Shelburne Hotel

The longest continuously operating hotel in Washington State, built in 1896 on the Long Beach Peninsula.

The Shelburne Hotel was built in 1896 by Charles L. Beaver, a lawyer by profession who turned to contracting and built several of Seaview's finest houses. His wife Inez was the daughter of Jonathan L. Stout, the man who founded Seaview after receiving a 153.5-acre land grant in 1873 and platting the town in 1881. Beaver named his hotel after the grand Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, Ireland, and constructed the original two-and-a-half-story, 14-room wood-frame building with lumber milled in South Bend, barged to Nahcotta, and transported to Seaview by the Ilwaco Railroad. The building served as both a hotel and boarding house, spacious enough for summer visitors and the Beaver family -- Charles, Inez, and their two children, Harold (born 1892) and Faye (born 1894).

The Beavers operated the Shelburne for a decade before selling to William Hoare in 1906 and relocating to Portland. Hoare installed his son Timothy and daughter-in-law Julia as managers. In 1911, the Hoares undertook a remarkable expansion: a team of horses pulled the entire original structure across the street to join it with another building, creating the 15-room hotel that stands today. Timothy Hoare died in 1921, and from that point Julia managed the hotel alone until her own death in 1939, occupying Room 8 just above the front door where she could monitor every coming and going.

The haunting centers on Charles Beaver himself. According to multiple accounts, Beaver broke his arm at some point during his tenure, and the resulting physical limitations forced his wife and daughter to shoulder the burden of running the hotel -- a responsibility that weighed heavily on his conscience. His heavy footsteps are the most commonly reported phenomenon, heard stomping deliberately down the upstairs hallways and stairwell late at night. Staff during 1970s renovations first documented the sounds when no one was on the upper floors. Guests who have seen his apparition describe a man in a suit roaming the halls with a searching quality, as though still looking for the family he feels he failed.

At least five distinct spirits are said to inhabit the hotel. Nina, associated with Room 6, is the most interactive -- a playful presence who pokes and prods sleeping guests, reportedly massages their legs, and nudges glasses from nightstands. No historical records confirm her identity, but guests who ask claim to hear her whisper her name. Georgina lingers on the stairwells, gently tapping guests' shoulders as they pass, described as wearing period clothing and seeming to await someone's arrival. Annie May is connected to Room 16 and the hotel grounds, a benevolent spirit who watches over wedding ceremonies beneath a large tree on the property, where guests report faint rose scents and an unexpected calm. George, a gruff maintenance ghost, inhabits a second-floor closet where measured hammering sounds cease when approached and tools appear repositioned -- wrenches moved to floors, tape measures extended, screwdrivers neatly placed.

Room 8, Julia Hoare's former room, produced the hotel's most famous incident. A California winemaker booked the room, stepped out briefly, and returned to find the deadbolt thrown from inside. The bolt could only be locked from within, and the room was empty. A hotel worker had to traverse the porch roof and climb through an adjacent window to unlock the door. The deadbolts were changed after the incident, but the mystery was never explained. Room 2 guests report the sensation of an invisible presence sitting on the bed at night. In Room 5, a guest felt warm hands placed on their back while bathing. Curtains in empty rooms have been observed moving from outside the building.

In April 2023, travel writer Bridgette documented her family's stay in the attic bedroom. Her daughter reported seeing a young girl wearing a white dress with short black hair curled around her face standing near the foot of the bed. The child became suddenly ill around 3 a.m. before inexplicably recovering, and a towel from the hotel bathroom later appeared in their luggage after checkout -- an item no one recalled packing.

In 1977, Laurie Anderson and David Campiche purchased the deteriorating hotel using proceeds from a particularly profitable pottery show. With architect David Jensen, they remodeled every room to include private bathrooms, created the pub, and in 1983 installed Art Nouveau stained-glass windows rescued from a demolished church in Morecambe, England, dating to the 1880s. They operated the Shelburne for 40 years before passing stewardship in 2018 to Tiffany and Brady Turner of Adrift Hospitality, who had held their own wedding reception at the inn in 1999. The hotel now hosts annual Haunt-tober celebrations each October featuring Victorian seances, tarot readings, self-guided ghost tours with a Spirit Guide available at the front desk, and a guest journal where visitors document their encounters with the Shelburne's restless residents.