January 26, 2022 • 39 mins
Manresa Castle in Port Townsend, Washington has had many incarnations. It is undoubtably haunted, but almost none of the lore and stories passed down through out the years have been historically substantiated. But, the truth of who is haunting the castle, might be much stranger than fiction.
Special guest: Amberdawn Bolding
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio
and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky listener Discretion is advised.
In two thousand and six, a visitor to Laurel Grove
Cemetery in Port Towns in Washington noticed something strange. The
(00:24):
tomb of Charles Eisenbeis and his first wife Elizabeth was open.
It had cracked and the stone fell into the burial vault,
leaving it wide open to the elements, and a startling
discovery was made inside. You see, in March nineteen o two,
when Charles Eisenbeis died, he was a prominent figure in
the community. As such, the whole town turned out to
(00:46):
see his casket carried down the steps into the subterranean
vault and placed next to the coffin of his first
wife after the vault was sealed. And that was that
until two thousand six, because when the family went to
investigate reports of this broken vault, they found the stone
had fallen in such a way that it flipped over
(01:07):
Elizabeth's coffin and shattered the Victorian viewing glass on the top,
but it also smashed the coffin of a child. This
small coffin had been sitting atop Charles's casket, a small
coffin that certainly had not been there in nineteen o two.
Descendants of Charles and Elizabeth have no idea who this
(01:29):
child is, and the identity of the child remains a
mystery to this day. But at Manresa Castle in Port Townsend,
a castle that Eisenbeis himself built, there have long been
reports of the ghost of a child playing and giggling
within its walls, though no child has been recorded as
having died. There sounds like the perfect place for us
(01:52):
to explore, shall we. I'm Amy Bruney, and this is
haunted Roe. On July tenth, eighteen thirty two, Charles Eisenbeis
(02:13):
was born. We share a birthday. Well. I wasn't born
in eighteen thirty two, clearly, but sometimes I feel like
I was. His parents were Johann George Valentin Eisenbeis and
Katherine Crone of nun Kirschen's Saarland, Germany before it was Germany.
Of course, his ancestry is noted as Prussian. He was
the third of many children and was preceded by an
(02:35):
eldest sister and his brother Frederick. His very close companion.
They were a family of millers. When Charles was twenty four,
he and Frederick set off for America. They settled in Rochester,
New York in eighteen fifty six. Two years later they
were attracted to California and landed at San Francisco. Soon afterward,
(02:56):
they came north, Frederick starting a bakery in style of
whom while Charles embarked on the same business in Port Townsend.
In fact, Charles did very well. He prospered and eventually
became a leading member of the group of five five
residents who dominated Port Townsend's economy. Charles acquired much of
his wealth by supplying bread and crackers two ships and
(03:19):
sailors who stopped at Port Townsend to restock their foodstuffs
for their next voyage. Charles married his first wife, Elizabeth Bargamer,
in eighteen sixty five. They had four children, Charles Jr. Frederick, Sophia,
and Louise. In eighty two, Elizabeth died. Charles remarried within
(03:40):
a year of Elizabeth's death, this time to young Catherine
Elizabeth Marsh. They also had four children, bringing the Eisenbeiss
total to eight. Lillian, Otto, Hilda, and Josephine. In its
early years, Port Townsend, Washington benefited from the business acumen
of Charles, who was quite a jack of all trades.
(04:01):
He found himself in baking, brickmaking, lumber milling, brewing, banking,
and had some role in a hotel as well. In
eighteen seventy eight, when Port Townsend became the first incorporated
city in Jefferson County, its citizens elected Eisenbeis as the
first mayor. Port Townsend held a lot of promise for
(04:21):
Charles and his contemporaries city leaders. Banking that the railroad
would terminate at the seaport spurred a development boom that
raised most of the buildings that today make up the
downtown and uptown corps, as well as many of the homes.
And that hopeful boom of the early eighteen nineties, Charles
embarked on a new effort to construct a marvelous home
(04:43):
for his family, a home that would be known as
Eisenbei's Castle. Having a mass of fortune in several businesses,
including the manufacture of bricks, lumber, and banking, Eisenbeis built
the largest private residence in town using bricks from his
own factory. Twenty five thousand bricks were used to construct
the home. The bricks came from his own brickwork. Tiled
(05:06):
fireplaces and finely crafted woodwork were installed by German artisans.
The home boasted thirty rooms spread out over four floors.
Taking one look at the exterior, it's easy to believe
that Charles had the home designed and the style of
Prussian architecture. Located at six five one Cleveland Street in
Port Towns in Washington, now, Manresa Castle has bluff top
(05:29):
views of the Puget Sound. However, the hopes of Port
Townsend's leaders did not pan out. The railroad didn't make it.
Rail lines ended on the east side of Puget Sound,
and then a nationwide depression hit in eighteen ninety three,
triggering significant fall out in the region. As the city's
glory waned, things got tough for some. One of the
(05:52):
victims of the downturn was Charles Junior. As one of
the local papers put it, it was reported as he
was missed from his place of business at nine o'clock
this morning, and although a search was instituted immediately, it
was not until nine o'clock tonight that his body was
found lying on the ground underneath the Mount Baker Block
owned by his father. The Mount Baker Block building was
(06:16):
and is still in the busiest part of Port Townsend's
downtown district, but no one heard the fatal report of
Charles's pistol. Charles's wife, Natalia Selma phillips Iisendvice, survived him,
as did their young daughter dar Latta. His closest friend
was a judge named j. A. Coon, who wasn't surprised
by the news, which, as he said, was the result
(06:39):
of several months despondency. In nineteen o two, Charles died
at the age of seventy. Charles's death was due to
Bright's disease. It's not clear if he died in the
castle or at a hospital. Charles's death was a curious coincidence,
though Frederick seventy had expired nearly at the same moment
(06:59):
as Charles. When a member of the family of Charles
Eisenbis was in the telegraph office sending news of the
death of Charles, he received a message announcing the death
of his brother fe Eisenbis. After Charles's death in nineteen
o two, Kate stayed in the house until nineteen o six,
when she remarried. At that point, the castle remained empty
(07:20):
for almost twenty years, looked after by a single caretaker.
In nineteen according to Manresa Castle's website, a Seattle attorney
bought the castle as a vacation place for nuns teaching
in Seattle schools. This plan did not work out well,
and in nineteen seven the Jesuit Priests purchased the building
for use as a training college. The priests spent their
(07:42):
sixteenth and final year of training here, studying ascetic theology.
In nineteen twenty eight, the Jesuits added a large wing
housing a chapel and sleeping rooms. They also installed the
elevator an otis, at a cost of thirty four hundred dollars,
a substantial sum in those days. As when their addition
was complete the Jesuits this hurts my heart. The Jesuits
(08:06):
stuck out over the bricks of the original portion to
give the building a more uniform look. They named the
complex Manresa Hall, after the town in Spain where Ignatius
Loyola founded the order. The Jesuits left in nineteen sixty
eight and the building was converted into a hotel. The
elements of Manresa and Castle were taken from the two
(08:27):
previous owners to create the current name. As with any
large spooky castle, there's lots of lore surrounding Manresa, and
that includes many, many unverifiable stories. One such is reported
by investigator and author Jeff Dwyer. Although this rumor is
(08:48):
connected to a bartender in the nineteen nineties, the story
is set in nineteen twenty one, when an english woman
named Kate allegedly arrived at Manresa Castle. The rumored spirit
who isn't Charles's wife but a guest who spent several
months in Room three oh six after Charles's death, She
supposedly received news that her bow had perished while on
(09:10):
a ship out to sea. Grieving, she died by suicide
when she jumped from the window of Room three oh six.
Apparently her information was wrong, though the ship carrying her
lover had indeed sunk, but he had survived and was
rescued by a passing vessel. In order to get Kate's attention,
Dwyer used some less than traditional tactics. According to his book,
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he says he made derogatory accusations, insults, and challenges, all
built around words that could not be included in this book.
