The Harvard Exit Theater as seen from Roy Street, on an autumn night. Copyright Margaretta Lantz 2009.
Seattle boasts the first woman mayor of a major US city, Bertha Knight Landes. ”Active community member” doesn’t begin to describe Landes’ impact on the political, intellectual, and social world of Seattle in the 1920′s.
Rumor has it that she continues to be an active community member today, despite her death in 1943. Landes is seen from time to time at the fireplace in the lobby of our very own Harvard Exit Theater, and has been known to take care of the theater manager’s tasks when he or she is unable to do them. In short, she haunts the place. And she’s not alone. The Harvard Exit Theater is considered by many to be the most haunted place in the northwestern United States.
Seattle Mayor Bertha Landes, ca. 1927 Courtesy City of Seattle Engineering Department
The theater house itself was built as a meeting place for the Women’s Century Club on the corner of Harvard Avenue and Roy Street on the then-suburb of Capitol Hill in 1925. Through the years, the members of the Women’s Century Club (WCC) organized awareness campaigns, vied with the Daughters of the American Revolution across the street, and supported Bertha, a prominent member, in her bid for office.
In 1968, the WCC sold the property to a group who wanted to turn it into a movie theater, with the provision that they could continue to meet in the space. They also stipulated that the lobby be kept up in its original, 1920′s style. Both of these conditions lend the right connections for those who’ve passed on to revisit the space.
In addition to Bertha, a man who introduces himself as “Peter” is said to have appeared in the theater. By all accounts he’s a happy, dapper man who likes to play tricks and flirt with the ladies, all in good fun. Many female patrons of the Harvard Exit have felt someone touching their head or hair during screenings, turning around only to discover that there’s no one there. Besides Bertha and Peter, plenty of WCC gals have been seen in the stairwells and bathrooms of the old theater. In the balcony, some have even seen a very sad young woman, rumored to have been an actress who was smothered to death at the theater in the 1940′s.
A simple google search on the Harvard Exit will yield you plenty of links where you can find out more about witness accounts. However, if you’re in the Seattle area, I highly recommend you go on the Capitol Hill Ghost Walk, hosted by The Seattle Museum of the Mysteries, in the complex right next to the theater itself. The tour costs only a suggested donation of $5 and departs from the museum every Saturday afternoon at 5:00pm.
I took the tour last week, and although no one spotted any ghosts, we did pick up some paranormal energy around the piano in the lobby…and had a wonderful, spooky time.
Just because it’s history doesn’t mean it’s bound by the past…
Fun Fact: The producers of the Syfy’s Ghost Hunters considered doing an episode on the Harvard Exit last season, but after scouting the location, they had to decline because the neighborhood is too full of non-paranormal (e.g. normal?) activity 24 hours a day. Capitol Hill is just too loud for TV ghost hunting.
-Margaretta Lantz
