The Historic Palace Hotel in Port Townsend, WA

The Palace Hotel occupies the Captain Tibbals Building. This classic three-story brick building was constructed in 1889 for $28,000 by Henry L. Tibbals, a retired sea captain.

Built in the Richardson Romanesque style, the building's arched windows appear to extend for two stories through the use of twin columns that bracket each window bay on the building's facade. The Captain Tibbals Building is a beautiful example of Port Townsend's turn-of-the-century architectural past.

W elcom e to PIH A ’s H istoric istor ic H aunting of W ashington State M agazine On behalf of the volunteer paranormal investigators of PIHA, I invite you to experience Washington State’s amazing historical sites and museums like never before. PIHA has created a program unlike any other in Washington State. Through our process of networking with local historical societies, museums and registered historical sites, PIHA hopes to help educate the public of our state’s exciting history and the process and technology utilized in today’s paranormal investigations.

PIHA was created with two goals in mind: 1. PIHA hopes to bring our history to life by attempting to obtain significant evidence of these strange occurrences. Utilizing the latest in today’s electronic technology and dedicated paranormal investigators, we are accomplishing this objective.

2. PIHA wants to stimulate additional interest in our residents and visitors to Washington State’s fascinating history. We want to encourage individuals, families, schools and community organizations to visit these (and other) historical locations for a better understanding of our state’s history and the people who made it.

PIHA is not out to prove or disprove the existence of possible paranormal activity, but to publish any significant evidence collected at an investigation and let each individual decided for himself what to believe or not to believe.

Wherever your travels in Washington take you, best wishes for a “Trip to the Extraordinary”.

For additional information about PIHA, visit our website at www.pihausa.com

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In this Issue: Welcome to PIHA’s Historic Haunting of Washington State Magazine…..2 Washington State History………….……..……….5 The Olympic Peninsula History…………………..7 Port Townsend History.….………………….…….9 The Palace Hotel History….…11 Paranormal Investigation Report………………...13 Paranormal History Report…………………...…..16 About PIHA’s Historic Haunting of Washington State Program………….17 Contact PIH A :

PIH A M agazine Publisher:

PIHA (Paranormal Investigations of Historic America) Address: 16755 Wales Street SE City, State, Zip: Monroe, WA 98272 Phone: 360.799.4138 Email: Info@pihausa.com Website: WWW.PIHAUSA.COM

Publisher………………...…..….Historic Haunting Chief Publisher…………..……..Vaughn Hubbard Program Manager:………….…..Debbie Knapp Marketing Manager:………….....Kathy Gavin Graphic Designer:…………...…..Christian Wells

Vaughn Hubbard: Case Manager/Historian Debbie Knapp: Lead Investigator/Historian Kathy Gavin: Lead Investigator Christian Wells: Investigator

R eference M aterial: We wish to acknowledge the HistoryLink for allowing PIHA to use their published historical research information as reference material. To read about the history of Washington State visit the HistoryLink website at: WWW.HISTORYLINK.ORG

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Washington State History The State of Washington occupies the far northwest corner of the contiguous 48 United States. It occupies 66,582 square miles (176,600 square kilometers) between the Pacific Ocean on the west and the Idaho border at 117 degrees longitude. Washington borders Canada on the north along the 49th parallel and Oregon on the south along the Columbia River and 46th parallel. Great Britain and the United States jointly occupied the region between 1818 and 1846, when Britain ceded the Pacific Northwest below the 49th parallel to the U.S. In 1848 the U.S. created Oregon Territory, including the future states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and a portion of Montana. Washington Territory (including Idaho and western Montana until 1863) was separated from Oregon on March 2, 1853, and gained statehood on November 11, 1889.

The federal government created Oregon Territory on August 14, 1848. The area of the new jurisdiction included the present-day states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and western Montana. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 triggered a large westward migration, and settlement of Oregon Territory was promoted by passage of the Donation Land Claims Act of 1850, which granted 160 acres to any U.S. citizen who agreed to occupy his or her land for five years.

