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The Haunted Ocean Beach in San Francisco: The Ruins of Sutro Bath and Mysterious Cliff House

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Could the entire Ocean Beach in San Francisco be haunted? And could the haunting come from all the mysterious and tragic occurrences around Cliff House and the now ruins of the once grand Sutro Bath? Could the very foundations, even the caves underneath be cursed? 

San Francisco’s Ocean Beach may be a peaceful escape for visitors, but beneath the tranquil waves and scenic cliffs lies a darker story that covers everything from mystical ghostly woman on the shore, occult artifacts and curses, satanic rituals and monsters hidden abandoned caves. 

Read More: Check out all ghosts stories from USA

From the iconic Cliff House built upon and damaged by the many wrecked ships to the eerie ruins of the Sutro Baths, this coastal stretch is woven with tragic history, ghostly apparitions, and a deep-seated curse that seems to haunt every crumbling stone. 

The Haunted Beginnings of the Cliff House

Overlooking the entire Ocean Beach is The Cliff House, which had originally been built by Samuel Brannan, an ex-Mormon from Maine in 1858 using materials salvaged from a shipwreck. In 1883, the Cliff House was bought by the engineer and developer, Adolph Sutro, who would be the one to develop the whole area of land we see today and where the mystery started. 

The Parallel, a schooner heading into the bay loaded with 40 tons of dynamite and black gunpowder, tragically crashed against the rocky shore. The explosion of the boat was heard across the whole bay and it destroyed the entire north wing of the house. It was not the only ship wrecked there and the ships of The King Philip, SS Ohioan, & SS City of Rio De Janeiro, all met their end on this craggy cliff.

This fueled rumors that the cliffs were cursed by the spirits of those who had met their end there. Some say that they see the ship of the Parallel heading for the rocks before vanishing into thin air right before impact. The victims of the other shipwrecks are also said to wander the rocks on the cliffs below.

In 1896, Adolph Sutro rebuilt the Cliff House from the ground up as a seven-story Victorian chateau, called by some “the Gingerbread Palace”.

The Cliff House would go on to survive a series of devastating events. On Christmas Day in 1894, a fire from the chimney ravaged the structure, only for it to be rebuilt in 1900, only to fall to flames again in 1906 and 1907 — both during times of tragedy and chaos in the city. Could the series of disasters be linked to the haunting curse? Many locals think so.

Today it-s a restaurant with a full view over the sea. Still, many claim that spirits are still trapped around the house.  

The Curse Deepens: The Sutro Baths and its Tragic Legacy

In 1894, Adolph Sutro built the Sutro Baths, a grand swimming complex perched along the edge of the ocean. The eccentric millionaire and former mayor wanted to build the largest indoor swimming area in the world. Though it stood as a marvel of the time with seven pools and could house 10 000 people, it also became a site of haunting tales. 

After Sutro died in 1898, the bathhouse started to struggle. The Great Depression took away its guests, and stricter health codes made it harder to run a public bathhouse. They tried to turn it into an ice skating rink, but this also struggled financially. 

In 1887 when the schooner Parallel hit Cliff House next door, it exploded and demolished part of the house as well as the baths. In 1966 they had decided to turn the building into high rise buildings, but on the first day of construction, a new fire erupted, demolishing the remains of the bath and they abandoned the plans of building. It was found that the cause of the fire was arson.

By the early 20th century, reports of strange occurrences and ghost sightings around the Sutro Baths were common. These ruins — now a quiet monument to decay — are rumored to have seen unspeakable acts within their walls, including ritualistic human sacrifices. Even now, visitors report strange occurrences in the area: sudden cold spots, shadowy figures emerging from the ruins, and a sense of being watched by unseen eyes.

The Ghosts of Ocean Beach

As if the curse of the Cliff House and Sutro Baths weren’t enough, the Ocean Beach area itself is teeming with spectral inhabitants, even when the bathhouse was still in operation. According to them, there was just something that was a little off about the place. 

Over the years, visitors have reported seeing ghostly women wandering along the beach — some dressed in flowing Victorian-style gowns, others carrying parasol umbrellas, as though they are lost from another time.

Among the most famous spirits is Natalie Salina Harrison, a woman whose tragic love story haunts the cliffs. Natalie’s fiancé, a soldier in World War I named Sean Eric Anderson, was lost in battle, and she is said to have waited for his return along the cliffs for decades. In the end, she was petrified to stone and made into a statue, and she is still standing there. It is believed that Natalie’s ghost still haunts the shoreline, waiting for the man she loved, her form sometimes spotted wandering by the ocean with a look of eternal longing in her eyes. There are also those claiming she is luring men down to the rocky shores, and that any men have vanished after trying to follow her. 

