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Yeongdeok Haunted House

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Named one of the most haunted houses in South Korea, this house has attracted its fair share of ghost tourists. But is the Yeongdeok Haunted House really haunted by the death of Korean soldiers during the war, or is it simply the decaying look of the house that made the legend?

On a 3 hour KTX ride from Seoul with a high speed train you will find the Yeongdeok haunted house (영덕흉가). Located in Gyeongsang Province, known for its beautiful nature and coastline. The house near the beach has in the later years taken the role as one of the most famous haunted houses in South Korea that are not yet demolished or revamped to something else. 

The ones said to haunt this particular basic building are said to be the student soldiers that lost their lives when almost 800 of them staged a diversion operation at Jangsari beach in Yeongdeok to draw the North Koreans attention away from the well known Battle of Inchon in the Korean War.

Read More: Check out the rest of our ghost stories from Korea

According to locals, around 400 to 700 soldiers lost their lives during this battle and were buried in this area during the Korean War. It is said that while 139 were killed and 92 were wounded, the rest just went missing. 

The house itself was built in October 1980 and supposedly the house is built upon a mass grave of the soldiers that died. Is this true? Some locals claim that no, it isn’t, but then again, the legends uphold the claim and the house has been featured on many lists as Korea’s most haunted.

The Ghost in the Staircase

After the war the Yeongdeok Haunted House, hauntings have been to blame when the owners of the house died in mysterious ways, although no real evidence of any of the owners having actually died has been presented. One variation is that the owner of the house in its earlier days was killed in a car accident and that those buying the house after this died as well. 

In all the legends surrounding the house though it is because of all the people that died during the war here, that it drove the price of the land down and some people saw the opportunity to get it cheap. But then, they didn’t calculate all the souls that came with it. 

The Haunted House: Years without anyone to take care of it has left the Yeongdeok Haunted House on the hill in decay and deterioration, fuelling the haunted house rumours. // Source

In one of the many haunted legends about the house, a young couple once bought the place to turn it into a seafood restaurant as they got it cheap because of the haunted rumors. But not soon after they opened for business strange things started to happen. 

The wife reported spotting a ghost in the staircase, descending from the second floor again and again with the hair hanging down and when she first saw it she is reported to have fainted at the spot by the mere sight of it. It all was too much and they ended up abandoning the place not soon after because of all the incidents that kept occuring in their home. 

The Shamanist Against the Ghosts

A new couple moved into the Yeongdeok Haunted House as the price of the house dropped even further. They were believers of traditional Korean shamanistic beliefs and tried to keep the ghosts at bay with their shamanistic items and rituals. It seems to not have worked as they also moved from the house not soon after. 

This story of shamanism inhabitants has contradicting variations. Some say that they ran away because of the ghosts, some say that they were kicked out because they were squatters, not real owners.

Read More: Check out all our ghost stories from Haunted Houses

Now the hype of the house started to pick up though, and the place attracted ghostbusters and shamans alike to have a look at the house and try to cleanse it as well as getting a few minutes of screentime on TV. 

One shaman that visited the place as a part of a TV show claimed that over ten thousand spirits were present in the house. During this part they supposedly got the hold of recording of voices they didn’t hear when they were on site, although speculations that it has something to do with the radio tower right by the house, is under discussion.

Visitors, or trespassers if you will, complain that a throbbing headache or an intense chill takes hold of them as they explore the abandoned building that is decaying and getting more and more of a haunted look as no one is taking care of the building. It is also rumored that machine equipment is malfunctioning while staying at the place. 

The Ghost of Student Soldiers: The ghosts that are said to be haunting Yeongdeok Haunted House are the dead ones from a battle at Jangsari Beach to lead the attention of North Korea away from Incheon. Here from the movie about the battle: The Battle of Jangsari. // Source

The Truth of the Legend Behind Yeongdeok Haunted House

The truthness to these haunted rumors though can be disputed. What we do know for a fact is that the owners moved to the US. Why? Perhaps not for the paranormal reasons the legend is insisting on. What is a fact though is that the uprooting of the owners led to the neglected buildings starting to deteriorate.

A little footage of the house from around 5 years ago.

The owner, in articles called Mr. Ham is currently residing in the US and is considering demolishing the Yeongdeok Haunted House as it seems to disturb the plans to create a memorial park for those dying in this battle were the supposedly haunting started from. 

So perhaps the same fate of some of the famous abandoned buildings with a haunting reputation will get another addition to the list when this house also gets flattened to the earth, soon to be forgotten.

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8 Haunted Places In South Korea You Didn’t Know Existed

Top 12 Most Haunted Places In South Korea!

The most haunted house in Korea – Captain and Clark

전국 3대 흉가 선정, 영덕 ‘귀신 나오는 집’ 헐린다

귀신 나온다는 ‘한국 3대 흉가’는 조작됐다 – 시사저널

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Ghosts in the Ann Starrett Mansion

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Refusing to leave their home, the ghosts of Ann Starrett mansion still reside in the Victorian house, haunting the place in Port Townsend. 

In the city of Port Townsend in Washington, the place is known for its many old Victorian and historical buildings. The place itself was once called, The City of Dreams and a safe harbor. 

It’s here a Queen Anne-style mansion that is said to house the dead stands. Built in 1889 by Georg Starrett for his wife Ann, it is said that even in their afterlife they spend their time in this Victorian mansion. 

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The House of Four Seasons

For many years the house was used as a motel, and the guests reported about a particular feeling when staying there. A haunting feeling for sure, but perhaps not of the spooky one. The beautiful frescos in the ceiling represented the four seasons and worked as a solar calendar, nicknaming the house The House of Four Seasons as well as Port Townsend’s most haunted.

The Starrett family was living in the mansion for many generations from then on and many will claim that they never really left. For more than twenty years they lived with their only son Edwin, two servants and their nanny, and it is said to have been a happy time for them. So happy that they never left?

