Ghosts!
Bob’s senior project for high school had to do with paranormal investigation. He took a class and got himself certified, but he needed to clock some “work time” as part of his project. So, while we were talking – we got to googling – and it turns out there’s a ghost tour in San Francisco! I was stoked. Bob had never been to San Francisco, so i was very excited to be able to drag him around by his hair all over the city!
For the Ghost Tour, reservations are not required. Just show up in the lobby of the Queen Anne Hotel, in time for the tour to depart, pay your fee & you’re golden! ghost walking tour: http://www.sfghosthunt.com/fatcow.com/About_The_Ghost_Hunt.html
After checking out the website i was read! Mary, Flora, Gertrude, and Mary Ellen Pleasant: The Voodoo Queen of San Francisco? Who knew? I’m sharing the photos that I took on this particular tour, but if you’d like more of the stories & Ghosts then – you’ve got to take the tour yourself!!!
The Queen Anne Hotel
We live about an hour from SF, so we made a day trip of it, and arrived at the hotel a few hours before tour time. I collected the info we needed and the hostess allowed to take a look around. At one point, the Hotel was an all girls school, and the ghost in this hotel is said to be a former school teacher.
She does really awful things like comfort people and wrap them blankets!
Our tour guide Jim does this every night (except Tuesday) in costume, rain or shine, and has done so for the last 10 years…
Gertrude
The story of Gertrude is an interesting one. Gertrude was a socialite at the turn of the century, who despised her husband. She spent her time throwing wild parties, fornicating, and living it up. She hardly noticed when her husband didn’t come home one night… apparently, he had gotten drunk in a bar & spent the night being talked into joining the crew of a ship that was ready to sail overseas. While on that journey he died suddenly, so the crew placed him in a rum barrel and shipped him back home.
They received the barrel and it was opened during one of Gertie’s parties… some party favor, huh!
The mansion has since been split up into an apartment complex of sorts and apparently Gertrude, her husband – and her mother still live there. Footsteps. Honking the horn of people’s cars outside, setting off alarms… she’s a busy woman.
This is also where I got the only real activity on this tour, i think it’s Gertrude.
Mary Ellen Pleasant
The Voodoo Queen of San Francisco. An apparently a free woman, thanks to the underground railroad. Mary Ellen spent most of the rest of her life helping free slaves, the same way she was freed, and became an extremely wealthy woman for her efforts. Her house used to take up the full square corner we are standing on, the property has long been split up and now there is only a garden and plaque to commemorate her.
Jim tells some great stories about the gum-nuts that drop from the trees we’re standing beneath, some of his former tour goers, the more obnoxious sightseers, get pelted with the hard little nuts. And he thinks it’s Mary Ellen letting her disapproval be known…
The walk thru Pacific Heights is lovely (as long as the weather’s good), the old sears catalogue Victorian’s are almost as fun to look at as searching for ghosts. The stories are entertaining and fun, and our tour guide Jim was knowledgable and theatrical – highly entertaining!
So, if you need something to do one night when you’re in the city – and you are so inclined, take a couple hours out to do the ghost walk. Unless you’re scared…
Nikki James 