Seattle 1907 House was Constructed on Platted Cemetery, Author of 'Ghost Stories Series' Discovers

Dec. 23, 2011 - PRLog -- “I was astonished to discover that the land my home was built on had once been a cemetery,” exclaimed Seattle author, Emily Hill.  “There were many ‘beyond the grave’ occurrences in my 1907 Greenwood home, but I never imagined that Seattle city fathers would build a housing development right where a cemetery had been.”

But that’s exactly what did happen in 1907 when (unincorporated) Seattle’s northern boundary pushed past North 85th Street and developers looked to the Woodland Cemetery Association and H.R. Clise Investment Company’s land for expansion.

The author explains, “for thirteen years I lived at 708 No. 82nd Street.  The address 712 No. 82nd Street was next door, and 725 No. 82nd Street was to the east, across the street.  The residents of all three houses experienced hauntings, paranormal activity, and the presence of ghosts.  I’ve included my own experience in ‘Ghost Stories and The Unexplained’ and ‘Ghost Stories From Beyond the Grave’.  Both books are available on Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook and iTunes.”

Visit http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Beyond-Suspense-Horror-eboo... for details.

“Doorknobs would creak and turn in the middle of the night as I sat across the room watching, being the sole resident of the house,” the author revealed.
 
She goes on, “My neighbor’s daughter, a six year old, often spoke of ‘her friend who would visit her bedroom at night’.  We dismissed it as an imaginary friend.  The realization that they were living in a haunted house came when the mother watched, horrified, as a ghost child floated through the house turning its head back and forth one evening.  The mother ‘had a feeling’ that the ghost child was trying to locate her daughter who had been removed from the house to live with her grandparents after the paranormal activity increased.”

“Another friend, who lived at 725 No. 82nd Street, needed the spiritual help of a priest to rid his house of supernatural activity that he refuses to speak about,” Emily Hill detailed.
“There had to be a reason for all of the ghost sightings and paranormal activity in this particular Seattle neighborhood.  But until the records were put on computer I made little headway in figuring out just why the land on this particular plat of Greenwood District was so haunted,” she explained.  

The author found the evidence that laid her suspicions about the Greenwood neighborhood to rest in on-line newspaper accounts from Seattle Daily News articles dated 12 March 1907 and 11 April 1907.  

These two archived news articles state respectively, that “Woodland Cemetery bodies” were “re-interned to Crown Hill Cemetery.  Introduction of an ordinance vacating the now unused cemetery and instructing the Woodland Cemetery Company to disinter the bodies there,” and “Old Woodland Cemetery (is) to be platted into lots.”  

“The most interesting historical evidence I found regarding the history of Woodland Cemetery's  transformation into a residential zone came in a listing of obituaries found in on-line genealogy sites.  One such site contains the following history:

The Greenwood Cemetery (also known as Woodland Cemetery) was located at 85th Street and Greenwood Avenue N from 1891 to 1907. The cemetery was removed and the land converted to building lots; it is unknown whether the cemetery was removed for commercial or logistical reasons.

The Greenwood Cemetery was designed to be a large cemetery.  It was platted as 160 acres. The secretary for the cemetery corporation was the same H. R. Clise who was the secretary for the Mount Pleasant Cemetery on Queen Anne hill. Thus it seems plausible that Greenwood was intended as an expansion for that cemetery, located outside of the then Seattle city limits to avoid the restriction on new cemeteries within the city. Some records indicate that this cemetery was also known as the Woodland Cemetery, and that Greenwood Avenue was named for the cemetery.

Emily Hill, author of ‘Ghost Stories From Beyond the Grave’ makes the following observation upon concluding our interview, “the bodies may have been removed from the land where my Seattle home was built, but quite obviously, the spirits remain.”

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A.V. Harrison Publishing features ground-breaking topics from emerging authors. Its books are distributed by Ingram, available on Amazon.com and B&N Nook. Owner, Emily Hill, invites submissions and can be contacted at info@avharrison-publishing.com.