Getting in the Halloween Spirit?
You can visit a REAL Haunted House!

There will be no "haunted forest" at Oak Meadow Park this year, as you may have read recently in the news. But there are still plenty of spooky places to visit for Halloween.

One of them is an old ranch house in San Jose's eastern foothills. It is notoriously haunted, and you can tour it by flashlight this Friday or Saturday evening.

Do you dare?!

For more information, visit The Haunted Real Estate Blog.

Not So "Live in Los Gatos":
New Blog on Haunted Real Estate

Posts here on haunted places in Los Gatos have been very well received, so I wanted to let this audience know that I've begun a new blog on Haunted Real Estate this week. Please take a look and feel free to share your own stories and insights: they are most welcome!

The Haunted Real Estate Blog can be found at www.HauntedRealEstateBlog.wordpress.com or for short, use the redirect of simply www.HauntedRealEstateBlog.com.

And please also visit a page I have on this topic too, www.HauntedRealEstate.com.

Meanwhile, I will continue to occassionally add posts here on haunted spots in beautiful Los Gatos, and again invite you to share your stories on them with me!

Do You Have a Los Gatos Ghost Story to Share?

Do you have any stories about ghosts in Los Gatos? I would like to hear them. I'm collecting ghost stories to share on my Live in Los Gatos blog. And maybe someday I will put together a book on the area's haunted places.

So you may be wondering, how did this strange hobby began? (My teens wish I just did needlepoint, or something "normal" instead.)

A few years ago, I began to casually collect local ghost stories because they intrigued me. Next I began to read some books on the subject..then more books. At my office, my manager asked me to share some of them just before Halloween in 2003. To my amazement, the agents in my office loved the stories of Los Gatos's haunted spots...then several discreetly came up to me and told me their own stories of encounters with a ghost.

That's usually how it works - people don't usually share their stories about ghosts unless they think you believe. No one wants to be made fun of.

My interest grew further after a couple of personal experiences and then I began a page on one of my websites devoted to the topic of Haunted Real Estate, and I also got a URL dedicated to the page too: http://www.HauntedRealEstate.com.

At Halloween, and all through October, reporters started contacted me. Then the focus expanded and I had them phoning and emailing me about stigmatized properties too. It's as if this thing took on a life of its own.

I haven't sold haunted houses, I kept telling them: I just collect the stories, I read a lot. But I also started assembling information on disclosure laws around the country, about folks who were good at "ghostbusting" or exorcizing a house, places where you could do a ghost tour, haunted hotels... you name it.

And I added an RSS feed on ghost stories.

Frances Flynn Thorsen of RealTown.com asked me to write an article on ghosts. I agreed to do it (though my husband was a little concerned it might scare away potential clients who'd think I was crazy), and "Haunted Real Estate: A Primer for Real Estate Agents" was well received.

Now? It is still expanding, as if self-propelled. In the last month, I had two different people (whom I don't know) email me about wanting to sell their haunted homes. Neither one, of course, is in Silicon Valley. Who'd have thought my hobby would lead here? So it seems I need a spot dedicated to "haunted houses for sale" or something along those lines on the site.

My "page" needs more space. Sometime in the next year, I think it will need to branch out from a single, long page on my ValleyOfHeartsDelight.com website into its own website.

Meanwhile, I'm blogging on Los Gatos and part of that effort is to include ghost stories from around the town. I have discussed the most prominent ones so far: The Opera House, Trevese Restaurant (formerly The Chart House and Chart's), Border's Bookstore in Old Town, Village Lane (the old cemetery - did they move ALL the bodies?) and Forbes Mill.

I know there are others because sometimes I get calls. A few months ago, a young woman phoned me and wanted to know where, exactly, the old cemetery was located  because her new boyfriend refused to stay with her overnight due to a matronly ghost with an attitude that he didn't belong there. (Her place was not on the old graveyard, but near it. I saw a "for rent" sign outside of her home within two weeks of her phone call to me.)