The Ghosts in the Ann Starrett Mansion

The House of Four Seasons: The Solar Calendar fresco where the ghosts have been spotted.// Source

There is not only one ghost that has been spotted in the house over the years. The first one is a female ghost with red hair, believed by many to be Ann herself, still the woman in the house. It is said she is seen as a more peaceful spirit than a restless one and she is spotted more than once by the solar calendar that George built for her.

There also has been seen a man believed to be Georg Starrett that also lingers in their home, even after their death. He is often seen accompanying the red haired ghost in the halls and down the stairs. A sign that even in their afterlife, the happy couple stayed together.

The third ghost that has been seen is said to be the spirit of their son’s nanny and her presence has been sensed especially in her old bedroom with her face showing up in the mirror. This is the ghost that often is blamed when something of the more paranormal occurs, like pictures on the walls falling, turning on and off the lights when no one is in the room or smacking peoples head when they say something offensive. 

The Future Hauntings of the House

Although a beautiful thing to behold, the house has seen its difficult times being on the market, even though the haunting itself was not something that received any complaints from the owner themselves. For years it was used for a boutique motel before the owners wanted to sell. For twelve years in the early 2000s, they struggled to find a buyer for the house and one can wonder if the spirits in the house much preferred that. 

By 2022 though the house was back again as an airbnb for now, and it looks like the permanent residents will continue to be the original owners in the afterlife. 

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About The Starrett House

Ann Starrett Mansion

Ann Starrett Mansion – 15 Haunted Houses That Have High Style – Lonny

Old mansion gets new owners | Port Townsend Leader

Ann Starrett Mansion Bed and Breakfast | Haunted Places | Port Townsend, WA 98368

Ann Starrett Mansion Bed and Breakfast | Port Townsend Washington | Real Haunted Place

https://www.airbnb.no/rooms/20211996?source_impression_id=p3_1648556407_Ch%2FBBeP1Gmn5aCqx

Ann Starrett Mansion – Haunted Houses

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The Haunted Restaurant of Neulbom Garden

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Put on the lists of most haunted places of South Korea, the once abandoned building of Neulbom Garden Restaurant, saw its fair share of ghosts according to the legends of this place. 

The Neulbom Garden Restaurant (늘봄가든) building is located in Jecheon in North Chungcheong Province in South Korea. The restaurant is one of the most haunted places in South Korea according to most lists, blogs, youtube channels and articles. Often grouped together with the Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital and Yeongdeok Haunted House.

Read the full story on Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital and Yeongdeok Haunted House

Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital

Arguably the most famous haunted place in South Korea is the Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital. When it was still standing it attracted a lot of ghost hunters, curious tourists and urban explorers. What was it behind the place that drew all these people?

Keep reading

Yeongdeok Haunted House

Named one of the most haunted houses in South Korea, this house has attracted its fair share of ghost tourists. But is the Yeongdeok Haunted House really haunted by the death of Korean soldiers during the war, or is it simply the decaying look of the house that made the legend?

Keep reading

The story behind the haunted place of Neulbom Garden goes that the restaurant was once a very successful one that was run by a married couple. They had a young daughter with a physical disability in most versions of the legend. In some versions however, she was fine until the accident happened and turned their restaurant into Korea’s most haunted.  

The Legend of the Haunted Restaurant

One day, the daughter of the restaurant owners was by the road right in front of the restaurant when she was run over by a car and she died. In some versions she survived the accident, but this is when her physical disability happened as her neck was snapped and left her brain dead. 

Her father never recovered from this and ended up committed suicide by hanging himself in his grief. Her mother was also sick with grief and died not long after and the Neulbom Garden Restaurant was sold off. 

After this tragedy, there were several attempts at running Neulbom Garden restaurant by other people, but strange things started happening all the time and the people working there started blaming it on some paranormal reasons. 

The staff would take orders they forgot about, and when they realized it, they hurried over to the table with the forgotten orders. But when they came to the table, they found that someone had already served their guests. 

They would also sometimes go home without cleaning the tables, but when they came back, the next morning, they found the whole restaurant tidied and clean.

The Abandoned Restaurant: Put on the lists of most haunted places of South Korea, the once abandoned building of Neulbom Garden Restaurant got a reputation of being haunted. //photo:

Not only the staff noticed strange things happening in the restaurants. Although perhaps a helpful ghost for the staff, the neighbors were less than pleased and constantly complained of loud noises from the haunted restaurant. 

But although the ghosts seemed to have been eager to help with the restaurant, sometimes it would create chaos as well. Guests would sometimes order food by a female staff member, but the food would never arrive at their table. When the guests asked the male staff what happened to their order taken by the female staff, they could only answer: “We don’t have any females working here.”

The next owners that took over the restaurant finally gave up on running the restaurant one by one and left the building to decay, further fuelling the rumors of it being haunted. Rumors about the place is that a priest bought Neulbom Garden to let it rest in peace. 

To read more about haunted restaurants, check out the story about Earnestine & Hazel’s Haunted Bar in Memphis

The Truth Behind The Ghost Rumors

There are so many conflicted theories about the restaurant and if we look at the earlier korean sources according to namu.wiki it was in 2009 an article of the hauntings of the Neulbom Garden Restaurant was written online. Here in this article it was the parents who died in both a car accident and by suicide by turning the gas stove on in the kitchen.

So what version could be the truth behind the many legends? More likely is that they closed down the Neulbom Garden Restaurant because the Jungang Expressway opened in 2001 and sales plummeted. It looks like it was purchased in 2012 by Buddhists that used it as a temple and cafe, but the business failed as well and it was closed again in 2015.

It was later run as a cafe by a group of christians it seems, and as far as research goes it looks like the building is still being used as a restaurant or cafe under a different name than Neulbom Garden Restaurant under the expressway. If the guests are still being served by ghosts is undisclosed.

