Thornewood Castle

Thornewood Castle was completed in 1911 to the exacting specifications of Chester Thorne, one of the founders of the port of Tacoma. Construction of the 54 room mansion took 3 years. The grand staircase was imported from a mansion in England, and the red brick exterior from Wales. On display here is a sizeable collection of stained and painted glass from the 15th to 17th centuries that Mr. Thorne had purchased from an English Duke. The mansion was unfortunately turned into apartments after the death of Chester Thorne, but through painstaking efforts, the castle has been restored to its original configuration.

Ghost Stories

We heard many stories of hauntings at Thornewood Castle and had some wonderful long conversations with the owners and staff about the beautiful houses ghost stories.

As per Gigi, The mother of the owner of the castle.

Anna’s Room: A woman has been seen to sit on the window seat and can usually be seen by glancing at said window seat in the mirror’s reflection .

The 3rd Floor Closet: One guest was rummaging thru the closet when she felt someone behind her. it turned out to be a man in old style clothing with his hand on his hips as if to imply she should not be there. When the guest looked back up, he was gone.

Hall of Mirrors: There is a carpet runner that moves to the right of the hallway. Even if it is re-centered & no one has been there, it still migrates back to being off center.

Sewing Room: Footsteps have been heard outside the door, but no one was there.

Lights have been actually seen to unscrew themselves from the sconces.

A white-haired girl has been seen to go into the office, but is not there when the door was opened.

As per Beth, who was working there: A man in grey has been seen in the music room.

Kryis got an unusual feeling in the Hall of Mirrors and the Lord Byron Suite. Bryan admits feeling like he “did not belong” in the Lord Byron Suite. Bryan also experimented a but with the runner in the Hall of Mirrors by moving it halfway into the center of the hallway. It did not move back while we were staying there.

There is a story in the journals about a woman and her daughter insulting one of the paintings by insinuating that she was ugly. She and her daughter immediately felt the need to apologize. Later, when they were walking down the stairs, the mother slipped right as she approached the picture and fell. The daughter laughed, and as she continued down the stairs, also slipped, but managed to catch herself. They both blamed the picture. (FYI I do not believe the pictures have any connection to the house)

There are some more stories included in the room journals, we took some photographs of relevant pages from the Rose Red room journal and you can see them here.

Our Review

Accommodations: This place is magnificent! There are 3 floors and several rooms,all with a different theme. Rose Red, Blue Room, Gold Room, Casablanca Room, Anne’s Room, Chester’s Room, The Sewing Room & Lord Byron’s Suite. The mansion is lavishly decorated with antiques, wooden paneling & stained glass from the 1300’s to the 1700’s. There is a gorgeous view of the American Lake from the rear windows of the castle.

Breakfast: Our breakfast was buttery Blueberry pancakes, but I’m sure they change the menu every so often.

We stayed here as part of our “Haunted Honeymoon.” You can learn more about our stay by checking out our honeymoon pages day 7 and day 8.

Official Website for Thornewood Castle

Honeymoon Day 8

Day 8
August 8th, 2004
Lakewood, WA to Port Townsend, WA

She Says

Nothing odd happened and the rug in the Hall of Mirrors hadn’t moved yet. Breakfast was with six other people, all of which hadn’t had anything happen, but the teen-aged girl in the Gold room also thought the Hall of Mirrors was creepy as well.

We packed the car and went traveling the grounds. We talked with Deanna (the owner) for about an hour.

She believes the ghosts are angels or guardian spirits. I asked about the identical mirrors in the Hall of Mirrors. She said I’m the first person to notice the fact that the mirrors mirror each other in shape and style. Also the mirrors on the bathroom wall at the end of the Hall of Mirrors matches the mirror on the end of the opposite hallway by the rose room.

I told her that I found it a bit creepy to stand between mirrors in the hallway. The endless reflections. She said that she set the mirrors that way with that in mind.

She also says thay she has seen many “unique” experiences. Her husband says he hasn’t seen any.

Deanna also says that they has looked at Manresa Castle when they were looking to buy Thornewood, but it was “too dark” and she didn’t like the “feel” of the place. She asked us to write to her after we’ve stayed at Manresa.

Tacoma
We stopped off to explore and ended up by the US Courthouse, University of Washington, and museums.

We went to the Museum of Glass. In “the hot spot” is where they do glassblowing exhibits. Not little animals, but BIG vases such. Huge kilns. The gallery was disappointing. Some things may be art, but had I known what was in the gallery, I would have saved my $ and just gone to the gift shop!

We did have a salad of mix greens, cranberries, apples, red onions, gorgonzola, and pralines with white wine vinaigrette. Had this nasty cow smell in the aftertaste.

We drove back to I5 and hit the road for Port Townsend.

Apparently there are 2 streets called 7th. The first one was a gravel path to farms. After a U-turn, we went down a main street and saw Manresa Castle on the left.

Right next to the check in window the have copies of Haunted Washington. Nice to see that they take pride in their ghosties.

The castle was built in 1892 and after the owners died it was left to a caretaker for 20 years until the Jesuits bought it as a school.