Some places I really have to wonder about: the Main Street Bridge (there was a lynching there) is one of them. Where was the town's jail? Did the town do executions (lynching aside)? If so, where? What about the mortuary turned single family house on Main Street? (Not the former Chart House.) Anything doing there? I read something on a message board about a ghost off either Guadalupe Mines Road or Hicks Road - any truth to that? Your input would be much appreciated!

So, residents and friends of Los Gatos, I want to ask for your input: where are the haunted places in our fair town? Please call or email me in confidence. I want your story and I won't blow your cover!

More Ghosts in Los Gatos

Los Gatos has no shortage of haunted places, the old cemetery (now covered with shops), a former mortuary turned restaurant and also the Opera House are all reputed to be a little spooky.

But that's not the whole list.

Border's, a fabulous store for books and music located in "Old Town", seems to have two ghosts of its own.

The stories about these ghosts are that one is a small boy and one is a man in his 20s or so, wearing jeans, I believe a pullover sweater and a baseball cap.

Who are they?  We're not sure. The young man is a complete mystery, at least to this writer.  But there is a rumor about the child, that he fell off a balcony when the building was a school.  (This was the site of the town's school from the 1880s until the 1950s. Later it was developed into a shopping center. For awhile, the old auditorium was a theater. That spot is now Border's.)

If you ask the people who've worked there a long time about the hauntings, some will say they don't believe, and some will say they've heard things.  When it is a matter of the books moving off the shelves, you can argue that they were squeezed in too tightly and were pushed by natural force.

I did, though, meet a few people myself over the years who told me of their own personal experiences in the store.  One gal told me that she and two other employees were chatting one day when they all saw the apparition of the grownup spectre out of their peripheral vision.  When they turned to look straight on, he vanished. But all three had seen him.  And a person I know well had an experience of the child ghost when we visited the store one day which could not be explained away.

And no, they weren't actually scary happenings overall. Just weird.  And that is normal for hauntings - they are usually more weird than anything else. 

Borders is arguably one of the very best places to hang out in town.  There are books, magazines, and papers of course. And there's a coffee bar, with seating both inside - at tables or comfy leather chairs - and outside on a sunny deck.  It's got a comfortable ambiance, a bit of history, and that "little something extra". I have never felt that it was a creepy place in the least.  If the place is indeed haunted, which I believe it is, they are not bad ghosts. Nothing to fear.

So go to Borders, buy a great book and have a seat in a comfy leather chair. Who knows, maybe you'll learn something about the place...and if so, fill me in!

Reincarnation of the Haunted Restaurant

115 North Santa Cruz Avenue in Los Gatos is once again a "live" restaurant. The lovely old Queen Anne Victorian house has quite the history.  First it was a residence, later a mortuary, and eventually a restaurant.

I grew up nearby and as a teen, I just could not imagine eating there. We used to joke about the refrigeration system!  Eventually, a wedding reception for dear friends was held within those walls, and in my 30's I broke my vow to never eat in such a creepy place. 

And I didn't even know it was haunted! 

There are many, many ghost stories surrounding the former Chart House. Some of them are even funny - like the ghost at the bar who likes to ring up huge tabs in the middle of the night - drinks they didn't even serve at the place!  (Yes, a party ghost.) 

When dining there one Christmas eve about 5 or 6 years ago, I asked a few of the people working there if they had any stories. I got an earful, but my children got a bit freaked out - and we found that later going to the basement to use the restroom became a hurdle of insurmountable heights. (I have now learned NOT to ask about ghosts in front of my kids, especially if the bathroom is in a particularly remote area. They are teens now but still don't appreciate Mom's hobby.)

Anyway, the Chart House did serve great food, and there was no shortage of ambiance, but it just could not seem to make much of a profit, so after a decade or more, it closed. I do believe it's due to the locals knowing its history.   The next tenant in was also a restaurant, and it was named Chart's. It did not have a very long run, however. It closed and once again the "for lease" sign went up.

I did a quick peek at Google on this spot earlier and discovered that a tourist did a U-Tube Video of the former Chart House between the last tenant and this one. 

