HGB Ep. 663 - Haunted Astoria, Oregon

This Month in History - The Theft of Alexander T. Stewart's Body

On the chilly morning of November 7, 1878, Gilded Age New York was plunged into a macabre scandal when the tomb of dry-goods magnate Alexander Turney Stewart was found violated at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery. Amassing a fortune that ranked him as one of the wealthiest men in American history, the "Merchant Prince" had been dead just over two years when grave robbers successfully made off with his un-embalmed remains in a calculated bid for a massive ransom. What followed was a sensational, multi-year saga of coded newspaper personals, a stolen silver coffin plate mailed as proof, and erratic negotiations spearheaded by Stewart’s stubborn estate executor, Judge Henry Hilton. Though Hilton initially refused to negotiate with the criminals, historical accounts suggest that Stewart's grief-stricken widow, Cornelia, eventually bypassed the roadblocks to pay a clandestine $20,000 ransom in the dead of night along a dark Westchester road. While the true identity of the bones returned that night was never definitively verified, they were quietly reinterred in a hidden, heavily reinforced crypt beneath the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, leaving behind a lingering mystery that continues to shroud one of the nation's most notorious body-snatching heists.

Haunted Astoria, Oregon 

Some claim that Astoria is the most haunted city in Oregon. This was the first permanent United States settlement on the west coast and with a history stretching back that far, it isn't surprising that there is spiritual residue. The Graveyard of the Pacific is right off of Astoria as well. Join us as we explore several haunted locations in Astoria, Oregon. 

The Columbia River estuary has long been home to Chinook and Clatsop peoples, whose cultures, trade networks, and relationship with the river predate the American settlement by centuries. Astoria is the county seat of Clatsop County and gets its name from a famous historical figure, John Jacob Astor, who had founded Fort Astoria in Oregon as a headquarters for his American Fur Company. He never actually visited Oregon. That fur company would be a monopoly. Astor had founded the company in 1808 and this later branched into the Pacific Fur Company with Astor sending a detachment of employees to the Pacific aboard the Tonquin. Those employees built Fort Astoria in 1811 with much difficulty. This was an area that was hell for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The group at the fort formed a corporate hierarchy of a diverse group of people from Scotland, French Canada, Hawaiians, Americans and indigenous people, particularly Iroquois. During the War of 1812, Britain took over the fort and renamed it Fort George. Later, it was abandoned and fell into ruin and became American property again in 1846 under the Oregon Treaty. Today, Fort Astoria is a small park site with a reconstructed blockhouse and historical layout markers. Astoria gained prominence with the American public after author Washington Irving stayed with Astor who asked him to write something about the success of the Pacific Fur Company. Irving referred to the fur traders as Sinbads of the Wilderness in his 1836 book "Astoria." Settlers flocked to the area and built a thriving port city, establishing the first post office there in 1847. Immigrants came from all over Europe and Asia and set up in different quadrants of the city. Indians and Chinese made up a significant amount of the population. For a time, Astoria was referred to as a wicked city with a fair share of gambling houses, brothels and saloons. And "shanghaiing" was practiced here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with dozens of sailors being kidnapped against their will and sent off to work on ships. The main culprit doing this was a man named Bunko Kelly. Several underground tunnels in Astoria were thought to be used for this purpose and there are claims that they are haunted. Major fires in 1883 and 1922 destroyed the entire downtown. Through the years, Astoria has competed with Portland and Seattle with canneries making up a bulk of its industry. But by 1980, the canneries were closed and Bumble Bee Seafoods moved out. Tourism is now its main industry.  *Fun Fact: Goonies was filmed here.*

Graveyard of the Pacific

The Carolinas on the East Coast play host to the Graveyard of the Atlantic. It has a twin on the West Coast. The Graveyard of the Pacific runs from Tillamook Bay, Oregon, northward past the Columbia River mouth and the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Vancouver Island, British Columbia. There have been over 2,000 shipwrecks here, with over 1,000 lives lost. 

