Seattle’s Pike’s Place Market, Part ll

Most tourists do not know that Pike’s Place Market is haunted.

Over the years many witnesses have seen an old lady--most often on the lower level. She appears so real that many witnesses do not figure out they have seen a ghost until afterward.

It is said this ghost was the eldest daughter of Chief Sealth--which through misspellings and mispronunciations became “Seattle.”  Her Duwamish name was Kikisoblu but the early Anglo settlers in the area named her Princess Angeline.

In 1855, the Treaty of Point Elliot required the Duwamish leave their land for a reservation. Princess Angeline ignored the order and stayed in Seattle.

She lived in a waterfront shack where the market sits today. She survived by taking in laundry and selling hand woven baskets along the street.

Princess Angeline's shack.
Photo: Edward Curtis

She was a well-known figure in the city. She walked bent over with a cane. She always wore a handkerchief on her head and a shawl around her shoulders.

Princess Angeline
Photo: Edward Curtis

One reason it is known what she looked like is a young photographer at the time--Edward Curtis took many pictures of her.

When Princess Angeline died at the age of 84 in 1896 the citizens of Seattle gave her a big funeral. She was buried in a casket that was made to look like a canoe.

Her ghost has haunted the Market for decades. She appears so life like most witnesses at first are just taken aback by the sight of this odd old woman.

In Leslie Rule’s book entitled, Ghosts Among Us she tells a story about one of her friends when she was a teen growing up in Seattle. Her friends and her often rode the bus downtown and hung out in the market in the 1970s--this was when it was still a hippie hang out.

One day one of her friends went to the Market alone, while there she saw a sight that upset her. She saw an old woman she described as being a Native American.

This woman stared at her with piercing eyes that sent a chill down her spine. She was extremely old, toothless and wore a shawl. A smell of decay clung to her.

She muttered something, which the teen could not understand. She told Rule later that she wondered if this old lady was an evil witch that cast a spell on her. Rule’s friend was so frightened she has never gone back to the market.

Several years later when Rule heard other stories about Princess Angeline she wondered if this was the odd lady her friend saw.

In recent years, one shop owner on the lower level who sales beads saw an older woman dressed strangly in her store looking at beads in the back. When she approached this woman to ask if she needed assistance she disappeared.

She made inquiries and heard the story about Princess Angeline’s ghost. She has continued to see her ghost in her shop--she is now more comfortable with this sight. The owner states the ghost always checks out her beads in the back--then she fades away.

One day the shop owner saw her walk right through the back wall.

Most witnesses state the Princess moves slowly. Some state she even glows--in shades of lavender, blue and pink.

Other witnesses have seen a young Native American boy walking with her. The shop owner of the bead store has seen this ghost as well.

Lower levels where ghost has been seen.

It is said her ghost is felt near a central wooden column in the lower level. This area is always cold and several people who have taken pictures in this area have discovered anomalies in their photos.

In Part l of Seattle’s Pike’s Place Market the history of this historic market is shared.

Seattle’s Pike’s Place Market, Part l

Today this market is Seattle, Washington’s most popular tourist attraction. It sits in an historic district in downtown Seattle overlooking Puget Sound.

What most tourists are not aware of is this market is one of Seattle’s most haunted. Locals and vendors openly share tales about the ghosts that remain in the market.

Pike’s Place is in a rustic, long multi-level building with uneven floors and wooden columns. Steps or steep ramps take tourists from one level to the next.

Fresh produce and flowers.

Fish market.

The upper level or street level is used to sell an impressive assortment of farm fresh fruits and vegetables. In one corner of this level is the famous fish market where strong young men throw or torpedo fish to paying customers.

The lower levels have vendors and permanent stores that sell a variety of handmade goods and antiques. On any given day over 600 vendors are selling at the market.

A public market has been located on this 4-block boardwalk since 1907. The original vendors displayed their wares in the open air. Seattle residents flocked to the spot in search of fair priced food.

Market in 1911

By November of 1907 Frank Goodwin, who became rich from Klondike Gold, built the first structure on the spot.

In the 1930s, during the Great Depression Pike Place Market still offered the freshest and cheapest food in town. The market was still going strong during World War ll. But with more automobiles and the creation of supermarkets Pike’s Place drastically declined.

In the 1970s the area was a hippie hangout and was about to be torn down when a concerned architect led a movement to “Save the market” campaign.

It worked, for local voters approved the area as a 17-acre historic district and they undertook a rehabilitation of the market. This decision needless to say was a lucrative one.

View of Puget Sound from Market.

So Pike’s Market does not need a haunting to draw tourists in but it has several resident ghosts. One is a princess who has been seen many times over the years.

In Part ll, Seattle’s Pike’s Place Market the story of the Market’s most well known ghost is shared.

Old Bernardsville Public Library

This former library located in the center of Bernardsville, New Jersey has a resident ghost that use to help with public fundraisers.

When the library needed more books they would throw a ball to honor Phyllis Parker. This ghost even had her very own library card.

Building in 1907

Parker has a strong but sad connection to one room located in the library. The library building’s older sections date back to the Revolutionary War. The library used this wing as a Reading Room but at one time it was a lively pub called Vealtown Tavern--today the locals call it John Parker Tavern.

Phyllis was the daughter of Captain John Parker who owned this pub. Several rooms in the tavern were rented out to tenants. One lodger, a Dr. Byram became involved romantically with Phyllis.

