McMenamins Edgefield

A 74-acre destination resort built in 1911 as the Multnomah County Poor Farm. The property includes a distillery, brewery, winery, spa, golf course, and movie theater, all operated by McMenamins.

McMenamins Edgefield in Troutdale began its existence in 1911 as the Multnomah County Poor Farm, a 345-acre facility built on a progressive idea: to help families, the disabled, and the mentally ill become self-sufficient through structured work and community living. At its peak, nearly 700 residents lived on the grounds, working the farm, the laundry facilities, the hospital wing, and the jail. Conditions were harsh and stratified. Those who labored received meat three times daily; those who could not work received it only once. The facility included a hospital wing where patients with tuberculosis and mental illnesses were treated, and an unknown number of residents died on the property over the decades. In 1964, the main lodge was renamed Edgefield and converted into a nursing home, the first in Oregon to offer physical rehabilitation. It served in that capacity until 1982, when the buildings were closed and abandoned. The property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the McMenamins brothers purchased the land and began their signature transformation into a hotel, brewery, winery, concert venue, movie theater, and golf course.

The poor farm's difficult history left its mark. The deplorable conditions, high mortality rates, and concentrated suffering of the most vulnerable members of early twentieth-century Oregon society created what many believe is one of the most spiritually charged locations in the Portland metropolitan area. Edgefield has been ranked on national lists of the top ten most haunted hotels in America.

Room 215 is the most requested room at the hotel specifically because of its paranormal reputation. During McMenamins' restoration of the building in the 1980s, workers discovered animal bones arranged in the shape of a pentagram inside Room 215, a deeply unsettling finding that intensified the room's supernatural reputation. The ghost log maintained at the front desk shows that a disproportionate amount of activity is concentrated in Room 215, the entire second floor, the third floor, and the area around the winery.

The most emotionally resonant haunting involves a grieving mother. According to accounts, a woman living on the poor farm lost a child to chickenpox, and both mother and child are reportedly buried somewhere on the property. Guests and staff have reported hearing her singing nursery rhymes near midnight on the upper floors, her voice gentle and repetitive as she attempts to soothe her crying child. The sound of children crying in the wing that once served as the infirmary is one of the most commonly reported phenomena, sometimes accompanied by the sight of small children racing through the hallways before vanishing around corners.

A ghost dog has woken guests in the middle of the night, shoving its cold snout into their faces. A woman's apparition has been seen in several rooms, and an elderly female spirit is associated with the scent of flowery perfume that appears suddenly in spaces where no living person has used any fragrance. Guests have reported being pushed by invisible hands, hearing disembodied screams telling them to "Get out!", feeling whispers close to their ears, and sensing that they are being watched and followed through the building.

McMenamins itself maintains a deliberate ambiguity about the hauntings. Kerry Beeaker, the company's marketing writer and editor, has stated that Edgefield neither confirms nor denies the possibility of paranormal activity, leaving the question open for guests to decide based on their own experiences. The approach has not dampened the enthusiasm of visitors who specifically seek out Room 215 or request the upper floors, hoping for an encounter with whatever remains of the poor farm's troubled past.