The Brookdale Lodge

Article written about Bob Hope and the Brookdale Lodge

A celebration of the lives of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan was given at the Brookdale Lodge by their relatives

B Western actor Tom Keene parked his horse at the Brookdale Lodge on more than one occation

Grace Bradley lit up the halls of the Brookdale Lodge just as she did the silver screen

One of the most beautiful and intelligent starlets of old Hollywood, Hedy Lamar chose Brookdale Lodge as one of her favorite hangouts

President Herbert Hoover took a break from running the country at the Brookdale Lodge

Entrance sign to the Brookdale Lodge in Santa Cruz, California

The stunningly beautiful Brook room at the Brookdale Lodge

Maryanne Porter poses in the Brook room of the Brookdale Lodge

Maryanne Porter of Santa Cruz Ghosthunters conducts a ghostly tour at the Brookdale Lodge

Maryanne Porter looks into the pool from the Mermaid room of the Brookdale Lodge

The James Dean mural at the Brookdale Lodge

Haunted Santa Cruz California, by Maryanne Porter

The Haunted Brookdale Lodge, by Aubrey Graves

History of the Brookdale Lodge, by Aubrey Graves

David Oman's house is situated on a hillside on Cielo drive in Beverly Hills. 

A ghostly fog caught on camera at the Oman house.

A ghostly fog caught on camera at the Oman house

A ghostly apparition caught on camera at the Oman house

Seance conducted at the Oman house

This bizarre apparition was captured  blocking out someone's head

 “Goodwife” Joan Wright, as she was known, was a midwife in Surry County and the first person in any of the colonies to be legally accused of witchcraft. Goodwife Wright was a healer and most likely a “cunning” woman, the term used for those who practiced low-level magic. This, combined with the fact that she was left-handed (a fact that made her untrustworthy by the superstitious standards of the day), served to make her an oddity in the community. Her accusers claimed that she had accurately predicted the deaths of at least four of her neighbors, bewitched livestock and crops and cast a spell that killed a newborn baby. Although she was arraigned, she never faced trial. No one knows what, if any, punishment she faced, but records indicate that at some point she was fined 100 pounds of tobacco for an unspecified act. 

 The first known witch trial in the New World took place in Norfolk in 1641. Mrs. George Barker was accused of witchcraft by Jane Rookens of “Lower” Norfolk, although the exact charges are not known. Mrs. Barker was acquitted of all charges and records indicate the Mrs. Rookens later said she “was sorry for what she said.” As compensation for the false accusation, Mrs. Rookens’ husband, George Rookens, was required to pay Mrs. Barker’s court charges and other related expenses. 

 While Katherine Grady is the only person to be executed for witchcraft in Virginia, she wasn’t actually in Virginia at the time of her death. Instead, she was on a ship headed for the new colony from England. At the time, it was not uncommon to blame sorcery or witchcraft for events like storms or drought. So, when a violent storm blew in, the witch hunt began. Katherine, an elderly woman, seemed the most likely candidate for sorcery and in an effort to stop the storm, she was hung at sea. As Virginia was the ship’s final destination, the event fell under the colony’s jurisdiction and the incident was reported by the captain upon his arrival in Jamestown. 

 While the majority of those accused of witchcraft in Virginia, and the rest of the nation, were women, on occasion a man would come under suspicion for using dark magic or sorcery. In 1656, Reverend David Lindsay, a Scottish immigrant who had witnessed many witch trials in his home country, accused another Virginia man, William Harding, of witchcraft. Harding was found guilty of the charges, and sentenced to 13 lashes of the whip and ordered to leave the county. 

 As the most famous of Virginia’s witches, Grace Sherwood may or may not have doled out curses on her neighbors, but after what she went through, you would be hard pressed to blame her if she did. Born in Princess Anne County in the town of Pungo, Sherwood was non-traditional for a woman of her times. Said to be strikingly beautiful, she was also a healer, an herbalist and a midwife who wore men’s trousers when planting crops. The first case against her began in 1698 when Richard Capps began spreading rumors that she was a witch. Sherwood and her husband sued Capps for slander, but their case was dismissed. 

 The last known case of witchcraft in Virginia occurred in 1730 when a woman known only as “Mary” was accused of using witchcraft to find lost items and treasure. While she never received a formal trial, she was sentenced to 39 lashes with the whip. Little else is known about her story, but it does serve as an example of the inconsistency and superstitious fear that seemed to drive witch trials in the 17th and 18th century.