Witches Tower Investigation

Witches tower is another reported area of ghost haunts. Witches tower is a yellow one-story adobe tower across from Serra museum and atop Presidio Hill. The Pattie Memorial sits on the spot where Sylvester Pattie, who came to San Diego on March 27, 1828, died in prison. It is believed a guardhouse- jail once existed close to the actual memorial spot. The current tower is in fact a storage facility, and the landing is a viewing area of the scenic park. Though it has been difficult to trace when the tower was built, photo evidence from plans in 1928, shows no sign of the tower. Photos from the 1940s however, clearly show the tower. So sometime between 1928 and 1940, the tower (storage shed) was erected. The tower is referred to as “The Witches Tower,” due to the fact a large brick pentagram exists on the cobblestone landing.

The stairs are adorned with small crosses all the way to the top of this 3-story building. There was allegedly a woman’s body that was found on top of the tower and situated in part of the pentagram. Extensive research was unable to find any trace of this murder thus far.

(Text courtesy of website: www.hauntedsandiego.com)

Address: 2752 Presidio Dr., San Diego, CA 92103

Owner: the City of San Diego owns Presidio Park where the tower is located.

Website: https://hiddensandiego.com

Hauntings: Many paranormal groups have found melted candle wax and other signs that point to an occult presence. It is possible that occult activity may be causing some of the paranormal activity. Activity includes seeing cloaked figures darting around the tower’s base and footing, feelings of paranoia, and possession.

The Ghost Research Society investigated the Witches Tower on Aril 23, 2024 and the team members included: Charles Williams and Dale Kaczmarek.

Equipment setup: Just hand-held equipment was used such as the Ovilus V for an EVP session; a Samsung Galaxy S-21 Slim Ultra was used for pictured taking and a Sony Nightshot camcorder.  

Experiments performed: A single EVP session using the Ovilus V.

Personal experiences:

Charles Williams: This was a quiet, historical area in the early morning. An SB-11 spirit box was used for a single EVP session with two possible responses.

Dale Kaczmarek: Even with the nickname, Witches Tower and a large pentagram on the roof, I did not experience anything feelings or have any paranormal connections.

Evidence collected: None!

Words spoken by the Ovilus V in dictionary mode: rope, muddy, Kim, industry, happens, hey, (a sinister-sounding laugh came through when I mentioned, “I usually don’t do anything crazy like this) and then another voice that we could not make out.

Conclusions: An interesting site situated in Presidio Park and I’m sure it would be even spookier if visited after dark. There are many YouTube and Tik-Tok videos of amateur paranormal groups exploring this building in darkness. I’m not sure if that is even legal. Hours are from 6am-10pm so I guess it would be okay to visit and investigation up until 10pm. I believe that would be an interesting investigative place to attempt to pick up some paranormal evidence. We visited this location in the early morning hours and were on a strict schedule and had loads of other locations in San Diego that we had on our agenda.

With the possibility of a murder, occult activity and perhaps even some satanic rituals taking place, this could be a very haunted location with the very real possibility of obtaining some evidence.