Read Also: Check out The Siren Ghost of San Francisco’s Baker Beach where a similar story about the ghost of a woman is haunting the beach. 

But it isn’t just women who haunt Ocean Beach. The spirit of Frank Denvin, a 16 year old boy who tragically fell from a ladder head first into an empty cement tank and died in 1896, has also been seen along the cliffs, his shadowy figure still visible near the site of his untimely death. Over the years, workers and visitors have reported hearing the sound of his footsteps echoing across the beach at night, but when they turn to look, he is gone.

There is also the former lifeguard Theodosius who is said to have drowned as he was trying to save someone in the ocean, his shadow appearing in the bath and on the beach. 

What Makes Sutro Bath and Ocean Beach Haunted?

What is it about the place that has fueled the haunted rumors? What could be the cause of it? Some point to the eccentric founder of Sutro Bath to be the cause. Adolph Sutro brought strange things back to the place it is said, either with a sacred or occult story behind them. Some believe that these artifacts have affected the spiritual energy of the place. He had among other things an extensive taxidermy collection, a 3500 year old mummified head and two Egyptian mummies. 

A lot of information about Sutro’s mummy collections disappeared in the 1906 San Fran earthquake, but there are still his collections displayed in the city. 

One of the mummies is called Nes-Per-N-Nub, a mummy whose rare, triple nesting sarcophagi indicates a former great import, as the doorkeeper in the temple of Amun. He dates from between 945 and 783 BCE He was once a high priest of the Temple of Karnak. The mummy  is thought to come from Thebes who died from natural causes. 

The second, unnamed mummy is a female who is often referred to as The Yellow Mummy due to her sarcophagus’ brilliant color, and is remarkable for having extra sets of bones within the folds of her wrappings

The Haunted Cemetery and Satanism

Some say that it’s the very ground Sutro Bath is built on that is haunted. The surrounding land used to be the Golden Gate Cemetery where hundreds of bodies were buried. In the 1930s, 18,000 bodies were supposed to be moved to Colma, but the job was not done properly. In 1993, hundreds of bodies were found in unmarked graves around the area of Ocean Beach. 

There is also a cave system under the Sutro Baths that has drawn attention because of its occult connections. The tunnel that once funneled seawater into the baths is another site where paranormal activity is frequently reported. The dark, narrow passageways echo with strange whispers, and some claim to feel unseen hands brushing against them in the deep silence. For those brave enough to explore, the curse of the Sutro Baths seems to reach out from the shadows, eager to claim another soul.

The caves were dug out when constructing the bath. Some claim that a monster is living there, and some say that they have seen strange claw marks inside of the tunnels.

Many people are said to have been sacrificed at the end of the tunnel. If you go in at night and light a candle, the spirits will come and take it from you, throwing it into the dark water. 

It is also in close proximity from where Anton LaVey founded the Satanic Temple. A lot of nearby buildings and places have been seen in connection to the Satanic Temple as the religion was in large portions formed there. This is also the case with The Westerfeld House in the city.  In 1966 he told the S.F Examiner: 

“Ah, the happy hours I spent looking for ghosts in there. So I went out and put a curse on the place. It burned down 35 hours later, which is pretty unusual. It usually takes 36 hours for a curse to work, you know.”

Local lore suggests that the curse may never be lifted. Every year, as the winds howl off the Pacific, the restless spirits of the beach stir once more, seeking revenge for their untimely deaths and the misfortunes they endured in life. Perhaps the Cliff House is fated to burn again, as the curse of Ocean Beach continues to claim its toll.

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References:

The Haunted History of San Francisco’s Sutro Baths 

Raves, Satanic rituals and a journey into the 130-year-old tunnel at San Francisco’s spooky Sutro Baths

https://paranormalghostsociety.org/SutroBaths.htm

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC18960709.2.108&e=——-en–20–1–txt-txIN——–

The Sutro Egyptian Collection – Atlas Obscura

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The Siren Ghost of San Francisco’s Baker Beach

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Said to haunt the sand and waters by Baker Beach in San Francisco, the ghost of a woman has appeared and people claim to have heard her song, almost calling them to her. 

