Tag Archives: Ashland

Colonel Silsby’s B&B

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Colonel Silsby’s Bed and Breakfast was originally built in 1896 for Colonel Silsby, a hero of the Civil War. It is a Queen Anne Victorian listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Ghost Stories

The most haunted room in this B&B is reputed to be the “Elizabeth Suite”, the suite in which we stayed, but no unusual activity happened in the room during our visit. The ghost is said to be that of Elizabeth Silsby, the granddaughter of Colonel Silsby. Elizabeth is supposed to be a friendly spirit. There are reports that she has turned on and off the showers and sinks, opened and closed doors, and even sat next to guests in bed. We had some fellow guests tell that just the morning before when they were just sitting & reading, a jar of jelly fell off the stacked display of jellies for sale. These guests (who also saty in this B&B once a year while they enjoy the OSF, tell us that Col. Silsby himself is still around. Ghosts or Gravity: You decide.

Our Review

Accommodations: A really quaint Bed & Breakfast. We really enjoyed the Elizabeth Suite. A small built on cottage complete with a mini kitchen and better yet, a Jacuzzi. It was originally built as the room for the innkeepers, but when a previous owner purchased a house down the street a little ways, the old room was remodeled into a suite.

The Inn is located only a few blocks from restaurants, shops, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Breakfast: We had the “Taming of the Shred” Shredded eggs and mushrooms over toast served with poached pears and cinnamon. It was better than the corny name.

We stayed here as part of our “Haunted Honeymoon.” You can learn more about our stay by visiting our honeymoon pages day 5 and day 6.

UPDATE: This B&B is apparently no longer in operation.  Wonder if the current occupants of the house have any supernatural experiences.

Honeymoon Day 6

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Day 6
August 6th, 2004
Ashland, OR to Troutdale, OR

She Says

Woke up, still no ghosties. I am coming to believe that sleeping in haunted places helps me sleep deeper.

David cooked breakfast for all 11 guests. Poached pears with cinnamon and the Taming of the Shred (shredded hard boiled eggs and portabello mushrooms over toast)

We talked with the other guests, some from Concord and others from Petaluma (but once San Jose) Turns out that our host knows the Porteras in SJ that I grew up near. Distant cousins or something.

Someone suggested us seeing the play “oleanna”

We finally got our first ghostly sighting from one of the Petaluma guests. 11:30 yesterday morn the couple was just sitting in the library and a jar of jelly fell off a shelf. No one near it, it just fell. I took a picture of the Haunted Jelly (Pinot Noir jelly!) I’m sure when we get done telling this story, the jelly flew about the room and the a haunted knife spread it spookily across some haunted toast.

The other guests told us that Col. Silsby is still in the house, but also Elizabeth was mentioned. Apparently the Elizabeth Suite we stayed in used to be the prior owners home until she moved next door. I also noticed that the owners change hands every 10 yrs or so.

I bought some citrus scented lotion from the shelf near the haunted jelly and we went downtown.

I bought some rosemary sourdough bread for the trip, as eating loads of jelly bellies can just make me sick. The bead shops were the same as home, so I passed on the beads. However there was Unicorn gifts and toys that was neat. I found a Faery of the Ravens, and thus bought it. www.dragonsite.com.

Somehow when we left Ashland, I felt we should have bought some haunted jelly too…

As we drove back to interstate 5, We passed a homeless man with a sheep on a leash. I made a comment to Bryan, “I’ll give you money if I can borrow your sheep!” I wonder if the cardboard sign said “will work for ewe”…

About a 4 1/2 hour drive to Troutdale later…
McMenamin’s Edgefiled is large! But the brick and white exterior hides a lot of interior spunk. One cannot walk 10 ft without seeing another interesting mural. So…

I took more pictures… We ate at the Black Rabbit restaurant, 2 NY strip steaks.

Afterwards we wandered the grounds and went to a wine tasting. We both agreed that the 2002 vineyard select white riesling was awesome. I’d like to get a bottle for sooner and wait for a later anniversary. But how to pack it???

Night had fallen so we got the film camera and cassette recorder and went walking the ex-infirmary, which is now the hostel wing. At the end of the hallway is a set of double doors with a stairway in it.

The stairs go down the the winery, but the stairs that go up, go around the corner and then seem to go no where.

The brick wall says “hell”. Spooky…

He Says

What is with mushrooms? Everywhere mushrooms. Yeach! Breakfast was okay, despite the fungus shredded across and amongst my eggs.

Kryis and I were asking about the “hauntings” of the place and got a story about “haunted jelly.” Apparently when this other couple was sitting in the sitting room, a jar of jelly made by the previous owners of the B&B fell from off the other jar of jelly is was stacked on top of and made a loud noise. The new owner (which looked and acted surprisingly like Kryis’s ex-manager) came running in wondering what had happened. No one knew. They surmised that it must have been one of the jars of jelly when they knocked another jar off and it hit the shelf with the same noise. Kryis seems convinced (or at least claims to be convinced) that this must mean that a ghost pushed it. I, however, believe that Issac Newton had the right idea.

We explored a little more of Ashland looking for a post office or a mailbox. It took us a while, but we eventually found one. We stopped off at a small toy shop, and Kryis bought a few things including a “Raven Fairy.” ShruG.

As we were getting to the freeway, we saw a homeless looking man hitchhiking on the side of the overpass with a sheep on a rope. Oh how I wished that the digital camera was not in the trunk at that particular moment. Oh well.