On August 29, 1851, 27 male settlers met at Cowlitz Landing (south of present-day Olympia) to petition Congress for a separate “Columbia Territory” covering the area between the Columbia River and 49th parallel. The petition was reaffirmed by 44 delegates who met in Monticello on November 25, 1852.

Congress approved the new territory on February 10, 1853, but changed its name to “Washington.”

President Millard Fillmore signed the bill on March 2, 1853, and Olympia was named the Territorial Capital and has remained the capital of both Washington Territory and State since 1853. President Franklyn Pierce named Isaac I. Stevens as the first governor of an area that included northern Idaho and western Montana until President Abraham Lincoln established Idaho Territory on March 4, 1863.

Washington’s non-Indian population grew steadily to more than 300,000 over the following decades. Its residents began petitioning for statehood in 1881, and Washington was admitted to the Union on November 11, 1889, with the signature of President Benjamin Harrison.

Thirty federally recognized sovereign Indian tribes and reservations occupy substantial areas in Washington, and there are an additional seven unrecognized but culturally distinct tribes. Native American Indian tribes have occupied this area; now know as Washington State for over 10,000 years and have a rich history in culture and survival. By the 1850s, when the first Euro American settlers arrived at Alki Point and along the Duwamish River, diseases had already taken a devastating toll on native peoples and their cultures. During the 80 year period from the 1770s to 1850, smallpox, measles, influenza, and other diseases had killed an estimated 28,000 Native Americans in Western Washington, leaving about 9,000 survivors. Historian Robert Boyd conducted extensive research on the effect of European diseases on Northwest coast Indians. In his book, The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence, he states that the 1775 Spanish expedition led by Bruno Hezeta, commander of the Santiago and Juan Fracisco de la Bodega & Quadra, commander of the Sonora was the most likely carrier.

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The History of the Olympic Peninsula Captain George Vancouver’s expedition left England in 1791 in the ships Discovery and Chatham to explore the Northwest Coast of North America.

Vancouver sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, explored the South Pacific, and wintered in the Hawaiian Islands, before reaching the Northwest Coast in April 1792.

Captain Robert Gray, born in Tiverton, Rhode Island, in 1755, was on his second fur trading voyage to the Northwest. Two days before encountering Gray, Vancouver sailed past the mouth of the Columbia. Like Gray, he noted signs indicating a river flowing into the ocean.

However, Vancouver relied on the reports of an English captain named John Meares, who investigated the purported river mouth in 1788 and concluded decisively (though wrongly) that no such river existed.

By April 1792, Vancouver’s expedition had entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca and commenced his exploration of Puget Sound and making maps of the regions he explored. Vancouver named the features he encountered for his friends, patrons, crewmembers, and even his ships. He named every island, mountain, waterway, and point of land in sight -- 75 in all.

After leaving the river, Gray continued trading north up the coast. In late June, his ship, Columbia, was damaged in a storm, and he spent a month at Nootka on Vancouver Island, repairing it. Vancouver also visited Nootka, saw Gray's chart, and recognized his error. In October 1792, Vancouver sent William Broughton in the Chatham, with a copy of Gray's chart, to explore the Columbia River. Broughton sailed farther up the river than Gray had, charting and naming many features along the way. Broughton named a point Vancouver located on the north shore of the lower Columbia in honor of his commander.

The Olympic Peninsula is one of the most beautiful and diverse regions in the country. With its tall timber, abundant wildlife and vast water resources it’s no wonder that the early settlers chose this location to start a new life. The communities of the Olympic Peninsula are as diverse as its weather. Some depend on the lumber industry and others on the fishing industry while still other communities have become national Historic Sites depending on tourism. The Olympic Rainforest can get 12 feet of rain a year where as Sequim, only 100 miles away receives less than 15” of rainfall annually. But they all have one thing in common; most of these communities have a history of paranormal activity and lots of ghost stories to tell.

