1911 Country Estate on Washington's Oldest Winery Grounds
14111 NE 145th Street, Woodinville, WA 98072
Age
21+ for tastings; All Ages on grounds
Cost
$$
Grounds access is free; tastings and tours are individually priced. Note: in 2022 Ste. Michelle announced plans to sell the Woodinville property; check the winery website for current operations.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved estate grounds and landscaped gardens
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1911 · Stimson Family Estate · Hollywood Farm · Founding Site of Washington's Oldest Winery
Frederick Spencer Stimson and his wife Nellie built the Manor House in 1911 as a summer home on rural land that Stimson, along with his brother Charles, had acquired near Derby outside Seattle. In 1912 Frederick formally established the 87-acre property as Hollywood Farm, a working dairy and country retreat. The Stimsons came from Seattle's Queen Anne Hill timber and lumber-baron circles, and the Manor House served the family for several decades as their country place.
After Frederick Stimson's death in 1921 and as the family ties to the farm thinned, the property declined. By the early 1940s the Manor House had been effectively abandoned and fell into serious disrepair. In 1943 Philip and Frances Macbride purchased the bulk of the estate and began a long restoration. Frances Macbride is particularly credited with reworking the overgrown gardens and planting many new trees representing more than sixty varieties on the property.
Frances Macbride died in 1972 and her family sold the property to Wally Opdycke, president of Ste. Michelle Vintners. Opdycke broke ground in 1974 on a new winery building, designed by architect Paul Brenna in French chateau style and completed in 1976. The Manor House was preserved as a historic estate building on the winery grounds and used for events and meetings.
In June 2022 Ste. Michelle Wine Estates announced that it would put the Woodinville property up for sale and move white-wine production to eastern Washington. The site's long-term operational future was in transition at the time of this listing; visitors should check the winery's website for current public access and event status.
Sources
Staff retellings from the Manor House describe a fairly consistent set of low-grade phenomena over the years: cold spots that seem to follow you through certain rooms, occasional shadow movement at the edge of vision, and footsteps on the upper floors heard by late-night cleaning crews when no one is upstairs. Specific accounts attach to a particular upstairs restroom — the window opening on its own, the door closing, the light cycling on after being turned off — and to occasional toilet flushes and security-system glitches with no obvious cause.
Local oral tradition attributes these reports to a young woman remembered as Elizabeth, said in legend to have been a servant who fell to her death down a back stairwell leading to the kitchen after an affair with Frederick Stimson became known to his wife. The original Shadowlands listing explicitly includes a disclaimer that this incident is rumor rather than documented record, and our search found no archival source — newspaper account, coroner's record, family history — that confirms the Elizabeth incident as a historical event. We follow the original disclaimer and treat the figure as a folkloric anchor for the reported activity rather than a confirmed historical person.
No formal investigation has been published on the property to our knowledge.
Notable Entities
Wander the 118-acre estate gardens, the chateau-style winery building, and the exterior of the 1911 Stimson Manor House. The Manor House interior is used for private events and is not typically open for casual public tours.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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