There is a house I have seen for decades in the
Pajaro Valley, west of
Watsonville, California, and I have been intrigued by it. The last time I was there (
link below) I decided I finally had to find someone who could give me information about it. I did and apparently it is haunted.
The house is located in the middle of a strawberry field right off of highway 1 and Riverside Drive. It is fully boarded up, but I was told there are noticeable hot spots on the roof of the house that shine blue, as well as many orbs that surround the house. There were murders in the house, and people say it is indeed, haunted. Doors slam and open on their own, people hear things happen in the house from far away. Screams of a little boy are heard as well as adults yelling for help. It's a strange spot; could there be a better topic for
Halloween?
I wanted to get inside to take interior shots but it is well protected by a
fence and couldn't. Maybe it's haunted, maybe it's not; I never got a chance to find
out.
The
Victorian, classic
Queen Anne house was designed by architect
William H. Weeks,
in 1897 for James Redman. The building contract was let to the local firm of Lamborn and Uren, at a negotiated cost of $3,368. The interior of the home was finished in eastern oak, birds eye maple and natural hardwoods. It was outfitted with all the conveniences for modern (at that time) housekeeping.
Redman was a farmer who became a rich sugar beet king from the crop he grew on the 14 acre farm; he died in 1921, When the Redman family died out in the 1930s, the
Farmstead was sold to the Hirahara family. In 1937, it was sold for
$69,575 to J. Katsumi Tao, a naturalized citizen and relative of the
Hiraharas. Tao sold it to Fumio Hirahara (age 16) in 1940 for $10.00.
Pajaro Valley Japanese Americans were removed in 1942 under
Executive Order 9066; the property was confiscated and the Hirahara family was sent to
Rohwer War Relocation Center in
Arkansas. As many as 10 percent of the population of
Watsonville were bused to various internement camps during WWII.
The
Hirahara
family returned from Arkansas on June 4, 1945 and with the help of
Watsonville citizens who had loved the family, reoccupied the
property. Additions to the carriage barn on the property were made in
order to provide housing for other Japanese American's who did not have
homes to which they could return.
After it was damaged in the
Loma Prieta earthquake on October 17, 1989, the house and land was sold to Green Farm, a partnership of investors. The land was leased for commercial strawberry farming and the house left to deteriorate. There were “profitable development plans” at that time, much to the dismay of locals.
In 1998, a group of Pajaro Valley residents formed The Redman House Committee to determine what could be done to save the neglected and vacant 100-year old Victorian house. The Committee added the house to the
National Registry of Historic Places to prohibit demolition, leased the now pallid land and abandoned farmstead, and designed a conceptual master plan to transform the site into a landmark Visitor and Cultural Education center.
In February of 2005, the property was purchased by The Redman-Hirahara Foundation with borrowed funds for $1.9 million. The surrounding 10 acres of farmland now produces colorful organic crops year-round.
In 2013,
Naomi Hirahara, a mystery writer, describes the badly damaged house as the Stem House in a book titled
Strawberry Yellow.
