Some ghosts appear for a reason--like righting a wrong or protecting a person, while others seem confused or lonely. Like most places, Los Gatos and Saratoga have some ghost stories of their own.
Photo Illustration by Paul Myers
Ghost Stories
Ghosts 'go bump in the night' in Los Gatos, Saratoga
By Shari Kaplan
They've been whispered at slumber parties, shared around campfires and romanticized in novels for generations. But "ghost stories" hearken back much further than that. One of the earliest recorded tales comes from Pliny the Younger, a Roman historian who lived between 62 and 113 A.D.
Among his writings is the account of a seemingly haunted house in Athens, Greece. According to Pliny, the occupants were plagued by strange clanging noises and visits by an apparition resembling a skinny old man in shackles.
They sold the home to a philosopher named Athenodorus without telling him of its history. After moving in, he too heard sounds and saw the unhappy specter, but was more curious than frightened. One night, he followed the ghost outside and noticed it disappear over a patch of ground.
By the light of day, he engaged a group of men to dig up the ground in that spot, and they soon discovered skeletal remains surrounded by chains. After Athenodorus arranged for the bones to have a proper burial, his home was never "visited" again.
This ancient account is retold in greater detail in Quest for the Unknown: Ghosts and Hauntings, published by the Reader's Digest Association. In Los Gatos and Saratoga, however, ghost stories and haunted houses are more than just obscure tales told in books--they're very real parts of local people's lives.
Photograph by George Sakkestad
Former Los Gatos Weekly-Times photographer George Sakkestad was shooting an ordinary portrait at the Los Gatos Opera House in 1992. When he developed the photograph, he noticed something on the balcony in the background that looks like a ghost.
The Phantom of the Opera House
Two of the area's best-known ghosts haunt public places. One of them is Barbara--or possibly Elizabeth or Jane--whose happy haunting grounds are The Opera House, a combination banquet facility (upstairs) and antique and clothing mall (downstairs) at 140 W. Main St. in downtown Los Gatos.
When owners Paul and Linda Dorsa bought it more than 16 years ago, they got more than they bargained for. When they first acquired the place, their teen daughter had a slumber party on the premises. The next day, the girls mentioned they thought they'd seen a ghost. At first, the Dorsas thought the girls were kidding.
No one really knows how long the Opera House has been haunted, but it's become common knowledge. For years, employees have reported lights going on and off for no reason, or doors closing. Recently, Paul adds, a merchant downstairs was mystified by a perfume bottle that kept spilling several nights in a row.
An interesting incident happened this October at the reception for a Bar Mitzvah, Paul says. The disk jockey reported his hair stood on end, and he thought he heard a woman calling for help because she was stuck in a wall. The Bar Mitzvah coordinator reported the same. Each also got the feeling they knew her name: the DJ thought Jane; the coordinator thought Elizabeth. (Dorsa recalls a different instance when someone told him Barbara.)
A guest from the reception called on Paul a few days later, asking in a strange fashion about the history of the Opera House. "Eventually, he got around to saying he thought he'd seen a ghost," Paul says.
"I've actually seen her," Opera House sales manager Corinna Yesney says. "At first I went through the usual doubt like, 'Oh, maybe it was a light reflection or a shadow,'" she recalls, adding that the ghost appears to be a woman with sandy-colored hair.
Paul says the only time he knows of the woman being caught on film was February 1992, when former Los Gatos Weekly-Times photographer George Sakkestad was shooting a routine assignment inside. Paul was also present. Both say there was no one on the balcony at the time, but when Sakkestad developed his negatives, he noticed a shadowy figure in one of the frames. Because the balcony railings are clearly in front of the figure, Sakkestad says it can't be a blemish on the negative.
"Everybody knows the ghost is female and that it's friendly," Paul says. "Hardly anybody gets scared. It's generally a good feeling."
