Walker-Ames House

A Queen Anne Victorian mansion built in 1888 as the residence of the Port Gamble lumber mill manager. Often called the most haunted house in Washington state.

In the summer of 1853, Captain William C. Talbot, Josiah Keller, Andrew Pope, and Charles Foster established the Puget Mill Company at Teekalet, a S'Klallam word meaning "brightness of the noonday sun," on the shores of what would become Port Gamble at the northern tip of the Kitsap Peninsula. The founders had come north from San Francisco seeking the perfect location for a steam sawmill, and they modeled the company town after their hometown of East Machias, Maine, transplanting New England architecture to the Pacific Northwest wilderness. By September 1853 the mill was cutting 2,000 board feet daily, and a sash saw installed in January 1854 increased output tenfold. Cyrus Walker, an assistant superintendent from Maine, became superintendent in 1862 after Keller's death and oversaw twenty-six years of growth. Under his leadership Port Gamble became one of the earliest and most important lumber-producing centers in the Puget Sound region.

The Walker-Ames House at 32340 Rainier Avenue was built in 1889 as the superintendent's residence, a two-story Victorian home with an attic, basement, and front rooms facing the bay to present arriving ship passengers with the best possible view of the house. When Cyrus Walker retired from the mill, the home and superintendent's position passed to his son-in-law Edwin Ames, creating the house's hyphenated name. The family employed a nanny who lived in the attic quarters and cared for the children in the playroom above. Port Gamble was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966, and when the Puget Mill Company's sawmill finally closed on November 30, 1995, ending 142 years of continuous operation as the oldest operating sawmill in the United States, the Walker-Ames House stood empty.

Paranormal reports at the house date back to the 1950s. The most persistent haunting centers on the ghost of the Victorian-era nanny, who is seen peering out the attic window as if searching for someone or something. According to Pete Orbea, the paranormal investigator who has logged over 1,100 hours investigating the property, someone reports seeing a figure in the attic window approximately every six weeks. The nanny has been described as an apparition who stands motionless without expression before dissolving into nothing. Her footsteps are heard in the attic, and the attic lights flicker on and off when the house is entirely unoccupied.

The ghosts of three small children have been spotted by pedestrians in the upstairs windows, their faces peering over the windowsills. Toys are left scattered about the attic as trigger objects, and investigators have observed little shadows darting in the corners while playful voices echo from the empty room above. One of these children has been identified by name: during an investigation, a young girl's disembodied voice was captured at the top of the main staircase. When team members asked who was present, she responded, "A lady," then identified herself as "Annabelle." Pete Orbea's audio recordings of Annabelle and other entities can be found on the Port Gamble Paranormal website, including spirits responding to yes-or-no questions and voices specifically calling out "Where's Pete?"

The basement is considered the most intensely active area. Female visitors have reported having their hair pulled and jackets tugged by unseen hands, accompanied by a horrid stench. During one investigation, a crew member emerged with a dusty handprint on her leg after claiming to have been grabbed while downstairs. Investigators have documented doors slamming shut despite being held open with heavy weights, and furniture has been heard moving across the floors above when no one was on the upper levels. One investigator experienced acute dizziness and nausea during a session.

Pete Orbea moved to the Kitsap Peninsula from Boise, Idaho, in 1999 and began working at Port Gamble in 2011 in the Weddings and Events office. He volunteered to lead the annual Ghost Walks as an open skeptic, seeking "good data and evidence," but was converted within one season through direct experiences. During one tour's opening moments, his flashlight beam struck the eyes of a woman standing behind him who had not been there before. She cast a shadow on the wall visible to all ten witnesses before vanishing. In the master bedroom, he physically collided with an invisible entity he described as feeling "like an offensive lineman, huge" that knocked him backward. By 2016 he established paranormal research as a separate business and now serves as Port Gamble's Townsite Manager while continuing investigations. He added Special Investigations in 2012, giving visitors the opportunity to spend three hours investigating the Walker-Ames House under his guidance.

The house has been featured on the television program My Ghost Story and served as a filming location for ZMD: Zombie of Mass Destruction and the psychological thriller Squatter. Puget Sound Ghost Hunters and numerous other teams have conducted investigations at the property. The Walker-Ames House is widely regarded as the most haunted building in Washington State and remains one of the few historic haunted houses in the Pacific Northwest that offers regular public paranormal investigations.