E.R. Rogers Mansion

The E.R. Rogers Mansion in Steilacoom, built in 1891 by sea merchant Captain Edwin Rogers, is haunted by his wife Catherine, who floats near the second-floor ceiling in white. Police dogs refused to enter the building when alarms triggered in the locked restaurant, and carpet cleaners abandoned the job after watching invisible footprints press across the floor.

When the E.R. Rogers Restaurant was locked up for the night, lights would pop on by themselves and the security alarm would trigger. Armed police with dogs showed up multiple times. The dogs refused to go inside. The officers never found anyone alive in the building.

Captain Edwin R. Rogers built this 17-room Victorian mansion at 1702 Commercial Street in Steilacoom in 1891. He was 62 years old, wealthy from a career as a sea merchant, and settling in with his wife Catherine and their large family. Two years later, the nationwide recession of 1893 wiped out his fortune. The family lost the house. Over its 130-plus year history, the mansion has been a private home, a boarding hotel called the Waverly, a rock museum, and for many years, the E.R. Rogers Restaurant.

The primary ghost is believed to be Catherine Rogers. She appears dressed in white, most active on the second floor. In the bar area upstairs, a patron once looked up and saw a woman's legs in stockings at eye level, as if someone were floating near the ceiling. Other diners have caught reflections in mirrors and windows showing an elegantly dressed woman who isn't physically in the room. The image disappears when they turn to look directly.

A male figure has been seen ascending the main staircase. He could be Captain Rogers himself, or one of the many boarders who lived in the Waverly Hotel during its rooming house years. Hattie Bair, who purchased the Waverly in 1928 with her husband Warren, ran the hotel until her death on January 29, 1948, at age 88. Warren died in 1930, leaving Hattie to manage the property alone for nearly two decades.

The poltergeist activity was the most disruptive during the restaurant years. Electronic equipment malfunctioned constantly: VCRs, DVD players, and kitchen appliances would turn themselves on or off. Candles and glasses flew off tables. Staff heard footsteps early in the morning when they were the only ones in the building. Doors opened and closed on their own.

Carpet cleaning workers once noticed visible depressions moving across the carpet, as if unseen feet were walking through the room while they watched. They abandoned the job.

The mansion sits near the site where Chief Leschi of the Nisqually people was hanged in 1858. Leschi had led resistance against the treaties that seized Native lands, and his execution was controversial even at the time. Washington state posthumously exonerated him in 2004. Some researchers believe the outdoor sightings near the mansion, figures seen walking the grounds at dusk, may be connected to Leschi rather than to the Rogers family.

Steilacoom is Washington's oldest incorporated town, founded in 1854, and the E.R. Rogers Mansion is one of its most prominent landmarks. The building currently houses law offices. The carpet cleaners in the area probably have opinions.