Our room is small compared to Thornwood and it smells of detergent, but the chairs and table are nice. Also we have a nice view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the city below.

I heard a Raven laughing outside.

Dinner was uneventful. We felt obliged to order, since we had already sat down, even though we didn’t really see anything we Really wanted to eat. The food was good, but we should have just checked the menu before setting reservations…

We decided to take off and explore. The manager talked to us out in the parking lot. Some stories he told us: A family heard crying late at night coming from the bathroom. No one was there, but there was Kleenex on the floor.

In the kitchen, glasses would be lined upside down but one would be turned right side up or explode.

A telephone man saw a globe of light above a chair that went through a wall. I, on the other hand, got to see 2 cute little bats flying about and catching their dinners.

Bryan and I went into town just after sunset. It looks quaint. Historic downtown with shops. Kinda like Ferndale. We decided it would look better in the daytime.

Back at the Manresa, we took a few film pics and recorded some audio tape and then went back to our room to crash.

He Says

We woke up fairly early, so we went down to the dining room (we couldn’t get in there last night because that is where the wedding reception was) and looked through the photo albums that chronicle the history and renovation of the estate including the two films that helped to finance the restoration.

Breakfast was nice. Blueberry pancakes were good, except for the blueberries. Two of the people at breakfast were relatives of the couple that got married there the previous day. After breakfast we went with them on a tour of the other rooms of the mansion. Each one was more beautiful then the last.

After we finished the tour of the rooms, we packed our stuff and went for a tour of the grounds. Nice stone chess set and the garden where the wedding was held was also very nice. We talked to the owner, Deanna, for quite some time between exploring. She was very nice, and had strong opinions about the French.

After we left, we stopped off in Tacoma. It was nice. It was fairly sleepy, even as late as we arrived. As this was a Sunday I guess it is to be expected. We walked to the Museum of Glass and spent a while in the Hot Shop. That was cool. I could have stayed longer, but Kryis was feeling a little sick. The galleries were really disappointing. I may not know art, but I do know crap when I see it. Too bad.

I was expecting to see art made out of glass, or the history of glass, or something like that. No, it was just really crappy ultra-modern garbage that had very little or nothing to do with glass. The museum is fairly new, so hopefully they are just building a collection or something. The Hot Shop was definitely cool.

Took a picture of the really cool Tacoma Narrows bridge. And this one does not sway in the wind.

Drove up to Port Townsend. Interesting drive. We had a little trouble finding the place, but after we got there it was nice. We checked in, explored a little bit.

I didn’t really like dinner, but it was okay. Afterwards we decided to explore the town a little before sundown.

As we were leaving, the manager came out and talked to us about some of the ghost stories (Kryis had mentioned something about it at check in). We ended up talking to him for a while, and the sun began to set.

After we departed from the Castle, we made a vain attempt to check out the town in the growing darkness. We were not really able to see much, so we went back to the hotel and to our room.

More information on Thornewood Castle can be found here.
More information on Manresa Castle can be found here.

Honeymoon Day 7

Day 7
August 7th, 2004
Troutdale, OR to Lakeview, WA

She Says

Woke up and decided that Edgefield reminds me of rich folks who go to poor places to stay, or “play poor” because it’s the cool thing to do.

There is a sink in our room, but you use shared baths and toilets. The bedding is plain, not even fitted sheets. The decor is spartan. Obvious sprinkler systems, dim lights etc.

Breakfast was eggs and bacon for Bryan and a mushroom, brie and herb omelette for me. I liked the filling more than the eggs, but the red potatoes were delicious.

We got 3 bottles of wine that will be shipped to our home, as well as some other nik naks.

I asked the desk clerks for any good ghost stories. Apparently the administrators house is supposed to be haunted. I guess the admin’s daughter died young and is supposed to haunt the place. At one point a woman had placed a cassette recorder in her room there and got faint noises of someone walking about. A nurse is supposed to wander about the infirmary ward.

The black rabbit motif was because when the Mcmenamin Brothers came to the site a Black Rabbit crossed their path. The motif is fairly common in the main building. The restaurant even has a small figure of a child offering a carrot to a black rabbit on one of the sprinkler pipes.

We took the camera and cassette recorder to the Admin house as a last effort to get something and then got in the car and headed to Tacoma by route of Portland.

Lemon Drops are now called “fish food.” A few days ago, Bryan made fishy lip motions at me, and so I gave the fish a lemon drop (from Ferndale). Thus now when he wants a lemon drop, he turns to me and makes fishy lip motions. I love this man, he’s silly!

We’ve detoured to Longview. Gee, it’s…sleepy and grey. However it has Nutty Narrows, The only bridge built exclusively for squirrels.

We called Bryan’s dad, since he was born there and then tried to find the house his dad was raised in. After getting to 28th and Cypress, we realized that there are 2 intersections with that same signage! Apparently 28 ends on 1 block and continues 1 block away.

