The historic Woodside Store on Tripp Road has been around since the 1850s. The aged wooden panels of the building hold nearly two centuries worth of stories — one of which entails the ghost of one man’s best friend. It’s a perfect tale for Halloween.
The Woodside Store was built by Dr. Robert Orville Tripp and his business partner Mathias Parkehurst in 1851. Tripp, who was a San Francisco supervisor, storekeeper, dentist, shingle maker and vintner was a jack-of-all-trades. He operated the store with his family until he died in 1909.
According to historians, he was known for owning big dogs such as one pictured in a photo displayed in the farthest room of the store. In the early 1990s, the exact same dog was spotted in the interpretive area of the museum — over a century later.
Mitch Postel, president of the San Mateo County Historical Association said one afternoon he received a call from one of the site managers who was working that weekend. When he answered the phone, she said “I quit.”
“This was really out of the blue,” Postel said.
When he asked her why, she explained that while she was locking up the store to close at 4 p.m., she noticed a large dog in the interpretive area. She walked into the back room and saw a “gigantic dog standing right in the middle of the room.”
But as she was going to try and get it out of the store, the dog “dissolved” right before her eyes, according to Postel.
“It disappeared as she was looking at it and she was really upset by it,” he added.
As she was trying to gather herself in the room where the dog stood seconds before, she looked over to the wall of photos and saw one of Tripp outside the store with his dogs.
“She said she swore to God, it was the same dog as the one in the picture,” Postel recalled.
After her ghostly experience in the Woodside Store, the site manager told Postel on the phone, “I’m never going to come back here. Goodbye.”
While Postel isn’t sure if she actually saw a ghost dog or whether it was a creative excuse to quit her job, the site manager surely stuck to her word and never went back to work at the Woodside Store after that day.
The Woodside Store that stands today has existed in Kings Mountain since 1854 and was rebuilt after the original 1851 structure burned down. The store was purchased by the county in 1940 and was listed as a California Historical Landmark in 1949. Since becoming a county park, the San Mateo County Historical Association has been operating the site for tours.
In May, the county celebrated Old Woodside Store Day, bringing guests back to the 1880s and hosting old-time contests and crafts.
The store is open to the public on Tuesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. For more information on the Woodside Store visit historysmc.org/woodside-store-historic-site/.