San Francisco is a city of legends, earthquakes, old money, and eccentric spirits. At the foot of the rugged cliffs west of the Presidio and just south of the Golden Gate Bridge, this stretch of sand has long been a favorite for picnickers, locals, and, it’s said, the dead.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from USA

Before it was a picturesque escape for sunbathers, Baker Beach belonged to the U.S. military. The adjacent Presidio military base, established in 1776, was one of the oldest active military installations in the country before its decommissioning in the 1990s. Over the centuries, it served as barracks, a garrison, and a site of numerous executions, skirmishes, and military accidents — some of which bled onto the sands of Baker Beach itself.

Baker Beach: A serene view of Baker Beach, with the iconic Golden Gate Bridge in the background, known for its ghost stories and mysterious tales of a woman singing you towards the water.

The Woman in White Beneath the Bridge

The beach is said to be the location of a female apparition who sings on the shore and her sounds are believed to have hypnotic powers. It is not a very widely known ghost story and a suspicious part of the tale is that it is mostly told through vague and short lists of haunted beaches, and not by locals. 

On foggy nights when the Golden Gate disappears into the mist, witnesses have spotted a ghostly woman in white standing alone where the beach meets the rocks. She appears out of nowhere and like a siren, sings people towards her.

As the waters by the beach have a heavy stream and strong undercurrent rip tides, entering the waters is not the best idea. Some fear that her appearance and beckoning voice to the water can pose a danger and her haunting is attributed to more than one mysterious disappearance from the beach. 

Who was she? Some speculate that she is the spirit of a woman who leapt from the Golden Gate Bridge and that her body was never recovered by the coast guard. Some think that she must be one of the victims of the ships that went down right by. Some say that she’s not a human spirit at all, but a creature like the siren, her sole purpose is to lure people to the dark depths of the sea. 

Legends of sirens: Enchanting creatures of the sea, have captivated the imaginations of people for centuries. Often depicted as beautiful maidens with alluring voices, sirens are said to lure sailors to their doom with their enchanting songs, encouraging them to abandon their ships and swim towards the source of the melody. These mythical beings have roots in ancient Greek mythology, where they were depicted as dangerous temptresses residing on rocky islands, using their hypnotic melodies to entice mariners. The consequences of heeding a siren’s call are dire; sailors often found themselves shipwrecked on treacherous shores or lost to the depths of the ocean, entranced by the sirens’ beguiling tunes.

Strange Lights and Whispering Waves

Beyond these specific apparitions, locals and paranormal investigators report an array of inexplicable phenomena on Baker Beach. Flickering orbs of light dart between the dunes, disembodied voices carry on the wind, and sudden, icy pockets of air settle in even on the warmest summer nights.

Some claim to have heard the faint, ghostly strains of military bugles, or the whispered fragments of old sea shanties, though no source is ever found. Lifeguards in the 1970s were said to routinely encounter eerie shadows moving along the surf, far from any living presence

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https://www.instagram.com/walksanfrancisco/p/DBp8cRFR7b6/?img_index=3

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Ghost Stories of The Haunted Prison Alcatraz

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Explore the eerie secrets and dark history of the most haunted prison, Alcatraz! Get ready to be chilled to the bone by these haunting ghost stories from both the prison guards and inmates.

If you are curious about the darkest secrets of Alcatraz, then you have come to the right place. Get ready to be spooked by tales of death, hauntings, and other eerie happenings in one of America’s most notorious prisons – Alcatraz.

What is the History of Alcatraz?

Alcatraz was a prison in San Francisco Bay that operated from 1934 to 1963. Located on a rocky island, the prison housed some of America’s most dangerous criminals, including mobsters Al Capone. 

Alcatraz is notorious for being home to some of America’s most dangerous criminals, including gangsters and murderers. Al Capone, known as “Scarface” from his days as a Chicago mobster, spent four years in Alcatraz before being released due to poor health. 

Other notable prisoners included Machine Gun Kelly, Robert Franklin Stroud – the “Birdman of Alcatraz” – and the John and Clarence Anglin who attempted the iconic 1962 escape attempt.

Despite strict security, escape attempts were said to be frequent even after they closed it down as a prison in 1963. Today it is a tourist attraction and many believe the infamous prison is haunted by the ghosts of its former inmates and guards.

Read about more haunted prisons around the world: Here

Paranormal Activity Reported Inside Alcatraz

In addition to its infamous inmates, there have been reported sightings of paranormal activity inside the prison walls. Reports claim that the ghostly sounds of laughter, screams and metal clanging can all be heard throughout Alcatraz at night. 

