SEA CLIFF MANOR
Location: Mendocino is a prosperous seaside fishing resort on US Highway 1 about 140 miles north of San Francisco and ten miles south of Fort Bragg. Sea Cliff Manor is situated on a small hill over the southbound lane overlooking the bay west of town at 1140 Main Street.
Description of Place: The two-story Dutch Colonial bed and breakfast was constructed by ship-builders around 1880 on a small portion of beach property not far from the Mendocino Headlands State Park. Constructed of timbers made from Douglas fir, several of which still surround the property, it features gables and turrets, a peaked roof and widow's walk. The white mansion has eight rooms and a small guest house with a path leading to a private beach. Some fire damage still exists; the stairs to the widow's walk on the roof no longer exist.
Ghostly Manifestations: When Susan Emright first saw Sea Cliff Manor in 1994, she automatically fell in love with it. She and her husband, Clark, were former career-minded individuals looking for a good investment to turn into a little bed and breakfast in order to retire. Neither of them believed in ghosts or spirits at first, but the combination of the stress in trying to create a bed and breakfast from a private home and then the tension of not knowing what happening to them soon began work into their lives.
It is believed that something other than dust, cobwebs and debris was shaken loose in the restoration of the house. Repairs took longer than expected, specifications often changed and there were stupid careless accidents. An electrician was badly electrocuted despite turning off the power. The downstairs hall measured differently than previously thought and the carpet didn't fit. The house "rejected" new fittings, new pipes and fixtures shot off the walls when water was turned on in the house. A sound investment was turning into a white elephant.
"There would be these cold drafts through the place." Susan recalls. "One draft somehow blew out the fire in the downstairs fireplace. I didn't think such a think was possible, but in light of all the things we experienced that year, it was obviously not a normal draft."
Susan recalls a radio that came on by itself. Lights flickered on the top floor even when turned off. Everything was based or blamed on electrical problems from the renovation, but not all of it seemed possible. A washing machine shook itself into the middle of the floor of the cellar, and a newly-installed light fixture crashed to the floor despite having been anchored twice. A ceiling fan in the den went out of control throwing wooden splinters everywhere.
If there was a ghost, Susan thought it was the spirit of the old woman who had lived there before them. Maybe she did not like other people living in her house, but then it seemed the ghost preferred her to her husband. She would feel someone touching her and she would whirl round expecting her husband, but no one was ever there. It would feel as if someone was stroking her hair, and once she felt the male presence of someone in her bed while Clark was away.
When he was available, Clark would see a large dog on the property, but he never knew where it had come from. A beautiful woman on the beach once approached him and vanished when he chanced to look away. Things were growing estranged at the time between he and Susan; they were drifting apart. When a tub faucet inexplicably flooded the upstairs, they placed the blame on each other and had to push forward the opening of their little bed and breakfast.
When the date again started coming close, Clark sent photos of the interior and grounds to the printers to have their brochures created. The printer then called him about what text to add about the ghost. It seems in one picture was the vague image of a man in shadow with a cane topped by a falcon. Clark had found the burned unique cane top in the attic debris of the house.
History: The mansion was built by local robber baron Jeremiah Hastings who lived from 1840 to 1882 for his wife, Olivia Madden-Hastings, but despite their inherent love story, he proved to be quite unfaithful later on in his marriage, dallying with several local ladies. When she discovered the truth about his extra-marital affairs, she confronted him about it, accidentally killing her as a result and burning down part of the house to cover it up. He wasn't very successful in the cover-up and was pulled from the house and lynched by a tree on the property. Judge Wilshire Adler seized the house afterward to force noble reputations out of the house and experienced nothing supernatural out of the house. His granddaughter, Lorraine, lived in the house for 51 years until she died in 1994 of what was considered natural causes, although Susan Emright isn't sure about that assessment. Her daughter sold the location to the Emrights that same year.
Identity of Ghosts: At first, Susan thought she was being haunted by Lorraine's spirit, but after some research and meeting with the locals, she learned Sea Cliff was once called the Hastings House. Jeremiah Hastings was a difficult and ornery businessman tempered only by women and fueled by his fondness for ale and gambling. Among his rejected paramours was Sara Warner who drowned nearby around 1878. Clark believes her spirit is still on the grounds.
Source/Comments: Haunting of Sea Cliff Manor (1994). Loosely compared with the Buxton Inn in Granville, Ohio and the Brookdale Lodge in Brookdale, California.