From the Victorian mansions of Beach Hill to film locations for Hollywood thrillers, Santa Cruz has long been a destination of paranormal possibilities and rich history.
RISPIN MANSION
2000 Wharf Road, Capitola
Is Capitola’s historic Rispin Mansion cursed? Located along Wharf Road high above Soquel Creek, the mansion was built between 1919 and 1921 by oil entrepreneur and developer Henry Allen Rispin with intentions to develop Capitola as a resort. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the mansion is a three-story, 9,000-square-foot, 22-room Spanish Colonial Revival/ Mediterranean-style estate. Rispin lost his investments to creditors by the end of the decade, and in 1941 the mansion was sold for $90,000 to St. Joseph’s Monastery for use by the Poor Clares, a cloistered order of nuns. The Poor Clares lived in the mansion until 1959, while Rispin lost all of his money and was eventually buried in a pauper’s grave.
Visitors to the mansion have reported eerie sensations and unexplained cold spots in its lower floors.
On a recent visit, construction crews noticed lights turning off and on for unknown reasons. “There were two caretakers who passed away there at different times,” said Deborah Osterberg, curator of Capitola Historical Museum for the past four years. Both were elderly men who died of natural causes, but the stories persist. Ghost Adventures on the Discovery Channel filmed at the mansion in August for an upcoming episode (expected to air in early 2025). “One lady dressed up as a nun,” Osterberg said. “They spent at least one night there.” (KM)
THE BIRDS OF CAPITOLA
Over Monterey Bay, from Santa Cruz to Watsonville
Famed horror-thriller author Alfred Hitchcock lived in Scotts Valley in the early 1960s and his film The Birds commemorated a real event in Capitola. In August 1961, a huge flock of sooty shearwaters ransacked Capitola Beach and Pleasure Point, allegedly biting people and crashing into cars and buildings. “It took them a decade until they figured out what it was, probably a toxic algae,” Osterberg said. Hitchcock combined the Capitola incident with an adaptation of a 1952 Daphne Du Maurier novel about killer birds to write the screenplay for The Birds, released on Universal Pictures in 1963. (KM)
HELLHOLE
UCSC campus
While the aptly named Hellhole appears like the entrance to a sewer, the entry slot actually leads a winding network of narrow caves and grottoes, some of which plunge 50 feet straight down, according to one anonymous spelunker. “You have to slide in a way,” said the source. “It’s a lot of work.”
If you can squeeze through “the mailbox” entrance slot and land the initial 5-foot drop, a subterranean labyrinth awaits, with tunnels and chambers such as the Birthing Canal, the Party Room and the eerie Hall of Faces. All who enter should have experience with basic caving and double rope techniques, bring two headlamps and water bottle. “The air is thick,” the source said.
Good Times does not endorse or recommend caving in Hell Hole; enter at your own risk. (KM)
EMPIRE CAVE aka PORTER CAVE
Behind Porter Dining Hall on UCSC campus
This cave was likely formed hundreds of thousands of years ago by geological forces. As of August 2023, it was closed to the public to protect its biodiversity, including rare spiders, scorpions and other non-human creatures. (KM)
POGONIP LIMEKILNS
Close to UCSC’s Stevenson College
They might look like strange little dungeons, but these cage-like structures are actually historic limekilns used in commercial production of lime, which began during the California Gold Rush. It is believed that lime first produced at the kilns in the 1850s was used to make mortar and plaster, which is more resistant to fire than wood. Today, Pogonip is one of 14 remaining kiln sites in Santa Cruz County. There are three ways to get there. Curious visitors can begin at Spring Street and follow the Spring trail up to the Spring Box trail, which leads into the mountains for a roughly four-mile round-trip trek. You can also hike from Stevenson College on the UCSC campus and cross the road to the Rincon trail for a roughly 1.5-mile round-trip excursion. Or start from Highway 9 and hike up the U-Conn trail to the lime kiln trail for a roughly 2.5 miles roundtrip. (KM)
MARK ABBOTT MEMORIAL LIGHTHOUSE
700 W Cliff Dr., Santa Cruz
Lighthouses are full of scary stories, and Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse is no exception. Originally built in 1948 and demolished that same year, the current lighthouse was built in 1964, and some say it is haunted by drowning victims. It’s located in northern Santa Cruz at Steamer Lane. (KM)
SUNSHINE VILLAS
80 Front St., Santa Cruz
Speaking of Hitchcock, 80 Front St. is the former McCray Hotel, whose 1910 façade supposedly inspired the Bates Mansion in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. It is now named Sunshine Villas Assisted Living and Memory Care. Over the years, employees are said to have reported inexplicable cold spots and ghostly voices, and the Hotel McCray was variously associated with hauntings, eerie lights and even Satanists. (KM)
THE MURDER HOUSE
999 Rodeo Gulch Rd., Soquel
In October 1970, this mid-century modernist estate in the hills above Soquel was the site of a five-person murder. Victims were wealthy Santa Cruz eye surgeon Dr. Victor M. Ohta, 45; his wife, Virginia, 43; their sons, Derrick, 12, and Taggart, 11, and the doctor’s secretary, Dorothy Cadwaller, 38.
