Was the sinking spell due to Julias fretful presence or the two vaccinations I had had that morning? In the early 1900s, the Victorian house is said to have been home to a young couple and their sickly son. Canyon Road, at the end of East DeVargas Street, was an old supply route and is now home to [more than 100] art galleries. They include: The LaFonda, Cathedral Park, the old St. Vincents Hospital, the old Santa Fe Federal building, and the infamous, La Posada Hotel, which used to be the Staab house and judging by the mischievous doings of Julia Staab the mansions ghostly mistress she believes it still is. At the bottom of the page was the announcement of a Ghost Tour of Santa Fe that evening. I felt safe. Thanks, Celery Ellen! There was a big trunk there, and the lid was now up. A little while later the woman comes running down the stairs, goes to the front desk and demands if the hotel is known to be haunted. It can be a dry and boring recitation of dates and facts. So, perhaps this tale has roots in the Peacock family, or maybe it sprung from the family living in the house before. The husband died, and when the wife remarried, it was to an unkind man who may have beaten the boy, worsening his ailments. Im Swedish and I speak several languages. Hotel St. Francis - Santa Fe, New Mexico210 Don Gaspar AvenueSanta Fe, New Mexico 87501, Hotel: 505-983-5700Reservations: 1-800-529-5700nmreservations@hhandr.com. In this case, it may be the building itself. The beautiful three-story mansion that would eventually become La Posada was completed in 1882. History isn't always easy to feel. Julia remains ever-present in her suite, the reports go. The lack of light, and the the weight of the three-story building above sitting on you is so intense, its almost hard to breathe. In Santa Fe, the apparitions wander our arroyos, resorts and galleries. In the late 90s, when I was in elementary school, I went to day camp during the summers at Driscoll Fitness Center on what was then the College of Santa Fe campus. Her story is most often told to children, especially those who grow up near arroyos where flash floods fill dry beds with roaring walls of water in an instant. Rediscover the wonder of travel with a getaway to Santa Fe. The two-hour walking tour guided by Peter Sinclaire, a colorful figure in a clown nose and a wig of iridescent red plastic, started at the historic St. Francis Hotel, which is itself haunted. There were florescent lights blinking overhead, it was a really creepy vibe.. Everyone knows the place is full of history, so its easy to imagine more than one ghost floating through the saltillo tile hallways. And, I think theres a ghost here. Also visitEast DeVargas street, which dates back to 1610 and is the oldest established street in the U.S. On that street is the Supreme Court, which is in one of the oldest buildings in the country and the oldest building in Santa Fe. Well, I cant mention names. Unlike the weaker ghosts, who need to charge their batteries to be able to even show themselves at the known witching hour, Julia is another case, according to Wheeler and those that have had the chance to see her in action: Contrary to this is the particular ghost, such as Julia Staab, who appears at any time of day or night. One narrative focused on a 1940s nurse who was said to have been attacked by a soldier with post-traumatic stress disorder. However, their fairy tale life ended with Julias seventh child, a boy, dying soon after he was born. Hannah Nordhaus, Julia Staabs great-great-granddaughter and author of a book about her ancestor, American Ghost,imagines what the move from Germany was like for Julia. Keep writing, my talented friend! I remember walking in a line to the cafeteria, and the hallways were carpeted and gross, and smelly, she says. She was rich and rode in an expensive carriage. The other active ghost of the hotel shows up two to four times a year. It was later found in a refrigerator, alive, placed there by unknown hands. But he did so with another woman. As an ancient city with a violent history in its past, Santa Fe is rich with material for Sinclaires paranormal pantomimes. In 1850, it was the prime place to stop, and one day a traveling gun salesman rode into town. Spiritsand stories about seeing themallow the past to creep into the present, making us think the dead may still be with us. According to history, the salesman lost all his money by drinking and gambling and became very emotional at the front desk. * Tickets to Meow Wolf are not included in hotel package. This story, much like that of La Llorona, is a cautionary tale: Dont make a gamble with someone elses money, or youll end up over your head. New Mexico became a state in 1912. For Wheeler, they all have one thing in common: they want to move on.. The hotels restaurant is now built around the old, bricked up well; however, this doesnt stop the salesmans ghostly form from occasionally taking a flying leap into the well. And thats going