The Waley House
written by Chuck Foster

The house we moved into after our marriage sat in the dark of a dead-end road. We always thought the “sign” itself was scarier than the remodeled home from the ’50s or ’60s — until we moved in, that is.

Within the first month I found myself lying in bed late at night, many times unable to sleep, but right at that moment when my dreams began to mix with reality, I would hear the pitter-patter of footsteps running from one end of the house to the other.

The footsteps puzzled me at first, and then one late night my wife asked, "Do you hear that?" Immediately, I realized it wasn’t just me imagining these eerie sounds. I sprang out of bed and ran into the kitchen expecting to find our 5-year-old daughter in the middle of mischief — yet, it was empty and quiet. I proceeded to her bedroom at the other end of the house, thinking she was quicker than I had been at catching her — yet, she was sound asleep.

Weeks passed and I tried to put the footsteps that sounded like two small children out of mind, but then while putting my daughter to sleep one night she asked me to leave her bathroom light on. I explained that even her dad used to sleep with a light on, then I got older and moved on to a nightlight like we had just bought for her, and in the future she would sleep in the dark like mom and dad do. I knew this wouldn’t bring much comfort, but it’s part of the painful job a parent must do. When I reached to turn her light off, she panicked and blurted out, "When it’s dark, Dad, those kids come in here and play!"

I froze in my tracks, but I needed more than that. Somewhat distraught, I asked her, "What kids?" Then, almost in tears, she told me about a boy and a girl, about her age, which had started coming in her room after we put in the nightlight. She explained in detail that they would play with her toys, run in and out, laugh and at times even talk to her. With the same chills on my arms now, I asked her what they said. She said, "They’re scared of you, Dad." I asked why. She replied, "They’re scared you’re going to kill them."

For the rest of our short time in that house my daughter never slept without the bathroom light on, but the unexplainable didn’t cease with simple footsteps. Doors would shut by themselves for no reason while we were napping and a gentle touch against the body beforehand was common. My nieces and nephews frequently asked who was up all night playing in the living room when they stayed over. And on one night around 3 a.m. my wife and I were both abruptly wakened when something struck my speedbag in the corner of our bedroom with a force that I could never match.

What do you do when something like this happens? After the speedbag incident we stayed awake all night with the light on, I then called in sick the next day and was made fun of for such a comical excuse. We thought about calling one of those hokey television shows, but I was more scared of the ridicule from our small community than of the presence in our home. So what was left other than desertion of a year’s lease — which we later did? Well, as crazy as this sounds, you could always try to have the state designate your home as haunted and make it into a museum. Laugh, but it’s happened in California to two houses — the Winchester Mystery House and the Whaley House.

New Yorker Thomas Whaley constructed the Whaley House in 1857 after his move to San Diego in his search for gold. Four years after completion of the house Whaley wrote letters to friends that he heard footsteps in the upstairs and believed they belonged to Jim Robinson, a local who was hanged for the theft of a schooner. This stands as the first documentation of haunting in the Whaley House.

If Whaley was correct about the ghost of Jim Robinson haunting his home, then according to others, he now shares the home with several other ghosts. One of these ghosts is thought to be Thomas Whaley himself, who was robbed of important records pertaining to a court case against new San Diego from his home in the middle of the night while he was away. He fought the case for years, but later lost.

Another possible ghost in the Whaley House is Violet Whaley, who unexpectedly committed suicide by shooting herself in the chest with a .32-caliber pistol which was never recovered. Another supposed haunting at the Whaley House is a young woman who traveled with a theater troop that rented rooms from the Whaleys; her jealous boyfriend stabbed her to death.

There have also been reports of a baby crying in the house, which could be Thomas Whaley Jr., who died at the age of 18 months. Of course, one of the latest suggestions is that Corinne Whaley could also be haunting the house as well with the rest of her family. Corinne, who lived in the Whaley house until her death in 1953, was the last of the six Whaley children. Upon her request, Corinne was not buried with the rest of her family in their private plot behind the house, which leads many to wonder: Why not?

After Corinne’s death in 1953 a new owner wanted to tear the house down and replace it with a warehouse, but the county stepped in and made it a museum and a historical landmark in 1960. Since then, the U.S. Commerce Department has declared the Whaley House an official haunted house.

Official or not, and believe what you will, the Whaley House has had reports that cover everything from laughter, cries and cigar smoke to the unexplained burglar alarm going off and windows opening and closing throughout the house when no one is there. The ghost reports are as mysterious as the facts behind this historical landmark are secret, and none of us will ever know the truth — at least not in this life.

Now, whether the state will designate your house to be haunted or not, I don’t know — I wouldn’t count on it, though. However, to be lucky (or unfortunate) enough to experience a supernatural phenomenon is quite a tale alone. The one that ex-wife, daughter and I shared in our old house may never become a museum in the state of Georgia, but it will live forever in us, unchanged, just as it happened.