HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
+ 1 further entry on record
A 1905 Colonial Revival home turned Southern Oregon University office building, with reported parlor sounds and a 1970s ouija-board account
990 Siskiyou Blvd, Ashland, OR 97520
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
No admission fee. The house is a working SOU office building, not a paid attraction; interior access is limited to scheduled SOU Foundation and Alumni events or prior arrangement.
Access
Limited Access
Working university office building; interior access is limited to scheduled events, not general walk-in visitation. Exterior visible from Siskiyou Blvd.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1905 · National Register of Historic Places, #82001503 (1982) · Colonial Revival architecture by Frank Chamberlain Clark · Home of Ashland city councilman Charles Chappell and Dr. Francis Swedenburg · Southern Oregon University's Plunkett Center
Southern Oregon University traces its origin to 1872, when the Ashland Academy opened under the Methodist Episcopal Church. The school went through several names over the following decades, including Ashland College and Southern Oregon State Normal School, and closed for lack of state funding in 1909. It reopened in 1926 on a 175-acre site the city of Ashland donated for a new campus, then continued through Southern Oregon Normal School, Southern Oregon College of Education, and Southern Oregon College before adopting its current name, Southern Oregon University, in 1997.
The Chappell-Swedenburg House predates the reestablished campus. Stockbroker and Ashland city councilman Charles Chappell hired architect Frank Chamberlain Clark to design the Colonial Revival house in 1904, and construction finished the following year. Chappell died suddenly in 1905, not long after the house was completed. His widow and daughters continued to live there until 1919.
Ashland physician Dr. Francis C. Swedenburg bought the property in 1919, and the Swedenburg family occupied it until 1966. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival later used the house to display memorabilia between 1975 and 1980, and the Southern Oregon Historical Society occupied it afterward. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 under reference #82001503.
Southern Oregon University now operates the building as the Plunkett Center, home to the university's Foundation and Alumni and Development offices. The National Park Service lists it as open to the public for special events; on an ordinary day it functions as a working university office building rather than a museum or tour stop.
Sources
The SOU student newspaper The Siskiyou has collected reports of music, laughter, and conversation heard in the house's parlor with no source found nearby. Different tellings attach the sounds to a resident identified only as "Olive" or to the wife of a hospital commissioner, and the two versions do not agree on who is involved.
An entity described as occupying the attic is said to react to profanity, a detail attributed to a former inhabitant of the house. In the basement, staff have reported chills, dizziness, and discomfort. A 2018 Siskiyou article quotes Daniel Tharp, advisor to a campus paranormal club, describing a witnessed blue arc of electricity from a doorknob, and the same club reported an elevated EMF reading during an informal check of the room.
SOU staff member Lisa Parcell told the student paper that everyone who works in the building has experienced something, pointing to door handles that jiggle and doors that slam on their own, especially after events held at the house.
Jefferson Public Radio's As It Was segment, drawing on the published regional collection Ghosts, Critters & Sacred Places of Washington and Oregon, recounts a 1970s ouija-board session in a second-floor room that ended when the group left the house abruptly. The same segment describes a campus security guard who separately reported seeing a woman at a first-floor window who was gone on a second look, with the building checked and found locked and empty.
Media Appearances
View the Colonial Revival exterior from Siskiyou Blvd and Mountain Ave. Interior access is limited to scheduled Southern Oregon University Foundation and Alumni and Development events, since the house functions as a working campus office building rather than a public museum.
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