The Madrona (Madrona Manor)

John Alexander Paxton built this 17-room, three-storey Victorian on Madrona Knoll in 1880–81, commuting up at weekends from the city. After his death in 1888 it passed to his wife, Hannah, and after hers in 1902 the estate slowly declined. It became an inn in 1981, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, and its restaurant held a Michelin star for about a decade. New owners renovated it and reopened it in 2022 as The Madrona, with more than 200 of the Paxtons' original antiques still in the house. Guests have long described a benevolent presence nicknamed Elsie in the dining room, including an older woman seen coming in through a French door and walking up to a seated diner, and a young girl in Room 101, where one guest also woke to a woman in a long black dress standing beside the bed. Earlier owners dismissed the stories outright.