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Port Townsend

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The History of Port Townsend Washington On May 2, 1792, Discovery and Chatham entered a well-protected natural harbor toward the east end of the Strait, which Vancouver named Port Discovery for his ship Leaving much of the crew with the anchored ships, Vancouver set out on May 7, 1792, with a party in three small boats to explore the surrounding area. They rounded the Quimper Peninsula, the neck of land jutting off the Olympic Peninsula that separates Port Discovery from the harbor of Port Townsend, and camped that night on a swampy spit of land, which Vancouver named Point Hudson, at the entrance to Port Townsend harbor.

May 8, 1792, Vancouver wrote in his log "To this port I gave the name of Port Townshend, in honor of the noble Marquis" George Townsend, the marquis Vancouver honored, was a British general.

The United States Exploring Expedition of 1841, led by Lt. Charles Wilkes, charted the bay as Port Townsend.

The first Americans settled on the bay in 1851. In October of that year, Alfred A. Plummer, Charles Bachelder, Loren B. Hastings, and Francis W. Pettygrove met in the cabin Plummer and Bachelder had erected on the beach below Point Hudson and agreed to establish a town on the site. They named the proposed town "after the bay on which it was situated, Port Townsend". Port Townsend soon became the site of the U.S. Customs port of entry, the county seat of newly formed Jefferson County, and one of the leading settlements in Washington Territory.

First cabin built at Port Townsend in 1851 by Charles Bachelder, Loren Hastings, Francis Pettygrove, and Alfred Plummer 9

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The History of the Historic Place Hotel The Palace Hotel occupies the Captain Tibbals Building. This classic three-story brick building was constructed in 1889 for $28,000 by Henry L. Tibbals, a retired sea captain.

Built in the Richardson Romanesque style, the building's arched windows appear to extend for two stories through the use of twin columns that bracket each window bay on the building's facade. The Captain Tibbals Building is a beautiful example of Port Townsend's turn-of-the-century architectural past.

The first floor of the Captain Tibbals Building originally housed a billiard parlor and saloon known as the Townsend Tavern, while the upper two floors provided furnished rooms for rent. In the early 1900s, The Call newspaper operated out of the building. Over the years, the building has housed an Egyptian theater, the Northern Pacific offices, a grocery store, a state liquor store, a florist shop, and several restaurants. Like many other downtown buildings in Port Townsend, the upper floors of the building were very much under-used for many years. [Capt. Tibbals] From 1925 to 1933, the upper two floors of the building were known as the Palace Hotel, affectionately nicknamed "the Palace of Sweets" as they were operated as a brothel and hotel. During this time, the Madame of the house, Marie, occupied the corner suite on the second floor. Her room was richly decorated with plush red wallpaper and deep green woodwork, much as it is today. It had the only fireplace in the building, but it lacked a private bath as there was only one on each of the upper floors. On the third floor there were four, small interior rooms which were lighted from the large stairwell skylight, but had no outside windows. While this type of interior room was quiet common in the building of this era, in the Palace Hotel they served as "cribs" for the "girls". Following an early morning raid by the sheriff in the mid ~1930's, the brothel was eventually closed and Marie and the "girls" soon left town. Such is the colorful past of this beautiful building.

A long and tedious restoration of the building began in 1976, with much of the interior renovation completed by 1977 and the exterior restoration completed by 1984. In the spring of 1984, under state and federal matching grants, major foundation repairs were made and the long missing sheet metal cornice was finally restored.

Since being renovated, the building has been home to the Palace Hotel. The hotel occupies the second and third floors, with a lovely restaurant and several specialty retailers located on the main level. The hotel features 15 charming guest rooms and suites, each still bearing the name of one of the "girls". Each room is uniquely furnished with antiques and collectibles, in keeping with the Victorian character of the building. Most have private baths and several have mini-kitchen facilities. With soaring windows and 14-foot ceilings, each guest room retains the flavor of century-old quality and architectural character so rarely found today.