We finally got to our next destination in Troutdale OR, McMenamin’s Edgefield. It was on a former poor farm, and had that bucolic feel to it, with a hint of alcoholism. It was a large property that contained at least 7 different places to get drunk. A brewery, a winery, a distillery, a pub… We got our room–in this place we had to use communal bathrooms–and then went to go get some food at the only restaurant we had seen up until that point. The food was okay. Kryis kept on taking pictures of these murals and paintings that were all over the palce that I did not particularly find interesting.
After we ate we wandered around taking pictures of paintings, and then more pictures of paintings… and then we went outside and explored the grounds. We went back inside and Kryis took more pictures of murals, and then some more, and then just to be different, she took a few more. We did a wine tasting in the winery. We talked to some other couples that were in the winery with us until we decided to do some ghost hunting.

We got the film camera and the voice recorder and explored some of the areas that are rumored to be haunted. One wing that is the former infirmary is supposed to have a lot of activity, we took some pictures there, and other places. There was a wedding reception going on so we did not have the greatest environment for EVP. We wandered back through the winery and saw the couples still there and talked to them some more before we headed back to the main building and did so more hunting before bed.

 

More information on Colonel Silsby’s bed and Breakfast can be found here.
More information on McMenamins Edgefield can be found here.

Honeymoon Day 5

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Day 5
August 5th, 2004
Eureka, CA to Ashland, OR

She Says

Slept deeply, and no ghosties seen. Still no internet signal yet, but there is cell access for me. But Bryan’s cell service hasn’t kicked in yet.

We had breakfast with our hosts, Doug and Lily Vieyra. Very charming people. Its like having a comedy team and Teutonic hospitality rolled into one. Doug told us a story about a couple they had who was on their 60th anniversary having breakfast with a newlywed set of honeymooners. The older man told the that the secret of the happy marriage is to twist in the earplugs, nod and say “yes dear.” Afterwards all laughed except for the elder lady, who make a twisting motion towards her own ears and said “did he say something interesting?” The breakfast was good as well. Slices of ham, havarti, fruit sampler, pastries, banana-orange juice etc.

Doug did say that the ghost “Elizabeth” did all the dusting that was out of their reach in exchange for room and board, but otherwise Elizabeth stays to herself. Apparently she has another name they call her, but they have forgotten it. The B&B is in another book by Robin Mead called haunted hotels. Something to look into later.

Remember Milton from Office Space? He apparently got a job working at a roadside rest stop just North of Eureka.

We drove up to Prairie Creek Redwoods state park and took the coastal drive. I didn’t realize how high up we were until we pulled over and looked down to the surf. Got some really good pics of trees. I talked to a raven there, but he didn’t seem inclined to follow me home.

Lunch: Crescent City taco bell.

Finally we arrive in Ashland.

When we got to the door, Dave Portera, who bought the place off Tony and Rosemary, reservations and all, was at the door, scotch in hand. We must have been the last ones in, since he asked if we were the Reeds. The house is done in a floral country, but our room is lavender and white,(olive carpet) with purple flowers on the bedding and plants hanging from the ceiling.

There’s a neat little touristy area downtown that reminds me of Mountain View’s Castro district. Lots of food places, antiques, books, and 3 bead shops. We ate at Pasta Pianni? Bryan had gemelli, and I had bruschetta and asparagus. After, we went back to our room, fireplace, Jacuzzi and all that. We even have 2 rubber duckies: a purple and a yellow.

He Says

We had breakfast at the B&B with the owners. They were nice. I wish the whole place was in a different city. We stayed longer than we had intended just listening to their stories about guests and ghosts and such. I was sad to be leaving Abigail’s Elegant Victorian, but not so sad to be leaving the city of Eureka. We had read about a very nice Victorian mansion in the city, the Carson House, so we decided to check it out. It was the beautiful. We can’t go inside because it is a private club, but the outside was phenomenal.

After we left Eureka, we headed north to the redwoods. I really liked walking through the redwoods. They were beautiful. We had originally stopped at the information center for the park we were in, but if you stay for longer than a half an hour you have to pay. So we just quickly stopped off at the center checked it out and drove down the road. We parked just about a mile later and got out and hiked, and didn’t have to pay. That seemed odd. Anyways… We had our picture taken next to a large tree that had a sign in front of it that read Big Tree. We continued out drive and detoured along the coast. It was beautiful. We pulled over at one point when the road had become gravel, and looked out at an overlook at the beach and pacific way down below us. It was amazing. There was a pickup and a man down there and they were so small. We stayed for a while just taking in how beautiful it was.

We needed to get going so that we could get to Ashland and Colonel Silsby’s Bed and Breakfast before it got too late.

The rest of the drive was actually nice until we got inland to I5. Then it was fairly boring civilization looking stuff (But I did see a Toys “R” Us) We got to Ashland and the B&B and checked in. It is nice. Not in the main house, again. We have out own Jacuzzi with purple and yellow rubber duckies.

We went out to explore the town and get something to eat. 5 separate people wearing Democratic National Convention t-shirts asked me if I wanted to help get Bush out of office. It was annoying after the second person. I wished they could just stick to one street corner. It was hard to find a restaurant that we could both agree upon, but finally we found one. It was okay.

Then we went back to the B&B. We talked a bit to some of the other guests and then went to the room.

More information on Abigail’s Elegant Victorian can be found here.
More information on Colonel Silsby’s Bed and Breakfast can be found here.