America has a vast selection of historic hotels that are rumoured to be home to some special supernatural guests. With properties ranging from vintage downtown hotels with eerie histories to unnervingly remote rural resorts, any of these so-called haunted hotels are spooky enough to get travellers in the Halloween spirit.
This grand and impeccably decorated plantation house turned bed and breakfast dates back to 1796 and is marked by dramatic old oak trees shading the grounds, a veranda complete with delicate decorative ironwork and a few centuries’ worth of ghosts. Its dark history and swampy grounds mean there’s plenty of legends that make prime fodder for spooky stories of ghosts lingering around the property.
There’s no town more rife with scandalous ghost stories than Hollywood and this glamourous 1927 hotel is said to be chockful of ghosts lamenting their broken dreams. The most famous dearly departed resident is Marilyn Monroe herself, who is said to haunt room 1200 where she lived as a young actress, working her way up to being the most famous woman in cinematic history. Hotel guests claim to have seen Monroe’s reflection in the room’s mirror.
Located right on the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame, the hotel is home to a lot of history, having hosted the very first Academy Awards in its Blossom Ballroom in 1929. The ghost of actor Montgomery Clift is believed to be loitering in room 928 and has apparently tapped living guests on the shoulder. Ghosts aside, the Roosevelt remains a beautiful hotel and a striking respite from the chaos of Hollywood Boulevard.
Is there any possibility of a former historic hospital in an Arizona mining town not being haunted? The Jerome Grand Hotel is the only full-service hotel in what is known as 'the wickedest town in the west', thanks to its history as a rough ‘n’ tumble copper mining town. Thousands of people died in the hospital, which was in operation from 1927 through to 1950. It sat largely vacant (with an on-site caretaker until the mid-1980s) until it was purchased by a hotelier in 1994.
Today the hotel is a great home base for a trip to Jerome and Arizona’s Verde Valley, but guests should be aware that they may encounter some ghostly company while visiting. The owner reports feeling a 'protective' spiritual presence while renovating the hotel. Professional psychics had also sensed the presence of an irritated 'Head Nurse' ghost who seems to have moved on after her original desk was returned to the hotel restaurant area, which used to be the hospital’s dispensary.
One of the French Quarter’s most historic places, the luxurious Hotel Monteleone first opened in 1886, giving it plenty of time to develop a collection of spirits. The hotel and its revolving Carousel Bar are a famous literary haunt (pun intended), attracting many great writers, ranging from William Faulkner to Anne Rice. Combined with a long history in New Orleans’ most famous neighbourhood, all of that literary mojo has also made room for some very spooky supernatural tales.
Frequent reports of paranormal activity led to a visit by the International Society of Paranormal Research in 2003, which detected all sorts of ghostly goings on, particularly on the 14th floor (or more accurately the 13th, which is skipped in accordance to superstitious tradition). From doors that open by themselves to sightings of child-sized ghosts (including one believed to be a child who died in the hotel in the late 1800s), there is plenty of paranormal activity to delight ghost-seekers.
This hotel sits on a cobbled street corner in Fell’s Point, Baltimore’s most historic waterfront community. The area was once a major shipbuilding hub, and a 1900 boarding house that eventually became part of the Admiral Fell Inn offered a safe haven for visiting sailors. The hotel consists of seven adjoining buildings, with the ghosts of wayward sailors that fell ill after their travels rumoured to be roaming throughout.
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Considered one of the most haunted buildings in Maryland, the Admiral Fell Inn’s guest have supposedly seen the ghosts of sailors floating on the outside of the building where a fire escape once stood. The spirits of victims of a local early 20th century crime mob have also been spotted, as has the apparition of a friendly dog running through the hallways. The hotel plays along with the legends, offering regular ghost tours.
Few American hotel stories are as terrifying as the one of an inn caretaker driven to madness by ghosts in Stephen King’s The Shining, which was inspired by this remote hotel in northern Colorado. There are actually four hotel brands on the property, but the original sprawling Stanley, built in 1909, is renowned for its charm and luxury as well as its spooky reputation, which predates King’s book and film.
Known as the 'Grande Dame of Washington DC', the Mayflower’s history is rich with political scandal and intrigue. Much of America’s political who’s who have stayed at the hotel, which is just a short walk from the White House, and luminaries like president Harry S. Truman and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover were loyal patrons of the hotel’s restaurant. All of that history, naturally, will result in at least some degree of haunting.
In fact, the hotel is said to be haunted by no other than president Calvin Coolidge. Coolidge was unable to attend his own inaugural ball in 1937 because he and his wife were mourning the sudden death of their teenage son. Storytellers say that every year on 20 January (the date of the ball) the ballroom’s lights flicker at 10pm when the president was scheduled to arrive and a lift sticks at the eighth floor at 10.15pm when Coolidge would have travelled from his room to the ball.
Known as America’s most haunted hotel, the Ozark Mountains’ 1886 Crescent Hotel has a grisly and mind-boggling history. The dramatic-looking building first opened as a luxury railway hotel in 1886, but in the 1930s it became a sham cancer hospital operated by a charlatan named Norman Baker who falsely promised women that he could cure their disease. Unsurprisingly, many patients died during that period and their ghosts are said to haunt the building, which fully reopened as a hotel in 2000.
Ghosts have been spotted in the hotel’s main lobby, on stairwells, and reflected in mirrors and a mysterious mist has also been known to hang over the hotel’s façade and in the outdoor garden. The new owners of the hotel embrace its haunted history with guided ghost tours, special 'paranormal weekend' events and murder mystery weekends and also invite guests to take a peek at the hotel’s historical archives on the fourth floor.
