San Diego resident “Yankee Jim” Robinson was hanged in 1852 for his alleged role in a grand larceny scheme. Five years later, the tree from which he was probably suspended gave way to the construction of what is now called the Whaley House at 2482 San Diego Ave. in Old Town.
Everybody (except Jim, of course) would agree that that bit of local lore is fairly unremarkable “” from afar, you can’t tell that the home is the city’s oldest brick building and that part of it used to serve as the San Diego County Courthouse.
But Jim evidently knew a thing or two about the locale. And the next few days might just put him in a talkative mood, if you’d care to listen.
Friday, Oct. 27, through Halloween night, the dwelling will be the site of The Haunted Whaley House. The event will feature ghost stories beneath oil lamps and music by the house museum’s docents. But just as Halloween is no ordinary holiday, Whaley House is no ordinary venue. The house’s place in paranormal science has been the topic of exhaustive published stories since the building opened as a museum in 1960. Paranormal investigator Hans Holzer has called it “one of the most actively haunted mansions in the world today” “” all the more remarkable amid the building’s dizzying evolution.
San Diego’s Thomas Whaley reconstructed the building, originally a granary, as the two-story Greek Revival-style Whaley family home in 1857. At the time he had his hands full with several businesses and a growing family “” and the house’s history reflects it. From 1868 to 1871, it served as San Diego’s first commercial theater and anchored the Whaley and Crosthwaite General Store. It also included a pool hall, a ballroom and a school.
Whaley and his family would eventually outgrow and leave the building for good in 1885. A major remodel commenced in 1909; 50 years later, the county purchased the home and made wholesale changes to convert it to a museum. In 2000, San Diego’s Save Our Heritage Organization assumed management of the property. The group plans to rebuild the house’s kitchen, restore the porch façade, replace the building’s back window, remove the back stairs, restyle the grounds and renovate the interior.
Decades of foot traffic and refurbishment have weighed in the balance of the house’s reputation for otherworldly occupancy. Even the federal government is in on the act; the U.S. Department of Commerce has certified Whaley House as one of only two such buildings in California (the other is in San Jose). About 100,000 people visit the home’s five-part complex annually, perhaps oblivious to the little story that set the house’s repute in motion.
Whaley reportedly witnessed Robinson’s execution “” and by his own acknowledgment, Robinson’s ghost inhabited his newly built home, his presence marked by heavy footsteps and the odd movements of latches at the windows. Since then, all manner of family members “” including the Whaley’s daughter Violet, who committed suicide in the home in 1885, and even the family dog “” have decided to stay put. TV personality Regis Philbin once reported seeing the form of family matriarch Anna, who died in 1913. Others have asserted that the spirits have driven them from the home.
To hear Holzer tell it, maybe the latter got too close to some cherished family property.
“There are some human beings,” Holzer said in a 2005 interview, “who are dimly aware of their own deaths yet have chosen to stay on in what used to be their homes to be close to surroundings they once held dear.”
Over the next several days, Holzer’s theory may come under increased scrutiny “” and he’d like to think it will yield something beyond the usual Halloween merriment. “The will to disbelieve,” he’s said, “is the strongest deterrent to wider horizons.”
The Whaley Haunted House will include extended hours, ghostly oil lamp tours, period music and a serving of San Diego history. The special event runs from 10 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, Oct. 27 and 28; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday and Monday, Oct. 29 and 30; and 5:00 p.m. to midnight Halloween night. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children 3 to 12 and free for those 2 and under. Tickets are on sale at the adjacent Whaley House Museum. More information is available at (619) 297-7511.