Below is a picture taken by a family from New Mexico. It was taken on the Underground Tour in Seattle. The location where the picture was taken is next to an old bank vault that is believed to be haunted. Other people have taken pictures and had images appear on their film and others have felt the presence of a ghost. The original story I heard when I started working with the Underground Tours was that the ghost was that of a nervous bank teller guarding gold. I at one point saw a spirit run back and forth nervously in the narrow subterranean sidewalk, but the bank teller story just didn't seem to fit for me. Then last Summer a tour guide told me about a murder that occured in the early 1900's on the city's street.

It's important that you understand how Seattle streets were built to understand the rest of this entry: Seattle streets were constructed one level higher than the tideflats Seattle was first founded on, in some areas of Downtown the streets today are 35 feet higher than the original streets below. During the construction of these second streets, sidewalks below remained open and the streets were constructed between sidewalks using retaining walls. Eventually new sidewalks were put in place on top of old sidewalks. But for a period of time is Seattle's history, if you were walking on a city street, you looked down on to the sidewalk below....and people also fell from street to sidewalk. Those that died falling were considered to have died from "involuntary suicide", having fallen from street to sidewalk. OK, hope that makes sense. Here is the picture of the ghost in the Underground (AKA: Seattle's first sidewalks):

The exact year escapes me, but early in the 1900's the street corner above the sidewalk where the bank was - there was a murder. A working man dressed for a Saturday night went to meet his "girl" on that corner and there was another man in her company. In his jealousy he attacked this man, but he was not the victor, he was stabbed and fell from the street to the sidewalk below. When I look closely at this picture I see a very clear face and a broken neck. I believe that the ghost is that of this jealous man who broke his neck in a fall and that he is one of the many who died in Seattle of "involuntary suicide". The fact that he shows up in this photo? Perhaps, the veil is getting thinner.

I have marked the picture so that you can see what I am looking at:

Seattle is not unique in it's many stories of ghosts, every city shares stories. Seattle is unique however in that it went through major Urban renewal for 30 years beginning after the Great fire in 1889. Some believe that it is the movement of earth, structures, and graves that create Seattle's many stories. This could be true, with the disruption of organic material comes the presence of ghosts. If ghosts are attached to the earth, the wood, the stones of early Seattle then we are certainly surrounded in Downtown.

A man has been seen throughout the theater, at times sitting and watching the shows. Supposedly he died in a horrific accident that either involved a system of lights falling on him or an elevator car falling down a shaft on top of him.

Years ago, a group of staff members held a seance in the Moore Theater trying to contact the spirits of the building. They were all fired for the attempt. Supposedly the Moore has several ghosts. Most common is a young boy that haunts the first floor.

On the Northwest side of Greenlake, close to 99, there is the ghost of a young girl who drowned there, murdered by her father.