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Creatrip: Korea’s Most Haunted Places

Korea’s Top 3 Most Absolutely Scariest Places! AHH! – Seoulistic

https://korealandscape.net/haunted-places-in-south-korea/

제천 늘봄갈비 – 나무위키

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A Haunting in Malaysia — Kinarut Mansion

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Malayan ghost lore is deep and it is ancient. And something leaves more questions than answers. Such is the case of the mysterious Kinarut mansion in Sabah and what became of it. 

The ruins of a former manor house sits on a hill surrounded by woods. It looks over the Kawang River near Kinarut in Malaysia. Today, the ruins of the manor house is considered to be the Malaysian state, Sabah’s, main attraction. And it is apparently not only the living it attracts.

The Mansion in the Jungle

Once this area of Malaysia used to be called North Borneo, a British protectorate where Europeans came to get their hands on natural resources of the land, like rubber. And in 1910, a German manager of a rubber plantation called Kinarut Rubber Estate built a manor in Graeco-Roman style, pretty unique as the one of the very few stone houses in North Borneo. 

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It was an Indian architect that stood for the design, and the construction was massiv. Around 200-300 workers from Java and maybe even Hong Kong worked on the house for four years to complete it with 152 windows, 45 doors and no less than 42 huge chandeliers. 

Asimont died only a decade after the building was done and the manor itself was destroyed in 1923 by a British company. The question of why though, is still unanswered. What happened to the house? Or based on the stories that have been told ever since, what happened in the house to leave such a legend?

The Fall of The Kinarut Mansion

In its prime, there seemed to have been a bustling life with a full community, jobs and even cultural events like sports competitions. The mansion was well maintained and the rubber plantation seemed to be thriving until the Great Depression. But that hit the global market first after the mansion was supposedly demolished. So again, what happened?

In the Jungle: There is according to legend, something in the trees surrounding the mansion.
Photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas

A house such as this is simply not complete without the haunted backstory. Locals living near the mansion reports that the area is haunted by a “Hantu Tinggi”, a type of Malayan ghost, usually disguised as a tree in a forest. It literally means tall ghost as stories of it often tell about a body so tall the waist up is hidden by clouds. and only exists in Western and Eastern regions of Malaysia. 

The Rediscovery of the Haunted Mansion

Years went by without anybody paying the ruins any mind. The locals had only tales of demons and ghosts from this place. The rubber trade had dried up and North Borneo was now the modern Malaysia on the map of today. But the house would not be forgotten by history, not just yet. 

The rediscovering of the house was made in 1990 when the Sabah Forestry Development Authority led an exploration of where to plant trees. Throughout the years it had been forgotten and rarely does people wander in this area. Why is that?

People passing by claim that they have seen something fast moving and voices in the night. This is mostly attributed to a pontianak, a Malayan female ghost that prays on human flesh. So perhaps this wasn’t the greatest place to erect a mansion at all. All that is left of the enormous building are ruins. The steps of white stone leading nowhere as the questions asked about the truth about the Kinarut Mansion.  

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Feature Image: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas

 Rumah ‘hantu tinggi’ bongkar sejarah industri getah Sabah

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Kinarut_Sabah_TheKinarutMansion-12.jpg

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Myrtles Plantation and the Ghosts that Remains

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Now a quaint Bed and Breakfast, the old Myrtles plantation manor houses more ghosts than living guests. 

The old splendor of a plantation in Louisiana, not so far from Baton Rouge, is still quite clear when looking at the Myrtles Plantation. The antebellum mansion was first built in 1796 and is decorated with hand-painted stained glass featuring a French cross to allegedly ward off evil, the walls filled with Aubusson tapestry and from the ceiling, Baccarat crystal chandeliers hang. 

But among the Carrara marble mantels and French furnishing there is something more sinister, more primitive than any riches, gold and luxury can cover over — The blood stained history and the legend of ghosts still haunting the place. 

The old plantation was handed down from many people and in 1950, the house was sold to Marjorie Munson. It was she who started noticing strange things happening around the Myrtles Plantation and started talking about ghosts, that we still talk about today. 

And the tales that are told are many — supposedly, the old plantation is one of the more haunted places in America with reports of at least 12 ghosts inside this Creole cottage style manos sitting on a hill. Although it is only historical records about the murder of William Winter, the number of murders in the house is allegedly 10. 

The Legend of Chloe

The most famous ghost on Myrtles Plantation is without a doubt Chloe, or in some records, Cloe. She was supposedly a slave owned by Clark and Sara Woodruff, who took over the plantationin 1817 after Saras father, General David Bradford, who first built the plantation. 

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In 1992 a picture surfaced after the plantation took some photos of the property to send to the insurance company. When looking closer at the picture, something that looks like a girl can be seen. This is believed to be the ghost of Chloe, who still haunts the Myrtles Plantation with her green turban. 

According to the stories, Chloe was one of the slaves that worked in the house rather than out in the field, which was a much more straining work than inside doing the cleaning and cooking. But perhaps it came with other dangers than grueling labor. According to the stories, she was forced by Clark Woodruff to become his mistress.  

In some accounts though, Woodruff started having an affair with another girl and Chloe feared she would have to start working in the fields instead of in the house. And she started listening in on conversations to find out her faith or pick up on something that she could use against them. 

In any case she was caught listening by the doors and punished by her slave owners. One of her ears was cut off and she wore a green turban to conceal it. 

The Revenge

The Haunted Mirror: Where the spirit of Woodruff and her children lingers.
Photo: Chris Light/1999

But it wasn’t the end at all, as Chloe planned her revenge on her slave masters. She baked a cake that she had poisoned with oleander leaves, which is extremely poisonous. Even the question of why she poisoned the cake is up for discussion. 

Most accounts claim she did it for revenge after cutting off her ear. Another variant saying she was trying to gain favor with the family again as she was planning to cure the family for the poison and come out as a hero instead. 

