Just a ten-minute drive from Fountain Valley stands a historic home that whispers stories of love, architecture, and lingering spirits. The Kellogg House, built in 1898 by Hiram Clay Kellogg as a wedding gift for his second wife, Helen, is one of the earliest Queen Anne Victorian with Neoclassical elements in Orange County.
Now located at 3101 W. Harvard St. in Santa Ana, the home reflects Kellogg’s passion for ships, featuring a two-story spiral staircase that leads to a crow’s nest-like design, evoking a maritime lookout.
Kellogg, Santa Ana’s first civil engineer, also served as deputy surveyor for Los Angeles and Orange counties. He helped design the cities of Corona and Elsinore and crafted the original water system for the Orange Circle.
Kellogg died in 1921 following stomach ulcer surgery. Helen lived in the house for another 42 years until her death in 1963 at age 93, passing peacefully in the downstairs office.
Today, the Kellogg House is part of the Heritage Museum of Orange County, a cultural and natural history center that attracts more than 40,000 visitors annually. It hosts weddings, exhibits, field trips and paranormal investigations. For more than three decades, it has also been a memorable field trip destination for local schoolchildren.
“Most residents in Orange County have encountered Hiram’s work, whether they know it or not,” said Darcy Staniforth, the museum’s paranormal coordinator and director of tour operations for Haunted Orange County. As one of the house’s caretakers and ghost hostess, she leads historical tours that highlight both the architectural brilliance and the alleged paranormal activity.
According to Staniforth, Helen may still linger in the home. Protective in life, she is believed to remain attached in death. Guests and paranormal investigators have reported unexplained phenomena, including footsteps echoing from the attic. During one Halloween tour, 28 visitors reported hearing them.
The house also features unique design elements. The front porch once held prisms that cast sunlight onto Kellogg’s drafting table. A portion of that front porch is on display in the architecture room. The oval-shaped dining room was inspired by a dinner he once had in a ship captain’s quarters.
Most remarkable of all, the home was built around a decommissioned ship’s mast Kellogg found in San Francisco. That makes the house more than 125 years old and the mast more than 250 years old.
“Hiram saw something special in that ship, and he brought it back to Santa Ana to become the soul of his house,” Staniforth said.
Tours are guided with a mix of respect and curiosity. Staniforth asks guests to greet and thank Helen’s spirit.
“If I don’t get you with the ghost stories, I’ll get you with the history,” she said. “If not with the history, then with the architecture.”
The Kellogg House remains a testament to love, innovation and the eerie charm of the past — where history and hauntings meet under one roof.
For more information, visit heritagemuseumoc. org.