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Claremont reveals haunted history

Chuck Ketter tells a story of a ghost named Walter, who haunts the Mabel Shaw Bridges Auditorium at Pomona College, during the second annual Ghost Walk Saturday in Claremont. Walter helped build the auditorium in the 1930s. One day, he fainted while working in the auditorium’s rafters and fell to his death. Ketter says Walter never left the theater because he was proud of his work. / photo by Megan Peralez
Chuck Ketter tells a story of a ghost named Walter, who haunts the Mabel Shaw Bridges Auditorium at Pomona College, during the second annual Ghost Walk Saturday in Claremont. Walter helped build the auditorium in the 1930s. One day, he fainted while working in the auditorium’s rafters and fell to his death. Ketter says Walter never left the theater because he was proud of his work. / photo by Megan Peralez

Kristina Bugante
Editor in Chief

Visitors and perhaps a wandering spirit got a spooky look of Claremont with a historical twist at the second annual Ghost Walk last Saturday and Sunday. The walk was sponsored by the Claremont Village Marketing Group and Sycamore Elementary School’s Girl Scout Troop 1094.

Leah Key-Ketter and Holly Pugno, troop leaders, researched and interviewed locals who claim they have encountered the paranormal.

“We were really quite surprised at how many other encounters there have been here in Claremont since its founding,” said Victoria Raus, a volunteer who said she has a male ghost living in her Claremont home.

Volunteer storytellers at various locations recounted the ghost stories based on the real life experiences of Claremont’s own residents and business owners. The city’s rich history played a huge part in the walk and made the stories just a little spookier.

The Seaver House, now located on North College Avenue, was built by Carlton and Estella Seaver in 1900 and was relocated to its current location in 1979 as a gift to Pomona College. Nancy Osgood, who has been working for college’s alumni relations for the past 20 years, has her office in the Seaver House. She believes the Seavers’ youngest daughter, Nila, still inhabits the house.

Osgood locks up the building everyday, but finds that every morning the door of the third floor balcony is open and the lights left on. Osgood was working in her second-floor office on a rainy evening when she went up to the attic and scolded Nila for opening doors during such a dangerous storm. When Osgood was going back to work, she heard a huge crash. When she went up to investigate, nothing had happened — perhaps that was Nila’s way of getting revenge.

“Nancy has a deep, deep and an abiding respect for Nila, because she knows she’s still here,” Raus said. “Nila has not left her house.”

Osgood acknowledges Nila and always greets her good morning whenever she comes into work and goodnight whenever she leaves.

“It takes a great deal of courage to admit that you not only work with a ghost but talk with a ghost,” Raus said.

Nila is not the only ghost that is overprotective over their residence. Bridges Auditorium, located in Pomona College, has a friendly ghost named Walter, one of the men who helped build the auditorium back in 1931.

“He was always the first person on the job and the last one the leave everyday,” said volunteer storyteller Chuck Ketter, Claremont resident. Walter was very proud that he was working on the building and told everyone that the auditorium would become one of the greatest theaters in California.

One hot summer day Walter was working on one of the rafters when he was overcome with heat, fainted and fell into his instantaneous death. Kurt Beardsley, the current production manager at Bridges, says Walter has never left the building because of his pride. Some of the ghosts, however, are astray and long to find a home with some living and breathing friends.

Girl Scout Ruby Berke, 12, told the group of a ghost encounter that happened to the daughter and grandson of Joan Bunte, who helped advertise the walk with the Village Marketing Group. Beth Garvin and her son Jack encountered a ghost in their home, which would inhabit Jack’s closet and fiddle with the lights. A medium later told Garvin that the ghost was a little girl, and she stayed in Garvin’s home because it was a “happy home.”

“There’s something to be noted here,” Berke said. “Just because your house is happy, doesn’t mean it isn’t haunted.”

Key-Ketter began taking her son and his friends out for ghost walks, and eventually the walk became a bigger event, thanks to the involvement of the Girl Scouts, Marketing Group and the community.

“It’s really interesting to see how it’s evolved,” Raus said.

Tour groups of around 15 were also brought to numerous Pomona College landmarks and various Claremont Village businesses.

Kristina Bugante can be reached at kristina.bugante@laverne.edu.

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