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!

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.

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.