SEATTLE — Writer Bess Lovejoy thinks the Northwest is the perfect place to gather ghost stories.
“I do think there's sort of a moodiness in this region that can feel ghostly," Lovejoy said. "And I don't know if I believe this but some paranormal enthusiasts say that rain kind of acts as a spiritual conductor, that rain and moisture kind of hold on to emotions.”
She's compiled a chilling guidebook to our spooky spaces, "Northwest Know-How: HAUNTS" and some of them are hauntingly familiar.
“One of my favorite stories from the Smith Tower happened in the 1980's. One of workmen who was putting together an exhibit of historical artifacts in a hallway and he felt someone creep up behind him and when he turned around he saw an apparition of an older woman, checking his handiwork,” Lovejoy said.
Later that man was shown a photograph of Bertha Knight Landes, Seattle’s first female mayor, and he was spooked once again.
“He recognized her as the ghost who had snuck up behind him,” Lovejoy explained.
Port Gamble — a mill town on the Kitsap Peninsula that was built near the turn of the century — is home to a heavily haunted house:
“The Walker Ames House some people say is the most haunted house in Washington State,” Lovejoy said. “I have been inside of it, it definitely had a strange energy to it. I don't know that it felt malevolent, but some people say they've seen faces of women, like a nanny and children in the attic windows.”
Since 1913 patients have lived — and died — at Northern State Hospital, a now-abandoned mental hospital in Skagit County, near Sedro Woolley.
But there is one ghost in this place who just wants someone to play with.
"At Northern State there are stories about a little girl bouncing a red rubber ball down the halls that people sometimes see and hear,” Lovejoy said.
At Manresa Castle in Port Townsend a monk who hung himself in the attic of the former Jesuit school is rumored to haunt one of the rooms. Today the castle is a hotel and guests have reported cold spots, glasses shattering mysteriously, and voices whispering their names.
Remember the author saying water attracts ghosts? You might see more than tourists on Seattle's waterfront.
“There are two stories there, one is sometimes people see a ghost ship out on Elliot Bay.”
Don’t look for that ghost ship — it foretells doom. But the other haunting is happier — a benevolent fisherman nicknamed 'Paddy' who knows when someone needs an assist from the other side.
“He often shows up to people who are having a hard time and come to the pier depressed, thinking about ending their lives, and he gives them a pep talk,” Lovejoy said. “And then when they turn around to thank him, he disappears.”
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