Tuttle Mansion
Tuttle Mansion
A Family with a History of Madness
There was something about the Tuttle Mansion that had always caught Maryanne Porter's attention. Living in the area, Porter drove past the enormous Victorian mansion in Watsonville regularly. It was hard to miss. The old house stood prominently along East Lake Avenue, its many windows looking out over what had once been the Tuttle family's sprawling property.
And every now and then, Porter thought she saw someone standing in one of the upstairs windows...a man.
At first, she dismissed it. Perhaps someone was inside. Maybe it was a reflection, or someone simply standing near the window. But it happened often enough that she eventually became curious.
One day, instead of driving past, Porter pulled over.
She wasn't sure what kind of reception she would get. Walking into someone's home or better yet, a place of business, and asking, “Is this place haunted?” was a strange way to introduce yourself. She wasn't even sure whether she would be met with curiosity or disdain. But she had to know. That decision would eventually lead to years of investigations, private tours, conversations with the family, and countless hours spent inside one of Watsonville's most intriguing historic properties.
Porter approached Jennifer Oliver, whose family owned the mansion, and began asking questions. What she discovered was that the stories surrounding the Tuttle Mansion went much deeper than a few reports of strange noises or apparitions.
The History
The Tuttle Mansion was built in 1899 for Morris B. Tuttle, a successful orchardist and prominent member of the Pajaro Valley community. Designed by noted architect William Weeks, the grand Queen Anne-style home reflected the wealth and influence of the Tuttle family during Watsonville's agricultural boom.
The Tuttle family had deep roots and a complicated history. Over generations, the family experienced tremendous success, but their story also included violence, tragedy, suicide, accidental deaths, and other events that would later become part of the mansion's darker lore. Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters' historical research into the family uncovered stories reaching back generations before the mansion itself existed.
And some of the darker stories were much closer to home.
In 1911, William Tuttle, while separated from his wife Hazel, was living at the Tuttle carriage house. He later returned to their home in Rocklin, where he killed Hazel before taking his own life. In 1913, Morris Tuttle's brother Iowa died by suicide in an outbuilding near the mansion. Then, in 1918, tragedy struck again when eight-year-old Irma Tuttle was accidentally killed in the family's fields beneath a heavy roller.
The mansion itself eventually passed through other uses. Over the years, it became apartments and housed various businesses. By the time the Oliver family became its owners in the 1970s, the old house had already accumulated decades of history; and then came the stories.
Residents and visitors reported footsteps, children's laughter, doors opening and closing on their own, and the sound of an old-fashioned typewriter operating when no one was using it. There were also reports of an elderly woman appearing near a dinner bell and then vanishing, along with sightings of Morris Tuttle himself near the second-story windows.
Some believed the mansion had become a kind of repository for the family's troubled history—a place where layers of the past seemed to overlap.
For Porter, that was worth investigating.
The Oliver Connection
The deeper Porter went into the history of the Tuttle family, the stranger the story became.
One of the most unsettling pieces of that history involves Elener Oliver, whose name appears in an October 21, 1890, article in the Sacramento Daily Union—nine years before the Tuttle Mansion was built.
The account described 21-year-old Elener Oliver, who had arrived from Kansas and traveled to the small town of Freedom. He hired a livery team and went to the home of Mr. Tuttle, asking to see his daughter, with whom he was in love. He asked her to marry him.
She refused, telling him she was too young. Oliver pulled out a revolver and shot the young woman through the temples, killing her instantly. He then turned the weapon on himself and fired a bullet through his own head in the same place where he had shot the girl. He survived for a short time in an unconscious condition before dying. The tragedy occurred nine years before the Tuttle Mansion was even built. And yet, decades later, the mansion, named after a Mr. Tuttle, would come into the hands of another family bearing the name Oliver.
Whether the connection means anything is impossible to say. It may simply be a unique and unsettling coincidence—one of those strange intersections in history that makes you stop and wonder.
Porter, however, has never believed in coincidences.
In Haunted Santa Cruz, California, Porter explored that strange connection in a chapter titled “Tuttle Mansion Madness.”
The Tuttle Mansion is believed to be a portal, harnessing the energy of family descendants, both immediate and distant alike. It is a doorway for those spirits that may be trapped in this world or even those that simply choose to stay. The mansion seems to draw those in, those that have crossed paths even in history. Such is the case with the current owners, the Olivers, who have owned the vast mansion for the last forty-two years and unknowingly, have had their own family name cross paths with a Tuttle in an ironic, twisted tale of Tuttle madness.
Perhaps it is nothing more than coincidence. Perhaps names sometimes cross paths in history in ways that feel far more significant than they really are. Or perhaps there is something about certain places that seems to draw people into stories that began long before they ever arrived.
