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All Photos from HecetaLightHouse.com
LOCATION:
Heceta House was built 110 years ago
below the Heceta Lighthouse, which is 13 miles north of Florence, Oregon.
It sits on a spit of land known as Heceta Head, which is owned by the
U.S. Forest Service.
Address: 92072 Hwy. 101 South, Yachats,
Oregon 97498.
Public tours of the light keeper's
House are given from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
Web-Site: HecetaLightHouse.com
DESCRIPTION:
Heceta House is characterized as being
a "picturesque, Queen Anne- style" home that was originally
built as a duplex to house 2 families of the light keepers who worked
in the lighthouse. It has been filmed in several movies. In 1978, when
the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places, it was
carefully renovated and restored to its original splendor, under the supervision
of Lane Community College, who leased the house from the government. This
community college hired a caretaker and was responsible for all the maintenance
work, and in exchange, used the house itself as a classroom for its extension
classes in coastal studies.
As of Feb. 21, 2002, Heceta House
now serves as an Interpretive
Center by day and a Bed
and Breakfast by night. The B & B welcomes guests year around. All
of the rooms have been renovated, and beautifully furnished with furniture of the period.
A seven-course gourmet breakfast is served each morning in the dining
room and is included in the price of the room.
  
MANIFESTATIONS:
Heceta House not only has hired, human
caretakers/ now innkeepers, but also has an unseen one as well, who likes
to oversee everything that goes on in the house, and also carefully supervised
any workman who is repairing and maintaining Heceta House. This infrequent,
actual visual sighting of "RUE", the fussy, woman apparition,
first started in the 1970's, when the house had some remodeling done,
and the caretakers moved into the house.
1) The live-in caretakers heard the
clicking sound of lights being turned on and off, footsteps coming up
from the cellar, and the dishes rattling in the cubbard, but would stop
when some human would come into the kitchen. 2) Cubbard doors that had
been latched shut tightly the night before, would be found to be wide
open the next morning. Was Rue trying to help out with the chores?
3) The caretakers would wake up
sweating in the middle of the night because the house would be really
warm. Rue likes a hot house.
4) During a card party, the caretakers
and their friends, plus the two cats, were all scared when suddenly
a high - pitched scream pierced the room, right in the middle of where
the people were. Rue must not like the idea of card playing in her house.
5) When running up the stairs to
get his keys, the caretaker was startled to see a long skirt float across
the hallway, swishing all the way through a locked door into an unused
room.
6) The caretaker's wife was treated
to seeing a full apparition of Rue, who was going through a doorway
to the kitchen with something in her hand, while the caretaker's wife
was clearing the dishes to the kitchen after a dinner party. Rue was
helping to clean up.
7) The most direct contact between
Rue and the living took place when the carpenter, James, was hired to
restore Hecta House to it's original, 1893 appearance. While polishing
a window in the large attic room, which one can enter only after climbing
up a ladder through a trap door, James suddenly saw a reflection of
something in the glass. He turned around and saw a stern, disapproving
old lady, Rue, in a long, swishing skirt, coming right for him, not
too pleased with his efforts. She was floating a few inches off the
floor. The terrified James rushed through the apparition, dived through
the trap door, landing feet first on the floor below, without use of
the ladder.
8) While finishing repair work on
a broken window on the outside of the attic, James happened to look
inside and again saw Rue staring at him sternly from inside the attic.
After blinking hard to be sure he wasn't seeing things, he packed up
and left, having had enough of a critical, fussy old lady apparition.
Caretakers later found the glass inside had been swept up in a pile
by unseen hands.
WHO IS RUE, AND WHY IS SHE THERE?
The most plausible explanation is
that she is Mrs. Frank DeRay, wife of an early lighthouse keeper. She
was strong-willed, opinionated, and took charge of running the house,
with very high housekeeping standards. She became active when the new
caretakers moved in and all the renovation / repair work started. She
probably wanted to keep a close eye on the running of her house, not quite
sure how good a job all these new people would do as she had no say in
their hiring. She was also uneasy with the renovation projects as she
didn't plan or authorize them. However, she must be pleased now, because
the house is now in glorious shape.
Still Haunted?
Yes, occasionally she makes her presence
known or seen by the living.
All Photos from HecetaLightHouse.com
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