After they were shot to death, their bodies were dumped into the swimming pool at the mansion. The home and its 11-acre hilltop estate were recently listed for $4 million, which includes the free-form salt-water pool on a stone terrace, a tennis court and impeccable gardens and glades, top-flight ocean views, a wine cellar and, of course, ghosts. (KM)
THE JURY ROOM
712 Ocean St., Santa Cruz
The Jury Room is the home away from home for some, including the spirits. For well over half a century this local haunt has served as a hangout for regulars and a stopping point for tourists. However, bartenders have often experienced strange happenings.
Before he retired earlier this year, bartender Tim Hall would tell of the time he was closing by himself and walked to the front doors to lock up after everyone was gone. As he did, he heard three distinct—loud—knocks on the bar as if someone was slamming down a shot glass, asking for another round.
More recently, barkeep Megan Arnett was opening up in the morning when the lights began to flicker individually. By the time the doors opened, the flickering stopped and hasn’t happened since. “It was maybe a week and a half after (bartender) Marv Easterby passed,” she says. “So I’ve always thought it was him.” The local watering hole was also a favorite of infamous serial killer Edmund “Big Ed” Kemper, which adds to the macabre. (MW)
BOCCI’S CELLAR
140 Encinal St., Santa Cruz
Although the business that bore the name Bocci’s Cellar has closed, the building itself still stands and has since about 1888—and is thought to be the oldest restaurant in the city. In 1933 then-owners the Urbani family raised their home and built the floor room underneath as a local restaurant, hangout and illegal wine cellar (during Prohibition) for Santa Cruz’s Italian community.
Longtime bartenders and staff reported many spooky sightings over the years, such as phantom shadows passing through or hanging pictures falling off the wall or going askew for no reason. Several ex-employees even recall multiple times when single glasses would fall off the backstock rack or sometimes even appear to be thrown when no one else was around. (MW)
BROOKDALE LODGE
11570 Hwy. 9, Brookdale
The historic haunted Brookdale Lodge has numerous, deliriously scary tales. “One of our guests came down to talk to me early one morning about something that happened to her the night before,” recalled the old manager. “She said that she woke up at 3:33am and there was a young girl sitting on her bed, playing with her hair. The girl kept saying ‘Have you seen my dog?’” The GM looked at his nearby Ring home camera and scanned back to 3:33am, and a dog ran past the house, but turned to look at the camera before disappearing from view. (DNA)
EL VAQUERO WINERY
2901 Freedom Blvd., Corralitos
Vintner Bob Prikazsky named his winery for a ghost. He mentioned to a Cabrillo classmate that he was looking for a house on Hazel Dell Road. The classmate said he used to live in that house and recounted seeing a vaquero, dressed in black leather from head to toe, with steely blue eyes.
The classmate, Mike Lefevre, attended a gathering at an estate that used to own the whole Spanish land grant that included Hazel Dell. Above the fireplace there was a portrait of that same vaquero, steely blue eyes and all. Lefevre’s host said that was his great-great-grandfather, the vaquero who had originally owned it all.
