Harvard Exit Theater

Reviewed by Carol Sullivan

Photography By: Carol Sullivan

Harvard Exit Theater located on a quaint, tree-lined street at the north end of Broadway, at Harvard and Roy on Seattle's Capitol Hill.

Locations Featured:
Harvard Exit Theater
Seattle Museum of the Mysteries

Overall: Highly Recommended

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dystopia Magazine's Editor of
Theater & Entertainment

You know her, and we love her.

The wonderful Carol Sullivan, with her great passion of travel and scares, initiated dystopia Magazine's Haunted Tours section to keep you in the know of everything scary around America.

Check back for her next installment!

Capitol Hill c. 1917
Courtesy of the University of Washington Libraries Special
Collections Division Seattle Photograph Collection

The beautiful Seattle neighborhood of Capitol Hill sits atop a long ridge overlooking the city's busy downtown streets and has come a long way in 136 years.

In 1872, some pioneers cleared a narrow wagon road through the misty hills to a cemetery at the top of the ridge. A decade later, the rest of the trees on the ridge were cleared to make way for the expanding city of Seattle. The neighborhood was named Capitol Hill in 1901 by James A. Moore; most think that the reason for the name was either his political goals or the fact that his wife's hometown was Capitol Hill, Denver.

Now, Seattle's own Capitol Hill is home to colleges, museums, grand churches, a thriving business district and friendly citizens that are very proud of their town and its reputation of counterculture. But Capitol Hill also has a mysterious and colorful past and is still home to some very persistent ex-residents.

In July, I spent a week in the Seattle area and got to go on ghost tours while I explored this amazing city. Hearing about one famous haunted building, now called the Harvard Exit Theater; I knew that I just had to go and check it out for myself.

One block off of busy Broadway Avenue, the Harvard Exit Theater appears as if it is miles away and centuries removed.

Photography By: Carol Sullivan

The uneven cobbled street, tangles of vines and thick bushes give the brick theater a dark and ominous appearance. Just looking at it, I felt that if any building could be haunted, that this was certainly one of them.

In the 1920's the building was home to The Women's Century Club; an organization founded by Bertha Landes whose chief concern at the time was the voting rights of women in Seattle. Then, in the 1960's, the building was sold and has since become a movie theater, but The Women's Century Club still meets in the lobby once a month.

The theater has kept its decor and the lobby looks and feels much as it did back in the 20's. A glistening chandelier and a grand piano give the theater a decidedly 18th century feel and you almost expect women with parasols and white gloves to walk around the corner at any moment.

According to the owners and staff, every change that they have made to the building causes some strange ghostly phenomena. Each employee has had a personal experience with the various ghosts of the theater. On several occasions, the managers have opened the building to find a movie projector showing a film to an unseen audience. Strange, as they claimed that the door was locked from the inside.

A female apparition often seen is thought to be the ghost of a woman that was murdered in 1940. She seems to enjoy having her picture taken; her ghostly form showing up in more than one tourist's photo. It has also been said that her ghost lights the fire in the hearth on cold winter mornings, before the employees arrive. Movie goers, as well, have reported hearing the eerie sounds of female laughter.

But, the most famous ghost of the Harvard Exit Theater is thought to be the spirit of Bertha Landes, the former president of The Women's Century Club. The specter of a hanged woman has also been seen and it is thought to be her as well. One has to wonder if maybe her ghost is keeping an eye on her beloved building.

Various ghost hunting teams have visited the theater over the years, coming up with mixed results. They all recommend, however, that the best way to see one of the famed ghosts is to come in for a movie and keep your eyes open.

After you visit the theater, be sure to walk around the corner and explore the Seattle Museum of the Mysteries. Located in a down-stairs storefront, the paranormal-science museum has been called one of the most haunted public places in Seattle.

Seattle Museum of the Mysteries
Photography By: Carol Sullivan

The fun and funky little museum is home to literally thousands of artifacts and books focusing on everything weird. They have Big Foot photos and casts of his footprints as well as magazines and newspapers relating to the famous ghosts of the area. They even have ghostly pictures of Princess Angeline, daughter of the famous Chief of Seattle.

The museum also has eclectic exhibits, photos and books on the mysteries of UFO's, D.B. Cooper and the haunted ship, Kalakala, just to name a few. The museum's owners also claim to have a ghost of their own and I wonder if their claims just might be true. Why? Because I think that I might have run into this ghost myself. Just inside and to the right of the entrance is the museum's Hall of Humanities; dedicated to lives and deaths of Bruce and Brandon Lee. They have rare photos and background articles pasted on the walls of the short hallway.

The Museum's Bigfoot
Photography By: Carol Sullivan

While I was looking at the Lee's photos, I suddenly felt very uncomfortable as the narrow hallway was very cold and still. I even found myself to be a little lightheaded for no apparent reason. Snapping a few photos, I walked back into the main room to explore the rest of the museum. I didn't think much of it until I plugged my camera in the next week to look at the pictures that I had taken that day. All of the photos that I took in the museum were perfect, save for the four I took in that hallway. Those four were completely black and blurred around the edges; the data is not blank, that is what the camera actually caught. What was it, you ask? We will never know, but whatever it was, it seems that it did not want its picture taken that day.

I could have spent the entire day crawling around the creepy Museum of the Mysteries as well as the grand, old Harvard Exit Theater. Someday, I would like to go back and stand in that museum hallway... Just to see if what I felt is still there.

I highly recommend these two Capitol Hill haunts. Make sure you have a few free hours, because you will want to stay and learn more about the mysteries of this Pacific Northwest gem.

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