The most treacherous place is the Columbia River Bar, which sits at the mouth of the Columbia River where it empties into the Pacific Ocean. This is just downstream from Astoria, so Columbia River Bar Pilots are stationed in Astoria to guide large vessels through the dangerous sandbars. The currents here are described as being focused "like a fire hose." Most rivers have a delta to moderate the currents. Not here. The conditions can change within minutes from calm to life-threatening with just a change in wind or ocean swell. Mariners and locals have long shared tales of witnessing phantom lights and glowing orbs along the river and there is the occasional strange thick river fog that forms at slack tide with shadowy figures appearing. Disembodied voices are heard calling for help and shouting "Man Overboard." 

Flavel House Museum

The Flavel House Museum is the former home of Captain George Flavel who had it built in 1884 in the Queen Anne architecture style by German-born architect Carl W. Leick. The Captain was a river bar pilot on the Columbia River who made his fortune in real estate. The Captain moved into the house with his wife Mary Christina Boelling and their two grown daughters, Nellie and Katie. The couple had married when Mary was 14 and George was 30. The daughters were musically inclined and played several instruments, so they would entertain guests in the evening. 

This gorgeous home stretches over a whole city block and has 11,600 square feet of living space in two and a half stories with a four-story tower. The exterior had decorative elements of the Stick and Italianate styles and a wraparound porch. The interior featured hand-carved Douglas Fir made to look like mahogany and burl rosewood. Imported tiles were inlaid around the six fireplaces and the high ceilings had crown molding and plaster medallions. The house was ahead of its times with indoor plumbing that included a flush toilet. But there were gaslights, rather than electric. The furnace in the basement was so large that it could burn four foot logs. George was 62 when he built the house and he wouldn't enjoy it for long, dying in 1893 at the age of 69. Mary continued to live in the house with her two daughters until she passed in 1928. The Flavel family held onto the property until George and Mary's great-granddaughter, Patricia Jean Flavel, gave the property to the city in 1934. Unfortunately, the city didn't have the money for upkeep, so they ended up giving it back to her. She turned to Clatsop County after that and deeded the property to the county with the understanding that they would refurbish it and use it for public benefit. And the county followed through, using it as a Red Cross Office, Public Health Department and a Welfare Commission until after World War II. By 1951, the house was facing demolition, so local citizens decided to make the home into a museum and gardens that is managed by the Clatsop County Historical Society. A carriage house that was built in 1887 still stands and serves as the gift shop and Visitor Center.

This house was only home to the Flavel family and they still seem to be here in the afterlife. Disembodied voices have been heard throughout the house. A Docents family members were visiting one day and took some pictures outside and they noticed in one of the pictures, three women in period dresses were in a window. There has also been a floral scent detected in the house with no known cause.

The Captain loved the tower as it provided him with a 360 degree view and he could keep an eye on the river. He still hangs out in the tower and people have heard a male voice saying, "Don't go any further." A volunteer told a story about a visitor who came running down the stairs of the tower and ran outside. He refused to go back in the house. So the Captain doesn't like company and his presence is so oppressive that the tower has been closed to the public. The Captain has also been seen in his bedroom with one guest claiming that he saw his apparition and called out for his wife to come see and the Captain disappeared by sinking into the floor before his wife got there. Katie's room is thought to be the most haunted in the house. Docents have closed curtains in the house, only to find them open later. Katie wanted her curtains open all the time, so it is thought that she is the culprit. The music room occasionally has music heard in it when no one is in there. Docents claimed to hear music coming from a music box that had been in the room, which was strange since the lid was very heavy and had to be opened to get the mechanism to start. Many times, the docent who would hear the music, would be the only person in the house. Even stranger, the music box wasn't removed from the house by the staff. It just wasn't there one day and no one knows what happened to it. 