He says the spirit named Kate was reportedly very angry
and very active, sharing with Dwyer that she was not
faithful to her fiance while he was on the long
and fateful voyage to Alaska, resulting in pregnancy. After news
(09:57):
of his ship sinking, she mourned for weeks until she
received news that he had been rescued and was en route.
This catalyzed the decision to jump from the window. Again,
absolutely none of this is documented or substantiated, so if
anyone finds record of this, please let me know. But
I have looked pretty extensively, and let's not go after
(10:18):
Jeff Dwyer though, since I don't know him, but I
know how many of my listeners hate the idea of
any spirit being provoked. So maybe we can use this
interest in Manresa to get the story correct and the
history correct back to it. Apparently, the spirit attributed to
this Kate, is often seen in room three oh six.
She has long, dark hair and wait for it, a
(10:40):
white gown. She's spotted by the window where she supposedly jumped.
Kate seems to be mischievous and messes up belongings that
guests have organized. She'll sit on beds when people are
in them, and there are reports that her singing emanates
from the bathroom overnight. Now again, Jeff Dwyer claims that
a young Jesuit died by suicide in the attic in
early nineteen thirties after rumors about his relationship with the
(11:04):
nun began circulating. Often, third floor guests report hearing a
rope stretching and the beams groaning, as if a body
is swinging in the darkness of the huge attic. I
have found no trace or whisper of verification for the story.
Another source attributes the event and haunting to the attic
space that's just above room three O two. The claim
(11:26):
that a priest died by hanging in the attic space
above room three O two seems to be traced to
father John Alden Murphy, who drowned in the Puget Sound
on September two, ninette. In a clipping from the San
Francisco Examiner from August thirty one, nineteen forty three, we
learned that father John Alden Murphy likely drowned while swimming
(11:46):
in the Puget Sound near Port Townsend. The thirty three
year old teacher worked at Saint Ignatious High School in
San Francisco, but had been taking special studies at Manreesa Hall.
After he didn't return to Manresa, a search began in
his clothes were found in a pile on the beach.
So let's talk the hauntings. Obviously, Manreisa is haunted, or
(12:09):
we wouldn't be talking about it. But it's difficult to
pin down who could be haunting it exactly since there
are no verified deaths or traumatic events attached to it.
Although I do want to point out the mysterious coffin
appearance in Charles's vault we talked about in the beginning,
because if there was ever a cause for a ghost
to be hanging around, I'd say that's a pretty good one.
(12:29):
Activity wise, the doors are known to open and close
without anyone around. Rooms three O two, three oh four,
and three oh six are supposed to be the most haunted.
Daniel Demy referenced an article by James Barnett from two
thousand four, where the latter dated stories of hauntings at
Manresa Castle to a bartender's imaginative storytelling in the early
(12:51):
to mid nineteen nineties. DeMay is a Port Townsend local
and his father was a housekeeper at Manresa Castle in
the late seventies. His father told him that while wrapping
up in Room three oh six, a key ring he
placed on a dresser floated in midair about eighteen inches
off the wood top. As he stared at it, the
ring crashed down on the table with a clatter. In
(13:14):
the front desk manager Kimberly Smith told a journalist that
although the latest owners don't play up the paranormal as
much as previous ones have, they have received accounts of
a sad unseen violinist that's a new him, as well
as a giggling child and a woman named Natalie. The
dining room is supposedly haunted by Kate eisenbeis Charles's wife.
(13:36):
She is seen sitting in the dining room in a
long Victorian gown. An e v P of a female
spirit has also been captured in that space speaking German.
What's now the banquet hall was the Jesuits Chapel. Glasses
that have been properly placed on tables are found upside down,
and sometimes they will be shattered with no explanation. Staff
(13:56):
members have also reported feeling watched in this space, but
don't take it from me. We're going to shift gears
here a bit. Usually we speak with someone who has
investigated a location, but we're actually about to speak with
the night front desk agent. Amber Don is her name,
and she spends just about every night, sometimes very alone
(14:18):
in the heart of Manresa Castle. And to say she
has some stories is putting it lightly. So stay with us.
We'll chat with Amberdon after this. I am sitting here
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now with amber Don, who is the front desk staff
at Manresa Castle. And what's interesting is she works the
night shift. So normally we're chatting with paranormal investigators or
teams who have investigated, but I think amber Don is
in the thick of it at Manresa and she's got
some stories to tell when she's say, oh, yes, was
(15:01):
definitely here. I love that you picked the night shift
on purpose because you wanted to experience the ghosts at
the castle. Like what drew you to Manresa in the
first place. Well, honestly, Um, I was working for another
company for about six years and um we used to
have our annual Christmas party here and I always thought
(15:22):
that it was a really neat place just because of
the history. And that was before I knew that it
was so incredibly haunted. And I'm a huge fan of
the paranormal and like a horror movie fanatic, but I've
never actually experienced anything until I came here at work. Well,
I mean, I will start this off by sharing a
quick well it's not really quick, but a story that
(15:43):
I have at Manresa that just kind of sticks out
for me. So Manresa Castle was the site of the
very first Strange Escapes event. I own a company called
Strange Escapes, where we take people on haunted tours all
over the world, and Manresa was our first one. I
think we did it two or three years in a row,
and it was conducive. An environment is very conducive to
that because it's very intimate, like there's forty rooms, but
(16:04):
there is this kind of meeting space downstairs, and it's
just gorgeous. It's in close proximity to downtown. Anyway, I
digress as usual. I was there one year and I
had brought my daughter, who I believe she was about
three at the time, and I brought my sister with
me to help me take care of my daughter, Charlotte,
and Charlotte got very sick. Um she was running a
(16:27):
crazy fever. She was throwing up all night like. It
was incredibly stressful. We ended up having to take her too.
There's like a either an ear or an urgent care,
like almost across the street from Manresa. We took her
there and they were able to give her some like
meds and everything, but she was just out of it
that whole trip. And this event was all adults. There's
(16:50):
forty rooms. At that time. Kids weren't coming to these yet.
And I'll never forget there was one morning I went
down to breakfast and I saw buch of women there
and they were, you know, having coffee and whatnot, and
they said Charlotte sher was having fun this morning. And
I was like, what are you talking about? And they
were like, we heard her just giggling away and running
(17:12):
up and down the hallway at like six thirty this morning.
Can't believe you woke up that early. And these were
a number of people who were staying in different rooms
where they had come together. And I was like, no,
Charlotte has been throwing up all night and been fast
asleep all morning. She's definitely not playing. But they had
heard a child running up and down the hallway and
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giggling and there were definitely no kids present. So is
that something that you have heard of before happening there? Oh? Yes,
Actually when I very first started the front desk, and
also the housekeepers told me that when it was real,
real quiet, and there was like maybe one or two
rooms you know that had people in a through the
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whole entire building, they would consistently hear children running up
and down the hallways and giggling and thing, you know,
and they would go out there and there's absolutely nobody around,
and they knew for a fact out of those two
rooms that were in the building that there was no
children at present whatsoever. There is said to be a
little girl right around nine or ten years old that's
(18:15):
supposed to be frequently here, and some of the kitchen
staff and our restaurant have seen her right on that
end of the castle down by the restaurant is supposed
to be the most original part of the castle where
the front desk sits in like that on And I've
actually personally seen that little world during a power outage
one time, because I thought, you know, when I very
first got here and I was like, ah, you know,
(18:36):
what's the hyball about? Is this place really haunted. But
even though I had heard a couple of experiences from guests,
but you know, nothing had happened to me yet. And
we had this power outage and it stayed off for
probably about two and a half hours, and there's no
you know, burning of candles of any kind in our
rooms or anything like that. And so I was, believe
it or not, out and about handing out blow sticks
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and I'm whatever on the third floor. Yes, now, I
mean now with the lights off in this place, boy,
oh boy, does it add some allbance to the place. Yes, Iran,
I was. Yeah, I was up on the third floor,
and at the corner of my eye, I thought I'd
seen somebody standing down in the middle of the hallway
and down by the attic stairs. And as I shined
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my flashlight down there, I've seen a little girl just
kind of dart around the corner, and I've seen probably
you know, a couple of inches of her dress go
around the corner. And when I walked down there and
I was like hello, and I knew that there wasn't
any kids up on the floor that I had personally
checked in, So you know, it was very very interesting
and probably about a week or so later, this lady
(19:42):
comes to stay and she it was a birthday gift
to herself. And she'd stay in like for probably about
nine days in three oh six, which is supposedly yes,
where the innkeeper jumped out the window at and she
told me, you know, and she was like medium and
she was really really sensitive to energies and she could
(20:05):
converse a little bit with the spirits. And I had
not told her anything whatsoever about this little girl about
seeing this spirit. And she comes down a couple of
days later and tells me that she's experiencing somebody going
through her belongings at about three or so ish in
the morning. And so she finally asked, you know, it
went on for a couple of days in a row.