That is the question that has always made the Tuttle Mansion so fascinating.
THE INVESTIGATIONS
For Porter, the mansion eventually became more than a place she had once driven past.
She began conducting regular investigations with Jennifer Oliver, family members, friends, and guests. Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters returned to the property repeatedly, investigating different rooms and different areas of the mansion under varying circumstances. Porter also volunteered her time conducting tours during a few private parties per the Olivers request, at the mansion. Over the years, Porter experienced her own share of strange encounters inside the old house.
On more than one occasion, she experienced the unmistakable sensation of someone standing directly behind her. There was a noticeable change in temperature against her body, followed by the distinct feeling of a hand touching her shoulder.
Another time, Porter felt her hair being pulled. These weren't fleeting sensations or something she barely noticed. They were unmistakable physical experiences that made her aware of the presence of someone—or something—standing behind her. The sensation of height was particularly striking, as though whoever was there was considerably taller than Porter.
The investigations produced other unusual experiences as well. Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters captured EVPs during investigations, and there were instances when multiple pieces of paranormal equipment appeared to respond at the same time. Good Times later reported that the team had investigated the Tuttle Mansion at least 30 times and had repeatedly captured voices and experienced simultaneous meter activity.
The Tuttle Mansion had a reputation for activity long before Porter arrived. But for Porter, experiencing something firsthand was different from simply hearing someone else's story. You can investigate a story. You can document it. You can question it. But when you feel a hand on your shoulder and know there is no one standing behind you, the experience becomes much harder to forget.
THE CARRIAGE HOUSE
The mansion wasn't the only part of the property that attracted the attention of Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters. The historic carriage house, which at the time housed Dusty Treasures Antique Shop, had developed a reputation of its own. Reports included unexplained footsteps, laughter, doors slamming, apparitions, and other strange activity.
One evening, the team brought in a new videographer and audio engineer, Jay Alvarez, who was also being considered as a potential new member of the team.
As the newest prospective member, Alvarez gathered his equipment and was left alone inside Dusty Treasures to conduct an EVP session using high-sensitivity audio recording equipment designed to capture potential electronic voice phenomena. Meanwhile, the rest of the team left him to his own devices and continued the investigation inside the main mansion. Inside were Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters investigators Rhiannon Mai, Beth Gemini Thaxton, Tim Lowe, Sangye Hawke, and Porter.
Little did Alvarez know, the team had previously encountered something inside the carriage house that they had neglected to mention to the new investigator.
A couple of hours later, the team returned to the carriage house, only to find Alvarez outside by himself.
His demeanor was noticeably different from when they had left him. Confused, the team asked what he was doing outside and whether he was all right. Apparently, while conducting his EVP session, Alvarez had encountered the child figure the team had previously experienced—and had failed to mention to him. According to Alvarez, the child had swept through the room where he was conducting his session. The figure was clearly visible, and the unexpected sight gave him quite a start. Unsettled by what he had seen, Alvarez left the building and took a break outside. He had seen the child.
And then came the laughter.
When the rest of the team realized what had happened, the surprise quickly turned into a chorus of laughter. The team had known about the child spirit in the carriage house.
Poor Jay had not.
Needless to say, the team had a pretty good chuckle over it. But Alvarez, being a good sport, didn't let one unsettling night scare him away.
Quite the opposite. Jay Alvarez went on to become one of Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters' top investigators and a valuable member of the team for years to come.
And that is one of the things Porter remembers most about the Tuttle Mansion. It wasn't just the evidence, the history, or the strange experiences.
It was the people.
The investigations.
The late nights.
And the unexpected moments that became stories the team would still laugh about years later.
After the publication of Haunted Santa Cruz, California, Porter would eventually move on from the Tuttle, to explore other historic mansions and locations throughout the area, leaving the Tuttle Mansion as a closed chapter in her archives. But she never forgot what first drew her attention to the house.
A man standing in an upstairs window.
A figure she noticed long before she ever knew the mansion's history.
To learn more about the haunted history of the Tuttle Mansion, we recommend the book, Haunted Santa Cruz, California -
copywrite.scgh.map.©2009.2019.rewrite©2026® additional sources: The Pajaronian — “Tuttle Mansion: A Haunted Piece of History”,Good Times — “Santa Cruz’s Rich History of Ghosts”,Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters — Tuttle Mansion,Santa Cruz Public Libraries — Tuttle Mansion archival article,Visit Santa Cruz County — Haunted Tuttle Mansion,City of Watsonville — Historic Context Statement,Haunted Santa Cruz, California — Maryanne Porter, “Tuttle Mansion Madness”
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