Joanne reported on her blog "Cottage in the Making" in 2009 that during a tour of the house she was in the bathroom and "took a few photos and then felt a tap on my shoulder and heard 'Look again.' I turned around fully expecting to see one of the other people on the tour with me. Yet, no one was there. I was last to leave this room. So I clicked another photo and saw an orb was now over the tub area."

Junkero wrote in 2016, "I have been in the Flavel House twice now and both times had something interesting happen. My cute girlfriend and I were in the bathroom where you got the orb shot. She was checking out what was under the toilet cover out of curiosity. I was standing next to her close to the sink. The cupboard door under the sink sprang open with a noticeable click. I tried to get the door to pop open again several different way including jumping up and down on the floor. We felt a little spooked after that but went on with the tour. I went back a couple of times during that visit to watch the room, but nothing more. The second visit we had some of the grand daughters with us and we showed them the haunted bathroom. This second time took lots of pictures of the rooms especially focusing reflections off of things with glass. I took a picture, of a picture of Capt. Flavel that was inside the door of the downstairs south room. There looks to be an image of a woman in turn of the century cloths. You can't make out the face because it mixes with the image of Flavel. It is very interesting. The house is a must see if you are in Astoria."

Kaylene wrote in 2013, "We just returned from a trip to Astoria, OR. We toured the Flavel House and I too had several pictures with Orbs! I had an experience in Captain Flavel's room. I felt someone grip my upper right arm as if to pull me back. I also took a picture of his closet and later when I got home discovered a leg and foot silhouette behind me, yet I was the only one in the room. It was an amazing old home, with a little bit of creepy!"
 
Liberty Theater

The Liberty Theater is part of a larger complex called the Astor Building. The Liberty Theater has such a cool facade with the original ticket booth under a gold embossed canopy. Above the canopy is a hand-carved exterior featuring various designs with a blend of Italian Renaissance and Mediterranean Revival. There is an illuminated vintage marquee and vertical "Liberty" sign. The theater was designed by Portland architects John Bennes and Harry Herzog in 1925. It was commissioned by the theater chain of Claude Jensen and John von Herberg. The interior features a set of 12 oil-on-canvas murals painted by local artist Joseph Knowles that depict Venetian canal scenes. A classic proscenium arch framed the stage. As was the case with most historic theaters, this one started with vaudeville acts and eventually became a movie house. Through the years, the theater has hosted Jack Benny, Guy Lombardo, Duke Ellington and Al Capone. For a time it sat abandoned, but in the 1990s it was saved and has undergone multiple refurbishments. Today, the theater hosts various performances from comedy to music to plays to entertainment.

Like most theaters, this one has its ghosts. One of the spirits is an elderly woman nicknamed The Lady of the Liberty who likes to haunt the female restroom, of course. Another ghost people have named Handsome Paul as he always appears dapperly dressed in a white suit and Panama hat. The ghosts like to knock on doors, move objects around, rattle doorknobs and they turn on the soda fountains and popcorn machine at night when the place is locked up. Shadowy figures are seen in backstage areas. The theater hosts Ghostoria: Paranormal Investigations occasionally. 

Rogue Ales Public House/Hanthorn Cannery

Rogue Ales Pier 39 Public House had been located at 100 39th Street in Astoria. Unfortunately, this brewery that had been a real favorite of mine, with Dead Guy Ale and Batsquatch, went bankrupt in November 2025 and shut down all their pubs and brewery operations. This particular location reopened as XRogue under Floyd Holcom who had been the owner of the property and had leased it to Rogue Ales. That was for a brief time. Today, it is the Hanthorn Cannery Museum and Hanthorn Public House. The building opened as the Hanthorn Cannery in 1875 by a man named J.O. Hanthorn. Pier 39 is the oldest cannery pier on the Columbia River. The enterprise grew to eight buildings with a copper shop, butchering room, fillet room, liver picking area, net wharf, and a Chinese mess house. The cannery eventually became Bumble Bee Seafoods as a man named Andrew Hammond snatched up all the salmon canneries along the Columbia River. The early canneries mostly dealt with salmon until the salmon runs depleted the salmon by the 1920s. Local fishing companies and canneries turned to processing tuna in the 1930s. Bumble Bee Seafoods relocated to San Diego in 1981 and that left the building empty. Through the years, various businesses have moved into the buildings on Pier 39. The Rogue Ales Public House opened in July of 2007 in the former cannery. And then, as I said, it moved out last year.

