The ghost of E.T. King haunts local Saratoga house

A two-story white house with a large red barn and no porch sits along Big Basin Way, behind Saratoga Creek. Built in 1875, the house and the barn are one of the oldest houses in Saratoga. And according to local legend, the house, known as the E.T. King Home, is haunted. 

Every year, history teacher Matt Torrens takes students to visit this location.

"It helps them learn history better," Torrens said.

The original owner was a wagon maker, who opened his shop right behind the house. Then, in the 1890s, Erwin King, the general foreman of the Saratoga Paper Company, rented out the house and built a paper mill on the property. King succeeded with the paper mill — and then his paper mill burned down. 

“The house stayed there, but he went into a deep depression and relocated,” Torrens said. “He lost everything. He got insurance for part of [the paper mill], but it was worth a lot more [than he got].”

King moved to to San Francisco after the disastrous fire.

“And the last time anyone saw him, he was walking up by The Cliff House [in San Francisco],” Torrens said. “He was on the edge of the cliff, and he jumped. He committed suicide.”

Meanwhile, King’s house was rented out to several different owners, one of whom used it as a prostitute house. According to Torrens, people began seeing the ghost of Erwin King. 

“They claimed that he was walking around the house,” Torrens said. “Sometimes he was crying, sometimes he was sad.”

Although many locals in town still say that the house is haunted, Torrens has not met anyone who has claimed to have seen the ghost of E.T. King in the last hundred years.

Torrens takes his students to the haunted house during second-semester finals. Most students who have visited the house are more impressed with the story of King than with the actual house or the alleged ghost. 

“If you went there in the middle of the night, will you actually attacked by haunted critters?” senior Wesley Chaffin asked. “I don’t think so. It’s just a myth.”

Senior Charles Li doesn't believe in the ghost of E.T. King either, but he liked the idea of a haunted house. 

"I think it was kind of cool," said Li. "I mean who else can say that they’ve been to [a] haunted horror house?"