Haunted Hotels of Oregon, Part 3
Welcome friends! This is the third haunted hotels of Oregon post! This list is by no means exhaustive, but I’ve been covering most of the well known ones. Enjoy!
The New Heathman Hotel sits in Downtown Portland, next to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, the home of the iconic “Portland” sign. It is one of the last 4 remaining historic hotels in Portland (also including the Benson Hotel, covered in Part 1). Currently it sits a block away from its original location. It was built in 1927 by George Heathman, a Portland contractor who also constructed two other hotels on the National Register of Historic Places. The New Heathman was built to capitalize off the success of the original Heathman (now an apartment building). These were both built with a wealthy audience in mind. Politicians, lumber barrons and railroad tycoons were the intended patrons. At time of its construction, it was the biggest construction project in the state, costing over $1 million ($13M today!) and taking more than 1,200 workers!
All of the rooms ending in “03” have ghost stories surrounding them.
-In Room 1003, a guest committed suicide by jumping out the window. Their ghost still lingers in the room, contemplating the drop
-In Room 703, a ghost causes electronics malfunction. In 2008, a television repeatedly turned off and on and changed its channel. This ghost has also been known to use towels when no one is around
-Room 503 hosts sightings of a glowing ball of light zipping around the room
-The other 03 rooms have stories of faces in the dark, cold spots, furniture moving, and even ghosts climbing into bed with guests!
There’s definitely something going on with the 03 rooms, and it is odd that such a specific group of rooms host paranormal activity.
I am including all McMenamin’s hotels in one listing. Anyone from the PNW will understand why! McMenamin’s is a family owned company founded in 1980 by brothers Mike and Brian McMenamin when they started their own brewpub. Since then, they’ve expanded, opening numerous hotels and brewpubs in Oregon and Washington, including at least 9 on the NRHP! The cool thing is that they remodel old buildings, rather than constructing new ones, so each is tied into the area’s history. There are many haunted McMenamin’s so I’ve combined them all here. They definitely lean into the paranormal aspect of their brand to some extent. It’s kind of hard to hide when there are so many stories. I’ve only included my top 3 McMenamin’s hotels here, but there are loads of them.
The McMenamin’s Grand Lodge (Forest Grove) is... disorienting to say the least. It is owned by the local Masonic lodge and leased to McMenamin’s for 90 years. The hallways take weird turns, and there’s even a number of secret passageways. The walls are covered in psychedelic art, and a hidden stairway is filled with black lights and mushroom paintings
-An old ghost lady in a bathrobe wanders the halls. She is known as the Lavender Lady, because of the scent she leaves behind. She’s the most popular ghost here. There are several paintings of her in the hotel
-An old man in green walks around on the grounds
-a child’s apparition is seen on a balcony, but vanished when approached
-Blood drips onto the beds at night, and some guests find themselves tucked in by ghostly matrons.
-The hotel theatre has three ghosts, including a man talking through the wall, a little girl running through the aisles and a women who messes with the spotlights.
-The McMenamin’s Edgefield Hotel (pictured above) was converted from the Multnomah County Poor Farm. If you’re unfamiliar with poor farms, here’s an overview. In the early 1900’s, Oregon had a terrible poverty crisis. The state decided each county would be responsible for their own homeless population, and the poor farms were built. The poor were seen as deplorable individuals in need of reformation, so they were sent to the farms, where they were given food and housing in exchange for hard labor on the farm. They followed strict schedules, and any deviation resulted in punishment from a church official. We’re talking upwards of 700 people in this building, many of them sick and disabled. So they had to build an infirmary too, all the while taking in more people. This continued until Social Security was introduced in 1935, at which point the name was changed several times before becoming the Edgefield Manor in the 40s. During this era, it became an institution for mentally ill children and a nursing home. Eventually, it was shut down in 1982, and the residents were moved elsewhere. The building fell into disrepair, Until McMenamin’s came along. In the 1990s, McMenamin’s renovated and restored the Edgefield Manor into a massive hotel and brewpub with its own theater.
Before the renovation process, McMenamin’s reportedly performed a spirit cleansing. This is a series of rituals meant to drive out hostile entities. During the cleansing, they found animal bones in room 215. What’s more, the bones were arranged in a pentagram. After this, they noticed all kinds of haunting s, leading the building to be named “one of the most haunted hotels in America”. Unmarked graves are strewn across parts of the grounds and wails can be heard at night. The ghosts include:
-A child and his mother. As the story goes, they lived at the poor farm when the young boy caught chickenpox, which at the time was often fatal. Almost every night at midnight, one can hear her singing and telling nursery rhymes to the boy. Most guests who hear it think of it as soothing
-A voice has territorially told people to “Get out!” Of certain rooms
-A more welcoming ghost is the old woman of room 215. A former resident of the nursing home era, she kindly wakes guests with a tap on the shoulder, and her perfume lingers in the room. However, she becomes upset and aggressive if the room is left in disarray!
-A child sprints down hallways at night
-there are lots of other Edgefield ghosts, but I can’t cover them all here.
-The White Eagle Saloon and Rock & Roll Hotel sits in the heart of Portland. A smaller building than either of the others on this list, but just as haunted! Originally called the “B. Soboleski & Company Saloon”, it was owned and operated by polish immigrants Barney Soboleski and William Hryszko. They renamed it “The White Eagle Saloon” several years later. Some people think this name is a disrespectful appropriation of a Native American name, but it actually comes from the White Eagle variant of the Polish flag. The Saloon was incredibly popular among sailors, mainly because they handed out free lunch until the practice was banned in 1913. However, it was barely staying afloat. Most immigrants preferred it to other saloons and taverns, and the city council issued a warning that it was frequented by “unsavory characters”. This sparked dozens of rumors. Soboleski and Hryszko were accused of starting gambling and sex trafficking rings. The rumors grew, and before long, people thought they were taking part in the Shanghai tunnels. For those not in the know, back in the day, ships would stop in Portland and not have enough men to sail them. This led to the incredibly popular practice of Shanghaiing. Young men would go to a bar, get drunk, and wake to find themselves miles out to sea, never knowing if they’d return. Secret tunnels ran through the bars of Portland. They can be toured today! However, none of them connect to the White Eagle Saloon. All of the rumors became too much for Barney Soboleski, and he left the business, leaving Hryszko and his brother the sole owners. The expanded the building after the rumors died down. As Prohibition came to an end, the saloon, now “Hryszko Brothers Restaurant and Beer Parlor” boomed in popularity up until WW2, when it was renamed several more times before returning to “White Eagle”. Charles Hughes purchased it in the 70s vowing to make it the most popular bar in Portland. McMenamins acquired it in 1998.
While there is little concrete evidence that the saloon was involved in illicit businesses, the ghosts say otherwise.
-Rose was a prostitute who haunts the upper floor. The legend is that she was in love with a sailor, but he was shanghaiied. Other versions of the story say her lover tried to marry her, but the manager of the hotel beat him to death. She waits for her loverin room 7 to this day, wailing for the guests to hear.
-A former bouncer, who returned after being Shanghaiied and dying at sea. He’s been felt peering over shoulders.
-Several aggressive ghosts who shake the birds and mess with the water pipes. One has been known to steal plates from serving staff and hurl them across the room!
-Then there’s Sam. A good natured poltergeist and longtime friend and patron of the Hryszko brothers. He enjoys backing up the toilets and playing other tricks on the staff. His picture sits above the bar.
-A man imitating the “ratatat” of a Tommy gun has been heard