PANTAGES

STORY: 

As you walk across the floor in front of the stage, you happen to look up into the balcony. As your eyes adjust to the shadowy darkness of the floor above, you are caught off guard. You had been sure were alone in the theater, but your eyes are met by a stunning brunette from days past. Dressed in elaborate vaudevillian era clothes, she only holds your gaze for a moment before fading into the darkness and seats behind her. After you are quite certain she is gone and that your eyes aren’t just playing tricks on you, you look back to the empty stage and seats around you and continue on your path towards the exit. Just as you are on your way out in to the lobby, you hear the whisper of a soft Italian ballad from up above.

HISTORY: 

Alexander Pantages opened the Pantages Theater in 1918 with the help and financial backing of his lover, “Klondike” Kate Rockwell. The theater, which was one of a chain of Pantage’s vaudeville theaters, was modeled after one of the elaborate theaters in the Palace of Versailles. Rumor is that Kate spent all of her fortune on the theatre, Pantages married another mistress, and she died penniless and heartbroken.

FIVE MILE DRIVE

STORY:

 It’s late in the evening; the sun is just beginning to set over five mile drive. The park closes at nightfall so you are hurrying to exit before the gates close. As you round the last bend, you see a young short-haired girl leaning against her bike on the side of the road. You slow down, worried she might need help. As you near, your headlights glare off the wet pavement and wash over her slight figure. She gives you an eerie smile but doesn’t see you. There are voids where her eyes should be. In a moment of shock, you stop car, attempting to lock eyes with her and desperately hoping for them to be revealed; healthy and normal. Overcome with fear, you drive even faster towards the gate, keeping your eyes fixed on the rear-view mirror. There is nothing but trees and winding road to seen.

HISTORY:

The ghost who allegedly haunts the Point Defiance Five Mile Drive is 13 year old Jennifer Marie Bastian. She went missing on August 4^th, 1986 and her body was found several weeks later by joggers, just off of the main drag of Five Mile Drive. The name that comes up most frequently in connection with Bastian’s murder is Terapon Adhahn. Adhahn has been convicted of rape and incest, charged with aggravated murder and is  suspected of murdering other local girls around the same age as Jennifer in the late 1980s to mid-1990s. He made headlines as a suspect in the abduction and murder of Amber Hagerman, the namesake of the AMBER alert program. Though he was not convicted of Jennifer Bastian’s murder, due his criminal activity around the time of her disappearance he is widely considered to be her killer.

UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND

Story:

Walking through the lonely nighttime halls of the girl’s dormitory, you are only a few paces away from the familiar turn on the right that will bring you safely back to your bed. A small shuffling sound a ways behind you puts you slightly on edge. Writing it off as an irrational fear of the dark, you take a few more steps toward your destination. Then you hear it again and more distinctly; the shuffle of slippered feet. Except now it’s just around the bend. You turn the corner to see a young girl in a blue flowered nightdress. She is serene and doesn’t seem to see you as she walks past. When you turn to ask if she’s lost, you can hear the sound of her muffled feet, but stare back at an empty hall.

History:

Eight-year-old Ann Marie Burr went missing from her bedroom on the night of August 31, 1961. The front door to her house on N. 14^th and N. Junett was locked that night, but her mother found it unlatched the following morning. There was a small men’s shoe print left on the front porch. Ted Bundy’s Great Uncle Jack Cowell lived blocks away from Ann Marie and from the University of Puget Sound where he taught. Ted and his mother had lived with Jack Cowell for a spell and the young Ted Bundy visited his uncle frequently when they moved out. Bundy would have been 14 at the time of Burr’s disappearance and even up to his last interview in Florida before his sentenced death, he fervently denied playing a part in her supposed murder (her body has still never been found.) Rumor and assumption dictates that he kidnapped and murdered the young girl and dumped her body into the foundation of a building being constructed on the U.P.S. campus at the time. According to building records, ground was broken for a new women’s dormitory on August 16^th, 1961.

HOOVERVILLE

STORY:
On a clear summer night, you walk along the shores of the Puyallup River to unwind from a long day’s work. As you begin to walk back to your car, you cross paths with another late night walker and his dog. You nod a silent greeting and take in his appearance; his clothes are tan and tattered and look like remnants of a past era. The scowl on his face doesn’t change in response to your greeting as he stares straight ahead.  You bend down to pet the large, but seemingly amiable yellow lab. The mutt howls and wails desperately. Slightly startled, you step back to watch them walk away. The dog’s loud cries don’t fade in volume as the pair fades into the harsh industrial lights.

HISTORY:
Beginning in the late 1920's the Tacoma tide flats, then a mostly undeveloped area, was largely occupied by transients. Due to the Great Depression and the ensuing housing crisis, many desperate for shelter built shacks made from scrap wood on the mucky tide flats, the nearby river offering a convenient source of water. This shanty town and many others like it were referred to as Hoovervilles, a name that highlighted resentment for Herbert Hoover, who the public scorned for his inability to provide economic relief. City officials struggled with controlling the rising population in the area, eventually resorting to the controlled burns of fifty or so shacks in 1942. Residents quickly rebuilt, remaining in the area until the early fifties when the last resident allegedly took his life during a stand-off with police.

PAGODA

STORY:

As you walk through the vast hallway of a room, occasional cold spots send chills straight to your bones. While you continue to pace along the front windows of the Pagoda you become aware of footsteps other than your own. Hard soled shoes step heavily up and down the stairs at one end of the room. You stop to listen, the cold of the room setting in deeper. The footsteps halt at the bottom of the stairs and you hear a definitive sigh from the floor below. You gather up the courage to peer down the flight of stairs leading to the men’s bathroom, but there is no one there. The building goes silent again and it is clear that you are alone.

HISTORY:

The Pagoda at Point Defiance was built in 1914 as a trolley terminus. The ghost who now resides there has been pacing up and down the stairs to the men’s bathroom since the early 1920s. He had taken the trolley to Point Defiance to meet a ferry from Vashon. His wife was coming back from visiting her parents. He watched from the building’s patio as the small vessel drew closer. The boat took on water and capsized as he stood, helpless. The story goes that, overcome with grief, he then walked down the stairs to the men’s restroom and shot himself in the head with his pocket pistol.