The Prikazskys bought the house and moved in. One day Bob had his back to the garage and felt someone behind him. Thinking it was his wife, Dean, Bob turned around to see a figure in a shimmering blue-black veil. He knew it was the vaquero. Others would hear whistling at night where they could see no one. Bob’s daughter Alex said she saw a shadowy, human-sized figure and could feel its presence. (RS)
GOLDEN GATE VILLA
599-501 Cliff St., Santa Cruz
Towering over the heart of Santa Cruz atop Beach Hill stands the Golden Gate Villa, a grand Victorian mansion with a peculiar feature: a “door to nowhere” appearing on the cliffside that hints at a darker history beyond its mundane purpose—originally for removing manure from the stables. Built by Major Frank McLaughlin in 1891, the Villa once played host to Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Edison. But it’s the mysterious door at that dizzying height that has sparked intrigue in addition to whispers of haunting.
In 1907, Agnes McLaughlin died at the hands of her father, who was suffering from severe depression at the time. The major murdered his adopted daughter with a revolver before poisoning himself with cyanide. According to local legend, Agnes’s ghostly figure has been seen roaming the halls, and visitors have reported unexplained noises and eerie sensations of being watched. (JK)
FRIGHT WALK
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
The Boardwalk has been creating dark and scary places to thrill and chill for over 80 years. It all began in 1932 with a spooky ride called “Dante’s Inferno—A Trip to Hades.” In the 1950s, the ride became Pirate’s Cove, until ghosts and ghoulies returned to inhabit the Haunted Castle we know today, a kid-friendly attraction. Fright-making got serious from 1996 to 2001 with a Halloween season walkthrough called “Terror on Beach Street.” Erected in the parking lot, it featured zombies emerging from graves and enacted executions by decapitation and electric chair. It featured live actors as the monsters, and fewer mechanical effects, creating more eeriness and jolts, with no blood and less gore.
The Boardwalk’s “Fright Walk” opened in 2004. It’s a walk-through journey into darkness with jump-scares, mazes, and shocking scenes throughout. Lurking near the entrance to the park and guarded by menacing gargoyles, it moved in 2017 into the larger subterranean dungeon it occupies today. Be forewarned not to walk face-first into a wall! You might be grateful for a smartphone flashlight app, or even bring a mini flashlight to dispel the gloom. (But do you really want to?) No costumed “Fright Walk” workers will scare the jeepers out of you—it’s all effects and animatronics.
But make no mistake; the Fright Walk is not recommended for pre-teens. If your monster-loving middle-schooler can’t be talked out of entering, be warned: there’s no refund for the faint of heart. The Boardwalk dark rides are open on Saturday and Sunday, admission is $8. Check beachboardwalk.com for hours. (JK)
GETTING INTO THE SPIRIT
2320 West Cliff Dr., Santa Cruz
East Cliff Drive at 33rd Avenue, Pleasure Point
At the lonely corner where West Cliff Drive meets Natural Bridges, frightening figures fill the yard. Find the Wicked Witch of West Cliff clinging to her broom, the Headless Horseman with his Jack-o’-Lantern, a Skeletal Scarecrow and more, with eerie lighting and sounds for a blood-chilling tableau.
A special treat for the kids is the Skeleton House, where an ever-growing, bony brood celebrates Halloween in style, costumed as children’s favorites, including Spiderman, Beetlejuice, Chewbacca and dozens more. “Ghost hosts” Susan and Roy display their creepy collection to delight the little ones, while welcoming trick-or-treaters.
Mask maker Chris Zephro’s Aptos home becomes a really scary graveyard on Halloween, maybe a bit too frightening for little ones. Creatures rise up from the tombs, and you can’t tell which is real. There’s an amazing array of haunting, from someone who has worked on Hollywood movies and has designed costumes for the likes of Ozzy Osbourne. His neighbors have followed suit making Vienna Woods a must-see that night. Start at 3823 Vienna Dr., Aptos.(JK)
DNA, John Koenig, Richard Stockton and Mat Weir contributed to this article.
