The Haunted History of the Historic Eagle House

A building that has stood since 1888 has seen a great deal of life. Births and deaths, celebrations and tragedies, the full sweep of human experience playing out across generations within the same walls. It would be more surprising, perhaps, if the Historic Eagle House had no stories to tell. What follows is a collection of reported experiences — from guests, staff, tour guides, and those who have spent long hours within these halls. We make no claims about what is or isn't possible. We simply offer the stories, and invite you to draw your own conclusions.

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A Building With Deep Roots in Old Town Eureka

 

To understand the haunted history of the Eagle House, you first need to understand what this building has been. Since Finnish emigrants Henry and Elvira Tornroth broke ground in 1886, the structure at the corner of 2nd and C Streets has served as a hotel, a boarding house, a beloved Italian restaurant, a theater, a social gathering place, and — according to many accounts — something of a magnet for the unexplained.

 

The building was physically cut in half and moved in 1893, rebuilt as a grand three-story Victorian, and has since survived economic downturns, ownership changes, decades of neglect, and a full restoration. It has been home to sailors, loggers, affluent travelers, immigrant families, musicians, and revelers. The Buon Gusto Restaurant filled its ground floor for decades. Georgia Massei held court in the bar lobby with a cane and a commanding presence that some say never fully departed. Six different ownership families have shaped these walls over 136 years.

 

That kind of accumulated human history leaves something behind. Whether you call it atmosphere, energy, or something more — the Eagle House has it in abundance. 

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For the full documented history of the Eagle House since 1888, visit our Eagle House History page.

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The Staircases — Liminal Spaces Between Two Worlds

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The Eagle House's staircases have generated more reported paranormal activity than perhaps any other part of the building. Ghost tour researchers have noted that staircases are what academics call "liminal spaces" — transitional boundaries between two locations, sharing characteristics of each. Staircases are literally liminal spaces between two floors. Whether they also tend to be boundaries between the living world and something else is a question the Eagle House seems uniquely positioned to pose.

 

The building has three particularly storied staircases, each with its own history of unexplained encounters.

 

The Main Staircase

During a ghost tour in 2012, a guest climbing from the lobby to the second floor balcony quietly asked the group if anyone else had heard a voice speak a single word as they climbed. No one else had heard anything. The word she described hearing was "diphtheria" — a disease that devastated Humboldt County in the 1880s, referred to at the time as "the strangling angel" for its deadly effect on children. The tour guide leading that evening noted that "diphtheria" made sense as a word someone from the Eagle House's past might speak — but made very little sense as a word a modern visitor would imagine hearing unprompted.

 

The First Chance Hotel Staircase

A section of the hotel on 2nd Street was once a separate building known in the early 20th century as the First Chance Hotel. The staircase in that section, leading up toward a rooftop fire escape, carries a darker story — local legend holds it as the site where someone was found hanged. During one ghost tour, a self-identified psychic reported making contact with the spirit on that staircase. According to her account, the man insisted he had not taken his own life — that he had been murdered, and the scene arranged to look otherwise. The full story has never been confirmed in the historical record. Perhaps someday it will be.

 

The Third Floor Lounge Staircase

A third staircase connects a small lounge on the third floor with the fourth floor penthouse level. At the end of one ghost tour, a guest took a paper napkin from the bar and sketched the portrait of a figure she said she had seen standing on those stairs — a man in an overcoat and a fedora-style hat, watching over the room below. She described the feeling that he was protective, not threatening — that he was there to keep watch.

 

That impression aligns with another account from the same building. A ten-year-old girl on a separate tour told her guide that from the moment the group entered the Eagle House, a man's ghost had joined them and accompanied the tour throughout the hotel. When the group left, he walked partway outside with them — and then turned back, because the Eagle House, the girl said, is simply where he belongs. He had joined the tour, she explained, to make sure none of the other spirits did anything to frighten the visitors.

 

If the Eagle House is truly haunted, it appears some of what moves through these halls moves with good intentions.