There are tales of a ghost here. Tragedy struck at the Pier 39 location in 1891 when Hanthorn's daughter Hazel fell through a trapdoor in the boatshop floor and drowned. Patrons and staff of the bar have seen the apparition of a little girl. Around closing time and after hours, staff have witnessed lights turning on and off on their own and disembodied laughter of a girl has been heard as well. People claim the haunts stretch to other Pier 39 locations with the museum running cold spots and disembodied voices being heard in the coffee shop.

Norblad Hotel

The Norblad Hotel is described as being a budget-friendly boutique hotel. This downtown hotel was built in 1923 and hosted its grand opening in January 1924. It was designed by architect John E. Wicks for A.C. Miller and J.H. Jeffers of the Sunflower Dairy. The hotel was a two-story concrete and brick block originally meant to be office suites, but halfway through building, the owners decided to make the second floor 36 hotel rooms. The Bank of Commerce was on the first floor. Businessman George F. Norblad signed the first 10-year lease for the hotel space, thus the name. The building is noted for having two rare entryways with terracotta surrounds and an intricate glass-and-pressed-tin canopy that many say is one of the finest in the area. The hotel is Astoria's oldest continuously operating hotel. A major restoration was done in 2007.

Ghost Adventures investigated in 2018 and, of course, found an unholy presence in the basement. A local woman told them there was a demon down there. Must not be too bad as people rave about how great this hotel is. There are those guests though who claim to have heard loud, disembodied noises such as the sound of heavy furniture being dragged or moved across hallways and adjacent rooms throughout the night.

The Commodore Hotel

The Commodore Hotel is house in the historic Lewis Building, which was built in May 1925. Architect John E. Wicks also designed this three-story building. The top two floors were the Barton Inn and the ground floor was for businesses. There was no lobby. Guests climbed stairs from the street to the second floor and there was a small check-in area with the keys held in slots in a shelf behind a counter. There were originally 30 rooms and guests shared bathrooms. In 1928, the name changed to the Commodore Hotel. The hotel was the first hotel ferry passengers encountered when getting off the ferry, making this the perfect spot for a travelers’ hotel.  In the late 1940s, Chris' News opened as a store on the ground level and remained until 2005. In 1965, the owner unexpectedly boarded up the building and walked away, but it honestly wasn't surprising considering that the Astoria Bridge had been built in the 1960s and the ferry was no longer needed. Developers Paul Caruana, Brian Faherty, and Lance Marrs bought the dormant establishment in 2007 and gave it a new life. There are compact minimal European-style hostel rooms with shared bathrooms and standard and deluxe rooms with private bathrooms.

There are thought to be two spirits here. One is a child ghost and the other is an Asian male who was believed to be a laborer from the 1800s. And that's all we really have on the hauntings here. We need some investigating to be done.

Uppertown Firefighters Museum 

The building housing the Uppertown Firefighters Museum started as the North Pacific Brewery in 1896. Prohibition forced the closure of the brewery in 1915 and the building sat empty. The city bought the building in 1920 and decided to use it as a fire station and so it reopened the building as Uppertown Station #2 in 1928. And it housed the fire station until 1960 when a new building was built behind it. The building was unused again for awhile, but the city eventually decied to make it into a museum honoring the firefighters of the town's history. The Uppertown Firefighters Museum opened in 1990 and showcases vintage and antique firefighting equipment utilized by the Astoria Fire Department during its 150-year-plus history. Notable pieces include an 1876 LaFrance Hook and Ladder Truck, a 1911 La France Chemical Wagon, a 1921 Stutz Pumper, and a 1945 Mack Pumper Engine.

