A historic mansion in California transforms into a haunted house
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Sacramento's historic Leland Stanford Mansion is being turned into a spooky site.
"For the first time, we've got special Halloween tours," said John Fraser, Superintendent for the California State Parks Captial District
The 1856 Victorian mansion, once owned by the former California governor and his wife Jane, is now a state park, and these special public tours offer a different take on the old home's history.
"I think Halloween is just a really great way to bring everybody together," Fraser further expressed.
Ghostly decorations
The mansion is filled with ghostly decorations, including some ghoulish guests in the dining room, and a tarot card table for summoning spirits.
"[There] is our seance room...Jane Stanford was actually a spiritualist," Fraser shared.
The tour also has a “mourning” room, complete with a bell that the "undead" can ring if they wake up trapped inside a coffin.
It's where the term “dead ringer” comes from.
Unofficial haunted house
Over the decades, the mansion has also served as an orphanage and a hospital during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic.
State parks won't officially say it's haunted, but some have seen lights flicker and doors mysteriously slamming shut.
"We've definitely heard from staff some experiences that they couldn't easily explain," Fraser explained.
The Parks Department spent 14 years restoring the structure to become a museum.
"It is one of the more ornate Victorians that are still here in Sacramento," Fraser detailed.
One more use
It's now also used as the protocol site for the governor to welcome visiting dignitaries.
One more use for this historically accurate Sacramento mansion.
"I think it's critically important...it give Sacramento so much character and it brings the history alive to us its what Sacramento is really about," said one Sacramento resident.