I took pictures of each house and then Bryan called his dad back. He let us know which house was his. When we pulled up in front of it, the old man inside looked thru the window at us, so we pulled up out of his view to take the picture,but an old woman has stood up to stare at us. I think we’ve spooked them. Imagine, if someone took a picture of your house and drove off…
We left before they could get a shotgun.

We stopped in Olympia for lunch. I think I’ll add this city to my list of places to avoid in the future. After a few miles and a 1/2 hour in Wendy’s, we saw quite a bit of PWT, a female beached “whale” which would make a good “say no to crack” advert, and a really Ugly transvestite wearing a pink and white and black outfit, including leg warmers.

I have to agree with Bryan: Vacations can make me appreciate living in San jose.

When we got to Lakewood we got to Thornewood Castle after only 1 u-turn. After bringing up the bags, Bryan rested and I went exploring. Our room, the “Rose Room”, is on the 3rd floor.

There is a hall of mirrors on the other(east?) side of the stairs from us (west?). Identical mirrors facing each other in a small hallway. It’s too spooky for me. I’m superstitious about mirrors in haunted places, but even more so of mirrors facing each other in eternal reflections. Bad juju.

On our side of the stairs is the Lord Byron suite, which also left me feeling a bit off. I think that is because I felt like I was trespassing.

The feeling went away as soon as I got passed the doorway to the sewing room (right across from Rose-historical note- it used to be Anita Thorne’s room)

I still took lots of pics, but I won’t go into the hall of mirrors.

I went back to the 2nd floor and listened to Gigi talk. She’s the owner’s mother. (Owner- Deanna)

I was talking to Beth, who has worked in the castle about a month, and I could have sworn one of the paintings on the wall of the stairway winked at me as I turned away from it.

Gigi has loads of tales to tell, including ghost stories. Apparently the carpet runner in the hall of mirrors keeps moving to the side even though the staff kept centering it.

There was a wedding downstairs, so I didn’t go to the first floor. I stayed and talked with Gigi for about 2 hours. Bryan came down and we eventually went for food.

Old Country Buffet. What is it about buffets that bring people who really don’t need an all-you-can-eat meal??? There was one girl there: black clothes and chains, mod hair, spooky eyeliner lining down one cheek… She looked young and pure, yet gothy. It’s nice to see there’s hope for the future. We kept catching each others eye and smiling. I’m glad I can set a good example of ” You, too, can retain your gothy image when you get as old as me without looking like a complete sell-out!”

Back to the Castle. Bryan decided to move the carpet in the Hall of Mirrors. He’s also walked up and down the 3rd floor with a cassette recorder. We’ll listen to these tapes whilst on the ferries or something, but I’ll have to wait in the film pics and the camcorder until later…

I looked at the Room Guest book. Some people don’t mention anything about ghosts, some say there are none, and others insist there are. I refuse to taint my mind and dreams by reading it ahead of time.

He Said

We woke up, had breakfast, bought some wine that we liked from the tasting and explored a little bit more of the grounds. Kryis asked the people at the front desk about some of their ghost stories and got some more leads on where to go. We went to the Administrator’s house and poked around in there for a bit before exploring the grounds a little more and heading off to Longview Washington, birthplace of my Father.

We first went looking for Nutty Narrows, the only bridge built for squirrells. There is even a statue of a giant squirrel and a plaque in honor of the man who created it.

After that, we called my father and asked him what his address was when he lived here. He did not remember the address, only the intersection.
So we go there, and find out there are two intersections. One street ends, goes along the other for a while, and picks back up.
We did eventually find it, but it was confusing. I called my dad back and asked him to describe the house, we eventually found it and took a picture of it (to the apparent dismay of the people who now live there) and were on our way to Lakewood.

We stopped off in Olympia for lunch. It was okay. Some scary looking people, but the town seemed alright. I took a picture of the Washington Capital building.

Thornewood Castle is amazing. We got to the gate and we were asked if we were there for the wedding. Apparently a lot of weddings happen at Thornewood, and I can understand why.

We got there and it was beautiful. Gorgeous in fact. When we got to our room, I was beat, so I took a nap while Kryis went and talked to Gigi, the mother of the owner. A few hours later she comes into the room and tells me some of the stories. By this time, we are both hungry and decide that we are going to go get something to eat in town.

When we get back, the wedding is still in full swing. In fact, the bride (who we ran across earlier as we were walking in, she was waiting to start down the aisle) asked us to join in their dancing. We passed and headed up stairs to explore more. We wanted to avoid downstairs because we did not want to intrude on the the wedding.

Kryis was freaked out by the hall of mirrors. There is a carpet runner in the hallway that supposedly keeps getting moved off to the side by the ghosts of the castle. I moved it halfway to the middle to see if it would move by the morning. I kept going into the hallway to check on it. I don’t think that there is anything all that freaky about the hall of mirrors, but it was interesting.

I explored a bit with the tape recorder and the video camera to see if I could see anything. And nothing. Carpet still where I moved it. Anyways… time for sleep. Better not watch the two Stephen King movies that were filmed here anyways.

More information on McMenamins Edgefield can be found here.
More information on Thornewood Castle can be found here.