(20:26):
So she finally asked and reached out to the spirit,
you know, who are you and what do you want?
Why do you keep waking me up? And this little
girl proudly announces that it was her tenth birthday and
then she was looking for a birthday gift. And so
after that happened, it immediately clicked in my head. I
was like, oh my, that was definitely the spirit of
a little girl that I see, because she was right
(20:47):
around nine or ten years old, and she was wearing
a very very old style little dress, and so it
was just very very odd, you know. I mean, it
is very odd just because when you go through the
history of Manresa, there are not really any deaths tied
to it. There was one priest who drowned. There was
a very big rumor that someone had taken his own
(21:09):
life at some point in the building, but no one's
been able to find record of that. But they think
it might be some confusion because there was a priest
who did drown about that time, but that's the only
death people can seem to tie to the building with records.
So what do you think is going on here? Why
do you think there's all these other spirits that people
(21:31):
report there? Well, I was lucky enough to meet this
young lady that she had bought in the book off
of Amazon and had the whole entire history of Manresa,
as well as going a little bit deeper into the
ghost side of it. And this little girl is believed
to be Ice and Vice's meets okay, and I guess
(21:53):
apparently there was also a mysterious body of a child
that was found in their crip too. That's what I
was gonna say. There was a coffin because something happened
with their Their coffin was glass and it broke, and
so when they noticed this, they went in and they
found the grave of a child that no one had
known of, and even the descendants weren't sure who this
(22:13):
person was. You know, it's funny that you were talking
about the rearranging of things, because I do remember when
we were there that a number of our guests were
reporting that they would come back to their room and
things were moved or things were put away. Does that
happen a lot, Yes, And I've had it happened to
(22:33):
me several times back when I very first started. That's
kind of it was almost like a snowball effect. You know.
It started with a little fickering lights here and there,
and then odd things like I would come back to
my office at night and I know that I'm the
only one that's on shift, no main its person, nobody
else has a key that gets in that of the office.
In my office like to be all off. And speaking
(22:54):
of things being moved around, one time I actually came
in here and my keys, I had my register or
Keith sitting here. And I mean I searched this whole
entire office high and well, could not find them anywhere.
Walked around the corner where we keep all of our
soaps and stuff, and there they were, tucked like almost
in behind a cabin. Now, have you had anybody just
(23:15):
kind of get fed up or scared and just leave
in the middle of the night. Since I've been here,
there was only one instance that I remember. Some folks
they had checked in rather late at night, It was
probably maybe about eight or nine o'clock, and by midnight
they were gone. They turned in their keys and said, nope,
we can't do it. Ohn or they in three oh
(23:35):
six or somewhere else. They were actually in three oh two,
which is the one that sits right below where the
munk hung itself. So tell me about three oh six,
because that that why is that room so notorious. Three
oh six is supposed to be where Kate, the innkeeper
had jumped out the window at okay, and the story
that surrounds that is her husband. He left this place
(23:57):
sit empty for probably about his wife ended up remarrying,
and she left it sit empty for probably about twenty
some odd years. I remember. Yeah, there was, yeah, and
she had had a fiance that went out to see
and she was told that he had died out the sea,
and so she of course was convinced she was never
(24:19):
ever going to find another love until she jumped out
the window and he came home. So it's kind of
like this tragic love story. And the most accounts that
I honestly get from that room people report a woman crying. Interesting, yes,
and ironically people have heard a baby crying in there
as well. Yeah, it's not rare for us to go
(24:43):
into places that have a lot of reported activity that
doesn't necessarily match up with the history, or are things
that we can't find in the history. Like for as
long as Manresa has existed, there's probably a number of
things that have happened there over the years that we
don't know about. But I do just love kind of
the lore surrounding the building, whether or not we can
(25:04):
verify it, and regardless of whether we can verify the history,
it's haunted, like I can vouch for that. So honestly,
you know, the few mediums that I have talked to,
they kind of feel like it's more of like a
crossroads or maybe a portal where thousands of spirits just
kind of float on through and maybe there's something that
draws them here. So I've also heard that side of it, too, right,
(25:28):
I mean, I've heard, but maybe it's not just the
spirits that we've been told about, you know, the few
stories that we've been told about that are here. You know,
there's maybe other spirits that come on through. So that
being said, now, have you ever been truly fearful there?
Have you ever been truly scared at any point? There
was only one time that it actually got me and
(25:50):
sent chills down my spot. It was a couple of months,
and I'd only been here for maybe about four months
or so. I had just walked up everything for the night.
It was probably about quarter to eleven or so, and
it was on a Monday night, which is the only
night of the week that our restaurant and our lounges
are closed, so it was really really quiet, not many
people in the building. I didn't have me guests that night,
(26:11):
and I was on my way out the back and
as you walk down the hallway and you turn off
all the lights, there's this one little spot back there
that you kind of have to walk a couple of
feet before the automatic lights kick in and I had
just turned them off, and it was so dark back there,
I couldn't even see my own hand in front of
my face. And this female voice, almost in a whisper,
(26:33):
just said hello into my ear girlfriend when I say,
I ran out that door. So I guess it wasn't
the fact that I was really scared. I guess it
just kind of caught me off guard. You know, It's
like my fight or flight kicked in. I was like,
ohm out. Well, that's just so. As someone who does
this a lot and it has experienced money to smbodied voices,
(26:56):
they continue to be one of the scariest bit a
phenomena of me because you're you hear a voice come
from thin air where a mouth would be if someone
was standing there, but no one is there, and your
body it's that instinct of like something is wrong, and
you do like you have to stop yourself because your
(27:18):
instincts kick in, whether or not you're like a big, bad,
brave ghost hunter like I am, clearly, but you who
do have this kind of like I want to run
away right now? Yeah, that probably would have gotten to me.
I mean, she was saying hi, but she probably could
have picked a more opportune moment. Yes, so you know.
(27:40):
I mean, if you want to make friends, you should
probably not sneak up in them, on them in the dark,
right exactly? How is the pandemic affected things? Are things
slower or things picking back up? Like? How is business?
Is it affecting the haunting? I mean during this timing year,
it's it's slow anyhow. This summer we actually were, We
(28:02):
were full, full, full all the time, and especially on weekends,
you know, which is more common. But we had quite
a few people during week as well, so it looks
pretty busy. Well that's good. I do feel like a
lot of people are doing a lot of domestic travel
right now. And I live in a tourist town. I
live in Newport, Rhode Island, and the last two summers
have been some of the busiest times I've ever experienced here,
(28:22):
and I think it's because people didn't really want to
go anywhere else. But what is it like there in
the winter when it's slow, what's the vibe? Oh, it's
so slow and so quiet. I find, honestly that I've
had more things, more experiences, and more feelings in here
of the paranormal activity, just because there's been some nights
(28:43):
where there's been absolutely nobody in the building of me,
and so that's very interesting vibe as well. That's an
eerie feeling, you know. You know, there's just all these
empty rooms basically just here to answer phones, you know,
and there's nobody staying in any of the rooms. Have
not got no check ins. And yeah, there was a
couple of times where I decided, you know, to just
(29:05):
get up and kind of do my own spiritual adventure
and just go ghost hunting myself. And oh yeah, I've
had I've had quite a few things happen, like radios
come on all by themselves, clocks working when they're supposed
to be broken. Oh yeah, yeah, that sounds fun to me.
