The spooky side of McMenamins Edgefield

The grand buildings and elegant gardens of McMenamins Edgefield don’t leave one with the impression of anything less than opulence, but look a little deeper into the property’s past and you might find something that gives you the chills.

According to McMenamins’ Marketing Writer/Editor, Kerry Beeaker, Edgefield doesn’t confirm or deny its possibility of being haunted.

“It’s kinda up to people’s personal preferences or if they’re open to it or not,” said Beeaker about the paranormal activity of the main lodge and surrounding properties.

Edgefield began as Multnomah County’s poor farm in 1911. “People who had lost their jobs or hit economic troubles could come here and earn their stay, so food and housing, basically. A lot of people were in a bad point in their lives but were able to come here and either stay here until their death, unfortunately, or get back on their feet and head back out,” Beeaker said.

According to Edgefield’s history page on the McMenamins website, residents of the poor farm who stayed after the economic boom of World War II were either too old or unable to leave the property, resulting in its transition to a nursing home.

For the guests who experience the paranormal activity of the poor farm turned nursing home turned hotel, Edgefield keeps a log at the front desk where patrons of the hotel can write down their supernatural experiences. A quick flip through the ghost log shows that a lot of activity happens in room 215, the entire second floor, the third floor and around the winery.

Room 215 is the one most requested at the hotel, “because it’s had the most paranormal activity, if you will,” Beeaker said.

“It might be a lot of power of suggestion or maybe the power of a Hammerhead or two, but, who knows. When they were renovating the property there was lots of paraphernalia found on the ground,” such as animal bones and a pentagram that Beeaker attributes to the possibility of kids messing around. “But the legend has stuck,” she added.

“We did have a McMenamins-style exorcism of sorts when the building was open, where they would walk through with the bagpipes, hence the artwork (on the exterior of room doors), burning incense and singing fun songs, to kind of excise any negative emotions or spirits,” she said.

From a marketing perspective, “I wouldn’t say that we use it to draw people in but we kinda have fun with it,” Beeaker said. “It’s such a subjective science. We have a historical side that we like to focus on more so than the speculative side.”

Alison Berliner, a McMenamins employee of three and a half years, works as a wine server. The winery previously served as the poor house infirmary. Berliner said she has been open to seeing things since high school. And, she said, Edgefield is definitely haunted.

“I have seen a nurse in the hallway upstairs (from the winery) and it was 11 o’clock in the morning,” she said.

“I was just walking with a bucket and I saw this 60s (styled woman), I could tell she had a little hat on. I could tell she had pantyhose on, that’s how clear she was.  And she was just walking and you couldn’t see keys but it looked like she was holding keys and she was coming this way and she kinda turned and she looked like she was going to open a door and then just vanished,” Berliner said about the full apparition she described as “obviously a nurse.”

Beeaker confirmed that there is an infirmary link. “I’m sure it’s fact, that we did have people pass away in this area when it was still a poor farm,” she said.

Berliner has had multiple experiences on the Edgefield property. One was with a large, dark shadow figure in the Black Rabbit bar who “does not have a good energy,” which played a role in her request to work back in the winery again.

Berliner said she has also been walked through by an entity on the property during her own stay in the hotel.

“I was walking on the west end, in between the second and third floor. I had had a couple of glasses of wine, I’ll admit that. It was my birthday. I was walking in where the mural of them handing the residents their sheets and stuff is, and I was really deep in thought about what these people must have gone through and how they felt, and right as I was thinking that, I didn’t see anything, but this energy went right through my chest. Took my breath completely away. I actually started hyperventilating. I was like ‘Oh my God, did it leave me?’ and I started shaking my hands and was like ‘Oh God, please let it be out of my body.’ I couldn’t tell,” she said.

Another McMenamins employee had a story to share, though he declined to share his name. “I definitely heard something in the brewery one time, like six years ago. A long time ago. But I was mashing in at 5 in the morning so I got there first. The rafters up there, there is nothing up there in the rafters. I was the only one there and I could hear someone dropping something and then rolling it down the rafters. And there’s really not a floor up there, so. Kinda weird. So I just turned the radio on and I didn’t go look,” he said.

Experiences with the paranormal were hit and miss among staff. Beeaker, who isn’t open to the paranormal, has not experienced anything supernatural and she is not alone.

If you’re brave enough to make your own adventure or want to try your luck at getting a stay worthy of the ghost log, Edgefield is located at 2126 S.W. Halsey St. in Troutdale. Rates vary by season but start at $30 for a hostel bed and go up to $175 for a family room.

For more, go to www.mcmenamins.com/Edgefield or call 503-669-8610.