Along the backroads of the bay, certain mysteries have lurked for as long as locals can remember. While the Bay Area is not known for being especially haunted, our paranormal hot spots are something else. Luckily, I have compiled the very most frightening ones in this handy-dandy guide so you can keep safe from spooky situations this season.
Hellyer House: In the suburbs of San Jose and on the corner of Senter Road and Hellyer Avenue sits “the Senter of Hell.” Affectionately named “Hellyer House” by locals, the story varies depending on who you ask, but most agree that the land has been haunted since before Hellyer House was even there.
Back before the house was built in 1988, teenagers raced their cars up and down the street, until a young man crashed on that very plot of land. He managed to crawl out of his truck but died soon after among the apricot trees planted on the property.
Misfortune followed when the first family lost their lives to rather unnatural causes. The parents were both found dead upstairs, with the daughter hanged in the garage. Some believe that the daughter killed her parents and later herself after being disowned for falling pregnant out of wedlock, while others believe it was a botched burglary staged to look like a murder-suicide. The house was never the same after that.
Allegedly, the house was so haunted that the real estate agents enlisted the help of two Buddhist monks to exorcise the house. The monks failed and left three blessed stones outside the house to keep the spirits contained. Neighbors report that no one seems to live in Hellyer House, but the owners check on the property from time to time—and they do not take well to prying eyes.
The White Witch of Niles Canyon: Up past Mission Boulevard in Fremont, sits Niles Canyon. Ever since the construction of Niles Canyon Rd., it has become known as especially unlucky and dangerous. Constructed in the 1930s, Niles Canyon Rd. became notorious for claiming the lives of many young women in tragic car accidents.
Legend has it that one of the lives claimed by Niles Canyon Rd. was that of a young woman on her way home from an event. In other versions, the woman is a jilted bride. Her ghost became known as the White Witch of Niles Canyon.
The White Witch of Niles Canyon follows the classic disappearing hitchhiker ghost story. The legend follows a driver who spots a young woman dressed in all white along the side of the road and offers her a ride home. However, at some point between picking her up and leaving the valley, the woman disappears from his back seat.
Astonished and confused, the man decides to visit the address the girl had given him, only to be told by the woman who opened the door that ten years ago to the day, her daughter had died in an accident on Niles Canyon Rd. There’s something cursed about the legend of the White Witch of Niles Canyon, and it is not something to be taken lightly.
The Winchester Mystery House: In the heart of San Jose resides the Winchester Mystery House. Sarah Lockwood Pardee commissioned it in 1886, and it was completed in 1922. The house was intended to confuse the vengeful spirits of those killed by Winchester Arms, with winding staircases, doors that lead nowhere, secret passages, and more; the house confuses even the living.
Sarah Pardee was the widow of William Wirt Winchester and heiress to the Winchester Repeating Arms fortune. The Winchester Mystery House is one of the most haunted locations in the Bay Area. The House is open for tours year-round, and it’s definitely worth visiting.
While the Bay isn’t the scariest spot in the world, we certainly have our own collection of spooky local myths. We hope this guide has been helpful as a list of places to avoid on dark and stormy nights (or to check out, if you’re feeling brave!)