I feel like that's it's a blast. I absolutely love
(29:27):
working here. It's like you need to get pe to
do this, really, I do know. So Okay, so when
we first had Strange Escapes at Manresa, they were very
open about their ghosts and the paral activity. They were
thrilled to have us. I think they've changed hands since
the only reason we have not been back was not
because of anything other than the journey for us was
(29:47):
really difficult. Getting all of my speakers all the way there.
But we loved it, and I'm sure we'll go back
in the future. But how are the current owners? How
are they? Are they open to their haunts? Do they
welcome people coming in and being curious about the paranormal?
Oh very much so. We a lot of times encourage that.
I see people come through that bring thousands of dollars
(30:08):
in equipment to do little ghost hunts and and that's
one thing that's wonderful about being the nighttime person and
being by myself is I get to participate and take
them places like the attic and them and kind of
do investigations with them. I've been that several times. But yeah,
we definitely encourage people to walk around after hours and
see what they can find. Yeah, you know, my favorite
(30:31):
time to go to haunted places is really the off season,
and it's just because that's when you can really fully
experience it, like it's obviously fun and beautiful. I'm sure
to go to Port towns End in the summer, but
my favorite time to go to places like that is
when nobody else is there. And so I guess that's
you know, that's why us paranormal investigators are good for business, hey, right,
(30:51):
And that's exactly what I do want to if you
want the full experience, come during the off season, or
come during the week um, you know, like Monday through Thursday,
you know, instead of on the weekends, because I feel
like people don't get nearly as much of a reaction
from the spirits when there's a bunches and bunches of
people in the building. And also they add an additional
bar too, so we have now two lounges in a restaurant,
(31:14):
so there's tons of people around, and I feel like
people don't get as much paranormal activity as when it's quiet, right,
I mean, I've learned. I think sometimes it's actually happening,
you just can't tell as often when there's people all
around you and it's busy and you're not as contume
looking for it. For sae, you might not know. You
could literally have a ghost sitting right next to you
(31:34):
and you wouldn't know at that point, you know. So
I always tell businesses who have paranormal activity. I remind
them that a paranoral investigators like to go during the
slow season and be they want to come in and
sit in the dark and be as quiet as possible.
So they're literally the best customers you can have. Oh yeah, definitely.
I mean, you know when it's really quiet and versus
(31:55):
when it's busy in here. Um, there's a cloth that
sits on our wall in the lobby and I was
told that it has to have the double keys to
wind it up. Well, the keys have been missing for years,
So this clock has been broken for years. And the
girl that trained she had been here for probably about
two years, and she's now the office manager. And she
actually had a film of the hands movie and that
(32:18):
was back when I very first started, you know, so
I was like, okay, you know, I think you're just
trying to scare me. Well, this one particular night, like
I said, all the other times, you know, it's been
real quiet. Well this night they had a jazz band
playing and some kind of ballgame or something taking down
on you know, downstairs in the bar, so it was
fairly loud, and all of the sudden, the pendulum started
(32:41):
swinging on the clock and it chimed three times. And
that was the one and only experience that I've had
that there's been a lot of people around, and of
course there wasn't anybody in the lobby to see it,
so it made me look like I was totally crazy pants.
But wouldn't you know, it shocked me so bad I
didn't even think to get my cell phone out. So
now you know, of the group is a big joke
(33:01):
around here. The crew is like, sure, Ambergon, sure that happens.
I believe you. It's actually pretty We experience a lot
where activity spikes either during or after things have been
you know, jumping in some of these places, you know,
like Adam and I have actually brought in on Kindred Spirits.
We've actually brought in a band before to kind of
(33:23):
get the energy up into some of these because they
would say that they'd be closing at night and all
of this activity would happen, but you know, we would
be there for days with no one there, and so
we'd bring in a band to kind of get that
energy level up again. And it works. So yeah, I
would keep an eye on that, you know, like really
busy nights. I think that the spirit world feels that too.
(33:46):
They get excited and more active. I do too, And
being the fact that this used to be their home,
I personally view it as you know, they're excited that
we're bringing their place back to life, you know. More
or less, That's kind of how I feel about it,
because even during that same power outage, I had one
um like, now, there's eight light bulbs in this shandelier
(34:08):
that sits above in our lobby. And during that same
power outage that I'd seen the little girl, there was
one light bulb that stayed on the full two and
a half hours, even though the rest of the entire
castle did not have one smable light on. And I
seen that, as you know, what are the odds that
they would leave nothing but the entrance light on. It
was kind of like, welcome to my home. You know.
(34:29):
That's kind of how I feel too, because it seems
like whenever it's busier, I feel like it kicks up
that spiritual activity almost like they're excited. Hey people, you know,
we're bringing their place back to life. I believe that,
and I know that the last like three or four
owners have been very dedicated to kind of keeping it
the way it is, you know, being true to its
(34:50):
roots and not doing any crazy renovations or anything. Like
you do walk in and you feel like you're taking
a step back in time. And it's gorgeous and the
energy is just fabulous. Like I, I love it, and
I'm incredibly jealous of your job. But particular owner that
I worked for, he's had the place for probably about
six years, and I watched him put a brand new
(35:12):
paige job on the place and they just redid the
groove and now he's working on an accent wall up
on the second and third floor in the hallway and
also adding some additional antique furniture to the rooms and
just bringing the place back to life. It's just wonderful.
I feel very lucky to work here and actually see
that taking place. That's wonderful to hear, and I'm thrilled
(35:33):
It's it's been a while since I visited. I want
to get back again. So if people want to visit Manresa,
is there a website they can go to any tips
or tricks or times you think they should visit. Um, Yeah,
they're more the welcome to go to our Manresa Castle
dot com or we also have the Castle dot com
as well, which is a little bit more of the
(35:55):
restaurant and the lounge side of it, and they can
see what kind of live events we've got going on.
Throughout the months. I think it goes like three months out.
And also recently they've been rolling out some wedding packages too,
so if anybody wants to have a wedding here and whatnot.
So yeah, they're doing all kinds of stuff to bring
the place back to life. I love that well. Ghosts aside,
(36:19):
Man Raise is just a beautiful place to visit. Port
Townsend is a great little town and it's well worth
the trip. So I recommend it to everyone, and so
go check it out. Yes, say hi to Amber Dawn.
She'll be there in the middle of the night waiting
for you. And I got lots and lots of stories
to tell. I love it well. Thank you so much
(36:41):
for joining me. I super appreciate you taking the time.
You've been lovely. It's been my pleasure. I probably sound
like a broken record when I talk about how important
getting accurate history is when it comes to a haunting,
but I don't think the paranormal field or even me
had this priority. In the past, we would walk into
(37:04):
buildings and take every word of lore someone in this case,
apparently a bartender, passed on to us as gospel, and
we'd roll with it. Thankfully. Man Teresa seems like a
very peaceful haunt whoever is there. But I challenge you
to do some extra digging, not just on Manresa, but
any potentially haunted location. Let's learn about their ghosts. So maybe,
(37:29):
just maybe, next time we're huddled in the dark trying
to capture that elusive e v P, we've at least
got the ghost's name right. Maybe then they may be
more inclined to respond. If you head to man Teresa,
say hi to Amber Dn and I'd go visit that
burial vault when you're in town. Inside lies the body
of an unidentified child, and they may just need a
(37:52):
bit of our love. Plus, that's a mystery I'm and
I'm sure now you are very compelled to solve. Until
next time. I'm Amy Bruney and this was Haunted Road.
(38:14):
If you want to join us on a spooky vacation,
please check out my company, Strange Escapes at Strange dash
escapes dot com. Also, new episodes of Kindred Spirits are
currently airing on Travel Channel on Saturday nights at ten
ninth Central or streaming on Discovery Plus. Haunted Road is
(38:36):
a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild
from Aaron Mankey. The podcast is written and hosted by
Amy Bruney. Executive producers include Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and
Matt Frederick. The show is produced by rema Ill Kali
and Trevor Young. Research by Taylor Haggerdorn, Amy Bruney and
Robin Miniter. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit
(38:59):
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts. M
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio
and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky listener Discretion is advised.
