THE STORY
Reported Haunting
The Stevenson House is associated with reports of ghostly apparitions connected to Monterey's historic past. Visitors have described mysterious footsteps, unexplained voices, shadow figures, and cold spots throughout the historic home. The property has earned a local haunted reputation.
Stevenson House museum was an 1800s boarding house where author Robert Louis Stevenson once stayed (and it’s now named for him). It is believed to be haunted by Manuela Giradin, who owned and ran the establishment. In 1879, Manuela’s husband died of typhoid fever, and her two grandchildren came down with the disease as well. Manuela so exhausted herself tending the children that she caught it herself and died December 21, 1879 but her grandchildren survived. The ghostly events happen around this date, and include a nursery rocking chair rocking by itself, the phantom smell of carbolic acid (a disinfectant used in the 1800s), and the apparition of a woman in a black dress and a high lace collar.