Located in San Diego, California.The united States Chamber of Commerce has declared the Whaley House as being haunted.The house has all the signs of being haunted.Apparitions, cold spots, feelings of being touched, unexplainible lights, foot steps, objects moving, odd smells, and feelings of being watched.All of these and more have been observed in the Whaley House since it opened to the public in 1960.There was a conflict of where the new court house should be, Old Town or New Town.Thomas Whaley of course wanted it in Old Town.While away on business his home was broken into, and his wife was held at gun point while his office was ransacked for all the towns papers.This scene is still played out, from time to time in the Whaley House.
Yankee Jim, a spirit that was hung on the property for stealing a boat, is said to live here.Yankee Jim Robinson was a tall man with unruly blonde hair.He was hung on the property before the Whaley House was built,supposedly for stealing a boat.His accomplices were left off with much lighter sentences, although no explanation was given why, except that he may had been the mastermind behind the whole plan.There was never any hard evidence found.
Yankee Jim had been seen in a rowboat and around the Schooner Platus.It was not any easy hanging him.Sketchy history reports that the gallows were built for men of regular height.Yankee Jim was a very tall man, so when the pulled the wagon out from under him, his feet still touched the ground.He was strangled to death, proclaiming his innocense.Lillian Whaley, Thomas Whaley's daughter who lived in the house until 1953, claimed it was Yankee Jim's foot steps she heard at night walking the wood floors.
Today loud foot steps are heard upstairs when you are downstairs, and downstairs when you are upstairs.Sightings of a tall man with unruly blonde hair are reported frequently.His laughter is said to be heard echoing through the hallways of the Whaley House.
Several other ghosts are said to haunt the house.Including an attorney who managed the Whaley's affairs during the Civil War, and was said to have fallen in love with the house.Another spirit is Ms. Anna Whaley,She's said to play the piano to make others aware of her presence.Playful and Mischievous 17 month old Tom Whaley has been seen and felt all around the museum.
Update: In 2001 the chamber of commerce released a list of the top ten haunted places in the world, and there, standing at number one, was the Whaley House.
Update: It is said that there are many new ghosts at the house, such as a playmate of the Whaley children who supposedly was running in the back yard when she tragically fell, breaking her neck.Many people have reported hearing a young girl playing and laughing in the backyard.It is also said that there is a ghostly dog that roams the hallways at night.Nobody knows the name of the dog or even if it belonged to the Whaley family.Plus there have been many reports of a lady in a bright green dress who sits with you on the couch in the nursey.Yankee Jim, the notoriuos boat theif is said to still be walking the hallways as to be looking for something he could never find.And last but not least there have been sighting of ghostly trials in the Whaley House court room, where Thomas Whaley himself was Judge.
