The Fountaingrove Winery was established in 1875 in Sonoma County (California) by Thomas Lake Harris. Harris believed he was chosen by God to grow grapes and to make rare wine “filled with the divine breath.” He also believed himself to be immortal. The winery became home to the Brotherhood of the New Life, a “cult” that believed God is bisexual and that each person has a counterpart in heaven. Harris expected complete surrender from his disciples, including the surrender of all their their material wealth to him. He was eventually, perhaps predictably, forced to leave the winery after a sordid sexual scandal. When he died in 1906, his followers earnestly declared he was only “sleeping.” The winery closed in 1934. A fire destroyed about half of the remaining ruins in 1991. Today, the winery is mostly visited by local teens who like to get loaded and spray colorful graffiti.
Give me a severely dilapidated building, some broken bottles and cryptic graffiti, and I’m pretty much mentally and emotionally revitalized.
Quotation from Gabe Meline, The Fountaingrove Winery
Although the sun shone high and strong, I got a serious case of the heebie jeebies. I kept expecting to see ragged, misty faces looking at me through the cracked window panes. I love that feeling.
Quotation from Leilani Clark, Ghosts in Our Midst
