Tag Archives: haunted

Haunted Hollydale Mental Hospital

Nationality: self-declared "cholo"
Age: 22
Occupation: unknown
Residence: Compton, CA
Performance Date: February 26
Language: spanish

My friends and I were hunting for haunted houses and after googling haunted places in los angeles, we decided to go check out the abandoned Hollydale Mental Hospital in Downey, CA.

We drove around the hospital campus for a bit, and then decided we should probably leave considering all of the buildings were fenced in and we really didn’t know what we were doing. Then we pulled in to a nearby parking lot and saw a group of people get out of their car who looked about our age, in their early twenties. We asked them if they were there to check out the hospital and they said yes, so we asked if we could join. They were very welcoming (the four guys were drunk, and the one girl was clearly  their sober driver) and explained that they were there to “initiate” Cherry because it was his first time visiting this haunted place. According to them, it was tradition to run up to the main house, “where they kept the craziest of the crazies”, and touch the front door for your first time visiting Hollydale. We decided this was exciting and tagged along. The girl, Cindy, began to explain how they were from the area and that they heard stories about Hollydale all the time from other kids in school. She also told us the story she knows of why it was abandoned:

Back in the 70’s, there was an outbreak of Tuberculosis at the hospital, and their way of dealing with it was to get all of those who had not yet been infected out and then left the rest of the people there to die. That is why the whole compound looks as if everyone just up and left, because they did. They just closed up shop like it was the end of another business day.

Cindy told us that they had been inside one of the buildings before and they took a whole box of papers from beside a desk and it had a lot of old, interesting papers and files inside.

She also said that about a year ago, the town planned  on tearing the place down because it was costing them money to have policemen constantly patrolling and whatnot, but a group of animal rights activists wouldn’t allow them too because the site has become a breeding ground for stray cats.

 

Child Spirits Still Haunt the Orphanage

Nationality: Caucasian American
Age: 23
Occupation: Student (Screenwriting)
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/24/12
Primary Language: English

Informant Bio

My informant is a USC student who hails from Detroit, Michigan. He grew up in the suburbs around Detroit and attended a private Catholic school, and has great pride in his city. He has a large family with whom he is very close.

He told me this story when I asked him about childhood in Detroit. He said that though sneaking into old buildings was not a huge part of his childhood, visiting the orphanage was something that he remembers doing more than once because he and his friends wanted to see a ghost.

The Abandoned Orphanage

Near where my informant lived in Michigan he recalls a fenced off compound of brownstone buildings that as long as he could remember had never been occupied. He never gave much thought to what it was until one day when a friend of his in school asked him if he wanted to explore it with her.

They were twelve years old when my informant’s friend (I’ll call her Marie) took him into the compound. He found out from her that it had once been an orphanage, but now it was abandoned.. They slipped under the fence at a place where it had been pulled up a bit. Marie’s sixteen year old brother led the way because he had been there before.

When they got inside, Marie’s brother began to narrate their tour of the dusty, empty hallways with stories about how the place was haunted. He said that the orphanage was still haunted by the spirits of the kids who were never adopted.

My informant couldn’t remember any stories specifically, but he does remember thinking that Marie’s brother was not telling the stories well. The stories didn’t have much of a point and it soon became clear that he was only telling them to scare his younger sister.

My informant never saw a ghost in the orphanage, though he, Marie and their friends did sneak back in on other occasions without Marie’s brother. The place large and empty – and they never found anything too interesting there. Barely any furniture or other items remained. Looking back now he’s quite relieved that they never came across anyone who had decided to squat there.

Other children also had stories that they had heard about ghosts in the place, and the ghosts were always the spirits of children. However my informant claims that none of the stories told how the children died, simply that “little Susan” or “Jim Bob” was never adopted, so they haunted the empty halls, still waiting to be taken to a good home. It seems almost as if the stories imply that the children were abandoned there with the building.

Shanghai Tunnels

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Portland, OR
Performance Date: 4/12/12
Primary Language: English

My informant grew up in Portland, Oregon, and was fascinated with ghost tales and haunted areas. He told me about the Shanghai Tunnels in Portland, which are notorious around the city for being haunted and creepy. My informant told me that as the story goes, in the 1800s there were people known as “Shanghaiiers” who worked for the shipping industry that ran through Portland’s Willamette River. These Shanghaiiers would kidnap unsuspecting men and women from bars and other places around downtown, and bring them down through secret entrances to the underground Shanghai Tunnels.

These tunnels, which still exist today, were said to have been the preferred route to take these victims down to the river where they would be shipped out and used for slave labor, and possibly prostitution. These days, it is common folklore that these tunnels are haunted with the souls of those who were taken down these tunnels and shipped into slavery. They are said to be dangerous, and one of the “most haunted places in America”.

My informant has heard these stories from many friends and peers, who tell it as a part of social interaction. There are now tour groups that will take you on a tour through these tunnels, but my informant says that they are “only for the bravest of the brave. I’d never go”. My informant says that he believes that there really were Shanghaiiers who would kidnap individuals in the 1800’s, and says that he really does believe that the tunnels are haunted nowadays.