Others report seeing apparitions standing in front of bars as well as mysterious figures roaming around the deserted hallways of the cell block. These spooky tales have remained a mystery over time.

The Ghost Story of the Birdman

The most well-known ghost story of Alcatraz revolves around an inmate named Robert Stroud, also known as the “Birdman of Alcatraz.” It has been said that haunting cries of birds can still be heard echoing off the walls of Alcatraz after the prison shut down in 1963. 

It is believed that these are the same cries he kept hearing while caring for birds while he was incarcerated. Additionally, some have reported seeing his ghost wandering around the prison grounds late at night.

Other Notable Spooky Legends Related to Alcatraz

Other than the story of Robert Stroud, there are a few other notable legends surrounding Alcatraz that make it one of the most haunted places in America. Reports of strange glowing orbs, mysterious whispers, and fountains running with blood have all been attributed to this infamous prison. 

Additionally, some believe it is still haunted by its former prisoners who died during their time here. Whether or not you believe these stories, the dark history of Alcatraz will leave you feeling like you’re being watched…even today!

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The Witches of the Black Diamond Mines

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Guarding the old mining community, these ghosts of these two women have been dubbed witches by the locals, feared as well as revered in their lives. Who were The White Witches of the Black Diamond Mines?

Before the place in the San Francisco Bay area used to be a bustling mining community at the turn of the century. The coal mines was operating until 1945. Now the mines are closed and the place forgotten, but the remains can still be reached an hour away from San Francisco. 

Although named the Diamond mines, there was no sparkling diamonds to be found in the mines. Instead it was coal, the black type of diamonds. It is here the legend of the white witches started to take hold of the mining community.

Overview

Type of Haunting:Female Ghost, Witches
Place:USA, North America
Other:Haunted Cemetery
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The Contra Costa County is ranked as the scariest place in California because of legends like the Black Diamond Mines and the White Witches that are said to be haunting the place.

The White Witch in Rose Hill Cemetery

Sara Norton worked as a midwife to the people living in the small towns across the bay area and she delivered over 600 babies in her time. She was a widow to Noah Norton that even got the town Nortonville named after himself. 

She died however in 1879 at the age of 68. She was on call at her midwife duties when she was thrown from a carriage to make a delivery in Clayton and was killed in the accident. 

According to the legend, Sarah was not a religious person and told her own kids that she didn’t want a church funeral. However, when she died that was exactly what they gave her and her spirit became enraged. On the day of the funeral a storm crashed their plan and they decided to go through with the funeral the next day. The next day however, another storm came crashing and ruined their plans. The townspeople took the hint and skipped the formalities and buried her in the Rosehill Cemetery. 

From then on the spirit of Sarah has been spotted in the old mining towns as well as floating around the tombstones in the graveyard. 

Mary the Wailing Witch in the Black Diamond Mines

Another lady that is haunting the place is Mary, who history forgot her last name. She was working as a nanny in the 1870s, but in contrast to Sarah that brought life into this world, her legacy tells that she put life out. 

All of her children that she cared for died of illness and it was not soon before she was accused of witchcraft after some local townspeople allegedly found evidence of her dark rituals that resulted in the death of their children. 

In some variations of the legend, she worked as a school teacher, not a nanny. And with the diseases of the times, it is not unlikely diseases went through the community, striking the kids at the same time. So was it a tragedy or witchcraft? The townspeople certainly was of the belief that it was and set out to punish her.

The legend differs from how Mary met her death. Although the evidence is lost to us, it supposedly was enough to hang her for her crimes in some versions of the story. In other version her dead body was found in the mines under strange circumstances. But it was not enough to bring her out of this world. 

To this day she is spotted guarding the mines wearing all white and seeking revenge for her murder. But there is also another side to her hauntings. It is said that it is mostly children that see her, and she pushes them out from the dangerous mines that are filled with harmful gasses and unstable tunnels. 

So the question remains, is she remaining in the world as a resentful witch, or as a protector of children that she wasn’t able to be alive?

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References

Haunted? Why East Bay’s Black Diamond Mines Are So Spooky To Some | Concord, CA Patch

Black Diamond Mines is Most Haunted Cave Near San Franciscoi

Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve | East Bay Parks

Spooky Trails and Tall Tales California: Hiking the Golden State’s Legends, Hauntings, and History by Tom Ogden

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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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References

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