There is the ghost of a former firefighter here. Legend claims that in the 1920s, a sleepwalking fireman fell and died. Occupants of the building have claimed through the years to see the fireman ghost standing over them as they slept. The rattling of lockers and other eerie noises have been heard. Visitors and staff have heard disembodied footsteps on the third floor. 

Hotel Elliot

This hotel has glorious neon signage and sits in the heart of historic downtown Astoria. The Elliot was originally known as the Niemi Hotel Building because it was commissioned by developer Charles Niemi in 1924. The original plan was for there to be four floors with 51 rooms, but during construction, Niemi decided to expand to five floors with 68 rooms. There was a lounge on the second floor that had a large phonograph to entertain guests. Guests shared bathrooms. The exterior was craftsman in style. The Elliot family had started off in Pennsylvania, but eventually made their way to Oregon. There, Jerry Elliot and his son John ran the Angela Hotel in Portland. They eventually moved to Astoria and signed a lease to run Niemi's new hotel. And that is why it is known as Hotel Elliot. The Elliots advertised the hotel as "A Modern Hotel in a Modern City" and it ran for decades as a working-class hotel. Jerry's daughter Flora opened the Hotel Elliot Coffee Shop in 1928. That space is a wine today. The Elliots eventually bought the hotel and this was more than just their business, it was their home. The family slept in bedrooms on the top floor and had their living and cooking spaces down in the basement. Several Columbia River Pilots also lived here. The hotel remained in the hands of the Elliot family until John died in 1973 at the age of 81. The hotel then changed hands several times and underwent a major restoration in 2002. Right before that, it had fallen into the space of being a flophouse, so it needed a lot of love. The lobby was recreated to look like it had decades ago, complete with a spittoon on the floor. The room doors all still have transom windows above them with the room numbers on them. 

The city of Astoria has these unique grids of glass tiles in various spots of the sidewalk in the historic downtown. These would allow light into the underground basement areas. Hotel Elliot has one in front of it with these purple glass tiles. There is a speakeasy in the basement decorated with vintage film posters on the exposed brick  walls. Purple shimmers down into the room from the grids above.

General Manager Sue Neuer told the Oregon Coast Beach Connection in 2023, "Our hotel is definitely haunted. When I took over as GM in March, I started a guest log book for ghost encounters. There are a few entries. One guest said he felt someone sit on the edge of his bed. I have not personally encountered any ghosts, but I feel their presence sometimes." The website talks about author Jefferson Davis sharing some experiences in his book Haunted Astoria. It writes, "One man who was working the desk in its early days told Davis he had to bend down and grab something he'd dropped, and when he came back up he noticed a man sitting in the lobby chair facing the building across the way. He could see the profile of the man quite clearly, and then quickly noticed the man was transparent. At one point, the man got up, made eye contact with the employee and promptly dissipated – disappeared. The employee said he did a bit of digging and realized the man looked like Jeremiah Elliott, but talking with family members of Elliott he discovered that Elliott had a brother with an unusual habit of simply sitting in the lobby, staring out at the world. There was another incident of a woman claiming there was an old man moving around in her room. At one point, she saw the old man walk to the door and pass through it. Davis writes of one housekeeper who was about to begin cleaning a room, but heard someone talking inside. After double checking with the front desk that indeed it was vacant, she found no one upon entering. Another had a woman feel something on her leg while sitting on the bed, and although the sensation lasted for a minute or so, she could see no one. The same  room was apparently where a housekeeper found an imprint of someone having just sat on the bed. There are also tales of children being heard but not seen." We've heard that the most haunted room in the place is apparently Room 307.

Astoria is certainly not the thriving port town that it once was with dozens of canneries dotting the area around the river, but it has found new purpose today with tourism. This is a city that has preserved its history, whether that is in the pier that still hosts commerce or in the dozens of Victorian homes that still exist in the hills. Hotels still host guests. Are any of these locations in Astoria haunted? That is for you to decide.