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The PIHA Grey Team’s Paranormal Investigation On Friday, February 5th 2010 the PIHA Grey Team accomplished a paranormal investigation of the historic Palace Hotel and came away with some interesting results indicating that possible paranormal activity does exist in this historic site. These are the results of that investigation.

The Grey Team began their investigation at the Palace Hotel at 8:00 PM. The PIHA Grey Team and Lead Investigator, Kathy Gavin, was assisted by Cheryl Heller, head housekeeper at the Palace Hotel.

As is the usual practice, the team first completes a scan of the area to be investigated. They use their EMF (Electromagnetic Field) detectors to locate any abnormal electronic energy that may exist. A team member also scans for any significant changes in the ambient (room) temperature.

Next, the Grey Team sets up their IR (Infrared) camcorders to video tape any shadows or strange movement that may take place during their EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) session.

Finally they position the parabolic dish that they use to record any noises or voices that may or may not be heard by ear. The parabolic dish also has a headset attached allowing an investigator to hear any voices or noises that cannot be heard naturally by the other investigators during the EVP session. This has proven to be a valuable tool to validate anything recorded during the EVP session that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Note: Vaughn was testing his theory at this investigation that there was really no reason to do a paranormal investigation in the dark. Part of the time throughout the investigation, Vaughn left all of the lights on in the area being investigated. After reviewing all of the evidence obtained, Vaughn concluded the there was no discernable difference in the amount of or type of evidence obtained whether the lights were on or off.

On another unrelated investigation at another location in Seattle, Vaughn scheduled that investigation to take place on a Sunday morning starting at 8:00 AM and ending at noon.

Again, evidence was obtained of possible paranormal activity.

Vaughn has concluded that if ghost actually exist, they can be seen, heard and felt anytime, day or night with the lights on or off. The main reason that most paranormal organizations investigate late at night is that there are fewer people in and around the area or building being investigated and the same is true for vehicle traffic. All of these factors can contaminate recordings being made during the actual investigation. Basically, the quieter it is, the better chance we have of recording possible evidence of paranormal activity.

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Results of the PIHA Paranormal Investigation: 9:00 PM – Debbie Knapp, PIHA Lead Investigator reports: “Hallway outside of our room #3 and Vaughn's room #4.

I was coming our of our room at about 9:30pm on Friday night and as I turned the corner around by the stairs I felt a cold sweep of air come in front of me and to the right of me as if someone had opened a window. I looked around for vents, open door, etc and did not see where it could have came from. Then as I turned back around to go back to the room I heard a faint whisper as I was getting ready to open the door. No-one was in either room as I had just come up to get more batteries.”

10:15 PM - As Kathy and guest psychic Robin are investigating the basement, Kathy's K-II meter records a strong EMF (Electromagnetic Field) presence.

11:00 PM - Kathy gets another high reading on her K-2 meter at the mirror in the basement.

11:15 PM - The parabolic dish records a whisper in the basement.

11:30 PM - Debbie & Kathy feel a cold breeze and cold chills in the basement.

11:45 PM – During an EVP session in the basement, Dave ask a question and Debbie hears the answer 11. Kathy's K-2 meter is registering a high EMF reading at the same time.

12:30 AM - Kathy records high EMF reading during the time Dave is having an EVP session in the basement. Shortly afterward, Kathy becomes very emotional and has to be consoled by her team. Debbie and Dave continue with EVP session with the K-2 meter as Kathy recovers from her emotional experience. Then Debbie's K-2 meter starts to record extremely high readings indicating some sort of energy presence. Kathy later reports: “I had my EMF pointed toward the opening in another room when a power of energy came close to me, I had a strange feeling and was not sure what to make of it at first then it felt like it was coming closer and closer and as it did I started having trouble breathing, and panicked then Dave and Debbie had me move backward away and I sat to catch my breath, the feeling stayed with me for a couple hours before I felt I was breathing normal.”