Photograph by Paul Myers
Bella Saratoga's upstairs dining room as seen through a beveled glass mirror. Although nothing unusual has happened at the restaurant for a while, co-owner Bill Cooper says patrons ask about the ghost every week.
The Ghost Who Changed Hands
Bella Saratoga restaurant is the home haunt for one of Saratoga's best-known spirits, also apparently a female. According to owner Bill Cooper, several of his past employees at the Big Basin Way establishment reported feeling something "swish by" or hearing doors open and close for no reason.
"None of them work here anymore--maybe the ghost scared them away," Cooper says with a chuckle. On a more serious note, he describes it as a "gentle ghost" and says that at least one or two patrons inquire about it each week, particularly out-of-towners.
"We really haven't had anything unusual happen in a long time," he adds. Perhaps the ghost is tired of how many times the property has changed hands--before it was Bella Saratoga, the building was Bella Mia, a restaurant founded by Fred Maddalena. Maddalena reportedly slept a few times in an upstairs office that used to be a bedroom in the building's residential days. He decided to snooze elsewhere when the upstairs doors kept slamming for no reason.
Before Maddalena, the building was occupied by an older incarnation of the Saratoga News. According to longtime Saratoga historian and current Saratoga News columnist Willys Peck, employees used to report seeing or feeling the presence of a ghost.
Growing Up With Ghosts
Although the home of Willys and his wife, Betty, is a veritable firetrap of old books, newspapers and letters, it comes in handy for intrepid ghost hunters. Case in point: a six-page, handwritten letter Peck procured, marked "Received: 11-28-73." It's from an old friend named Margaret Reed, although Peck isn't sure how or why he ended up with the mysterious missive some 28 years ago.
Margaret, her husband, Ray, and their daughters moved into a new home on Saratoga's Ronnie Way that was apparently already "occupied." The first hint came from Mrs. Schmidt, a neighbor who told Margaret she thought she'd seen a woman and two little girls on the property before the Reeds moved in, which was strange because it was the tract's model home.
One night after the Reeds moved in, Margaret and her older daughter were watching television when someone started rapping persistently on the front door. When they opened it, no one was there. Shortly after that, Margaret hung some decorative scrolls in the hallway. Time and again at night, she would wake to the sounds of the scrolls flapping, doors opening and closing and what sounded like small-heeled shoes walking the hall.
At first she thought it was her daughters, but they were always asleep. Another time, Margaret and Ray were watching television, and the door-knocking started. Margaret assured Ray there was no one there, but he insisted they answer it. "You should have seen his face when he saw there was no one there," writes Margaret, who began referring to the force behind the strange occurrences as "my friend."
Her "friend" may have inadvertently saved the life of daughter Lynn. Once, Lynn came home from summer school and found the house was robbed. The Reeds learned from the sheriff's department, which later apprehended the men responsible, that the robbers were frightened away by a persistent knocking on the front door. They fled--loaded revolvers in hand--minutes before Lynn arrived.
Over the years, Margaret came to notice these "visits" often coincided with something serious going on in her daughters' lives, such as childhood illnesses. Later, when her daughters grew up and moved away, the ghosts would return now and then--almost always when Margaret's daughters were hurting due to divorce, job loss or illness.
Photograph by Paul Myers
A Galileo thermometer indicated a sudden drop in room temperature at the same time its owner saw and heard unexplained occurrences in his home. According to paranormal research, many people who see ghosts also report feeling an unexplained chill or breeze.
The Maternal Spirit
Another spirit that seems interested in humans' lives resides in the Carlton Avenue apartment of Jerry, a Los Gatan who prefers his last name not be used. Jerry first noticed something paranormal two to three years ago, when his dog would stare at places in the apartment for no reason. Sometimes, the dog even jumped up and wagged his tail at thin air. "If I was in the kitchen, I'd come out [to the living room] to see who was there, but there never was anyone," Jerry recalls.