I believe that this story may be true, based on how widespread and widely popular it is around Portland. I believe that at one point, they likely were used as underground transports for kidnapped adults and children. On the other hand, I believe that the tunnels are likely not truly haunted by the souls of these individuals. Firstly, because the individuals were shipped other locations immediately after, and secondly because the whole idea of ghosts may just be a false identity, spread throughout folklore. Nevertheless, you absolutely won’t find me wandering these tunnels anytime soon, even on a tour.

Ghost Story – New York, New York

Nationality: German
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Rumson, NJ
Performance Date: April 11, 2008
Primary Language: English

While the New Amsterdam Theater on W. 42nd St  was being renovated some of the construction men claimed that  they frequently saw a beautiful young woman wandering aimlessly through the theater when they were working. She is always dressed in a Follies costume and a blue glass in her hand. She wore a sash with the name Olive on it too. They think that she’s the ghost of Olive Thomas who died in the 1920s. She was a Ziegfeld Girl which were part of the Ziegfeld Follies that the theatre hosted. Olive died of syphilis in Paris. But once when reconstruction was going on the workers got freaked out because they saw her ghost and they ran out of the building screaming. Another time the ghost talked to a worker in the lobby saying “How are you doing, handsome?” but when he turned around she was gone.

Chauncey spends most of her weekends in New York City shopping, visiting friends from boarding school and going to shows. When Chauncey was about 13 years old she went to see the musical 42nd St. with her Mom. While she and her mom were waiting for the show to begin her mom told her the story of the ghost in the New Amsterdam theatre. Her mom heard the story from a friend of hers who knew the owner of the theatre. Chauncey and her mom both believe the story to be credible because the owner supports it.

The story of Olive Thomas is interesting, but has a fundamental flaw. First and probably most obvious is the fact that Olive Thomas died in Paris, where the follies show was originally conceived. It makes little sense that her ghost would return to New York City. When I asked Chauncey about this she said that she thought perhaps Olive’s most beloved memories are of her time in the theatre and that’s why she wanted to return.

The traits of Olive that came through in her appearances may also reveal reasons as to why she died of a sexually transmitted disease. Olive appears with a glass in her hands, it could be assumed that this glass had a cocktail in it, leading to the assumption that Olive often drank. Also, Olive hit on the workers in the theatre calling one handsome, this might imply that she was promiscuous.  Alcohol and sexual promiscuity are both likely the precursors to sexually transmitted diseases and perhaps Olive is looking to warn others of the dangers.  By appearing with the traits of her downfall maybe it will scare others from engaging in the acts.

Perhaps the only reason her ghost appeared is because the theatre was being gutted and completely reconstructed, this may have disturbed old spirits of the theatre and could be the main reason Olive appeared. As far as Chauncey knows, Olive was the only ghost who appeared to the construction workers. Currently the New Amsterdam theatre is owned by Disney productions and is in use on Broadway. Since it’s reopening in 1997 Chauncey and her mother have not heard any more accounts of Olive’s presence in the theatre, or any other haunting for that matter.

Ghost Story – Santa Maria, California

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Santa Maria
Performance Date: April 28, 2008
Primary Language: English

Ghost Story

The Haunted Auditorium – Santa Maria, CA

“My school is over 100 years-old and one of the original buildings is still standing: Ethel Pope Auditorium. I don’t know the exact year, ballpark—probably 50-60 years ago. There was play going on in the auditorium on a rainy night and on the way there, a high school girl performer got in a car crash and died on the way.

Somehow that night, she was still in the play, performing even though she was dead. Now sometimes during plays at night you can see her up on the catwalk above the stage, sometimes when you look up. You can see blood dripping off her head from the car crash.

I haven’t seen this, but here is definitely creepy shit going on in that building. Just weird things. There’s major temperature changes, hot some places cold in others. Then the lights will turn on and off sometimes and the doors would mysteriously open and close.  I think some of the people who run lights have seen stuff. Some people hear whispers or feel touches.

She’s not necessarily haunting; she’s just there. I’ll admit, it’s scary being in there by yourself. It’s just a huge empty building—there’s always weird stuff. It’s an eerie feeling. Girls for sure don’t go in there by themselves. Its fun to take other people to creep them out, though.”

Haunted house stories are always best when they’re local. I live near Santa Maria, and after telling me this story, Antonio has promised to take me to Ethel Pope.  Because of the details about the temperature changes and whispers, I’ll probably be on the lookout for them, and since all old buildings are drafty and make noises, I will surely be rewarded—and terrified.

The key to a story like this is the victim—given her age and gender, this story is all the more scary to me because I can relate to her. Also, because the speaker admitted his fear, the whole story becomes more real and scary. By saying girls “for sure don’t go in there by themselves” also hints at more danger that I could run into.

The only thing missing in this tale is a motive for the ghost to be hanging around the auditorium .