12:45 AM - Debbie hears the words "It's Me" as the team wraps up their EVP session in the basement.

1:00 AM – Kathy records high level EMF (Electromagnetic Field) readings from her K-II meter during a scan of the sitting area on the 2nd floor.

1:30 AM - Vaughn's name is spoken on the 2nd Floor and is recorded on the parabolic dish.

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The History of Paranormal Activity The historic Palace Hotel has a long and documented history of paranormal activity. This historic site has been the talk of many visitors and employees with stories of strange activities and events that cannot be explained.

"The Ghost Files," is a scrapbook of photos and letters about first-person paranormal runins that have taken place inside the hotel. The hotel has been keeping The Ghost Files book since 1987. The book has more than 100 different cases left by guest.

Atop the staircase is a large portrait of the Lady in Blue, a mournful, mysterious woman from decades ago whose legend paints her as having ties to a former brothel that operated at the hotel from 1925 to 1933.

The name, Miss Claire, appears on the door of Room 4 upstairs, which has been said to be haunted. Miss Claire and the Lady in Blue could be one and the same, as the story goes. The spirit of the Lady in Blue is believed to leave the portrait to walk the Palace halls in search of a lost lover. She supposedly likes to haunt the second floor, especially Rooms 3 and 4.

Visitors have recorded shaking beds, eerie moans and strange shadows in those two rooms.

Several guests claim to have had conversations with the Lady in Blue. Other hotel guests recall dreaming about the Lady in Blue, awakening to strange noises in the night, hearing a cry or a groan, smelling perfume or feeling a cold draft from the hall and knocking on the door but when answered, no one is there.

There is possibly another spirit named Betty who died at the age of 39.

Maybe it’s because of the location, the many tragedies that have occurred, or the past residents that once occupied the facility just don’t want to leave. No one really knows for sure why these phenomena exist; all they know is that it does!

Visitors and employees report a variety of phenomena from feelings of dread to seeing full bodied apparitions. There are also stories of being touched by an unseen source, hearing voices coming from no where, shadows and mist that can’t be explained. And the reports just keep coming and the stories are still being told.

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O n behalf of the volunteer paranorm par anorm al investigators of PIH A , w e invite you to experience W ashington State’s am azing historical sites and m useum s like never before. PIH A has created a program unlike any other in W ashington State. Through our process of netw orking w ith local H istorical Societies, m useum s and registered historical sites, PIH A hopes to help educate the public of our state’s exciting history and the process pro cess and an d technology utilized in paranorm al research. research .

E ach m onth, onth , "PIH A M agazine" features feature s the history of a tow n or com m unity, and the individual m useum s and historical histor ical sites that w e investigated. PIH A schedules tw o com m unities to visit tw ice in a m onth. W e then schedule s chedule tw o separate investigations at a m useum and/or public historical site, site , for each w eekend visit. This process allow s us to do a paranorm al investigation at four different historical sites each m onth.

The PIH A A pproach to Paranorm al Investigations The Th e PIH A “G rey Team ” is m ade up of dedicated paranorm al investigators w ith a passion for history and a curiosity in the paranorm al phenom ena. O ur approach, equipm ent and procedures to paranorm al investigating are prim arily based on research and logic in obtaining obta ining evidence of possible paranorm al activity.

PIH A never use m edium s, psychics or O uija B oards in our investigations. M any people w ho think that som ething paranorm al exist, physics and logic can debunk. That said, occasionally PIH A obtains evidence that neither physics nor logic applies. W hen this occurs, w e classify it as paranorm al evidence and let each individual decide for him self w hat to believe or not believe.

If your historical com m unity, m useum or public historical site has a history of paranorm al activity and w ould like a free paranorm al investigation, please contact: Vaughn Hubbard, PIHA, Case Manager/Historian Email: Vaughn@pihausa.com Website: www.PIHAUSA.com

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