Our trip “Entrapped by Dreams” (Sep.2008) motivated me to do some research about ghost towns, and I found one just two steps away from home!
I told my husband that on Saturday (Nov. 15th, 2008) we were going to do small trip with overnight stop at one place, that he would know only when we get there.
As usual, we cooked dinner for our trip, and I also packed a bottle of wine. Of Yury’s suspicious look I answered by reminding him about our 20th wedding anniversary.
We got to the gates of the “secret place” in Lakewood, WA, at four pm, I entered the code and we slowly passed through the opened gates. The road made a steady turn, and the ghost Thornewood Castle raised before us in all its antique beauty!
It was very quiet around, and we both lowered our voices descended to the whisper. We opened the heavy castle’s entrance door, and it greeted us with loud squeak… There was no one inside; the keys lonely laid on the table.
We kept staying in the doorway waiting for somebody and scrutinizing the luxurious décor of the Great Hall.
On the right, the huge Christmas tree occupied a lot of hall’s room, and tree lights softly glared down. On the other side there was a grand piano and kid’s locomotive toy underneath it, and Central Staircase to the upper floors was decorated with Christmas ornaments that dazzlingly sparkle in the delicate shade of the hall.
Our mystery idle was interrupted by a young lady who came in sight from the ordinary side door. After completing formalities the whole castle was at our command.
Winter nights drop the curtain of darkness early, so we left the luggage at our Casa Blanca Suite on the third floor, and hastened outside to take a stroll around the castle before it faded into obscurity… Not only twilight but November chill forced us back into warmth and coziness of the lodging.
The old door invited us inside the castle with the familiar shrill squeak…
The rooms of the second floor are very different from the attic rooms of the third one. We assumed that the third floor was more likely servants’ living area, when the rooms of the second floor were occupied by the owners some days.
Every room is unique and keeps its own secrets and spirits… Silently and slowly we tiptoed from one room to the other being afraid to frighten away the invisible inhabitants… like master Chester Thorne’s spirit in his bedroom, or his wife’s phantom at Anna’s Suites, or encounter with amorphous occupants President Theodore Roosevelt or President William Howard Taft in the “Presidential Suite”, that used to be the owner’s private bedroom… or one of the Thorne’s guests who stayed at the Blue Room…
On the third floor in the Sewing room all the needed sewing was done for the owners and staff, the servant’s wing was converted into Lord Byron’s Suite, Rose Red room became famous after Stephen King’s creepy movies…
We met two young women silently wandering around the castle, which seemed like ghosts to us, floating here and there, and then imperceptibly disappearing, and we haven’t seen them any more… May be we came across as ghosts to them as well?!…
With two other senior looking ghosts we would have breakfast tomorrow morning… but tonight the romantic dinner was served in our luxury Casa Blanca Suite at small attic kitchen…
long talks about our own ancient times… memories about our first acquaintance… how it was, how it happened, and how it is now…
Breakfast was served at the gorgeous Ballroom. Along with pair of other guests, the “ghosts” of our own daughter and her friend deigned to condescend to our company and join the morning feast, whose twilight silhouettes melted in the thin morning air instantly after the breakfast…
In the Secret Garden, that skillfully hidden from worldly vanity, I completely lost the sense of time and space, turning into amorphous fraction of Thornewood’s floating spirits…
Serenity and peacefulness of the castle took us far away from the reality of life, dissolving all troubles in the mysterious atmosphere of silence, odd quietness, and tranquility…
When we crossed the gate line, the clocks started ticking again, and even faster. The hysterical noise of the freeway brought us to our senses.
The next castle we wanted to visit was in a distance of 30 minutes, located in Olympia , the capital of Washington State . And the name of the Castle is the Capitol…
To finalize the romantic theme, and completely bring back ourselves to common life, we stopped at the Fort Lewis Military Museum …
Web Resources:
Official Thornewood Castle Website
Thornewood Castle story at Legends of America Website
Thornewood Castle story at Paranormal Research Investigative Team Website