In two thousand and six, a visitor to Laurel Grove
Cemetery in Port Towns in Washington noticed something strange. The
(00:24):
tomb of Charles Eisenbeis and his first wife Elizabeth was open.
It had cracked and the stone fell into the burial vault,
leaving it wide open to the elements, and a startling
discovery was made inside. You see, in March nineteen o two,
when Charles Eisenbeis died, he was a prominent figure in
the community. As such, the whole town turned out to
(00:46):
see his casket carried down the steps into the subterranean
vault and placed next to the coffin of his first
wife after the vault was sealed. And that was that
until two thousand six, because when the family went to
investigate reports of this broken vault, they found the stone
had fallen in such a way that it flipped over
(01:07):
Elizabeth's coffin and shattered the Victorian viewing glass on the top,
but it also smashed the coffin of a child. This
small coffin had been sitting atop Charles's casket, a small
coffin that certainly had not been there in nineteen o two.
Descendants of Charles and Elizabeth have no idea who this
(01:29):
child is, and the identity of the child remains a
mystery to this day. But at Manresa Castle in Port Townsend,
a castle that Eisenbeis himself built, there have long been
reports of the ghost of a child playing and giggling
within its walls, though no child has been recorded as
having died. There sounds like the perfect place for us
(01:52):
to explore, shall we. I'm Amy Bruney, and this is
haunted Roe. On July tenth, eighteen thirty two, Charles Eisenbeis
(02:13):
was born. We share a birthday. Well. I wasn't born
in eighteen thirty two, clearly, but sometimes I feel like
I was. His parents were Johann George Valentin Eisenbeis and
Katherine Crone of nun Kirschen's Saarland, Germany before it was Germany.
Of course, his ancestry is noted as Prussian. He was
the third of many children and was preceded by an
(02:35):
eldest sister and his brother Frederick. His very close companion.
They were a family of millers. When Charles was twenty four,
he and Frederick set off for America. They settled in Rochester,
New York in eighteen fifty six. Two years later they
were attracted to California and landed at San Francisco. Soon afterward,
(02:56):
they came north, Frederick starting a bakery in style of
whom while Charles embarked on the same business in Port Townsend.
In fact, Charles did very well. He prospered and eventually
became a leading member of the group of five five
residents who dominated Port Townsend's economy. Charles acquired much of
his wealth by supplying bread and crackers two ships and
(03:19):
sailors who stopped at Port Townsend to restock their foodstuffs
for their next voyage. Charles married his first wife, Elizabeth Bargamer,
in eighteen sixty five. They had four children, Charles Jr. Frederick, Sophia,
and Louise. In eighty two, Elizabeth died. Charles remarried within
(03:40):
a year of Elizabeth's death, this time to young Catherine
Elizabeth Marsh. They also had four children, bringing the Eisenbeiss
total to eight. Lillian, Otto, Hilda, and Josephine. In its
early years, Port Townsend, Washington benefited from the business acumen
of Charles, who was quite a jack of all trades.
(04:01):
He found himself in baking, brickmaking, lumber milling, brewing, banking,
and had some role in a hotel as well. In
eighteen seventy eight, when Port Townsend became the first incorporated
city in Jefferson County, its citizens elected Eisenbeis as the
first mayor. Port Townsend held a lot of promise for
(04:21):
Charles and his contemporaries city leaders. Banking that the railroad
would terminate at the seaport spurred a development boom that
raised most of the buildings that today make up the
downtown and uptown corps, as well as many of the homes.
And that hopeful boom of the early eighteen nineties, Charles
embarked on a new effort to construct a marvelous home
(04:43):
for his family, a home that would be known as
Eisenbei's Castle. Having a mass of fortune in several businesses,
including the manufacture of bricks, lumber, and banking, Eisenbeis built
the largest private residence in town using bricks from his
own factory. Twenty five thousand bricks were used to construct
the home. The bricks came from his own brickwork. Tiled
(05:06):
fireplaces and finely crafted woodwork were installed by German artisans.
The home boasted thirty rooms spread out over four floors.
Taking one look at the exterior, it's easy to believe
that Charles had the home designed and the style of
Prussian architecture. Located at six five one Cleveland Street in
Port Towns in Washington, now, Manresa Castle has bluff top
(05:29):
views of the Puget Sound. However, the hopes of Port
Townsend's leaders did not pan out. The railroad didn't make it.
Rail lines ended on the east side of Puget Sound,
and then a nationwide depression hit in eighteen ninety three,
triggering significant fall out in the region. As the city's
glory waned, things got tough for some. One of the
(05:52):
victims of the downturn was Charles Junior. As one of
the local papers put it, it was reported as he
was missed from his place of business at nine o'clock
this morning, and although a search was instituted immediately, it
was not until nine o'clock tonight that his body was
found lying on the ground underneath the Mount Baker Block
owned by his father. The Mount Baker Block building was
(06:16):
and is still in the busiest part of Port Townsend's
downtown district, but no one heard the fatal report of
Charles's pistol. Charles's wife, Natalia Selma phillips Iisendvice, survived him,
as did their young daughter dar Latta. His closest friend
was a judge named j. A. Coon, who wasn't surprised
by the news, which, as he said, was the result
(06:39):
of several months despondency. In nineteen o two, Charles died
at the age of seventy. Charles's death was due to
Bright's disease. It's not clear if he died in the
castle or at a hospital. Charles's death was a curious coincidence,
though Frederick seventy had expired nearly at the same moment
(06:59):
as Charles. When a member of the family of Charles
Eisenbis was in the telegraph office sending news of the
death of Charles, he received a message announcing the death
of his brother fe Eisenbis. After Charles's death in nineteen
o two, Kate stayed in the house until nineteen o six,
when she remarried. At that point, the castle remained empty
(07:20):
for almost twenty years, looked after by a single caretaker.
In nineteen according to Manresa Castle's website, a Seattle attorney
bought the castle as a vacation place for nuns teaching
in Seattle schools. This plan did not work out well,
and in nineteen seven the Jesuit Priests purchased the building
for use as a training college. The priests spent their
(07:42):
sixteenth and final year of training here, studying ascetic theology.
In nineteen twenty eight, the Jesuits added a large wing
housing a chapel and sleeping rooms. They also installed the
elevator an otis, at a cost of thirty four hundred dollars,
a substantial sum in those days. As when their addition
was complete the Jesuits this hurts my heart. The Jesuits
(08:06):
stuck out over the bricks of the original portion to
give the building a more uniform look. They named the
complex Manresa Hall, after the town in Spain where Ignatius
Loyola founded the order. The Jesuits left in nineteen sixty
eight and the building was converted into a hotel. The
elements of Manresa and Castle were taken from the two
(08:27):
previous owners to create the current name. As with any
large spooky castle, there's lots of lore surrounding Manresa, and
that includes many, many unverifiable stories. One such is reported
by investigator and author Jeff Dwyer. Although this rumor is
(08:48):
connected to a bartender in the nineteen nineties, the story
is set in nineteen twenty one, when an english woman
named Kate allegedly arrived at Manresa Castle. The rumored spirit
who isn't Charles's wife but a guest who spent several
months in Room three oh six after Charles's death, She
supposedly received news that her bow had perished while on
(09:10):
a ship out to sea. Grieving, she died by suicide
when she jumped from the window of Room three oh six.
Apparently her information was wrong, though the ship carrying her
lover had indeed sunk, but he had survived and was
rescued by a passing vessel. In order to get Kate's attention,
Dwyer used some less than traditional tactics. According to his book,
(09:33):
he says he made derogatory accusations, insults, and challenges, all
built around words that could not be included in this book.
He says the spirit named Kate was reportedly very angry
and very active, sharing with Dwyer that she was not
faithful to her fiance while he was on the long
and fateful voyage to Alaska, resulting in pregnancy. After news
(09:57):
of his ship sinking, she mourned for weeks until she
received news that he had been rescued and was en route.