But according to the story, the plan backfired and only Sara Woodruff and the two daughters ate the cake and died from the poison. Chloe was then hanged by the other slaves and thrown in the Mississippi river, as a sort of final punishment for her or to not be punished themselves by Clark Woodruff for harbouring her. 

A mirror in the house is supposedly holding the spirit of Sara Woodruff and her children. According to custom at that time, the mirrors were covered by a cloth so the spirit would not disappear into them. But after the poisoning, this particular mirror was forgotten and the ghosts of the victims can be seen in the mirrors and there are reports of handprints being left in the mirror, as their spirits are now trapped in the mirror. 

The story about Chloe as a ghost is also told by the previous owner, Frances Kermeen, who also wrote a book on all the strange hauntings that she herself reported about experiencing on her second night in the house: 

 “I looked up and standing over me was a black lady. Her head was wrapped in a green turban,” I could see her [holding an] old-fashioned tin with the loop in it [through] the candlelight and I lost it. I started screaming…I reached my hand out to touch her, I could tell she was a ghost because she was see-through, but as my hand passed through her, she faded away.”

Frances Kermeen told the podcast Mysterious Universe in 2015.

The Uneven Facts

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Do historical records support this though? There is currently not found any records of the Woodruffs owning a slave named either Chloe or Cloe. The legends say that Chloe killed both the wife and the daughters, but one of the daughters, Mary Octavia, survived and grew up to become an adult. And it is said that Sara and the other daughter, Cornelia, were not killed by poison, but by yellow fever in 1823 and 1824. 

Either way, despite the historical records refuting the story, the legend about a woman wearing a green turban haunts Myrtles Plantation. Perhaps trying to tell a story that no historical records can?

The Other Ghosts

There are several pictures you can find on the postcards found in the souvenir shop at the plantation, the Chloe postcard being one of them. Another picture that stirred up quite some stories was the picture of a young girl dressed up in classic antebellum clothing that seems to look out from a window. She is now referred to as “The Ghost Girl” on the plantation. 

Burial Ground

But the legend of Chloe is not the only claim of ghost sightings at the plantation among the Spanish Moss hanging from the giant oak trees. There is the classic tale that the house itself is built on an Native American burial ground, a trope of American ghost story tales that rarely can be substantiated. But even so, the ghost of a young Natice American woman has been reported. 

In this case, the burial ground would be of Tunican tribes in the Mississippi River Valley, and the truth is that the land the manor now stands on used to belong to the Natives before being seized by the Spanish. 

Civil War Soldiers

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Another legend is about the Civil War and about how the houses were ransacked by union soldiers, and three people were killed. But exactly who was killed? The soldiers or the people living in the mansion? At the time, it was then Ruffin Gray Stirling and his wife Catherine Cobb that lived on the plantation with their slaves. It is true that they were robbed of their fine furniture and luxury items. 

According to some of the  variations of the legend though, it was the Union soldiers that were shot dead on the premises by the Confederates. 

But something that is more up for debate is the supposed blood stain in the doorway, around the size of a human body remains that never will be completley clean after the supposed murders that happened then, no matter how well you scrub it. 

The Voodoo Practitioner

The plantation is also the home of the ghost of a young girl that died in 1868, sometimes thought to be the girl in antebellum clothes from the picture. She was treated by a local voodoo practitioner in one of the 22 rooms in the manor, but died. She appears now in the room she died in and has been reported to practice voodoo on people sleeping in the room. 

William Drew Winter

One of the other ghosts haunting this place is someone that either staggers or crawls up the stairs. He always stops on the 17th step. This is rumoured to be the ghost of William Drew Winter, the verified murder victim in the house. He was shot on the front porch of the house by a stranger. To get away, he crawled up the stairs but only reached the 17th step before he collapsed and died. 

Several guests staying at the now B&B have claimed to hear the crawling coming from the stairs, and believing it could be other guests have gone to check. But when reaching the stairs, they find that no one is there, or worse, the apparition of his ghost, begging for help. 

Although here, we have discrepancies in the story as a local newspaper reported that Winter died of a single shot that killed him instantly, and he had no possible way of crawling the stairs after the shot. But did he manage to in his afterlife?

The Plantation

No matter the fact we can now verify, the stories found of plantations from way back cast long shadows. All from the first contact between the natives and Spanish, throughout slavery and a bloody war. The darkest chapters of this plantation, is most likely the stories that we don’t know about. 

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Featured image: Bogdan Oporowski

The Myrtles Plantation

Legend of Chloe And Ghosts | Myrtles Plantation

The South’s Most Haunted Plantation – Myrtles Plantation Louisiana

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Agnes Keith and the Ghost in her House

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From a house that has seen it all, this American author wrote about the ghost that lived with them. 

“I don’t believe in ghosts. But every day, I see a tall gaunt woman telling her husband goodbye, taking her baby, and walking down the path alone, standing at the bottom of the path and looking back,”

White Man Returns, Agnes Keith
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This is a quote from American author and journalist Agnes Keith’s novel, “White Man Returns” from 1951, a novel she wrote about returning to her beloved house after being imprisoned by Japanese during the war. 

Among the detailing of her everyday life in Malaysia and in that house, snippets of a darker corner of the house take shape. And often, the ghost that resides in the Newlands House is what remains to this day. Especially when the museum itself wants to focus on the dark tourism aspect of it all. 

The Land Below The Wind

Agnes Keith was living with her husband and her son in Sandakan in what we now know as Malaysia. She came to this place in 1934 and found a new place to call home. Being under the British Crown at the time, they lived in the colonial-styled architectured house with their servant. She was writing books like “Land Below The Wind” in 1939 about their life in the then called British North Borneo, which is was then called, with her husband working as a Conservator of Forest. 

The house: Newlands, the home of Agnes Newton Keith in Sandakan, Borneo from 2007.
Photo: Warren Apel

She loved their house and their home and was said to be very well liked by those around them. The house on the hill had a grand view of Sandakan Bay in the front and the Sulu sea from the back. But then the war came and it would be a long time until she would live in the house again. 

