old Town has long been recognized as one of America’s most haunted houses, and the Hotel Cosmopolitan was the site of an investigation by the Travel Channel series “Ghost Adventures” in 2011. However, paranormal investigator Matt Schulz believes Downtown San Diego may be just as haunted because the area has been home to more hotels than houses.

“That’s an area where you have people moving in and out, maybe the victim of a shooting in the early part of the last century,” Hanson said. “It’s probably your best bet. The Horton Grand is, in my estimation, one of the best for haunted stories.”

Other hotels that have reportedly had ghosts staying with the paying customers include the Hotel St. James and The Keating.

Sandra Vivas, the General Manager of the Keating and The MerK Restaurant, admits she’s felt the presence of someone standing next to her while she’s been in the basement area that now houses the Pussycat Dolls Dollhouse.

“It happened at 5 a.m. in the morning when I closed up,” she said. “I’m very sensitive. Also, my dog Smudge sometimes goes up to the fourth floor and just starts staring at something, but — and it’s on the security cameras — nothing is there.”

There have also been times when guests complain somebody is knocking, but no one is there.

“I don’t think they’re evil though,” she said. “They’re very playful.”

Sam Woodhouse of the San Diego Repertory Theatre said when his group was doing plays in the 1980s out of the 6th Avenue Playhouse, there were reports of paranormal activity.

“One of my employees even brought a priest inside to an exorcism,” he said. “I would have liked to [have] seen it, but I wasn’t allowed inside.”

Rex Edhlund, who owns the Industry Showroom, a 5th Avenue office space catering to people in the art, design and fashion industries, is skeptical about ghosts, but says some of the women renting report the presence of ghosts.

“It used to be an old cowboy bordello and one of the people that works out of here, Stacy May, insists it’s haunted, Edhlund said. “She says she’s seen shadows in the doorway that suddenly duck away.”

Edhlund moved to the location seven months ago after being at 6th and J. Although the idea of having a business in a supposedly haunted building sounds kind of cool to some people, Edhlund has found it a disadvantage.

“The electric bills can be higher when people leave all the lights on because they thought they saw a ghost,” he laughed.

San Diego native David Moye writes Weird News for the Huffington Post. You can learn more about him at huffingtonpost.com/David-Moye

To find out more about the businesses and locations listed in David’s story:

Horton Grand Hotel