Image by Midjourney.com
On May 6, 1856, Thomas Whaley began construction on his new home and proclaimed “My new house, when completed, will be the handsomest, most comfortable and convenient place in town or within 150 miles of here.” The two-story Greek Revival house was designed by Thomas Whaley and made from bricks created in Whaley’s very own brickyard on Conde Street, San Diego, CA. Built on a graveyard, it’s known for the ghost of “Yankee Jim” Robinson (hanged on the property) and family members who died there.
In its heyday, the stately 1850s Greek Revival mansion served countless purposes, including a courthouse, theatre, general store, and residence for the Whaley family.
While the Whaley House might seem perfectly normal, it also has a dark side. The house and property were the sites of multiple violent and bizarre deaths, hangings, and even suicide. As a result, it’s widely believed that various members of the Whaley family and others haunt the home where they endured so much sorrow.
From the day Thomas Whaley and his family moved into their San Diego home, he believed something otherworldly resided in his home. He often heard heavy footsteps on the second floor of the house when no one was home. As far as Thomas was concerned, his brand-new home was already haunted. It would only be a matter of time before crushing losses led them to leave the house. Over the years, guests and staff of the Whaley House have reported unsettling activity, including disembodied voices, orbs of light, and full-bodied apparitions of those who died on the property.
From his first day in the house, Thomas Whaley feared that James “Yankee Jim” Robinson haunted it. Yankee Jim was a horse thief from northern California who escaped law enforcement and fled to San Diego in 1852.
Once in San Diego, he teamed up with two other men to steal a rowboat, but the group was quickly captured and put on trial. The jury for Yankee Jim’s trial included the two men who owned the boat they had attempted to steal, which did not bode well for him.
Yankee Jim was sentenced to death by hanging, but he only laughed at the judge, not believing he’d actually be executed. As it turned out, he was wrong. He was taken to the town gallows across from the El Campo Santo cemetery and placed on a mule cart with a noose around his neck. But the hangman failed to account for Jim’s height of 6’4”. As a result, Yankee Jim’s feet were just able to touch the ground, causing him to suffer a slow and agonizing death.
One newspaper reported on the hanging and how Yankee Jim “kept his feet in the wagon as long as possible, but was finally pulled off. He swung back and forth like a pendulum until he strangled to death.”
There was a crowd at Yankee Jim’s hanging. One of the spectators was none other than Thomas Whaley. While no one knows for sure what was going through Thomas’s mind, he subsequently purchased the land that Yankee Jim and so many others were hanged on and built a home for his unsuspecting family on the site. There is an archway in the Whaley House’s main parlor that was allegedly built across the exact spot where Yankee Jim died.
Many believe that Yankee Jim’s violent death placed a curse on the land that would haunt the Whaley family for the entire time they lived in the house. As a reminder, Thomas Whaley noted peculiar activity almost from the day he moved in.
He often heard the sound of heavy footsteps stomping through the second floor and on the staircase when no one else was around.
Anna Whaley also sensed a negative presence in the home soon after moving in. The family suffered subsequent deaths in the home that seemed almost too strange to be matters of fate. Thomas’s business setbacks further created a narrative that not only was the house haunted by Yankee Jim, but it was also cursed.
Like many men of his generation, Thomas Whaley came to California on New Year’s Day in 1849, hoping to make his fortune in the gold rush.
Thomas’s father was a successful businessman. Thomas’s acumen led to the creation of a thriving lumber, hardware, and mining supply store on Montgomery Street in San Francisco, which he owned with his business partner George Wardle. Once he’d made enough money, Thomas returned to New York City, where he married Anna Eloise DeLaunay on May 14, 1853.
The Whaleys’ first child, Francis Hinton Whaley, was born on December 28, 1854. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to San Diego, which Thomas had heard was an up-and-coming area and an ideal place to expand his business. After moving to San Diego, the Whaleys welcomed a second son, Thomas, born in 1856, and a daughter, Anna Amelia, in 1858. Now a family of five with a thriving business, it seemed as though the Whaleys had everything they wanted.
However, a series of tragedies rocked the family to its core. Young Thomas died from scarlet fever in 1858 when he was only 18 months old.
Shortly after this incredible loss, Thomas’s downtown store burned to the ground with barely anything salvageable. It seemed the curse and mere presence of Yankee Jim was already claiming its first victims.
It was believed rats had been chewing on matches and started the fire on the building’s second floor, though some suspected arson. This was the second time one of Thomas’s businesses had burned down, the other being the store on Montgomery Street in San Francisco.
The loss of their child and business devastated the Whaleys, and Thomas decided that the best course of action would be to leave Whaley House for a time and return to San Francisco for a fresh start.