The Scar of the War

Like many Europeans on the island Agnes Keith and her family were put in internment camps when the Japanese invaded Borneo. The whole family survived though, and it is said that one of the Japanese camp commandants had read Agnes’s work and made sure to treat the family well. They stayed in the camp until the end of the war in 1945, but she was never the same again. 

“The story of war is always the story of hate; it makes no difference with whom one fights. The hate destroys you.”

Three Came Home, Agnes Keith
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When they returned to Sandakan in 1947, they found their beloved house destroyed. They decided to rebuild nearby, and named the house for Newlands, although it is more known as Agnes Keith House today. But the haunting memories from the war seemed to also manifest in the house as well. Through her writing, she notes about the paranormal activity going on around her. 

They left North Borneo for good in 1952 when she moved to Canada and the house passed to someone else. But the legends about the hauntings didn’t stop with the highly imaginative writer.

The Woman by the bed

G.L Carlson took over the husband’s position as a forest conservator after the Keiths left for Canada. His wife, Rosemary also told stories about apparitions in the bedroom when her husband was away. She woke at dawn and heard the door to the room open and close several times. When she opened her eyes, there was someone there, staring at her. 

“There was a figure standing, leaning over, and looking down at me. The figure appeared to be a female with a white bandage around her head. She was pale faced. She was dressed in what looked like a white, short-sleeved T-shirt or blouse with a wide-shoulder-strapped, dark-coloured pinafore dress. (…) She was quite a short person of normal build, and I could not see the lower part of her body. At this stage, I must have passed out. When I came to, it was already dawn and I was alone.”  

– Rosemary Carlson

The Ghost Resident

Maids, visitors and security guards can tell the same story about a woman shoving up in the stairs or in the corner of the rooms in the house. Places where she doesn’t belong. Or perhaps she belongs there more than anyone else at this point? 

By now the Agnes Keith house has fallen into the hands of the Sabah Museum Department and restored to become a public museum, to keep the house intact as well as the lingering residents that may still be there. 

  

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Agnes Keith: the American author who loved Sabah | Free Malaysia Today (FMT)

Spooktacular Sabah: Agnes Keith House first stop in state’s haunt jaunt push | Malaysia | The Vibes

https://web.archive.org/web/20190614110302/https://www.thepatriots.asia/misteri-kisah-seram-rumah-agam-agnes-keith-sandakan/

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The Westerfeld House — The House of The Occult

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All that jazz and rock’n roll with witchcraft and satanic rituals clearly took its toll on the Victorian house known as the Westerfeld House. But is it still a hint of paranormal presence lingering there? Or has the restoration brought it back to its original sweet glory?

In the beautiful city of San Francisco there is a house that catches the eye of those passing by. Gothic, beautiful, bold and old as many of the surrounding houses are. But perhaps none other than this house has acted like a magnet for its peculiar tenants over the years. 

Old House: 1198 Fulton Street has a history of occult and strange tenants almost since it was first built in 1889.
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith/wikimedia

The William Westerfeld House, or simply the Westerfeld house is an historic building right by Alamo Square. The picturesque Victorian Italian styled villa at 1198 Fulton Street is today steeped in history, some more haunting than others, as well as some are more true than others.

The origin of the house however is a sweet tale as the building was built for the German confectioner William Westerfeld in 1889. By this time he had already established a chain of bakeries and built this 28 room mansion. Business was good for Westerfeld, however, he died only a few years after the house was built in 1895 and since then, sweet turned darker to pitch black. 

It was bought by John Mahoney and the building’s cultural reputation started to take place where strange occurrences happened. He loved to entertain his guests with spectacular shows, and among others, Harry Houdini himself tried to send telepathic messages to his wife across the Bay. So the experimental and spiritual part of the house started early on. However, no one could have guessed just how dark it would get. 

Czarist Night Club And All That Jazz

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After the Westerfeld House had served as a home to Mahoney, it fell into the hands of many different people with different purposes. A group of Czarist Russians turned it into a nightclub called Dark Eyes in the roaring 20s. It was informally known as the Russian embassy because of all the meetings taking place on the upper floor. 

After the second world war the home was converted into apartment buildings, mostly rented out to African-American jazz musicians playing in the nearby jazz clubs during the Beat area. This house jazz area lasted until the 60s, when jazz was replaced with rock and the political and philosophical beatnik area morphed into the wild and spiritual 60s. 

The Occultists In the Westerfeld House

In the 60s the Westerfeld House was used as different types of collectives, and one of those who set a mark on the house as well as recorded it, was occult filmmaker, Kenneth Anger who lived there from 1966 to 1967. During those times it was a rather rough area in the city and the people frequenting there, darker and rougher than many.  

It is here the story of the Westerfeld House turns from strange to occult. At best, the time Anger and his peculiar guests spent in the house was a terrible nuisance to all the neighbors with all the acid being taken and satanic rituals being held. At worst, they stirred up the rumours of paranormal activity to the house as well as opened the gate to hell. 

Satanic Rituals: Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey started frequenting the house, holding black masses in the Westerfeld house. Here from the movie, ‘Invocation of my demon brother’, made by Kenneth Anger.
Photo: Invocation of my demon brother/IMDB

“Up at Fulton and Scott is a great shambling old Gothic house, a freaking decayed giant, known as The Russian Embassy.”

This is how the writer Tom Wolfe talks about the Westerfeld House when he introduces it in his book: ‘The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test’, chronologizing his time spent there with a group of hippies.

Anger himself was an occultist and drew much of his elements in his films from Thelema, a pagan oriented religion founded by perhaps the most well known occultist, Aleister Crowley.