So a new chapter begins as the spot once again opens as a restaurant.  I don't know what type of food is served there, but ... I'm dying to find out.

The Haunted Opera House of Los Gatos

More Haunted Places in Los Gatos

When people first hear that there are ghosts in Los Gatos, they want to know - right away - where they are!  The old cemetery location doesn't surprise them, at least not once they hear that there's a former graveyard that now has shops residing there.

But aside from a final resting place, where else are there ghostly sightings and activities?

One of them is the popular Los Gatos party destination, The Opera House. Apparently it's just too much fun to leave!  Seriously, the ghost there is said to be a woman - she has been seen and heard so many times, by so many people, that it is one of the few spots absolutely not in doubt to be inhabited by a spirit of a former human being. One of the most remarkable things is not just that she has been seen and heard, but that she has even been photographed.

But not to worry, whatever her name is (there is some dispute about that), she is known to be benevolent. I spoke to several employees there myself a few years ago. Those who'd had an experience of her (not all had, but many did) all claimed that she was kindly, protective. One told me that this gal has a conscience. The worker wanted to sneak out early but amazingly, the door was unable to be opened until her shift was over. Scary? The woman I spoke with said no. "She was not about to let me leave early - this is a ghost who's ethical", she confided.

Haunted Los Gatos: The Old Cemetery

One of Los Gatos's More Haunted Haunts

Yesterday, an article I wrote about Haunted Real Estate was published on Real Town. I have received a ton of emails about ghosts and people's experiences with them in the last 24 hours!  I have never had so much fun reading email.

So I thought you folks might like to know about some of our haunted spots, right here in beautiful, charming, upscale Los Gatos.  There are so many stories that it's hard to know where to begin!!  Today I will address just one of these interesting locations. More to follow in later entries, I promise!  This will be "Mary Pope-Handy's Los Gatos Ghost Tour". 

Cemeteries tend to give people the creeps, so let's start there. If you are local to Los Gatos, you probably know that the Los Gatos Memorial Park is actually in San Jose, with a Cambrian Park zip code, out on Los Gatos-Almaden Road.   How did that happen?  Well, usually you want the burial grounds to be a little bit out of town, right?  The Los Gatos Memorial Park began in 1888 (first burials in 1890) and was initially called the Los Gatos Cemetary.  By the late 1800's, Los Gatos had expanded such that the in-town graveyard was just too close, so it was decided to move folks from their final resting place to a "more final resting place" out in the country. (It has no website, amazingly, but you can see great photos of this park by visiting an "unofficial" site at www.LGMP.com.) 

Where was this old cemetery?  It was located at the corner of Highway 9 and North Santa Cruz Avenue and bordered roughly by Village Lane and the old train tracks.  (The land for the train is now the long parking lot parallel to University Avenue and North S. Cruz Avenue.  As an aside, North Santa Cruz Avenue was called Cemetery Lane easy of Hwy 9 then!)   

It should be noted, too, that not only were there people laid to rest at this location, but it's also possible that someone was killed there in 1906 when an interurban trolly car jumped its tracks and crashed at the same location - approximately where Double D's stands today.

The town's leaders tried to move all the bodies, really they did. From 1890 through 1924, they did a relocation of the town's dead to the new country location.  But some family members could not be located to obtain permission to move their deceased loved ones.  After the bodies were moved (or most of them), the land was converted to the Hunt Brothers Cannery and housing for cannery workers for awhile. Today it's a bustling part of our downtown and houses many shops and some restaurants, the most visible of which is Double Ds.  Is it haunted? You'd be surprised if I said no. Several of the businesses there do, indeed, have paranormal experiences and it appears that some of the folks initially buried there still consider this their home.  Yes, it's haunted. Very haunted.

Blog entry by Mary Pope-Handy,
Los Gatos Enthusiast,
Los Gatos & Silicon Valley (San Jose area) Residential Real Estate Specialist and
Realtor, CRS, ABR, SRES, ASP, CNHS, RECS, E-Pro,
Intero Real Estate Services, 518 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos, CA 95030
www.PopeHandy.com
Do not use without permission, please.