What Phyllis did not know is Byram was spying for the British. During his time at Vealtown he stole important papers from General Anthony Wayne who was another guest at the tavern.

Once Dr. Byram had this information he left quickly. Phyllis finding herself abandoned was devastated. Byram not an experienced spy was caught and hanged. For some unknown reason, his body was placed in a crate and delivered back to the tavern.

Phyllis unaware of his death was the first to open this box when it arrived. At the sight of her lover’s body she started to scream. She became hysterical and suffered a nervous breakdown.

Eventually, the Vealtown Tavern was converted for use as a home. It was during this time in 1877 that the owner started to report hearing a woman screaming. Besides the screams, sounds of a box lid slamming down were heard shortly after.

In 1902, the library was housed in this building. The presence of Phyllis’ ghost was forgotten until one day in 1977. A volunteer page arrived at the library one morning early. As she waited in the parking lot she thought she saw Geri Burden a librarian who she works with-- moving around in the building.

Old Bernardsville Library

But Burden pulled up next to her in the parking lot. The two cautiously approached the building but they found nothing disturbed and no one was in the building. After this, Phyllis made several more appearances.

One expert called in told the library staff that the recent innovations in the older section of the library had stirred up the activity.

A ghost hunter, Norm Gauthier spent a night at the library with his group. They did an EVP session in the Reading Room one of the original rooms in the structure.

Four local reporters and a staff member Martha Hamill attended. Hamill was especially curious for she had heard disembodied voices in the library over the ten years she had worked there.

Gauthier asked Phyllis if she wanted to say something. * At first nothing was recorded but later he picked up the sounds of someone shuffling and the sounds of a door rattling and a window opening. No voices were picked up that night.

Ghosts rarely perform on demand--what is picked up is usually random.

 The new Bernardsville Library has this recording in their possession and it is available for checkout.

After the library moved to their new location another ghost hunting group headed by Christie Gucher went in to investigate when they heard items were moving around the building without explanation.

Gucher caught an image of a shadow figure with no features standing in front of one window. No one else was there at the time.

This old library building is up for sale.

* I conduct EVPs differently--when recording I always ask specific questions--that can be answered in a few words.

Ghost Ship: Carroll A. Deering

Carroll A. Deering

The curious fate of the Carroll A. Deering has put it at the top of the list of maritime mysteries.

The Deering is considered a ghost ship for it was found abandoned by the Coast Guard on the Outer Shoals of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina in 1921.

In August of 1920, the Deering a five-masted commercial schooner, prepared to sail from Norfolk, Virginia to Rio de Janeiro. It carried a cargo of coal.

The original captain was William H. Merritt--he fell ill soon into the journey and was left off in a port in Delaware. Hastily the Deering Company found a replacement. W. B. Wornell was a 66-year old retired sea captain.

A young Captain Wornell

The Deering made it to Rio de Janeiro without further incident. Captain Wornell gave his Danish crew shore leave and spent his time with an old friend--Captain Goodwin. He talked about the crew on the Deering with distain and stated all save the ship’s engineer were untrustworthy.

The Deering left Rio in early December and then stopped for supplies in Barbados. The ship’s first mate, Charles B. McLellan who came aboard the Deering at the same time as Wornell got drunk and complained about having to work with the old captain.

He stated to whomever would listen that Wornell would not let him discipline the crew and that he was an interfering old man. He stated it was left to him to do all the navigation because of Wornell’s poor eyesight.

While in the Continental Café McLellan bragged, “I’ll get the Captain before we get to Norfolk, I will.” Another captain, Hugh Norton overheard this threat and had him arrested.

In an odd twist Wornell forgave McLellan and bailed him out of jail. On January 9^th the Deering set sail for Hampton Roads.

The last time the Deering was spotted with her crew onboard was when she hailed the Cape Lookout Lighthouse in North Carolina. The keeper, a Captain Jacobson reported that a thin man with reddish hair and a foreign accent told him the Deering had lost her anchors--he did not look like any of the known officers aboard.

2nd Cape Lookout Lighthouse in 1913

Jacobson could not report this because his radio was out. He noted the crews’ presence on the ship was odd--for they were “milling around” on the fore deck of the ship, an area onboard where crews were not allowed normally. He then watched as the Deering set a peculiar course.

Soon after this, the Coast Guard spotted the Carroll A. Deering run aground on Cape Hatteras. After a series of storms let up, on February 4^th the cutter Manning reached the Deering and managed to board her.

There was no sign of the crew and their belongings and the lifeboats were missing. The ships log, navigation equipment, papers and most of the valuable items on the ship were also gone.

It looked like the crew had abandoned the ship just as a meal was being laid out.

The U.S. government conducted an extensive search and an investigation--this task was given to then Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover-- but the crew was never located. 

The reason for why the ship was abandoned remains a mystery. The government has never offered an official explanation.

The Deering stayed ahead of a storm that hit the area at the time so this was ruled out as a possible cause.

A variety of reasons were put forth at the time. Was it foul play by rumrunners? Or was it a communist pirate ship that was set on capturing an America ship?

Could it be the crew mutinied--did they run the ship aground on purpose taking everything of value with them before they did this?

A more outlandish but persistent theory is that the paranormal forces at work in the Bermuda Triangle robbed the Deering of its crew. But the Deering wasn’t near the Triangle when she ran aground.

By March of 1921 the only thing left of the wreaked and battered Deering was her hull. The ship was towed away and dynamited. In 1922, the investigation was closed.