About a year ago, Jerry started hearing the hall floorboards creaking at night, as if someone were walking slowly and quietly. The noises were usually followed by his bedroom door slowly opening a crack, which he says reminded him of a parent checking in on sleeping children.
This summer, he bought a Galileo thermometer, which ended up providing more paranormal proof. The thermometer is a tall glass column filled with water, in which float small glass bubbles with colored liquid inside. Attached to the bubbles are temperature tags from 64 to 76 degrees Fahrenheit. The bubbles rise as the temperature drops, and fall when the temperature climbs.
On several hot nights this summer, Jerry heard the glass bubbles clinking loudly, as if they were all rising together. This usually preceded footfall in the hall and the door opening. He'd quickly go to the room the thermometer was in, just in time to see the bubbles on their way down the water column.
"It was never anything scary. It was kind of sad, really, what was going on--it's sad for someone to be stuck doing that," he says of the hall-pacing, door-opening spirit. "However, I never sensed sadness from the entity."
An Old Neighbor Returns
Like Jerry's dog, the stray cat befriended by Los Gatan Scott Pearson also acted strange around a ghostly presence in his home, which used to neighbor a boarded up, vacant house damaged in a fire. According to a mailbox on the property, the house belonged to a Joe Swan. The whole property was razed a year or two ago; a termite exterminator company stands there today.
Until earlier this year, Pearson noticed all sorts of supernatural events, like his answering machine turning on and playing back all his messages. The television was the next appliance to act up.
"I have a nasty habit of falling asleep at 10 p.m., waking up at 1 a.m. and then going to bed," he says with a chuckle. Only this time, he didn't go right to bed, because his television started "channel surfing" on its own.
At other times, his refrigerator or his cupboard doors would swing open, only to shut themselves when he came into the kitchen. The stray cat who often let itself in through the window to eat acted very uncomfortable in the kitchen several times and quickly left. One time, when the cat followed Pearson to the abandoned Joe Swan home, it began hissing and turned away.
Pearson says he thinks that if there indeed is a ghost, it is likely that of Joe Swan, coming around to see what's become of his home and neighborhood. "If I was a spirit, I'd be very uneasy myself, because of what people are doing to the town and to all the old homes," Pearson says. He hasn't noticed anything strange happen in the past six to eight months, so perhaps Joe has decided to move on.
Photo Illustration by Paul Myers
Some ghosts appear for a reason--like righting a wrong or protecting a person, while others seem confused or lonely. Like most places, Saratoga and Los Gatos have some ghost stories of their own.
The Christmas Spirit
Ann and Tom Atkinson have lived in an old Victorian on Alpine Avenue in Los Gatos for about 28 years, but the home itself is more than 100 years old. According to Ann, it came with a legend that it was haunted by the ghost of a woman, Mrs. Drury, driven to drinking by an absent husband. She allegedly died after falling down the home's winding stairs, although Ann says she's also heard that Drury died in an institution.
Whatever the case, Ann says, she was convinced of something strange during the mid-1980s, when she was wrapping Christmas presents for her two children in the laundry room. While standing in the room, she had her back to the staircase when she heard a "rustling, swooshing" sound--like her children coming down the stairs with blankets or sleeping bags, which they were known to do.
"I remember saying 'no one look in here, because I'm wrapping presents'" Ann says, adding that there was no one there when she turned around. "It was very strange and hard to explain."
Then, the piano in the living room suddenly began playing--not a melody, but just random notes. Ann dashed into the room, thinking the pet cat was walking on the piano, but she found no evidence of the cat anywhere.
Just last year, when Ann's daughter Amy was sleeping alone in the house after an exhausting trip, Amy told her mother that after she got into bed, she could have sworn she felt someone sit down on the bed next to her. "It was such a strong feeling," Ann says her daughter told her.
"We've all decided that if it's a ghost, it's obviously a friendly one," Ann says. "My logical mind won't let me believe it, but at the same time, I'm very intrigued by it."
It's a feeling shared by many.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