This catalyzed the decision to jump from the window. Again,
absolutely none of this is documented or substantiated, so if
anyone finds record of this, please let me know. But
I have looked pretty extensively, and let's not go after
(10:18):
Jeff Dwyer though, since I don't know him, but I
know how many of my listeners hate the idea of
any spirit being provoked. So maybe we can use this
interest in Manresa to get the story correct and the
history correct back to it. Apparently, the spirit attributed to
this Kate, is often seen in room three oh six.
She has long, dark hair and wait for it, a
(10:40):
white gown. She's spotted by the window where she supposedly jumped.
Kate seems to be mischievous and messes up belongings that
guests have organized. She'll sit on beds when people are
in them, and there are reports that her singing emanates
from the bathroom overnight. Now again, Jeff Dwyer claims that
a young Jesuit died by suicide in the attic in
early nineteen thirties after rumors about his relationship with the
(11:04):
nun began circulating. Often, third floor guests report hearing a
rope stretching and the beams groaning, as if a body
is swinging in the darkness of the huge attic. I
have found no trace or whisper of verification for the story.
Another source attributes the event and haunting to the attic
space that's just above room three O two. The claim
(11:26):
that a priest died by hanging in the attic space
above room three O two seems to be traced to
father John Alden Murphy, who drowned in the Puget Sound
on September two, ninette. In a clipping from the San
Francisco Examiner from August thirty one, nineteen forty three, we
learned that father John Alden Murphy likely drowned while swimming
(11:46):
in the Puget Sound near Port Townsend. The thirty three
year old teacher worked at Saint Ignatious High School in
San Francisco, but had been taking special studies at Manreesa Hall.
After he didn't return to Manresa, a search began in
his clothes were found in a pile on the beach.
So let's talk the hauntings. Obviously, Manreisa is haunted, or
(12:09):
we wouldn't be talking about it. But it's difficult to
pin down who could be haunting it exactly since there
are no verified deaths or traumatic events attached to it.
Although I do want to point out the mysterious coffin
appearance in Charles's vault we talked about in the beginning,
because if there was ever a cause for a ghost
to be hanging around, I'd say that's a pretty good one.
(12:29):
Activity wise, the doors are known to open and close
without anyone around. Rooms three O two, three oh four,
and three oh six are supposed to be the most haunted.
Daniel Demy referenced an article by James Barnett from two
thousand four, where the latter dated stories of hauntings at
Manresa Castle to a bartender's imaginative storytelling in the early
(12:51):
to mid nineteen nineties. DeMay is a Port Townsend local
and his father was a housekeeper at Manresa Castle in
the late seventies. His father told him that while wrapping
up in Room three oh six, a key ring he
placed on a dresser floated in midair about eighteen inches
off the wood top. As he stared at it, the
ring crashed down on the table with a clatter. In
(13:14):
the front desk manager Kimberly Smith told a journalist that
although the latest owners don't play up the paranormal as
much as previous ones have, they have received accounts of
a sad unseen violinist that's a new him, as well
as a giggling child and a woman named Natalie. The
dining room is supposedly haunted by Kate eisenbeis Charles's wife.
(13:36):
She is seen sitting in the dining room in a
long Victorian gown. An e v P of a female
spirit has also been captured in that space speaking German.
What's now the banquet hall was the Jesuits Chapel. Glasses
that have been properly placed on tables are found upside down,
and sometimes they will be shattered with no explanation. Staff
(13:56):
members have also reported feeling watched in this space, but
don't take it from me. We're going to shift gears
here a bit. Usually we speak with someone who has
investigated a location, but we're actually about to speak with
the night front desk agent. Amber Don is her name,
and she spends just about every night, sometimes very alone
(14:18):
in the heart of Manresa Castle. And to say she
has some stories is putting it lightly. So stay with us.
We'll chat with Amberdon after this. I am sitting here
(14:38):
now with amber Don, who is the front desk staff
at Manresa Castle. And what's interesting is she works the
night shift. So normally we're chatting with paranormal investigators or
teams who have investigated, but I think amber Don is
in the thick of it at Manresa and she's got
some stories to tell when she's say, oh, yes, was
(15:01):
definitely here. I love that you picked the night shift
on purpose because you wanted to experience the ghosts at
the castle. Like what drew you to Manresa in the
first place. Well, honestly, Um, I was working for another
company for about six years and um we used to
have our annual Christmas party here and I always thought
(15:22):
that it was a really neat place just because of
the history. And that was before I knew that it
was so incredibly haunted. And I'm a huge fan of
the paranormal and like a horror movie fanatic, but I've
never actually experienced anything until I came here at work. Well,
I mean, I will start this off by sharing a
quick well it's not really quick, but a story that
(15:43):
I have at Manresa that just kind of sticks out
for me. So Manresa Castle was the site of the
very first Strange Escapes event. I own a company called
Strange Escapes, where we take people on haunted tours all
over the world, and Manresa was our first one. I
think we did it two or three years in a row,
and it was conducive. An environment is very conducive to
that because it's very intimate, like there's forty rooms, but
(16:04):
there is this kind of meeting space downstairs, and it's
just gorgeous. It's in close proximity to downtown. Anyway, I
digress as usual. I was there one year and I
had brought my daughter, who I believe she was about
three at the time, and I brought my sister with
me to help me take care of my daughter, Charlotte,
and Charlotte got very sick. Um she was running a
(16:27):
crazy fever. She was throwing up all night like. It
was incredibly stressful. We ended up having to take her too.
There's like a either an ear or an urgent care,
like almost across the street from Manresa. We took her
there and they were able to give her some like
meds and everything, but she was just out of it
that whole trip. And this event was all adults. There's
(16:50):
forty rooms. At that time. Kids weren't coming to these yet.
And I'll never forget there was one morning I went
down to breakfast and I saw buch of women there
and they were, you know, having coffee and whatnot, and
they said Charlotte sher was having fun this morning. And
I was like, what are you talking about? And they
were like, we heard her just giggling away and running
(17:12):
up and down the hallway at like six thirty this morning.
Can't believe you woke up that early. And these were
a number of people who were staying in different rooms
where they had come together. And I was like, no,
Charlotte has been throwing up all night and been fast
asleep all morning. She's definitely not playing. But they had
heard a child running up and down the hallway and
(17:32):
giggling and there were definitely no kids present. So is
that something that you have heard of before happening there? Oh? Yes,
Actually when I very first started the front desk, and
also the housekeepers told me that when it was real,
real quiet, and there was like maybe one or two
rooms you know that had people in a through the
(17:53):
whole entire building, they would consistently hear children running up
and down the hallways and giggling and thing, you know,
and they would go out there and there's absolutely nobody around,
and they knew for a fact out of those two
rooms that were in the building that there was no
children at present whatsoever. There is said to be a
little girl right around nine or ten years old that's
(18:15):
supposed to be frequently here, and some of the kitchen
staff and our restaurant have seen her right on that
end of the castle down by the restaurant is supposed
to be the most original part of the castle where
the front desk sits in like that on And I've
actually personally seen that little world during a power outage
one time, because I thought, you know, when I very
first got here and I was like, ah, you know,
(18:36):
what's the hyball about? Is this place really haunted. But
even though I had heard a couple of experiences from guests,
but you know, nothing had happened to me yet. And
we had this power outage and it stayed off for
probably about two and a half hours, and there's no
you know, burning of candles of any kind in our
rooms or anything like that. And so I was, believe
it or not, out and about handing out blow sticks
(18:59):
and I'm whatever on the third floor. Yes, now, I
mean now with the lights off in this place, boy,
oh boy, does it add some allbance to the place. Yes, Iran,
I was. Yeah, I was up on the third floor,
and at the corner of my eye, I thought I'd
seen somebody standing down in the middle of the hallway
and down by the attic stairs. And as I shined
(19:22):
my flashlight down there, I've seen a little girl just
kind of dart around the corner, and I've seen probably
you know, a couple of inches of her dress go
around the corner. And when I walked down there and
I was like hello, and I knew that there wasn't
any kids up on the floor that I had personally
checked in, So you know, it was very very interesting
and probably about a week or so later, this lady
(19:42):
comes to stay and she it was a birthday gift
to herself. And she'd stay in like for probably about
nine days in three oh six, which is supposedly yes,
where the innkeeper jumped out the window at and she
told me, you know, and she was like medium and
she was really really sensitive to energies and she could
(20:05):
converse a little bit with the spirits. And I had
not told her anything whatsoever about this little girl about
seeing this spirit. And she comes down a couple of
days later and tells me that she's experiencing somebody going
through her belongings at about three or so ish in
the morning. And so she finally asked, you know, it
went on for a couple of days in a row.
