The Villa Montezuma

On the way to The Villa Montezuma, I'd talk about it's cursed house legend and how some of the previous owners were now possibly ghosts in the house. It was built in 1887 and still is one of the most interesting homes in San Diego. The stained glass work is stunning, and the woodwork inside is extraordinary.

The Villa is without a doubt the most haunted looking of the houses on the tour. Sometimes members of my tour would feel the presence of Jesse Shepherd there. They might see a figure in the window, or the tower of the house, and some of the self proclaimed psychics said that Jesse stood behind me while I gave the tour (He was a performer after all).

We'd pass a few distractions that I decided to incorporate into the stories on the way to the house. One of the characters was incarcerated in a hotel and I said it wasn't so bad because Hooters was on the bottom floor (Said just as we were passing Hooters). We often would be stuck at a red light right next to a wig store that no one could fail to notice, so I said that one of the characters started a wig store downtown (and there's no way you could run a wig store in the gaslamp district! The rent would be too high and there isn't a great enough demand for wigs). I think the wig store was sometimes founded by one... David Hasslehoff!

So we'd pull up to the house and go inside. I'd talk about Jesse Shepherd and we'd look around and then leave. Then on the trolley once again, it was time for some silliness. I'd ask if people liked the house and then claim that I built that one too. Then I'd go into my favorite silly story about how I couldn't figure out what to do with the ceilings in the house, so I was desperate. I went everywhere looking for answers. I went to the beach and asked David Hasselhoff what to do. He laughed at me, kicked sand in my face, and drove off in a black car with Pam Anderson! Then, I stumbled into a bar/coffee shop/juice bar where I met the driver. You'll remember that the driver was an interior designer ofcourse and that we had met earlier while working on the William Heath Davis House. The driver suggested something brilliant, my problems were solved and I made a new life-long friend.

Then I'd talk about the Hotel Del Coronado was built the year after the Villa. I'd talk about Kate Morgan, the ghost that haunts the hotel, and I'd tell a story about how a guy stayed in one of the rooms and saw a woman's face staring at him from the TV screen. This was slightly odd because the TV was off. When he unplugged it, the face remained. He dragged two people in from the hall who both claimed to see the face as it slowly disappeared.

I'd have this story timed so that I reached the end right when we reached the cemetery. Then, before we disembarked, I'd say, "And that woman was.... Kathy Lee Gifford!" It never failed. If the group was a fun one, I'd get them all to join me in a silly "Duhn... duhn... DUHNNNN!" The Kathy Lee joke only failed with british people who had never heard of Kathy Lee. I used to say Oprah or Michael Jackson, but than someone on my tour suggested Kathy Lee Gifford, and I used it every time after that. The Kathy Lee joke was actually the set-up to another joke that I'd do later on the tour. It never failed either.