Bush House Museum

An Italianate mansion built in the 1870s for publisher and banker Asahel Bush II. Located in Bush's Pasture Park, the twelve-room house is considered one of the most haunted houses in Salem.

Built between 1877 and 1878 by newspaper publisher and banking magnate Asahel Bush II, this Italianate mansion in what is now Bush's Pasture Park was among the most modern homes in the Pacific Northwest. Designed by Salem architect Wilbur F. Boothby, the twelve-room house featured central heating, indoor plumbing, gaslights, ten Italian marble fireplaces, and imported French wallpaper selected by Bush's daughter Sally. Bush had founded the Oregon Statesman newspaper in 1851 and co-founded the Ladd and Bush Bank in 1867, amassing one of the largest fortunes in the state.

The haunting centers on Bush's youngest daughter Eugenia, named after her mother who had died of tuberculosis in 1863 when the girl was barely a year old. In 1880, while attending college in Massachusetts, eighteen-year-old Eugenia developed schizophrenia. Her father found a private institution in Boston that specialized in caring for mentally ill relatives of wealthy families, and Eugenia would spend the next thirty-four years there. A persistent urban legend claims Bush was ashamed of his daughter and confined her to the mansion's basement, but museum staff have thoroughly debunked this, noting that Bush maintained regular correspondence, visited when possible, and sought the best available treatment for her condition. A conservatory was even built on the grounds in 1882 specifically for Eugenia's enjoyment during visits home.

After Asahel Bush's death on December 23, 1913, Eugenia finally returned to Salem in 1914 at the age of fifty-two, accompanied by a private nurse. She lived in the mansion with her sister Sally for the remaining eighteen years of her life, passing away in 1932 at the age of seventy. The estate was donated to the city by Bush's son A.N. Bush in 1917, and the house became a public museum in 1953, operated by the Salem Art Association.

Visitors and staff have reported seeing the full-bodied apparition of a young girl wandering through the rooms, believed to be Eugenia appearing not as the elderly woman who died there but as the girl she was during what may have been the happiest years of her life. She is blamed for repeatedly manipulating the central heating controls, turning the temperature up with no explanation, a detail that some interpret as a lingering fascination with the modern heating system that was such a marvel when the house was new. Cold spots accompany many of the sightings, and a female voice described as loud, noticeable sobbing has been heard emanating from empty rooms by multiple witnesses.

A second apparition has been identified as Asahel Bush himself, recognized from old photographs as a male figure in 1800s-era dress who appears to be fidgeting and winding an old pocket watch. Dark shadow figures have been reported darting past stairwells, and nighttime visitors to Bush's Pasture Park have described seeing a woman standing in an upper window who then appeared moments later in a lower window. The adjacent Bush Barn Art Center, which occupies the original carriage barn damaged by fire in the 1960s, has its own reports of unexplained occurrences, though details remain sparse. Some researchers believe other Bush family members, including Sally and Asahel III, may also visit the house to keep Eugenia company.

The Salem Art Association has maintained a skeptical public stance, preferring to focus on the mansion's historical significance rather than its paranormal reputation. No formal investigation has been publicly disclosed, and staff have stated that if activity ever became undeniable they would likely arrange a private investigation rather than publicize the findings. The haunting has been documented in Kent Goodman's Hauntings of Western Oregon and Rich Newman's The Ghost Hunter's Field Guide. The Bush House Museum is open for guided tours and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.