(20:26):
So she finally asked and reached out to the spirit,
you know, who are you and what do you want?
Why do you keep waking me up? And this little
girl proudly announces that it was her tenth birthday and
then she was looking for a birthday gift. And so
after that happened, it immediately clicked in my head. I
was like, oh my, that was definitely the spirit of
a little girl that I see, because she was right
(20:47):
around nine or ten years old, and she was wearing
a very very old style little dress, and so it
was just very very odd, you know. I mean, it
is very odd just because when you go through the
history of Manresa, there are not really any deaths tied
to it. There was one priest who drowned. There was
a very big rumor that someone had taken his own
(21:09):
life at some point in the building, but no one's
been able to find record of that. But they think
it might be some confusion because there was a priest
who did drown about that time, but that's the only
death people can seem to tie to the building with records.
So what do you think is going on here? Why
do you think there's all these other spirits that people
(21:31):
report there? Well, I was lucky enough to meet this
young lady that she had bought in the book off
of Amazon and had the whole entire history of Manresa,
as well as going a little bit deeper into the
ghost side of it. And this little girl is believed
to be Ice and Vice's meets okay, and I guess
(21:53):
apparently there was also a mysterious body of a child
that was found in their crip too. That's what I
was gonna say. There was a coffin because something happened
with their Their coffin was glass and it broke, and
so when they noticed this, they went in and they
found the grave of a child that no one had
known of, and even the descendants weren't sure who this
(22:13):
person was. You know, it's funny that you were talking
about the rearranging of things, because I do remember when
we were there that a number of our guests were
reporting that they would come back to their room and
things were moved or things were put away. Does that
happen a lot, Yes, And I've had it happened to
(22:33):
me several times back when I very first started. That's
kind of it was almost like a snowball effect. You know.
It started with a little fickering lights here and there,
and then odd things like I would come back to
my office at night and I know that I'm the
only one that's on shift, no main its person, nobody
else has a key that gets in that of the office.
In my office like to be all off. And speaking
(22:54):
of things being moved around, one time I actually came
in here and my keys, I had my register or
Keith sitting here. And I mean I searched this whole
entire office high and well, could not find them anywhere.
Walked around the corner where we keep all of our
soaps and stuff, and there they were, tucked like almost
in behind a cabin. Now, have you had anybody just
(23:15):
kind of get fed up or scared and just leave
in the middle of the night. Since I've been here,
there was only one instance that I remember. Some folks
they had checked in rather late at night, It was
probably maybe about eight or nine o'clock, and by midnight
they were gone. They turned in their keys and said, nope,
we can't do it. Ohn or they in three oh
(23:35):
six or somewhere else. They were actually in three oh two,
which is the one that sits right below where the
munk hung itself. So tell me about three oh six,
because that that why is that room so notorious. Three
oh six is supposed to be where Kate, the innkeeper
had jumped out the window at okay, and the story
that surrounds that is her husband. He left this place
(23:57):
sit empty for probably about his wife ended up remarrying,
and she left it sit empty for probably about twenty
some odd years. I remember. Yeah, there was, yeah, and
she had had a fiance that went out to see
and she was told that he had died out the sea,
and so she of course was convinced she was never
(24:19):
ever going to find another love until she jumped out
the window and he came home. So it's kind of
like this tragic love story. And the most accounts that
I honestly get from that room people report a woman crying. Interesting, yes,
and ironically people have heard a baby crying in there
as well. Yeah, it's not rare for us to go
(24:43):
into places that have a lot of reported activity that
doesn't necessarily match up with the history, or are things
that we can't find in the history. Like for as
long as Manresa has existed, there's probably a number of
things that have happened there over the years that we
don't know about. But I do just love kind of
the lore surrounding the building, whether or not we can
(25:04):
verify it, and regardless of whether we can verify the history,
it's haunted, like I can vouch for that. So honestly,
you know, the few mediums that I have talked to,
they kind of feel like it's more of like a
crossroads or maybe a portal where thousands of spirits just
kind of float on through and maybe there's something that
draws them here. So I've also heard that side of it, too, right,
(25:28):
I mean, I've heard, but maybe it's not just the
spirits that we've been told about, you know, the few
stories that we've been told about that are here. You know,
there's maybe other spirits that come on through. So that
being said, now, have you ever been truly fearful there?
Have you ever been truly scared at any point? There
was only one time that it actually got me and
(25:50):
sent chills down my spot. It was a couple of months,
and I'd only been here for maybe about four months
or so. I had just walked up everything for the night.
It was probably about quarter to eleven or so, and
it was on a Monday night, which is the only
night of the week that our restaurant and our lounges
are closed, so it was really really quiet, not many
people in the building. I didn't have me guests that night,
(26:11):
and I was on my way out the back and
as you walk down the hallway and you turn off
all the lights, there's this one little spot back there
that you kind of have to walk a couple of
feet before the automatic lights kick in and I had
just turned them off, and it was so dark back there,
I couldn't even see my own hand in front of
my face. And this female voice, almost in a whisper,
(26:33):
just said hello into my ear girlfriend when I say,
I ran out that door. So I guess it wasn't
the fact that I was really scared. I guess it
just kind of caught me off guard. You know, It's
like my fight or flight kicked in. I was like,
ohm out. Well, that's just so. As someone who does
this a lot and it has experienced money to smbodied voices,
(26:56):
they continue to be one of the scariest bit a
phenomena of me because you're you hear a voice come
from thin air where a mouth would be if someone
was standing there, but no one is there, and your
body it's that instinct of like something is wrong, and
you do like you have to stop yourself because your
(27:18):
instincts kick in, whether or not you're like a big, bad,
brave ghost hunter like I am, clearly, but you who
do have this kind of like I want to run
away right now? Yeah, that probably would have gotten to me.
I mean, she was saying hi, but she probably could
have picked a more opportune moment. Yes, so you know.
(27:40):
I mean, if you want to make friends, you should
probably not sneak up in them, on them in the dark,
right exactly? How is the pandemic affected things? Are things
slower or things picking back up? Like? How is business?
Is it affecting the haunting? I mean during this timing year,
it's it's slow anyhow. This summer we actually were, We
(28:02):
were full, full, full all the time, and especially on weekends,
you know, which is more common. But we had quite
a few people during week as well, so it looks
pretty busy. Well that's good. I do feel like a
lot of people are doing a lot of domestic travel
right now. And I live in a tourist town. I
live in Newport, Rhode Island, and the last two summers
have been some of the busiest times I've ever experienced here,
(28:22):
and I think it's because people didn't really want to
go anywhere else. But what is it like there in
the winter when it's slow, what's the vibe? Oh, it's
so slow and so quiet. I find, honestly that I've
had more things, more experiences, and more feelings in here
of the paranormal activity, just because there's been some nights
(28:43):
where there's been absolutely nobody in the building of me,
and so that's very interesting vibe as well. That's an
eerie feeling, you know. You know, there's just all these
empty rooms basically just here to answer phones, you know,
and there's nobody staying in any of the rooms. Have
not got no check ins. And yeah, there was a
couple of times where I decided, you know, to just
(29:05):
get up and kind of do my own spiritual adventure
and just go ghost hunting myself. And oh yeah, I've
had I've had quite a few things happen, like radios
come on all by themselves, clocks working when they're supposed
to be broken. Oh yeah, yeah, that sounds fun to me.
