Haunted Houses: Whaley House

The Whaley House is a two-storey brick structure with white painted trim, that looks pleasant enough, even cheerful, as it looks out over the busy streets of San Diego's "Old Town." But once you walk inside the doors of the Whaley House, you are walking into the house of the dead....Or at least so go the local legends....Personally, The very first time I walked into the Whaley House, I got cold chills, and a feeling like someone was watching me....And even though, i was there precisely because of the houses reputation, I could very well believe how any one person or especially those of us with the knack of seeing ghosts might well think this house is haunted....I guarantee, the place is haunted.

The land beneath Whaley House was adjacent to what the Spanish conquerors called a ranchero, a small Native American settlement where the local Kumeyaay tribe would spend the winters.....Nearby, Father Junipero Serra's first Mission began its process of converting the Kumeyaay, an often harsh endeavor....Converts who no longer wished to stay imprisoned behind the high walls and closed doors of the Mission were hunted down by Spanish soldiers retrieving the Mission's human property.....The Whaley's sold goods to the Kumeyaay, and also employed some of them, though their employment was closer to slavery since they were escorted under armed Spanish sliders guns back and forth between the mission and the Whaley House.....Thomas Whaley recorded how he had bought one young girl from her parents to work for him and to be his personal property, and then was a bit irritated when she decided she had had enough and ran away back to here people, forcing him to pay for her again to get her back.....It is believed her tortured spirit roams the house, looking for a way to escape....The apparition of at least one Indian man has been seen inside of the house.....He was killed by the Spanish solders as he tried to escape.