The Gaslamp quarter is home to numerous historical and paranormal walking tours – the routes coincide when it comes to two locations: The Horton-Davis House and the Grand Horton Hotel.
Whether you believe in the paranormal or not, one haunted tour guide, who goes by the name “Dante” with Haunted San Diego Ghost Tours, says it’s a good way to have some fun and learn some local history.
Built in 1850, the oldest home in downtown San Diego, the Davis-Horton House is home to the Gaslamp Museum and the Gaslamp Quarter Historic Foundation.
It’s also one of Dante’s favorite stops on his ghost tour, where he says there is an excess of paranormal activity, thanks to the site’s history as being a place where people would go to get care before they died when the house was originally bought.
“Nineteen years later, after doing this tour, I now believe because of things that go a-bump in the night with no explanation,” Dante said.
Dante has been doing the tours for 19 years and says he originally started because he thought it was an acting gig. Now, it’s his passion, teaching folks about the history of San Diego and feeding the public’s curiosity of the paranormal.
A local paranormal researcher and investigator, Nicole Strickland, with the San Diego Paranormal Research Society, says she has personally investigated the Horton-Davis House with EMF technology and other science, and says it is likely the spot is haunted.
“The more historical it is, the more likely there will be some paranormal theme there,” Strickland says.