to lead them right here to this building.. Hes a local ghost tour guide and history buff whos been leading his guests to spooky spots in the downtown area since the early 90s. It was lovely decorated and they had many formal parties. Later they were both awakened by noise at the foot of the bed. The counselors told kids they would hear rapping at the top of a window pane in one specific room of the barracks, even on still evenings. He showed up in his jeans and boots and tuxedo jacket. To this day, people sometimes will see murky shadows and strange sounds coming from the back of the darkened courtyard. The dcor features handcrafted wood furniture by local artisans inspired by the Palace of the Governors and a palette of natural colors reflecting the days of Santa Fe's early Franciscan missionaries. Thank you again for another wonderful story! Pre-wedding,Julia had a reputation as being emotional, and relocating to the dusty, outlaw-packed Wild West from her posh life in Europe wasnt exactly what she had in mind. Peter told of a gun salesman who had arrived there one night in the old days, his saddle bags stuffed with money, including his sales commissions. Or when a formerly handsome young soldierwhos already survived, and lost, so muchtakes his own life in a recovery suite, people hear the sound of his limp feet thumping against the window like zombie pendulum decades later. She didnt speak the language, didnt understand the culture and immediately started having babies. Caitlyn Fitzgerald, campmate and best friend since those summer days, has a thing for scary stories and horror, so she never forgot the details. Savor the best wines and garden-to-glass cocktails at the award-winning Secreto Lounge or experience Market Steer Steakhouse. The heaviness that remains after things happen; things that seem like they shouldnt, that they couldnt, allows ghosts to linger. Cant decide between soft and hard shell luggage? "Celery Ellen" is the nickname I was given by my father as a child, a play on Sara Ellen, my given name. Its been a wonderful life for me. Or shell let you sleep with one eye open all night to think that nothing went amiss until the next morning when you find your pieces of valuables gone. It is, after all, Julias houseand maybe shes just trying to keep up her duties as hostess, apres-death. You speak of love. The first articles about it appeared in the late 70s in the, Sinclaire says his tours always include La Posada, not only because Julias ghost is renowned, but also because that is an active ghost, and I get new stories to tell.. The walls were lined with paintings for sale, so I couldnt lean against one. I heard this history standing with my group in a back hallway of the mansion part of the hotel. These are the kinds of things you must look for in a man or I fear youll have trouble, says Sinclaire. It faces the patio courtyard. Theres a purpose behind this story: keeping children away from danger. I dont know, but I was glad for the cold, fresh air as I walked alone on dark streets back to my car. I also understand the importance of staying calm, cool and collected. After a grisly murder, neighbors of the slain family tell their friends, and those friends tell their familiesand the news ripples out into the community, becoming legend. I remember thinking, Oh my God. And then in the morning I woke up and saw some lights, and I wasnt sure if it was sort of me in a dream-state just really, really wanting to experience something, she says, or I did experience something.. Abraham owned the estate that now comprises La Posada de Santa Fe. However, it was the tragedy of an unwell little boy who lived and died there that left a residue of violent energy. Your body needs to adjust. He includes details about individual ghosts shared through the years by hotel and restaurant employees, old friends or past tour-goers. The most disturbing tale, though, was that of a visiting cat that hissed and growled outside the door of the troubled room. Maria didnt listen. Peters focus as he talked settled on a house of Victorian architecture a few blocks away, which preceded the institution of Spanish/Pueblo Revival Style in 1912. Step into traditions and discover why Santa Fe was named #3 City in the U.S. by Travel + Leisure World's Best, #2 City in the U.S. by 2020 Conde' Nast Travelers Reader Choice Awards and #3 by Ovation Travel Group as the "22 Best Place to Travel in 2022." From 1982 to 2006, the Grant Street house was a bed and breakfast. Always ask people about their hometown. Beyond the exchange rate, and the ability to drink the water, is there anything about Santa Fe that guests are continually surprised by? Murdered in the tragic event, the nurses soul was doomed to forever wander the halls, and the counselors reported seeing her floating down the cafeteria hallways in her white nurses uniform, still streaked in blood. Julia was shipped to New Mexico in her teens after marrying an older man she hardly knew, Abraham Staab, in an arranged Christmas Day ceremony in their shared hometown of. It is thought that this signifies that she has been able to obtain energy from some other means. Id say, Each time you use my phone, please give me $10 forWorld Vision charity for kids. Hed write a check right there. I have about 30 different ghost encounters within three or four blocks of the Plaza that Ive heard about over the last 26 years, he says. Room #236 is my favorite room. I dont know if it confirmed, but it made me question my experience a little less, Nordhaus says. Go up to the fourth floor to theGovernors Gallery. If you get stressed, leave your desk, walk around the block. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Whether the human-like sounds puffing up from the basement are coming from the boiler or a waylaid spirit stuck between two worlds, Kay believes the internet has helped fuel speculation around the latter. The hotel is very historic. If you only get three hugs in a day, go hug a stranger and see their expression. They said the room was formerly home to a recovering WWII soldier who, disfigured and depressed, hung himself outside the window. Its just too short to stand in, so youre hunched as you explore it through claustrophobia and strained vision. Thats why Jamie Stringfellow made it her mission to meet Inger Boudouris, iconic concierge of theHotel St. Francis in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in her continuing series of the secrets of the concierges. I wonder how well it is doing. It came on again and he unplugged it this time. The wheelchair-bound boy lived in a room on the second floor, and he accidentally tumbled down the staircase more than once. Experience heartfelt hospitality in a clean safe-haven of your own with up to 15% off your stay. Reality is good. Events such as storms and lightning can cause turbulence, but the truth is that pilots are equipped to handle any situation. Summer is quickly approaching, which means that its time to start planning that epic getaway youve been dreaming about since last summer ended. During that time, the supernatural, somewhat macabre reports continued, including the frequent smell of rotting meat and blasts of freezing air that would kill house plants. Tags: Andrew Smith Gallery, Drury Hotel, Julia Staab, La Fonda, La Plazuela, La Posada, Peter Sinclaire, St. Francis Hotel, A ghostly thing happened.my comments disappeared so here goes again. The most famous LaFonda haunting involves a young honeymooning couple from St. Louis, who checked into the hotel during the 1930s. I have a close-to-home account of activity there. In a frantic mania, thinking she couldnt bear to lose her small children, she threw them into the raging river. Is he loving? Hed sent his brother to pick up the rental but the brother never came back. I have to admit, its a bit hard not to be shaken by the sound the wind makes, running through plants near Alto Street and under bridges along East Alameda; the whistling gusts can sound an awful lot like crying. The conversion from abandoned hospital to hotel has happened only recently. Celery Ellen Heath, I discovered it describes a person who needs freedom "like a bird needs its wings." Sinclaire says she chased after them, realizing what shed done. Thats disaster and will end up in a lost weekend., Avoid a lost weekend:Travel Tip: Preventing Altitude Sickness. At the starting place, the LaFonda, Wheeler says there are 11 ghosts that occupy the establishment, but only three that are active. Today, that well sits in the center of La Plazuela restaurant inside La Fonda. I once tried to get a helicopter to pick up a grooms suit in Albuquerque. Ive lived in Santa Fe since 1983. Would be make a good father? Immerse yourself in Meow Wolf's "House of Eternal Return" and enhance your experience with our hotel package that includes a $25 beverage credit in Secreto and 15% discount in the Meow Wolf Gift Shop. But in 2007, the Andrew Smith Gallery took over and Liz Kay, a gallery writer and salesperson for over 30 years, tells SFR they havent had one strange experience since. Jamie Stringfellow writes from Hermosa Beach, California, and Marthas Vineyard, Massachusetts. An article taken fromThe Washington Post was prominent. But throw a ghost in the mix, and a connection is built. The second type loves to cause chaosthese are poltergeists, and the third kindwhich we have the most of, due to the clash of cultures in these partsis the mischievous type of ghost., For the last nine years, through the doors of the La Fonda, where the paranormal tours begins, Wheeler has approximately 3,000 people (a dozen of which were professional ghost hunters) through the two-city blocks that hold most of the ghostly activity. Many of the bones were later moved to the Rosario Cemetery where they were put to rest. The name, La Posada is Spanish for inn or resting place, but Julia does not rest there. By Jamie Stringfellow for PeterGreenberg.com. I do suspect