This artist-enhanced image shows the iconic cupola of the Coronado Boathouse with a ghostly image similar to eyewitness descriptions. Artwork by of Jody Esquer.
Researchers Continue to Sift Through Old Documents in Search of Woman’s Identity; Other Research Uncovered Along the Way
CORONADO The original identity of the ghost of the Bluewater Boathouse remains unknown. Despite research done by area researchers and historians, nothing has surfaced to explain the woman in the white wedding dress, who has been a documented fixture there, since 1969.
The Coronado Boathouse was built in 1887 as a practice model for construction workers building the Hotel del Coronado. The Del was completed the following year and both structures, with their iconic towers and red roofs, continue to anchor the Coronado landscape in romantic, 19th century history.
The Coronado Boathouse under construction in 1887. Image courtesy Coronado Public Library.
Originally the Boathouse was an actual boathouse for Hotel del Coronado guests. It served at different times as the original headquarters for Scripps Institute of Oceanography, the San Diego Yacht Club, and the Coronado Yacht Club.
The Rainbow Fleet of brightly colored sailboats was moored there in the 1930s, and several families lived in the structure over the years. In 1887 the family of Captain James Robert Dunne and his wife Lina Rudolph lived in the Boathouse, which to this day is located over the water, on pilings driven deep into the mud of Glorietta Bay.
Lina Rudolph-Dunne died in the Boathouse (about 1908), of what her daughter would later call a “broken heart.” Some believe it is her spirit that haunts the old building. The Dunne family relocated eventually to Bonita and their children took the name Esterbloom. Then, in the 1950s-60s, the Englund family lived in the Boathouse. Their two sons attended Coronado schools.
This photo appeared in the San Diego Union, in 1972, in an article about the Dunne family. Captain Dunne, who was the first live-in operator of the Coronado Boathouse, is on the left, and his wife Lina on the right. Some believe it is her spirit that haunts the old Boathouse. Family members say she died of a “broken heart” in the Boathouse circa 1908.
“We’re hoping to locate descendants of families who lived in the Boathouse,” said Joe Ditler, a Coronado writer and historian. “The Englund boys would be in their 60s now, and hopefully there are Esterblooms still in the South Bay. The history of the Boathouse has only been sparsely told, and nothing major has been done on the occupants. It’s time we corrected that, and the ghost research has been a great vehicle for finding turning up lost and forgotten information about early Coronado.
“We had hoped to have more results by Halloween,” said Ditler, “But that hasn’t happened. Meanwhile we continue to document first-hand experiences with the ghost of the Boathouse, in hopes of eventually identifying her.”
This early shot of the Coronado Boathouse finds her at low tide on Glorietta Bay. Originally the Boathouse had a long, enclosed extension that housed a swimming pool. It stretched south, towards the camera. Photo courtesy of the San Diego Maritime Museum.
The Coronado Bluewater Boathouse is located at 1701 Strand Way, across from the Hotel del Coronado. The restaurant is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. serving lunch, brunch and dinner.
For more information on Bluewater Boathouse visit www.gluewatergrill.com. To share information re former residents of the Boathouse, contact Joe Ditler at [email protected], or by calling (619) 435-0767.
Taken in the 1930s, this photo captures the old boathouse when it was located further out in Glorietta Bay. It was moved closer to shore in 1968-9 when the Chart House took over the structure. Photo courtesy Coronado Public Library.
