Spooked in Seattle: A Haunted Handbook by Ross Allison

Author:Ross Allison
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781578605019
Publisher: Clerisy Press
Published: 2011-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

THE WASHINGTON HOTEL

The Josephinum grounds have some interesting history. In 1853, the ground on which it stands started out as one of Seattle’s first cemeteries known as the Denny Hotel Cemetery. If the cemetery ever had a formal name, it remains unknown as there was none recorded. Burials were made informally at that time, and there wasn’t even a charge for a plot. By its end in 1860, the cemetery had about twenty bodies before they where moved to the Seattle Cemetery (Denny Park).

In 1898, as construction started on the Denny Hotel, workers discovered two Indian graves, recognizable as such by the burial goods with the bodies. In a Seattle PI report on the findings, Arthur Denny had this to say: “Seattle’s first burying ground for the whites was located on the Denny Hotel grounds, about where Stewart Street crosses Second Avenue. We buried there for several years, and also during the Indian War. Burials there were commenced as early as 1853 and continued as late as 1860.” He also added that the graves had been removed when it was abandoned, but many of the graves had been neglected, and some very well could have been missed. He also stated that he had no knowledge of Indian graves at the site.

Denny Hotel was to be Seattle’s grandest hotel as it towered over Seattle, offering guests the most beautiful scenic views in the West. But shortly after construction, funding was pulled in 1893, leaving an amazing empty shell hovering over the city for ten years. James A. Moore purchased it, had the interior completed, and changed its name to The Washington Hotel. One of this hotel’s claims to fame is that President Theodore Roosevelt stayed in one of the grand rooms on his visit to Seattle. Moore was able to get two wonderful years out of his grand hotel being saved from the Great Seattle Fire before it became clear that the dirt under the grand Washington Hotel was more valuable than the building itself, so the hotel was torn down.

Today stories say that there is a young woman who appears and can be heard humming and singing in the stairway in the new building that now stands where the grand structure had once towered over Seattle. One account is that a man was visiting his grandmother who was living there at the time. As he stood in the lobby waiting for the elevator, he heard a slight humming draw closer and closer. Just then the elevator doors opened to reveal a young woman standing inside. Being gentlemanly, he tipped his hat to greet her, stepped inside, and turned to the panel to hit the button for the next floor. The doors closed, and the young woman began to hum behind him as the elevator proceeded up. His destination approached and the doors opened. At the same time, the woman stopped humming. He then turned to say good-bye to the young woman, and, to his surprise, there was no one there. He described the woman as having her hair in a bun, but messy, and she was in a dark dingy dress.

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