that your sudden dizziness was due to the vaccinations! It would happen at breakfast almost always, says Sinclaire. Abraham owned the estate that now comprises La Posada de Santa Fe. Once an elderly woman in Peters group who had worked there long ago told about strangeness in the kitchen. Currently the home of the Andrew Smith Gallery, it looks serene and homey as opposed to creepy. Two babies and a few years later, after moving to a house near the river, as Sinclaire says, Gregorio starts to spend more time at the office. Shes sort of plopped down there [in New Mexico], has a bunch of kids and were not sure whether it was post- partum depression or something else, she says in an interview from her home in Boulder, Colorado. One guest asked me what was the exchange rate. Ruined, the salesman ran from the bar to the courtyard and promptly he threw himself down an open well, where he died. I was 23 and I stepped out of the plane and I saw little cottontails scooting across the tarmac. Today, many believe her ghost haunts the grounds of La Posada as a translucent white figure descending the main staircase from time to time. The groom was sitting at my desk in his tux shirt and boxers. Now, the dealer had seen this salesman when he arrived with his fat sacks of cash, and he decided to play a game of his own. The notoriety of La Fonda plays a part in this tale. Wherever the adventurous mind flies, it will return here to nest and share. I strike up conversations with people. She played hard-to-get, which ol Gregorio fell for, and he wrote her love songs and played them at her window at night. As an instinct, fear sits with us differently than other emotions. Julias story in particular was so sad, and so reflective of her era, so I think people feel very attached to her and find her story really interesting, her relative says. On approach, she reveals her face, which is no longer beautiful, but a decaying skull. Fitzgerald sums up the collective fascination: Its fun to be scared.. He took the saddle bags into the bar where men were gambling, and by the end of the evening, he had lost everything. But she tripped over the roots of a cottonwood tree, smashed her head on a rock, and died on the spot. But currently ghost experts mostly agree that it is more frequently the hour between 3 and 4 AM that ghosts and other paranormal events occur. This is acollection of these eerie narratives and how they persist in a world of skeptics. Feeling goodand richhe decided to join in the action. All the men were too enamored to approach her, so she was single, and her best friend was her grandmother. Filicide may be the darkest of all forms of murder. Declining economically after being left off the railroad line, Santa Fe determined to become an exotic tourist destination, The City Different. Its architecture and historyincluding its history of ghostshave become enormous assets. Now What? The courtyard is directly below the old St. Vincents Hospital, built in 1853, which also at one time was a nursing home, and a psychiatric sanitarium was on its upper third floor. We have three log books from the 1920s on display in glass cases. He built the three-story brick mansion for Julia, his wife. Later, they are usually found in another room of the house. If I want to disappear, I go to the NM Museum of Art and sit and listen to the fountain. Lean and clad in a denim-on-denim ensembles, Sinclaire enunciates each detail in his lengthy stories; hes emphatic and has some theatrical moves thrown in. The college campus, home to the Santa Fe University of Art and Design through spring 2018, has more than academic institutions in its past. When death came for the boyno one is quite sure at what agethe mother and her new husband moved. Our focus was La Plazuela, the dining room which had once been an outdoor area and the site of a well. The story goes that the night of their stay, the husband started drinking down in the bar, got into a fight with the bartender and was shot dead on the bottom of the steps going back up to his room. Got jeans? I asked. I enjoyed this blog and, with your permission, I would like to share your stories with my ESL students. Whatever the cause of her demise,Julia died young, even for the time period. Youll always think of Julia Staab when you pass La Posada, or the greedy gun salesman when you dine near that well. She didnt speak the language, didnt understand the culture and immediately started having babies. It wasabout Hair-raising tales at the White House by Theresa Vargas,and it seems that the spirit of Abraham Lincoln is very active there. The councilors loved to torture us campers with stories aboutthe ghosts that haunted the barracks. Whats the one thing a visitor to Santa Fe should see? Julia was shipped to New Mexico in her teens after marrying an older man she hardly knew, Abraham Staab, in an arranged Christmas Day ceremony in their shared hometown of Lgde, Germany.
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