Another notorious person that stayed under the roof was Manson family member Bobby Beausoleil lived here for a while before he joined the cult of the Manson called, the Family. Beausoleil was chosen by Anger to inhabit the role of Lucifer in a movie he was working on. Together they spent their nights in the tower, trying to look for UFOs. And according to Anger, he did indeed have a “a couple of very good flying saucer sightings.” Here it is important to note just how important taking acid was to Anger. 

Allegedly, Beausoleil stole reels of Angers film: Lucifer Rising and took off with them being on bad terms. Manson himself made frequent visits to this house, and according to caretaker, Kelly Edwards, it was here that Beausoleil were drawn into the cult that eventually was behind the Helter Skelter murders. 

Black Masses of the Church of Satan

Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey also spent time in this very tower as shown when Anger shot the movie ‘Invocation of my demon brother’ where we in this psychedelic experimental movie can see LaVey, aka, ‘The Black Pope’ himself holding a black mass. According to Anger, the film was assembled from scraps of the first version of Lucifer Rising. It includes clips of the cast smoking out of a skull, and the publicly filmed Satanic funeral ceremony for a pet cat.

But he did not look after UFO’s as Anger did on his acid trips. Instead, he spent his time practicing witchcraft, as well as worshipping Satan with around 500 candles in this wooden building. This tower used to have a large pentagram etched into the floorboards to keep the wiccan and satanic rituals more permanent. He also owned a lion cub as he used to be a lion tamer before starting the Church of Satan. You can see proof of that very lion because of the scratches in the wooden paneling, even to this day.  

As well as spending time in the tower, he also performed satanic rituals in the ballroom on the ground level of the house. 

Rock n Roll

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After Angers departure from the Westerfeld House, the occult was turned into rock’n roll as the likes of Mick Jagger, Janis Joplin, Tom Wolfe and Jerry Garcia among many others passed through the halls, either as tenants, or holding concerts at the Avalon Ballroom. It continued to be used as an underground rock scene until the 70s, when the first attempts to rehabilitate the much used building began. 

And although the owner that took over in 1986 had no occult interest, he also wanted to be on the safe side when initiating the old house with a particularly rocky history. The new owner of the Westerfeld House, Jimmy Siegel told hoodline that: 

“I was always attracted to the architecture of the building,” he told us. “The occult happenings in the house were of little interest to me but to be on the safe side I had the monks from the Hartford Street Zen Center do a cleansing and a blessing for the house when I bought it in 1986. I have never experienced any darkness or paranormal activity in the house.”

The Addams Family House

Siegel bought the Westerfeld House because it looked like something the Addams family could have lived in and he had always loved the architecture and design from the Addams family. And under a LSD trip in his teens, his dreams of owning this particular house started to take hold. 

Siegel turned his drug induced dream and turned it into his life mission. He spent his time restoring the Westerfeld House that had long been neglected. And with it, he also preserved the history of it. 

Today the rooms in the Westerfeld House are rented out to various people and as movie sets. According to reports, none of them have complained of any malevolent activity or remains of satanic activity. But they have reported about ‘overwhelming emotions’ as well as a physical presence in their home, with nightmares being a common trait of the tenants. Paranormal activity of psychological manifestation of knowing the house history?

Even Siegel himself mentioned he had what he called a paranormal experience in the house to SFGATE:

“I was in bed watching TV and my bed violently shook. I assumed we were having an earthquake, only nothing else was moving. Then I felt someone get into bed with me even though I was alone. It was quite unnerving.”

So what is it Siegel? Was the Westerfeld House haunted or not?

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National Register #89000197: Westerfeld House in San Francisco, California

William Westerfeld House

The Spooky History Of The Westerfeld House

Invocation of my Demon Brother & Lucifer Rising – Kenneth Anger

This Alamo Square Victorian holds 100 years of SF counterculture history 

Visiting the Westerfeld House and Its Haunted Past. — Eric J. Kuhns 

Westerfeld House – [2021 

The Westerfeld House: San Francisco’s most storied Victorian

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Fatima’s Harp — A Christmas Haunting

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Through the halls of Stubley Hall, a Saracen love song haunts the place with the sound of the harp.

A great hall during Christmas times with good food, merry guests and an unmistakable sound of a harp playing a love song. Scared yet? No? Sounds like the right vibe for a cozy Christmas time perhaps. But if the harp playing comes from nowhere, and no one is playing, scared then? This is what festive guests might hear echoing through the halls every Christmas Eve at Stubley Hall, reminiscing about the tragedy of war and love. 

Not far from Rochdale, Manchester in England, sits the Stubley Hall. Already in the 1600s, the hall was known for being “an ancient mansion with stables, barns, dovecotes and water mill”, so you know it is old, even by British standards. And such an old place carries many tales within the stone walls, and stories about the paranormal and sighting of ghosts has been plentiful. And one of them is the story about Fatima. 

The Crusader With the Diamond Studded Cross

The knight Ralph de Stubley lived here once upon a time, a knight who served Richard the Lionheart during the crusades in Jerusalem. At the beginning of the crusades Ralph joined in on, they saw it as a successful mission as they were able to capture Saladin, the first sultan of Egypt and Syria. But they never quite managed to seize Jerusalem, which they saw as a spiritual symbol and as the holy city. 

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One of the more romantic, yet tragic tales from the crusade wars, was about one of Saladin’s daughters. Her name was Fatima and she fell in love with Ralph during the raging battle of the holy city.

However in 1192 the British crusaders had to pull out after the battle of Jaffa, and Ralph was forced to leave Fatima behind. But before leaving, he swore his undying love for her, promising her he would return. As a token, he gave her a diamond studded cross to keep as a reminder of him. 

The Harp of Love Songs

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Pexels.com

Three years went by and Fatima heard nothing of the knight who promised to come back for her. Growing tired of just waiting she disguised herself as a troubadour and sailed across the ocean in search of him. Just bringing her harp she played so well but hadn’t been able to play in her sorrow. But she would never reach the shores of England to return to her beloved Ralph. On the eve of Christmas, she died. The plague had travelled with them on the ship and she and the rest of the passengers and crew perished. 

