Free (Haunted) Lighthouse Tours! (Pt. Vincente)

The Date: The 1st Saturday of March
(for the schedule the rest of the year...)

The Time: 10:00am-4:00pm

The Location:

Point Vicente Interpretive Center

31501 Palos Verdes Drive West. [MAP]

Parking is available at the Rancho Palos Verdes City Hall

30940 Hawthorne Blvd. [MAP].

Note: This event is not hosted by GHOULA. This is just a local (ghost related) event that exists independently that GHOULA wants its members to know about. As such, docents and staff at this event may not wish to discuss this landmark's haunted history.

The Ghost(s):

The Point Vicente Lighthouse in Palos Verdes has been helping visiting ships navigate these local rocky waters since 1926. However, it's the lighthouse's role with something else visiting this coast line that has intrigued ghost hunters for decades. Apparitions of a woman in an old-fashioned white dress (blowing in the wind) have been seen (most often during heavy fogs) inside the glass-encased lens room on top of the lighthouse, or pacing along its exterior catwalk, as well as wondering (sometimes running around) the grounds surrounding this historic landmark and near the cliffs. Sometimes her long black hair is described as "tangled."

Over the years, two separate stories have developed as to her identity. She is either the depressed wife of a sailor (killed in a shipwreck at that location), who committed suicide from the tower (or nearby cliffs), or she is the wife of a former lighthouse keeper, who accidentally fell from the tower (or the nearby cliffs), or she is actually two different female ghosts (one haunting the tower and one haunting the grounds).

Also, it is commonly believed that this phantom is connected to two events in the lighthouse's history. Some say this "woman" first appeared after WWII when the window panes on the land-side of the lighthouse were painted, and that she disappeared (and has not been seen since) when the same panes were repainted in 1955. There may be truth to these claims, but then again the U.S Government generally frowns on such stories. So, any recent sightings by federal employees would most likely go undocumented. The real story surrounding this well-known local ghost (and her issues with painted glass) may be unknown, but that doesn't stop ghost hunters from visiting this lighthouse for themselves, looking for any lingering proof of her existence.

http://www.losserenos.org/woad.htm

REAL GHOSTS with REEL GHOSTS

THE DATE: March 12-17
THE TIME: 7:30 pm, 9:45 pm
THE PLACE: The New Beverly Cinema
(7165 W. Beverly Blvd.) map
THE MOVIE: House (1977)
THE ADMISSION PRICE: $7.00

Your chance to see this movie about ghosts in an actual haunted theater!
(Note: this event is not hosted by GHOULA)

The New Beverly Cinema is said to be the home of a phantom projectionist, and an audience member apparition... (read more)

February's SPIRITS with SPIRITS

GHOULA meets for cocktails in haunted places on the 13th of each month. “SPIRITS with SPIRITS” is a casual gathering of regional ghost hunters. Open to all, from the curious skeptic to the passionate phantom pursuer. Make friends, and toast a ghost! Let's put the “Boo!” back into “booze.” All those who attend will receive a free G.H.O.U.L.A. button. If you already have, please wear it so others can find you.

THE DATE: February 13th, 2010 (Saturday)
THE PLACE: The Down and Out Bar @ The Alexandria Hotel
(501 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles) map
THE TIME: 8pm to the witching hour

THE GHOST(S):

Outside of the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, The Alexandria Hotel is perhaps the most famous haunted hotel in Los Angeles. When it opened in February of 1906 with its red velvet walls, Tiffany stained glass sky-lights, gas lamp lighting, brass rails, gold leaf ornament, crystal chandeliers, and Turkish carpeting, it was considered the West's most luxurious hotel. Movies stars, Presidents, a King, a Prime Minister, and Tom Mix's Horse have all past over the lobby's "Million Dollar Rug." So named, not because of its cost, but rather because of the amount of money transacted over that rug (at the front desk) in a single day.

However, the passing decades (and many different owners) have not been kind to this once grand landmark. Strangely, as the customers began to disappear, so did parts of the hotel, which were sealed off (with walls) at one end of the hotel, and thus creating weird inaccessible floors (like a separate building unto itself). Even though there have been many attempts to "save" or "restore" this once great place, with each year, the poor Alexandria seems to get a little sadder, as her glory fades even more. That intrinsic sadness extends even to its most famous ghost, an unknown woman dressed all in black (as if in mourning), who eternally walks the halls.

Although much has been reported about the persistent, and varied, hauntings inside the hotel, not much has been written, specifically, about the hauntings inside it's ground-level bar, the Down and Out (Formally Charley O's). One bouncer told GHOULA, that "Even though there are many ghosts upstairs, the real crazy stuff happens down here." He recalled a time when he watched a row of drinking glasses flip over by themselves, one after another. Unlike the apparitions upstairs, the paranormal activity here seems to be more poltergeist-ish in nature, where objects (and sometimes people) are moved about.

One theory as to this activity's origin goes back to the 1950's and 60's, when this bar would fill up with boxing fans, who would come to L.A. to see a prize fight. A clever boxing promoter of the time arranged for out-of-towners to get a discount on rooms if they had tickets to see the match. To attract this type of clientele further, the spectacular ballroom (once considered the most beautiful room in Los Angeles) was converted into a training gym, where public boxing demonstrations could be held. Does the agitated energy of those rowdy hooligans, who hoped for blood in the ring (as well as a possible barroom brawl of their own), still linger within the walls? Come to the Down and Out Bar and find out for yourself.

(To see last month's location...)

Highlights from Feb's SWS

For whatever reason, perhaps because of the new bar/club opening on the 2nd floor of the Alexandria (in a make shift room created by lowering the ceiling of the lobby), the security in this historic building was unusually relaxed, allowing those GHOULA members in attendance to explore the upper floors and halls of this haunted structure. Thus, it was hard to keep people in the bar. A security guard even shared his stories about the disembodied screams that come from behind a locked door near the ballroom's kitchen. When the door is unlocked, and opened, there is never anyone there.


One of the imfamous walled off halls.