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​The Spirits of the Eagle House​

 

Over the years, staff, guests, and visitors on the Old Town Haunted History Ghost Tours have reported a consistent cast of presences within the building. Some have names. Some have faces. Some leave only a feeling — or a quarter on the floor.

 

Frank

The most frequently reported spirit is known as Frank — believed to be a former janitor and sailor who worked in the building in its earlier years. Staff and guests have reported seeing a figure in a sailor's uniform in and around the kitchen area. Frank is generally described as a calm, watchful presence — the kind who seems to be keeping an eye on things rather than causing trouble.

 

Abigail

The second most frequently encountered presence is Abigail — described as a lady of the manor whose preferred domain appears to be the women's restroom on the lower floor. Reports include stall doors slamming without cause and lightbulbs shattering unexpectedly. Abigail, whoever she may have been in life, appears to have strong opinions about her space.

 

The Victorian Lady of Miss Scarlett

One of the most vivid accounts came from a guest staying in the Miss Scarlett Room. She woke in the night and found a woman in full Victorian dress sitting at the foot of her bed, looking quietly and deeply sad. Each time the guest opened her eyes, the woman remained. She stayed until dawn — at which point she was simply gone. The guest said the woman never moved, never spoke, and never looked directly at her. She just sat, and grieved, and disappeared with the morning light.

 

The Quarter by the Armoire

In the Frederick Henry Room, housekeeping staff have periodically found a single quarter placed on the floor directly in front of the antique armoire — with no clear explanation for how it got there. It happens often enough to be a known curiosity among the staff. Whether it's a calling card, a habit left over from another era, or simply a remarkable coincidence is a question that remains open.

 

Purrl — The Original Cat of the Eagle House

Staff members — particularly housekeepers who spend long hours moving through the building — have over the years reported a persistent unease on the second floor balcony overlooking the Grand Theatre Ballroom. Several have described catching a glimpse of what appear to be cat's eyes watching from the shadows, and others have reported seeing a young boy in old-fashioned clothing running through the balcony area — there one moment and gone the next.

The cat's eyes, the Eagle House family will tell you, belong to Purrl — the original cat of the Eagle House, whose portrait hangs in the hotel lobby above the fireplace. Whether Purrl is still patrolling the second floor balcony after all these years is a matter of some spirited debate. What is certain is that guests have been stopping to pose for photos beneath that portrait ever since it went up — and that Purrl, judging by the expression in the painting, would have had very strong opinions about strangers wandering through the building at all hours.

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The Landing Shooting

The Old Town Haunted History Ghost Tours include an upper landing of the Eagle House where guides describe an account of a shooting that reportedly took place on the premises in the building's early years. During one tour, a guest with no prior knowledge of the story stopped on the landing and bent forward in sudden pain, clutching her stomach. She later described feeling as if she had been struck there. The tour guide noted that the man in the historical account had been shot in the stomach.

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Joseph Perrone — The Bootlegger of Phatsy Kline's

The space now occupied by Phatsy Kline's Parlor Lounge has its own remarkable — and remarkably fitting — history. Giuseppe "Joseph" Perrone, a Sicilian-born immigrant, operated Perrone & Company out of this very location in the early 1900s — a wholesale beer, wine, and liquor business that served the thirsty waterfront community of Old Town Eureka. When Prohibition arrived with the Volstead Act in 1919 and Perrone & Company officially closed its doors, Joseph did not simply walk away from his trade. He continued bootlegging liquor from behind false walls concealed within his warehouse — hidden passages in plain sight, right where guests now sit with craft cocktails in hand.

 

An original photograph of Joseph Perrone standing in the doorway of the exact location that is now the entrance to Phatsy Kline's was gifted to us by a generous community member and now hangs on our wall. Next time you visit, raise a glass in his direction. He would almost certainly approve.

 

Whether Joseph's spirit still keeps watch over the bar that now occupies his old domain is, as yet, unconfirmed. But if you feel a certain invisible appreciation the next time you order a well-crafted drink in Phatsy's, you may not be imagining things.