Season of Shadows Blog

As I walked into the kitchen of the late nineteenth century home (turned restaurant), to begin my shift, I noticed an odd sensation. I felt as though I had just stepped through a portal in time. The sights and sounds from moments earlier were now completely washed away- replaced by an unfamiliar looking room with odd “decor.” There were what appeared to be fresh chicken carcasses hanging upside down from the edges of the ceiling, burlap looking bags of assorted items stacked in the corners and many varieties of tools and implements leaning against the walls. I instantly realized I was not observing the kitchen as it looked in 1992, but as the room (or whatever room was in its location) may have looked one hundred years earlier.

While I can’t be certain what I witnessed was an actual image from the home’s past, I can assure you that I did observe some form of alternate interpretation of the part of the house/restaurant I was standing in. This experience was not at all like a daydream or fantasy. It was some type of recognition and knowing that struck me at my core.

The Luna Mansion was built by the Santa Fe Railroad in 1880, as payment to Don Antonio Jose and his family for use of their land. The home enjoyed a long and thriving history in the hands of the Luna-Otero families in what is now known as Los Lunas, New Mexico. One of the mansion’s more well known inhabitants (at least in Los Lunas) was Josefita Manderfield Otero. It is believed that her ghost still roams the property to this day.

Many employees and restaurant patrons have witnessed a woman, fitting the description and known pictures of Josefita, walking through the upstairs rooms and taking rest on the vintage furniture. According to most reports, she appears very solid, not at all opaque and is typically mistaken for a restaurant customer- until closer inspection and her early twentieth century attire gives her away.

Josefita definitely adds to the allure of the restaurant, but the mansion and its grounds have a very intense draw of their own. The moment you step on the property you can feel something embedded or stored there. It’s a very interesting and unique feeling. Just a few feet from the ante-bellum columns and southern style facade lies an extremely busy thoroughfare through Los Lunas, yet on the grounds of the mansion it’s easy to forget about the traffic and lose yourself in the site’s history.

Up until yesterday, it had been fifteen years since I had worked at or visited the restaurant. As I pulled into the parking lot- digital camera in tow- I could once again feel the home’s amazing history. While I didn’t have visions of chicken carcasses, old tools or Josefita, I could feel the site’s vitality. A vitality that has lasted for well over one hundred years. If you ever find yourself just south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, I highly recommend a trip to the Luna Mansion.

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 22nd, 2007 at 9:16 pm and is filed under Ghosts, Hauntings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.