The same night there was a wedding at Stubley Hall, Ralph’s wedding. He was to marry a wealthy Baron’s daughter. Maybe it was only to save the family who were in need of money, maybe he fell in love with another one. Either way, the song of his past lover came to the hall. During the celebrations he was standing by the window, not enjoying the festivities. He was maybe thinking of her, the woman he truly wanted to marry. It was then he heard it, the harp. The familiar but now so nostalgic sound of Fatima playing the harp, playing none other than the love song she had played for him, a traditional Saracen love song. He rushed into the grounds, thinking he would see her among the trees. 

The guests noticed his disappearance and went after him and found him under an oak tree, dead, clutching a diamond studded cross.

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The Haunted Vicarage — Sweden’s most ghostly crowded house

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Even the home of the priests can’t keep the ghosts at bay. And in this house, the ghosts outnumber the living. 

Haunted: Many ghosts have been reported haunting this house throughout the years since it was built.

In the idyllic countryside of Sweden Borgvattnet is an old village deep in the forest. There are around 70 people living there, going about their business in the serene landscape of green trees. In this small village, the Borgvattnet Vicarage, a building from 1876, lies, used to house the priests connected to the local church. There are many residing in this vicarage, adding to the number of people in the small place, although not exactly living. 

More than once has the Swedish news media as well as a number of paranormal researchers found their way up to the quaint vicarage, looking like a cute inn to relax and enjoy nature as it has been open to the public since 1970. But the rooms available for rent are not necessarily just for you. The rooms are already all occupied by the ghosts, and therefore, it has earned the name of Sweden’s most haunted house. 

The Ghost Priest

The story was first only whispered among the priests living there as well as inside the church of Sweden. But one priest would break the silence and make it the most famous place in the country at the time. 

When the priest Erik Lindgren came as the new priest of his area, he came alone. The furniture was still something he was waiting for to settle into the old vicarage that was to be his own home. Therefore he was surprised and a bit scared when he started hearing stuff from the second floor. It sounded like heavy objects being dragged across the floor. When checking he found the second floor to be empty. There was no furniture there, and there was no one in the house but him. Or so he thought in the beginning, but it was only the start of the paranormal hauntings he was about to experience, living in this house. 

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Although it was not something that had been spoken about publicly before the haunting of the house was well known within the church. In 1947 that was about to change as a journalist heard about the haunting of the vicarage. He got the priest, Erik Lindgren to tell about his experiences and an article was published on the matter. The curiosity was overwhelming from the public and Lindgren himself had to block his phone in the end because of all the journalists trying to get to him to talk about the paranormal occurrences. 

Lindgren was meticulous and noted down every strange encounter in detail he experienced. But the list got so long that he stopped when he just accepted this was just a part of his everyday life. There were a lot of different activities going on in the lonely house. Everything from light turning off and on, invisible figures “crashing” into him making it hard to work and always giving him a feeling of someone watching him, never giving him a moment’s peace. From the second floor where he had the first day of the house heard heavy stuff being dragged over the floor, footsteps when there was no one there was constantly heard. 

The worst experience though, was on this particular day when he was sitting in his rockin chair, reading a book in 1945. The chair started to rock harder and harder so violently that he fell on the floor. When he sat down again, it happened once more, making it hard to stay seated. He felt a force from behind, going through him. His legs started to shake and he lost footing, falling on the ground. After this interview, the chair got famous and in the 60s, it turned up on one of Sweden’s entertainment shows before being bought back to the vicarage in the 80s. 

Some of the spotted ghosts:

So many encounters of different kinds have been reported. Shadow of a man passing by, the sound of footsteps coming to the front door and music playing out of nowhere. Some of the ghosts though, have a bit more story to them. 

The Gray Lady

More and more priests started coming forward with their stories. Like the priest Rudolf Tängdén who was also sitting in the great hall reading in 1930. Suddenly a gray clothed lady appears in the corner of the room. She walks towards him, taking small slow steps before changing direction, turns and walks into the office. He followed, but found nothing when he entered. 

The Crying Ladies

Ghosts in the Rooms: The rooms in the vicarage each carry their own ghost legend. What makes this particular house so haunted?

In the house there is a room called ‘the cryers room’. It’s been called that since the notary for the church, Inga Flodin stayed there on a business trip in 1941. She stayed in that very room and was awoken during the night. She finds three figures sitting on the couch, watching her intently. She turns on the lights, but nothing changes, they are still sitting there, staring. Flodin pinches her arm as well as letting her alarm clock ring to check if she really is awake. But, yes, she is. She notices that they all look incredibly sad, wearing a black, a purple and a gray dress. One of them is knitting. The woman in the gray dress looks particularly sad with red circles under her eyes. In a staring deadlock, Flodin can not do anything but stare back, petrified as well as curious and confused about what is going on. However, eventually she falls asleep. 

The Maid’s Baby

In the pink room there are those claiming to hear the sound of cries of a baby, even baby figures have been spotted around on the property. Story goes that at the end of the 1800s, an unmarried maid gave birth out of marriage. There were also rumours that the father was the priest in the house at the time. The maid was then locked up to the birth of the child that never grew up. Most likely the child was killed and buried on the north side of the house, outside the pink room. Now both the maid and the baby wander the house.

The Dead Priest Wife

One of the first documented sightings of ghostly activity came from the priest Nils at the start of the 1900s. Nils had grown up in the house as the priest’s son before he himself became the priest. Through the years he experienced stuff in the house he was sure was his mothers doing. Like the time when he watched all the clothes on the clothesline being ripped from the line. 

His mother was Martha and died young giving birth to Nils. His father, Per, didn’t take the death of his beloved wife well. It was a cold spring and the ground was still too hard for the body to be buried. Therefore it was stored in the house as Per simply couldn’t be parted from his beloved. And it might have been a bit too long. In any case, several of the guests have also seen shadows and shapes, pulling their clothes, sitting in the bed, in none other than in the yellow room, the same room where Märta died.

