HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
An 1880s gold-magnate's Victorian mansion, now an Auburn inn where guests report the original owner at the foot of the bed.
164 Cleveland Avenue, Auburn, CA 95603
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Room rates approximately $129 and up per night; the inn also operates as a wedding and event venue. Breakfast included.
Access
Limited Access
A multi-story Victorian mansion with rooms across multiple floors; staircases throughout.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1882 · Gold Rush Era Architecture · Hidden Treasure Mine · Herbert Hoover Connection
By the early 1880s the surface gold of the California Mother Lode was considered worked out, and the mines around Auburn were thought barren. Harold T. Power reopened his family's claim, the Hidden Treasure mine, and pulled a substantial fortune from ground others had abandoned.
Power used the proceeds to build a Victorian mansion that occupied a full city block in the heart of Auburn's gold country. During its early years the house frequently lodged Herbert Hoover, then a young mining engineer working in the region years before his presidency. The mansion's scale and finish marked it as one of Auburn's grandest private residences of the period.
The building was later converted into Power's Mansion Inn, a bed-and-breakfast filled with period antiques and Victorian artwork. The inn has been named the area's best bed-and-breakfast by the Auburn Journal in multiple years and offers roughly sixteen rooms and suites. It also operates as a wedding and event venue.
The property sits at 164 Cleveland Avenue, a short distance from Old Town Auburn and the historic district where the town's Gold Rush commercial buildings still stand.
Sources
The inn's haunting accounts center on the figure of Harold Power, the gold-mine owner who built the house. Guests and staff have reported an apparition believed to be Power standing at the foot of a bed during the night, and the building's older floors are associated with footsteps that have no obvious source.
Local roundups of Auburn's haunted places repeat these accounts, describing the presence as that of the original owner returning to the home he built with his late mining fortune. The reports are presented as the kind of recurring guest experience that accumulates at long-running historic inns rather than as the product of formal investigation.
The inn does not market itself primarily as a paranormal destination. Its public materials emphasize the Victorian setting, the antiques, and its use as a wedding venue, and the haunting accounts circulate mostly through regional press and visitor word of mouth. Guests curious about the stories are best served asking the staff directly.
Notable Entities
Where this legend is told
Book one of roughly sixteen rooms and suites in an 1880s Victorian mansion built by gold-mine owner Harold T. Power. Each room is decorated with period antiques and artwork. Guests interested in the inn's folklore can ask staff about the apparition reported in the building's older accounts.
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