it was run by Mary Ann Conklin, more likely to be known as “Mother Damnable.” Conklin received this name due to her fiery temper and profane vocabulary that was equally colorful in French, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, and German. Born Mary Ann Boyer in 1821, she married a Russian sea captain of a whaling ship, David W. “Bull” Conklin, in 1851. In 1853 he abandoned her in Port Townsend, Washington, as he sailed off to Alaska. She made her way to Seattle and took up shop with Captain Leonard Felker and ran his local hotel. Eventually, the second floor of the hotel was turned into a well-known brothel run by Mother herself. When the Battle of Seattle approached, Navy military wanted to improve Seattle’s defenses by building a road that would pass by the hotel. This threatened the huge bushes surrounding the hotel that secured the discretion of her well-to-do customers. According to memoirs of Thomas Stowell Phelps, the navigator of the U.S. Decatur:
…the moment our men appeared upon the scene, with three dogs at her heels, and an apron filled with rocks, this termagant would come tearing from the house, and the way stones, oaths, and curses flew was something fearful to contemplate, and, charging like a fury, with the dogs wild to flash their teeth in the detested invaders, the division invariably gave way before the storm, fleeing, officers and all, as if old Satan himself was after them.
Mother Damnable died in 1873, but her stubbornness still carried on even after death. Her remains where buried in the Seattle Cemetery, later converted into Denny Park in 1884. Her body was then moved to Volunteer Park and then once again to Lake View Cemetery on Capitol Hill. The workers were surprised it took half a dozen men to lift her coffin from the ground. Her coffin weighed close to thirteen hundred pounds. Curious about the weight, they opened the coffin and found her body had calcified, turned to stone with all details still remaining, even the wickedest smirk on her face. Once word spread about Mother Damnable’s condition, PT Barnum of Barnum & Bailey Circus fame, offered a great sum of money to obtain the remains of Mother Damnable for his famous sideshows of freaks. However the city of Seattle refused to part with her body and placed the hardened corpse back into the Seattle soil. It is also believed that maybe her body wasn’t moved at all, and she may still be resting somewhere in the heart of downtown Seattle.
SCHWABACHER HARDWARE
Today, on the corner of First and Jackson stands the last of the Schwabacher Hardware buildings, which replaced the Felker House that burned down in the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, built in 1905 and designed by Bebb and Mendel of the Frye Hotel fame. It seems Mother Damnable hasn’t let go of her property just yet. Folks in the building have reported hearing curse words whispered into their ears. When they turn to see who’s responsible for the profanity, they are surprised to see no one around. In fact, some of these whispered vulgarites were not understood until later translated. Others have seen the frail woman wandering the grounds, while some have had small rocks thrown at them from out of nowhere. So outsiders beware if you venture too close to her property, you may have to battle the wrath of Mother Damnable.
See also: Battle of Seattle in this section
MERCHANTS CAFE
109 Yesler Way
Constructed in 1890, the Merchants Café still has its rustic look. Designed by W. E. Boone (a direct descendent of Daniel Boone), this café is one of the oldest restaurants in Seattle. It started as a saloon when it opened its doors and served five-cent beers to miners waiting their turns at the upstairs brothel. During Prohibition the café survived by converting to a restaurant, while other saloons and taverns closed down.
At times the employees would experience the water turning on and off without assistance. Doors would open and close on their own, glasses would break and objects would move. One night, a bartender had everything shut down and turned to see a woman sitting at the end of the bar. He called out to her and told her the bar was closed and she needed to leave. She just turned to him and smiled. He then thought he was going to have to personally escort her out, but as he approached her, she just vanished before his eyes.
Its top floors were set up as office space; it wasn’t until the 1920s when it was used as the Merchants Hotel. In service until the 1930s, the former hotel is now an apartment building. A few employees of the café have lived upstairs and have had unseen visitors. One young female employee was staying on the third floor, and she would sometimes feel someone crawl in bed with her and place unseen hands on her stomach as if to hold her down. Another employee saw a man in a top hat walk by his bathroom door as he was brushing his teeth.
MERCHANT’S CAFÉ
If you get a chance you might want to venture to the basement. Here is where a frightened cook ran upstairs to let the rest of the employees know something threw an ice scoop at him. He then refused to go back downstairs. So whether you would like to peek at its ghosts or just its history, you need to make a stop here.
OK HOTEL
212 Alaskan Way S
This place was once known as the OK or the Old Klondike Hotel. Locals called it the OK Hotel because it was an OK place to hang out. In the 1990s it was a bar and music club but closed in 2001 due to damages from the Nisqually earthquake. Before the earthquake, local bands played here, including Nirvana. Its heyday was during the prime of the gold rush when miners were heading to Seattle to strike it rich. At that time, this hotel offered twenty-five rooms and one bathroom on each floor. Most eight-by-nine-foot rooms would comfortably sleep one person, and, normally, four or five men would share the room, sleeping in shifts. It now is an affordable housing apartment building with an art gallery in the lobby.
OK HOTEL
People had reported strange events taking place here—they have seen apparitions forming and have felt as though they were being touched when no one is around. In one report, a couple visiting the site was startled to see an older couple descend the staircase only to vanish when they reached the bottom. One of the owners had an apartment on the second floor and would wake in the middle of the night to the sounds of someone whistling in the bar below. Startled by this, he would race down to find no living person in sight. Employees have felt the temperatures drop suddenly, hear doors open and then close when no one is around, and they’ve heard creepy sounds throughout the night.
STAR BAR
309 First Avenue S
Once known as Wild Palm Bar and Grill, this place has not been the friendliest to any new owners. The spirits haunting this site have made things difficult for most who work here. Employees have heard what sounds like someone running across the upstairs balcony, but when they go to investigate, no one is there. Glasses have exploded or been thrown across the room by unseen forces. Strange noises and smells have been reported. But most odd, the employees found writing in ketchup on the ceiling of the bar that appeared to be a giant letter “V.”
STAR BAR
It seems that this location has had problems with business owners constantly running out—whether it is due to financial troubles or spirits running amuck. No one seems to be able to handle what this location has to offer. As of now it is home to a new club called Aura, and maybe by the time you read this book it could be a whole