I feel like that's it's a blast. I absolutely love
(29:27):
working here. It's like you need to get pe to
do this, really, I do know. So Okay, so when
we first had Strange Escapes at Manresa, they were very
open about their ghosts and the paral activity. They were
thrilled to have us. I think they've changed hands since
the only reason we have not been back was not
because of anything other than the journey for us was
(29:47):
really difficult. Getting all of my speakers all the way there.
But we loved it, and I'm sure we'll go back
in the future. But how are the current owners? How
are they? Are they open to their haunts? Do they
welcome people coming in and being curious about the paranormal?
Oh very much so. We a lot of times encourage that.
I see people come through that bring thousands of dollars
(30:08):
in equipment to do little ghost hunts and and that's
one thing that's wonderful about being the nighttime person and
being by myself is I get to participate and take
them places like the attic and them and kind of
do investigations with them. I've been that several times. But yeah,
we definitely encourage people to walk around after hours and
see what they can find. Yeah, you know, my favorite
(30:31):
time to go to haunted places is really the off season,
and it's just because that's when you can really fully
experience it, like it's obviously fun and beautiful. I'm sure
to go to Port towns End in the summer, but
my favorite time to go to places like that is
when nobody else is there. And so I guess that's
you know, that's why us paranormal investigators are good for business, hey, right,
(30:51):
And that's exactly what I do want to if you
want the full experience, come during the off season, or
come during the week um, you know, like Monday through Thursday,
you know, instead of on the weekends, because I feel
like people don't get nearly as much of a reaction
from the spirits when there's a bunches and bunches of
people in the building. And also they add an additional
bar too, so we have now two lounges in a restaurant,
(31:14):
so there's tons of people around, and I feel like
people don't get as much paranormal activity as when it's quiet, right,
I mean, I've learned. I think sometimes it's actually happening,
you just can't tell as often when there's people all
around you and it's busy and you're not as contume
looking for it. For sae, you might not know. You
could literally have a ghost sitting right next to you
(31:34):
and you wouldn't know at that point, you know. So
I always tell businesses who have paranormal activity. I remind
them that a paranoral investigators like to go during the
slow season and be they want to come in and
sit in the dark and be as quiet as possible.
So they're literally the best customers you can have. Oh yeah, definitely.
I mean, you know when it's really quiet and versus
(31:55):
when it's busy in here. Um, there's a cloth that
sits on our wall in the lobby and I was
told that it has to have the double keys to
wind it up. Well, the keys have been missing for years,
So this clock has been broken for years. And the
girl that trained she had been here for probably about
two years, and she's now the office manager. And she
actually had a film of the hands movie and that
(32:18):
was back when I very first started, you know, so
I was like, okay, you know, I think you're just
trying to scare me. Well, this one particular night, like
I said, all the other times, you know, it's been
real quiet. Well this night they had a jazz band
playing and some kind of ballgame or something taking down
on you know, downstairs in the bar, so it was
fairly loud, and all of the sudden, the pendulum started
(32:41):
swinging on the clock and it chimed three times. And
that was the one and only experience that I've had
that there's been a lot of people around, and of
course there wasn't anybody in the lobby to see it,
so it made me look like I was totally crazy pants.
But wouldn't you know, it shocked me so bad I
didn't even think to get my cell phone out. So
now you know, of the group is a big joke
(33:01):
around here. The crew is like, sure, Ambergon, sure that happens.
I believe you. It's actually pretty We experience a lot
where activity spikes either during or after things have been
you know, jumping in some of these places, you know,
like Adam and I have actually brought in on Kindred Spirits.
We've actually brought in a band before to kind of
(33:23):
get the energy up into some of these because they
would say that they'd be closing at night and all
of this activity would happen, but you know, we would
be there for days with no one there, and so
we'd bring in a band to kind of get that
energy level up again. And it works. So yeah, I
would keep an eye on that, you know, like really
busy nights. I think that the spirit world feels that too.
(33:46):
They get excited and more active. I do too, And
being the fact that this used to be their home,
I personally view it as you know, they're excited that
we're bringing their place back to life, you know. More
or less, That's kind of how I feel about it,
because even during that same power outage, I had one
um like, now, there's eight light bulbs in this shandelier
(34:08):
that sits above in our lobby. And during that same
power outage that I'd seen the little girl, there was
one light bulb that stayed on the full two and
a half hours, even though the rest of the entire
castle did not have one smable light on. And I
seen that, as you know, what are the odds that
they would leave nothing but the entrance light on. It
was kind of like, welcome to my home. You know.
(34:29):
That's kind of how I feel too, because it seems
like whenever it's busier, I feel like it kicks up
that spiritual activity almost like they're excited. Hey people, you know,
we're bringing their place back to life. I believe that,
and I know that the last like three or four
owners have been very dedicated to kind of keeping it
the way it is, you know, being true to its
(34:50):
roots and not doing any crazy renovations or anything. Like
you do walk in and you feel like you're taking
a step back in time. And it's gorgeous and the
energy is just fabulous. Like I, I love it, and
I'm incredibly jealous of your job. But particular owner that
I worked for, he's had the place for probably about
six years, and I watched him put a brand new
(35:12):
paige job on the place and they just redid the
groove and now he's working on an accent wall up
on the second and third floor in the hallway and
also adding some additional antique furniture to the rooms and
just bringing the place back to life. It's just wonderful.
I feel very lucky to work here and actually see
that taking place. That's wonderful to hear, and I'm thrilled
(35:33):
It's it's been a while since I visited. I want
to get back again. So if people want to visit Manresa,
is there a website they can go to any tips
or tricks or times you think they should visit. Um, Yeah,
they're more the welcome to go to our Manresa Castle
dot com or we also have the Castle dot com
as well, which is a little bit more of the
(35:55):
restaurant and the lounge side of it, and they can
see what kind of live events we've got going on.
Throughout the months. I think it goes like three months out.
And also recently they've been rolling out some wedding packages too,
so if anybody wants to have a wedding here and whatnot.
So yeah, they're doing all kinds of stuff to bring
the place back to life. I love that well. Ghosts aside,
(36:19):
Man Raise is just a beautiful place to visit. Port
Townsend is a great little town and it's well worth
the trip. So I recommend it to everyone, and so
go check it out. Yes, say hi to Amber Dawn.
She'll be there in the middle of the night waiting
for you. And I got lots and lots of stories
to tell. I love it well. Thank you so much
(36:41):
for joining me. I super appreciate you taking the time.
You've been lovely. It's been my pleasure. I probably sound
like a broken record when I talk about how important
getting accurate history is when it comes to a haunting,
but I don't think the paranormal field or even me
had this priority. In the past, we would walk into
(37:04):
buildings and take every word of lore someone in this case,
apparently a bartender, passed on to us as gospel, and
we'd roll with it. Thankfully. Man Teresa seems like a
very peaceful haunt whoever is there. But I challenge you
to do some extra digging, not just on Manresa, but
any potentially haunted location. Let's learn about their ghosts. So maybe,
(37:29):
just maybe, next time we're huddled in the dark trying
to capture that elusive e v P, we've at least
got the ghost's name right. Maybe then they may be
more inclined to respond. If you head to man Teresa,
say hi to Amber Dn and I'd go visit that
burial vault when you're in town. Inside lies the body
of an unidentified child, and they may just need a
(37:52):
bit of our love. Plus, that's a mystery I'm and
I'm sure now you are very compelled to solve. Until
next time. I'm Amy Bruney and this was Haunted Road.
(38:14):
If you want to join us on a spooky vacation,
please check out my company, Strange Escapes at Strange dash
escapes dot com. Also, new episodes of Kindred Spirits are
currently airing on Travel Channel on Saturday nights at ten
ninth Central or streaming on Discovery Plus. Haunted Road is
(38:36):
a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild
from Aaron Mankey. The podcast is written and hosted by
Amy Bruney. Executive producers include Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and
Matt Frederick. The show is produced by rema Ill Kali
and Trevor Young. Research by Taylor Haggerdorn, Amy Bruney and
Robin Miniter. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit
(38:59):
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts. M
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