Long Beach's finest Victorian, where music teacher Dorothy Bembridge was murdered in 1999 at age 89
953 Park Circle Drive, Long Beach, CA 90813
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
$5 per person for docent-led tours; evening haunted tours priced separately each fall season
Access
Limited Access
Victorian home with interior stairs; limited accessibility
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1906 · Long Beach Landmark Victorian Architecture · Long Beach Heritage Museum Property · Dorothy Bembridge 1999 Murder · Queen Anne Style Architecture
The house was completed in 1906 by the Green and Rankin families as a showcase of late-Victorian craftsmanship. The 18-room, 3,000-square-foot structure features hand-carved woodwork throughout, stained and leaded glass windows, a tiled fireplace, and the ornamental exterior millwork characteristic of the Queen Anne style. Long Beach Heritage has called it the most ornate Victorian residence remaining in the city.
Dorothy Bembridge arrived with her parents in 1918 and spent the next 81 years in the house, working as a music teacher and becoming locally known as the building's guardian. Her long residency made the house inseparable from her identity in the neighborhood.
On November 4, 1999, Bembridge's body was found strangled in the backyard. She was 89 years old. Investigators determined she had been targeted in a murder-for-hire scheme. Daniel William Borunda, a 51-year-old former handyman who had previously served prison time for burglarizing Bembridge's home in 1990, was convicted of the murder. He had been released from prison in October 1999, weeks before the killing, and was sentenced to 60 years to life.
Long Beach Heritage acquired the property in 2000, conducted an extensive restoration, and opened it to public tours. The house operates today as a living museum run by the nonprofit, with docent-led tours on a regular weekly schedule. It has been designated a Long Beach landmark.
Sources
The Bembridge House's paranormal accounts follow the pattern common to murder sites where the victim had an unusually long and documented attachment to the location. Dorothy Bembridge did not just die in the house — she had lived there for 81 years and was known in the neighborhood as its keeper. The reported phenomena are concentrated in the rooms she used most.
Docents and visitors describe cold spots in the parlor and upper rooms, lights that flicker without electrical explanation, and an occasional sense of a presence in the stairwell. One recurring account involves sounds from the backyard — the area where her body was found — heard at night when the house is empty. These reports come primarily from Long Beach Heritage staff and docents who work the building regularly rather than from one-time visitors, which gives them somewhat more weight than the typical tourist anecdote.
The Bembridge House leans into its haunted reputation during the fall season, offering evening candlelit tours that frame the paranormal accounts within Dorothy's story. The dual programming — sober historical tours by day, atmospheric haunted tours at night — reflects a careful editorial judgment about a real, recent murder. Long Beach Heritage's treatment of the subject gives it dignity: the tours describe what happened to Dorothy Bembridge without sensationalizing the method or circumstances of her death.
Notable Entities
Long Beach Heritage operates regular docent-led tours of the 18-room Queen Anne Victorian, running Tuesday afternoons, the fourth Saturday, and the second Sunday of each month at 1:30 and 2:30 pm. The tour covers the house's architectural history, the original Green-Rankin family who built it in 1906, and Dorothy Bembridge's eight decades of residency. No reservation required; $5 per person at the door.
Each autumn, the Bembridge House offers evening candlelit tours focused on Dorothy Bembridge's 1999 murder and the reported paranormal activity that followed. Wednesday evenings and first/third Fridays at 6:00 and 7:00 pm. Check the house website for current season dates and pricing.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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