A Night in HAUNTED Manresa By Melanie “PEEVES” Lockhart Leader Staff Writer
Like many who have heard the ghost stories of Manresa Castle, I have always been a skeptic. I’ve heard so many variations of what happened to the supposed ghosts of Manresa that I’ve found it hard to believe any of it. Still, the idea of ghosts fascinates me. So when the opportunity came to spend the night in one of the castle’s “haunted” rooms, I jumped on it. I expected it to be an uneventful night. I had originally planned to stay alone in Room 302, directly below the attic where a priest is rumored to have hanged himself, although there is no record of a suicide. But my sister, Amanda Lockhart, got so excited when I told her of my plans that I invited her to come along. I figured at least I’d have someone to talk to. My sister showed up shortly after I finished dinner at the Castle Key restaurant on the hotel’s first floor. At about 8:30 p.m., we went upstairs to put her stuff in the room before taking a tour of the castle. While we were talking, we heard a thud in the attic. My reaction was something along the lines of “what the heck was that?” My sister continued to talk. Seconds later we heard what sounded like either shuffling footsteps or something moving along the floor. “OK, that’s kind of creepy,” she said. The noises clearly came from the attic, which is locked and
inaccessible without an employee escort. But the sounds came and went so quickly that I’m not convinced it wasn’t simply the old castle settling. Buildings do that, after all.
THE TOUR Kathryn Ward, the woman at the front desk, gladly led us on a tour, insisting that she had been at the desk the entire time rather than anywhere near the attic. My sister’s friend Samantha Miranda joined us for the tour. We began in the library, where photos of the original owners line the wall. Charles and Kate Eisenbeis lived in the 30-room home after it was completed in 1892. Locals called it the Eisenbeis Castle. At the time, it was the largest residence on the West Coast. It remains the largest residence ever built in Port Townsend. After Charles died in 1902, Kate remarried. The castle sat empty, other than being inhabited by a caretaker, until a Seattle attorney purchased the building in 1925 as a vacation destination for nuns. Two years later, it was sold for use as a seminary for Jesuit priests. The priests added a wing with a chapel and additional sleeping rooms, as well as an elevator that still operates today. They renamed it Manresa Hall. The library, combined with the banquet room and breakfast room, was once used as the Jesuits’ chapel. A photo of the old chapel is displayed under an arch in the banquet room.
Room 306 is where the ghost of “Kate” is believed to spend a lot of her time. There is speculation about whether it is the ghost of Kate Eisenbeis who returned “home” after she died, or the ghost of a girl rumored to have jumped – some say she was pushed – from the window. PHOTOS BY MELANIE LOCKHART 10
2008 PORT TOWNSEND HAUNTS
Manresa Castle appears at night. The light on in the tower is Room 302, where Leader reporter Melanie Lockhart stayed on Sept. 25.
In 1968, the building was privately purchased, renamed Manresa Castle, and transformed into a hotel. Now, the building is quaint and full of antiques, including the bar in the cocktail lounge that is originally from the Savoy Hotel in San Francisco. The lounge was once the home’s drawing room, while the restaurant used to be the parlor and dining room. The woodwork is original, making the overall atmosphere more historical than haunting. We took a special trip to the attic, where we saw the remaining props – including a noose and small staircase – from when crews from the television show “Sightings” dramatized the priest’s supposed hanging. We ended our tour with a trip to the castle’s “dungeon” and saw what remains of an old well. Although it was a bit spooky, as one might expect when standing beneath the foundation of an old building, the most action we saw were the blinking lights of the hotel’s Wi-Fi system. GHOST STORIES Later, we gathered in the library to read old logs from hotel guests. Over the years, guests reported weird noises, peculiar smells, moving objects, footsteps, cold breezes, feeling a “presence,” and direct sightings, among others. Donna McCollum of Port
Orchard reported that while staying in Room 302, her 3year-old daughter wouldn’t leave the bathroom because she was talking to a little girl. When McCollum asked her to find out the girl’s name, she said the girl’s name was “Chewana.” McCollum thinks the young girl could be the ghost of an illegitimate child, perhaps the daughter of Charles Eisenbeis. She also references the mysterious childsize casket found in 2006 on top of Charles Eisenbeis’ coffin, buried next to his first wife, Elisabeth. McCollum thinks there is a connection, although no other logs mention a child. One mother from Texas stayed in Room 306 in November 1997. She wrote: “We heard singing coming from the bathroom. It was a woman’s voice singing a ghostly tune.” The woman then got up to go the bathroom, curious to see who might be there. “The door swung open eerily. There was a swish of cold air and a glowing light. Then all the lights came on .… It was either a ghost, or the staff of the Castle has a strange way of entertaining their guests.” BED TIME We were finally ready for bed at around midnight. My sister slept next to me, too nervous to sleep in the second bed, just outside the bathroom. I don’t sleep well, so I was awake throughout
the night. My sister, on the other hand, slept like a rock. At one point I heard scratching somewhere near the door. I would have been convinced it was my imagination if my sister hadn’t snapped her head up at that precise moment and looked at the door, then above the door, and then at me before putting her head back down. I asked her if she heard the scratching, but I got a sleepy response. Since she was near the clock, I asked her for the time: 4:22 a.m. I listened for quite a while, but nothing out of the ordinary happened. In the morning, my sister recalled something waking her up, but she didn’t know what. After I described the scratching to her, we determined that it likely came from the wall outside our door. When my sister tested her fingernails on the wall, the sound was identical, but I had heard it much louder and with the door shut. I have friends and relatives convinced we experienced a ghost. I’m still inclined to believe the noises came from living things. Still, my stay turned out to be much more interesting than I expected. But ghosts? You never know. However, if whoever is responsible for the scratching could kindly consider a more reasonable hour next time, I’m sure future guests would appreciate it. Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader