Vintage

Are there ghosts at Sequoia? The answer may give you "shiver bumps."

Ghostly Phenomena at Sequoia

by Danica Olivo, President, SEQUOIA RESTAURANT, INC.

When you buy an old Northern Californian house originally built in 1853, there is no question that it is one of the oldest buildings of its kind in the state. Anything much older would have to be a Mexican adobe or a Native American round house. When my husband and I first purchased the Bee-Bennett house in the historic gold rush town of Placerville, from the Benevolent & Paternal Order of Elks, we were well aware of its history. We had even heard the rumors of ghost stories connected to the old mansion…but we dismissed the idea, as merely a form of fantasy that people often attach to historic buildings with an imposing presence. The fact that is was across the street from the historic Placerville Union Cemetery had obviously added to rumor mill.
 
However, during a pre-closing walk through the site, curiosity forced us to ask one of the former Worshipful Masters if he had had any "unusual experiences of the supernatural kind." The crusty old former Major-General cleared his throat and made some scoffing sounds, but then admitted that while he did not believe in such things as ghosts, he too had heard the rumors. Upon further prompting we got him to admit that he had indeed had an unexplainable encounter with the unknown.
 
"It was late one evening," he told us, "when I had been doing some office work late and was in the building all alone. I had packed up for the night and was on my way to my car. I suddenly remembered I had left some important papers upstairs in the office that I was going to need for a meeting the next day. I carefully unlocked the door using the coded keypad that members were required to use, and started up the stairs to the second floor bedroom we used for our club business. As I climbed the steep Victorian staircase our resident cat came to greet me and followed me up. About half way up the stairs I felt an unusually cold breeze, as if there was a window open nearby, but I had already closed everything up before I left. As soon as I stopped to wonder at the phenomenon I felt a hand on my right shoulder and swung around in terror to see who it was…no one was there. And to make matters worse the cat screeched and darted up the rest of the stairs ahead of me with her fur standing upright on her back! I quickly grasped the papers I needed and made a fast exit, making a mental note to never be alone in the building again…"

We found this story intriguing, as the old warrior was definitely not the sort to be afraid of the dark, and he had continually protested that he did not believe in the rumors that had been going around town. In fact he did not believe in the paranormal at all…but could offer no explanation for his experience that night. He seemed to dismiss it as one of life's mysteries that was not for him to unravel.

When we began the restoration of the charming old mansion, we hired a young local painter to paint the interior rooms. When he arrived to give us a bid on the job he immediately asked us if we had had seen any of the resident ghosts. We were once again intrigued, and pumped him for information. He told us that we should speak to his Grandmother who had been a cook for the Elks and had left the job because she had had a few too many sightings that were obviously not of living human beings. Now we were really on to something. I got her phone number and called her the next evening.

Grandma Parker (not her real name) did indeed have stories to tell. One day when she was preparing dinner in the kitchen with a volunteer from among the Elks wives, she noticed another woman, unknown to her, busy with some preparations at the far end of the kitchen. Thinking it was a new volunteer, she thought little of it until she moved toward her to make sure she was aware of the kitchen prep work to be done. At closer range she saw that the woman's clothing was somewhat old-fashioned—a white dress with thin blue stripes and a sort of pioneer bonnet on her head. Then she was shocked to realize that the woman was only visible from the knees up…the lower part of her body was just simply missing! Suddenly the apparition faded entirely from her view. Grandma Parker turned to her volunteer helper and asked: "Did you just see someone else in here?" To which the other woman replied: "You mean the lady in the blue and white striped dress?" Now Grandma knew she had not imagined the vision…but both women were quite unnerved.

Grandma Parker also reported seeing a middle aged man sitting on one of the wing-backed chairs in the Elks main dining room—the old parlor of Colonel Bee's original Gold Rush days house that had been remodeled into a large Victorian mansion by Judge Bennett in the late 1800s. This occurred back in the 1960s when there were people still around who remembered what Judge Bennett had looked like. When she described the sad looking, bearded man, with longish hair wearing a brown three piece suit, she got an immediate response that this could indeed have been Judge Bennett—a tragic man who fathered seven girls before his wife finally gave birth to the son he had so long desired. Young Marcus Bennett Jr. died from a childhood illness at the tender age of four and the Judge never got over the loss. He apparently often sat staring into space for long hours at a time.

On another occasion, Grandma Parker had approached the front door one afternoon and as she made her entry she noticed a man and a woman swinging on a porch swing on the front porch of the mansion. She smiled a greeting and received acknowledgment in return. She did not recognize the couple. As she walked back toward the kitchen something struck her: she had never noticed a porch swing out there before. She went back out to verify her encounter and lo and behold there was no one there—and not even a porch swing! Grandma Parker gave her notice.

One of our first bartenders reported that on his first night at work he was facing downward washing some glasses when he sensed a customer approach the bar. So convinced he was that there was someone there that he rose up with the usual question already on his lips: "What'll it be tonight?" But there was no one there.

Our General Manager, David Bagley, has had many encounters. He has a revolving image TV monitor in his office and many a night when closing the restaurant alone he has gone around the building turning off all the lights and locking all the doors, only to return to his office and find on his TV monitor that lights have been turned back on in remote areas of the property. Apparently the ghosts of Sequoia have a sense of mischief. Many a morning the kitchen staff comes in to find all the taps running in the various sinks at the dish-washer station, the prep sink and the hand sink.

David, himself, has even seen ghosts, in fact two, both on the same day. It was the day construction began on a new part of the old house, turning some formerly undisturbed attic space into an office for the events coordinator. Both appeared to be wearing period costume reminiscent of the pioneer days.

Myself, I only have one incident to report, and I am hesitant to reveal that it was on October 31, 2002—the first Halloween after we opened the restaurant. We were upstairs in a room we call The Cedar Boardroom. My husband and I were gathered with our then General Manager and several banquet and kitchen staff members waiting for our original chef to appear for a specially called meeting. We were all expecting (and hoping) that our problematic chef would resign, so we were quiet and a bit tense. In the few seconds before he appeared I saw a mist appear at the top of the stairs and turn the corner toward the back of the house traveling at a rate of speed similar to human perambulation. It was a band about 18" in width, and it floated about that distance off the floor. At first I thought that someone who was smoking was about to turn the corner, but that did not turn out to be the case. We don't allow smoking in the restaurant anyway, as it is against the law. Not long after the incident our meeting began and it was rather explosive, so we soon forgot about my sighting.

I could tell many more stories about supernatural events in the Bee-Bennett House, which is apparently an active spot for such activity, but perhaps a visitor could come and have their own confrontation with the paranormal. If anyone out there has a story to tell us about something they have seen, heard, sensed or otherwise experienced at our fine old establishment, either recently or when the building was the Elks Lodge, please let us know. If you will allow us to tell your story to others, we will thank you for sharing with a gift certificate to our fine dining establishment.