During this time, Thomas and Anna welcomed three more children into the family: George Hays Ringgold in 1860, Violet Eloise in 1862, and Corinne Lillian in 1864.
While the Whaleys lived in San Francisco, portions of the house were rented out. This provided them with much-needed income to combat the heavy effects of Yankee Jim’s curse.
But the hanged outlaw would have his say. In 1868, an earthquake hit San Francisco. Cutting their losses, the Whaley Family returned (likely with some hesitation) to their San Diego home.
Thomas Whaley eventually converted the main room, or the “Big Room,” into San Diego’s second county courthouse by installing a curved railing across the width of the room and placing a judge’s stand behind it.
In 1869, Thomas Whaley began renting out the courtroom to the county and three rooms on the second floor where records were kept.
After business setbacks and the gruesome suicide of daughter Violet.
On January 5, 1882, the Whaleys hosted a double wedding for two of their daughters. Anna Amelia married her first cousin, John T. Whaley, and Violet married George T. Bertolacci. Although the weddings went off without a hitch, Violet’s wedded bliss was short-lived.
While on their honeymoon, Violet awoke to find a letter from George explaining that he had only married her for her money. A heartbroken Violet returned to Whaley House, where she took her own life by shooting herself in the chest of one of Thomas’s guns. She was only 22.
The stigma surrounding Violet’s death led to Corinne Whaley’s fiance calling off their engagements and a slowdown in Thomas’s business. Thomas and Anna had now lost two of their children.
Like her father, Violet’s spirit resides on the house’s second floor and is often seen crying and looking forlorn. People have also reported an overwhelming sense of sadness and temperature fluctuations in Violet’s old room.
It seems the psychic scar left by her death continues to affect others over a century later.
Whatever luck Thomas seemed to have had in his younger days slowly started to fade away as the years went on. Thomas Whaley sometimes wondered if he was cursed by the spirit that haunted the Whaley house.
Thomas Whaley died on December 14, 1890, at the age of 67, in his New Town home. The Whaley House would stand vacant for 20 years until Francis Hinton Whaley decided to rehab the derelict building and turn it into a tourist attraction in 1909.
Francis, Anna, and his surviving siblings lived in the Whaley House until their deaths.
Since Thomas Whaley first noticed Yankee Jim’s ghost in 1857, countless staff and guests have reported ghostly activity inside the Whaley House that ranges from friendly to foreboding.
Unexplained noises, flickering lights, cold spots, footsteps, and disembodied voices are just some of the paranormal phenomena that have been witnessed over the years.
In addition, the chandeliers are known to sway as if an unseen force is gently pushing them when there’s no breeze. Then there are the unexplainable mists and orbs that have been seen and photographed by hundreds of witnesses.
The Whaleys also reported hauntings upon their return to the house in 1912. This isn’t surprising since the house had been vacant for decades, and the return of the Whaleys likely activated the dormant spirits.
While Thomas and Anna found the spirits of the home to be sinister, their son George embraced the ghosts. George was known to communicate with the spirit of his father, Violet, and Yankee Jim after moving back into Whaley House.
When Corinne Whaley began renting the house to boarders in her later years, they also encountered the home’s many spirits. These borders typically didn’t stay long once they realized the house was infested with ghosts.
Other hauntings include the sounds of a ghostly piano playing despite there no longer being a piano in the building, a phantom barking dog, the sounds of a party in the empty courtroom, and the sounds of children laughing, crying, and playing.
The sounds of children are often attributed to the ghost of Thomas Whaley Jr., who died in the home when he was only 18 months old.
Phantom scents of perfume and Cuban cigars have been reported, and the smell of fresh-baked bread and pies is noted to occur around the holidays.
Over the years, guests have even reported physical reactions to being in the house. One poster on Tripadvisor wrote that they felt a breeze hit them while in the Whaley House and immediately felt ill and as if they were going to pass out.
These sensations are often felt in Violet Whaley’s bedroom and the archway in the main parlor. Those passing under the archway have felt a constricting sensation in their chest and a tightening around their neck as if they are experiencing Yankee Jim’s hanging.
One of the often-told stories about the tragedies at Whaley House is that of four-year-old Annabelle Washburn. Annabelle was a neighbor girl who was playing in the Whaleys’ backyard when she met her untimely demise.
While running across the yard, Annabelle ran into a clothesline and was strangled. Barely alive, her small body was brought into the kitchen, where she died on the table. Since then, Annabelle’s lively spirit has been seen and heard playing in the backyard and the house. However, there is no historical record about Annabelle or her death, leading some to believe this is a fictional tale that became part of the Whaley House lore over the years. Not that anyone needed convincing that the house was haunted.
https://usghostadventures.com/americas-most-haunted-trending/the-whaley-house-museum/