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Sveriges Mest Hemsökta Hus – Historia & Fakta

Byn Borgvattnet

Borgvattnet

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Chaonei No. 81 — Beijing Horror House

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Shadowy figures in the window, chilling entrance during the summer, the old and haunted church in Beijing called Chaonei No. 81, keeps its secrets close to the chest. The famous haunted house is believed to be haunted by a woman said to have taken her life inside.

Chaonei No. 81 ( 朝内81号), also called Chaonei Church as it was built with that in mind, perhaps, the records aren’t clear. The French reimagined baroque architecture from the 20th century stands out amongst the modern Beijing skyscrapers and the Ming dynasty buddhist temples.

Read Also: Check out all of our ghost stories from China

Out of place it has passed from a French manager of the railway or Christian missionaries, different governmental members of the Chinese Republic as well as the Catholic Church. But one thing remains the same, the rumours about a restless spirit that lingers, no matter who lives there. 

The Mystery of the Chaonei Church Building

The story behind the supposed haunted house at Chaonei No. 81 is hard to get straight. As with a lot of buildings before the formation of the People’s Republic of China was formed, because of missing paperwork. Who built the Chaonei Church? Was it the French manager of the railway? Or it might even have been the Qing imperial family building it for the British to use as a church? However it is believed to have been built around 1910, although some claim it is even older.

Read Also: Check out the rest of MoonMausoleums Haunted Houses

Chaonei Church Building: How Chaonei No. 81 ( 朝内81号) looked from across the street in 2014, looming dark in the otherwise bright and busy street. //Photo: Daniel Case/Wikimedia.

By the neighbouring hutong, the traditional streets in Beijing, the house has always been remembered as haunted. And even during the 1970s, during the cultural revolution, the neighbours remember the Red Guard that lived in the Chaonei Church, got so frightened after staying inside of the haunted house, they had to leave after a few days. 

The Woman Hanging from the Rafters

But who frightened its inhabitants, that even the red guard couldn’t handle? According to the most commonly told legend, it is to a woman that once resided in Chaonei No. 81. Or rather, a scorned woman that used to live there, as most haunted histories start with.

The woman that used to live in the Chaonei Church is said to have been a wife or maybe a lover of an officer of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the nationalist party of China) that fought against the communist party during the Chinese civil war in the 1940s. The nationalist lost, and fled to Taiwan as the communist came into power.

The woman was allegedly left behind by her officer man who fled with the army to Taiwan, and she is said to have hung herself from the rafters of the house. 

The Ghost Inside of Chaonei No. 81: According to legend, the ghost haunting Chaonei No. 81 is the spirit of a woman left alone in the house by an officer who fled the country.

Whether the outcome of the war had anything to do with her death is debatable, as some suggest it was more that the officer was never at home, not paying her the attention she needed than the victory of the communists that led her to her decision of taking her life in the Chaonei Church.

Her existence at all is debatable as a lot of things during the civil war are lost, forgotten or even hidden away and a lot of documentation to confirm or deny the story is not there. What we can go by is the word of mouth however, and many that have stayed in Chaonei No. 81 knowing its history say there was never a KMT officer living there, and no woman hung herself in the rafters. 

The history behind Chaonei No. 81 is clouded in mystery, and there seems that no one can really agree on one account. But ghost stories have their own way of ignoring this, and sneaking their way into the mind of those around anyway. And according to the locals, this place has always been haunted. The locals persist in their own lore that she can indeed be heard, especially on those stormy nights, screaming from the empty house during thunder. 

The Vanishing Workers From the Chaonei Church

Even the construction of the house has been up for dispute with strange tales from the Chaonei Church. Like the story of a British priest who supposedly built on the property disappeared before being able to build the church. When a search party was sent, they supposedly found a secret tunnel leading all the way northeast of the premise to the Dashanzi neighborhood. 

There have also been three people, working on construction down in the basement in the building next to Chaonei No. 81 that supposedly vanished into thin air. They got drunk on the job and decided to break into the house by breaking the thin wall that separated the two houses. They were never seen again according to the reports. 

The House that Never Dies

A message to the entrance is put up, telling the visitors that there are no ghosts residing there, contrary to local beliefs, urging the paranormal seekers to stay away from the Chaonei Church.

Warning off people: Chalked notice on Chaonei No. 81 in Chinese, warning of ghosts in the house. Original text: “请勿相信谎言 无鬼” (Please do not believe lies, there are no ghosts)//Photo by Daniel Case//wikimedia

Especially after the horror movie, The House that Never Dies, inspired by the the haunted legends of Chaonei No. 81 and its story, the interest of it came back. And after its release in 2014, up to five hundred people crowded outside the house, causing the catholic church to close the gates, only letting a few in at the time.  

The same thing happened with Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital when a movie was made about the legend and they eventually demolished the entire building because the paranormal seekers were too much and the construction of the building not safe enough.

Keeping the legend alive: The movie trailer from the 2014 movie ‘The House that Never Die’, inspired about the legends surrounding Chaonei 81.

In 2016 however, Chaonei No. 81. interior and outside was renovated and rented out. Perhaps that is what it took to get rid of the spirit and the lore seeping from the old bricks of the Chaonei Church. But there are also those claiming they have an uneasy feeling of dread when walking by the house. And even in the hot summer, with the sun scorching right at the door, the doorway of the mansion somehow always feels cooler than in the shade.

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Featured Picture by Daniel Case source:

Chaonei No. 81

The House That Never Dies  

Dilapidated Mansion Has Had Many Occupants, Maybe Even a Ghost (Published 2013)

This abandoned “Chaonei No.81” house in China is described as “Beijing’s most celebrated haunted building” …  Raising Ghosts: Five of Beijing’s Most Haunted Attractions