The Queen Anne Victorian Mansion was built between 1880 and 1885, for Amanda Laura Boone, great granddaughter of the pioneer Daniel Boone by her husband, retired ship captain David Cole. The 5,500 square foot mansion now days is unoccupied, but rather is used for weddings and events requiring space and atmosphere. At the holiday season, it is a magical, wonderland of a million twinkling lights, strewn over the house and gardens. We had never seen such a beautiful sight as we saw the night our friends, Chris and John Verhoef treated us to a tour of the spectacular Victorian Mansion. We stood in awe of the vision before us as the tiny white, blue, red and green lights lined the four story house, the trees, gazebos, walkways and even the lawn in the gardens. It was inspiring just to look on the beauty displayed there.

The house is open for tours to the public during the holidays, so we walked around the porches and entered a home beautifully decorated for Christmas, with poinsettas and ribbons along archways and stair railings on the first two floors. The rooms seemed small, by comparison to the rooms in modern homes, yet warm and comfortable with the polished dark wood panels and doors, heavy drapes and highly polished furniture. A person could picture themselves living in such a home, the women in their long dresses quietly going about their business and the men in their dark suits, strong and staunch, head of the household. The pictures that hung on the walls, told of a different time, a different kind of life, simple and uncomplicated. This house was definitely one built by someone in the upper class of society, with chandeliers sparkling at the ceilings and windows that looked out in every direction with stained glass inserts above the plate glass windows. But as with most historical mansions and wealth, also came a story of tragedy, and this house was no exception.

In 1890, the ballroom on the third floor of the Queen Anne Victorian Mansion caught fire when a lamp turned over and Amanda Laura Boone Cole, perished in the fire. She has been seen looking from her upstairs window in the mansion, even to this day, and wandering the second floor. On occasion, the lights in her sitting room go out for no explainable reason, as was the case the night when we were present in the house. How sad for this young woman to have lost her life early, which would give her reason to remain in this beautiful place. Her husband, after her death moved out and from what I understand, spent his life as a recluse.

As we entered the mansion we could hear, from a speaker mounted outside on the porch and throughout the house, the story of what took place. The male voice describes the existence of the spirit of Amanda appearing in the house and yet when I approached the owners daughter-in-law for more information, she refused to speak further of the spirit in the house. I personally found that to be a bit strange, but, respected her wishes to speak no further of the subject. We proceded to the second floor where the sitting rooms and bedroom are located. There, in one of the sitting rooms, a young man was describing the fire, going on to talk about the ghost of Amanda. Little more information than what we had already heard, but when he finished speaking, a woman stepped up and told him that she had grown up in the neighborhood and wondered when the last time was that anyone had lived in the house.

She went on to explain that as children, they were told the house was haunted and stayed away from it. She said the grounds were unkempt and the house sat empty for as long as she lived in the neighborhood. They stayed away from the house, fearing the ghost that supposedly remained within. Her husband, also had grown up in the same neighborhood and knew also that the house was haunted, as that was the story that was going around, even in the 1930's. Upon hearing the woman talk of growing up in the area, we approached her to talk with her further. We asked if she and her husband would mind speaking with us over hot chocolate out in the garden area, after their tour. They agreed to meet us and we had a delightful time talking with them, for about twenty minutes. They vividly remembered the mansion, sitting empty and dark, the gardens uncared for and overgrown at that time, and how they avoided the place because it was haunted. It was wonderful to listen as they spoke of the 1930's and living in the neighborhood. This was the first time they had returned, to actually enter the house, since that time!

It is a wonderful place to visit during the holidays, and most folks who work in the house and with the tours will speak openly about the ghost. She does remain in the house, according to those who have been there and experienced her, she has appeared and done things to let people know she is still around. She may not appear for just anyone, but there are those who have seen her, and they don't deny that she is there. I guess if she didn't want people to know she's still there, she wouldn't go to any effort to let them know.

We thoroughly enjoyed the first evening spent at the mansion and decided to return the next night to take pictures and talk to some of the people working there. Dave took along his Sony Cybershot DSC-S30 digital camera and had some success outside the mansion, capturing orbs as well as capturing an orb in the window, where Amanda has been seen, looking out on her gardens.

The mansion is located in North Portland, just off Interstate 5 on Interstate Avenue, 5 blocks north of Lombard. Telephone: 503-283-3224.