Spirits said to inhabit local haunts

October 31, 2003

For some time now I have been hearing stories of ghosts and spirits throughout Oakley. Expected, I am sure, for a city that has a history of over 100 years. I am sure there have been many mysterious deaths throughout Oakley's past, but ghosts that just can't seem to find their way to ease into the next dimension?

OK, so you may have already guessed that I am not a true believer. Still, I can't help but get a chill when I hear the stories. What better time to bring up the ghosts of Oakley's past than on Halloween? It was a little difficult finding people to openly share these stories as many fear that men in little white coats might come knocking at their doors as a result, so let's just talk legends.

An interesting thing about ghosts: Once you start talking with people about them, all of a sudden the stories just seem to come out of the woodwork. One of my favorite stories is one I heard a couple of years ago from a local resident who lives on some property on the outskirts of town.

Her husband and she were the only ones home. Her husband was sitting on the porch. He thought that his niece had been visiting when he saw a child riding a tricycle across the front yard before she vanished into the barn. When he called out to the girl, his wife came from the kitchen to the porch and said that their niece had not been visiting. They went to the barn and could not find anything. Was it a dream or was it a spirit?

Another rumor surrounds a house located on Main Street that has had three tenants in the last five years. All allegedly said they moved out because the house was haunted. Apparently, in the middle of the night doors slammed and lights turned on and off on a regular basis. I tried to look into the history of the building, but as far as I could tell no one had died in the home. Perhaps the ghost just likes the house's location with easy access to Highway 4.

Another haunting that I have been investigating and getting lots of information about is the Oakley Hotel. Some say that the ghost stories about the hotel have been going around for over 30 years. Now at a place with a history like the hotel, a ghost in that building isn't too hard to believe. The latest stories come from the previous tenants of the building, which has recently been remodeled and those who currently lease the property don't seem to be feeling any supernatural beings inside but others reported quite a bit.

When I spoke to some of the employees who used to work there, none really had ever seen the ghost, but one was pretty sure that the spirits were there. There were reports of the employees turning off the store lights when they left at night and then the lights being on when they came back into the building the next day.

Some reports said that a granddaughter of one employee had met the ghosts of a young boy and girl and spoken with them on many occasions. That would be enough for me to get the child away from the store and into a change of scenery. As legend has it, the hotel building was once the only place in town with cold storage facilities, so when people died in Oakley their bodies were stored in the hotel until burial. I could not find anyone to confirm this practice, but some of the oldtimers in town said the stories are believable because the building did have a space with reinforced metal walls that kept things cool.

The Oakley Hotel was built on the corner of Second and Main streets about 1908. In 1910, the Salvadore Dal Porto family purchased the hotel and increased its capacity to 32 rooms with a restaurant and bar. At that time the building was a stopping place for weary travelers, but over time the hotel's reputation began to fade. In 1924, the hotel and much of that side of Main Street burned down. No reported deaths as far as I could find.

The Dal Porto family rebuilt the hotel and it reopened in 1926. At first look there seems no apparent reason to think that the building should have any spirits in it. History, on the other hand, gives us more to speculate about.

Apparently there was a period in the early 1900s when the building was mostly inhabited by Chinese men who worked in the fields by day and sought after prostitutes in the upstairs rooms of the hotel at night. There were also reports of gambling in back rooms at the hotel as well as men smoking opium in the bar. Now the hotel was reportedly not the only place this was happening. But who knows how many people could have died in the hotel from overdoses and jealous fights?

This doesn't explain the presence of young children, of course. Over the past 100 years there have been many instances where children have died and perhaps the stories about the cold storage area in the hotel are true, but ghosts haunting the place?

With the Halloween revelry taking place today, no doubt many people have ghost stories of their own. And of course there are many of you out there who don't believe in ghosts and probably wouldn't take these stories seriously.

One other note: Remember when you are out tonight watch for some of the ghosts and goblins of the pintsize variety out on the streets when your driving and have a safe and happy Halloween.

Roni Gehlke's column on life in Oakley appears each week in the Brentwood News.

Distributed by the Contra Costa Times

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