This picturesque property in North Carolina’s High Country opened as a hotel in 1891 and has seen guests like Annie Oakley, JD Rockefeller and Eleanor Roosevelt pass through its doors. While the current owners try to focus on the hotel’s history in this world rather than any potential paranormal activity, guests have reported some spooky experiences in the lobby’s 'ghost log'.
The inn’s most prominent and well-recorded ghost is the alleged spirit of Laura Green, the daughter of the inn’s founder and namesake. As the story goes, Laura died in the hotel after being left at the alter and her apparition has wandered the halls of the hotel since. The apparent ghost doesn’t bother people too much, allowing visitors to enjoy the hospitality of this homey hotel.
The Wild West was a rough and tumble place, which leaves lots of angry spirits rumbling around Nevada's historic towns. Virginia City is said to be full of haunted buildings, from the Old Washoe Club brothel and saloon to the Silver Terrace Cemetery and the deadly Delta Saloon. The Gold Hill is Virginia City’s only full-service hotel, complete with an on-site restaurant.
While Stephen King was inspired to write The Shining after a stay at the Stanley Hotel in Colorado, as the exterior location of the 1980 film version, Oregon’s Timberline Lodge is also closely associated with the terrifying tale. It just looks and feels like The Shining, which is enough to attract horror buffs and ghost lovers.
Situated in the Alamo Plaza Historic district (and just a stone’s throw from the Alamo itself), the Emily Morgan is a foreboding gargoyle-laden Gothic Revival building that looks like it should be part of a Tim Burton movie. The building is on the grounds of the Battle of the Alamo, where 600 lives were lost. Before becoming a hotel in the 1980s, the building was a medical centre that included a morgue and crematorium.
Milwaukee’s gorgeous Pfister Hotel, known as the 'Grand Hotel of the West', has been a luxurious Mid-West destination since 1893. The hotel’s elegant style and extensive collection of Victorian art (and current artist-in-residence programme) has long attracted celebrities, business moguls and high-level sports figures as guests. If you believe the legends, it’s also attracted more than a few ghosts.
The Pfister hosts many Major League Baseball teams and several players have reported other-worldly visitors during stays in Milwaukee. Players have heard footsteps in their rooms, have had their clothes moved from one side of the room to another, heard spooky voices and have seen images of ghosts floating around rooms. Some players even refuse to stay at the hotel out of fear they won’t be able to sleep before a big game.
Few, if any, hotels have been as romanticised in pop culture as New York’s Hotel Chelsea. It’s been a hangout for artists, musicians and writers for over 100 years and has had more than its fair share of intrigue. Punk rocker Sid Vicious is alleged to have murdered his girlfriend Nancy Spungen in the hotel and the ghost of a young woman named Mary who survived the Titanic but later took her own life in the hotel is said to haunt the fifth floor.
The Chelsea stopped hosting guests in 2011 and is currently operating as a residence hotel with plans to open back up as a regular hotel soon. It’s a fairly major renovation and no one knows if ghosts like Mary (and her cohort, a 'severed-hand ghost' named Nadia who, legend has it, jumped out of a window after losing her hand in an accident) will stick around once the hotel is spruced up and loses the grit that drew in so many artistic souls.
This impressive New England hotel has long been favoured as a retreat by presidents, celebrities and other luminaries, all flocking to the pristine mountain setting for some relaxation, a round or two of golf, spa treatments or a day of skiing. While they’ll definitely find luxury and a little bit of pampering on site, guests may also find themselves in the company of the hotel’s resident ghost.
Ghost watchers believe that the Mount Washington is haunted by the ghost of Carolyn Foster Stickney, the widow of the hotel’s founder who later married a French prince. While still alive, the princess continued to spend her summers at the hotel and some guests say that they can now see her spirit walking through walls, inhabiting the lobby and turning the lights off and on in certain rooms.
Formerly known as the Battery Carriage House, this boutique inn began life as an elegant mansion in 1843. The house recently got purchased by a new owner and was reopened completely refurbished and refreshed, but even though it looks shiny and slightly more modern, history is still a core part of the hotel’s attraction. And that history includes more than a few ghost stories, featuring spirits that may or may not have vacated after the renovation.
The hotel’s spooky lore is rooted in stories dating back to the Civil War which, of course, is a huge part of Charleston’s history. It’s considered to be one of the most haunted buildings in the city, with several ghosts having been seen, specifically in three different guest rooms, including one that apparently appears as a floating headless torso. The ghosts are known to appear to guests at night, often hovering over their beds.
Known as 'Witch City', Salem has a historical reputation that just breeds scary stories and the Hawthorne Hotel is known as one of its most haunted spots. Not only is the hotel potentially haunted by the 19 women who were executed nearby for alleged witchery, but the site has also long been the headquarters of the Salem Marine Society (predating the hotel for almost 100 years before the hotel was built) and the spirits of old seamen may also be hanging about.
The Hawthorne’s ghoulish reputation has been well documented – it appeared in a particularly memorable episode of the TV show Bewitched in 1970. In 1990 a group of paranormal enthusiasts held a séance, attempting to summon the spirit of the late Harry Houdini. It was unsuccessful, but the hotel started holding annual Halloween parties soon after to entertain both living and supernatural guests.
As the only hotel on the iconic Santa Fe Plaza and with a history that stretches back over 400 years, there are generations of ghostly spirits attached to this almost ancient hotel site. The terra cotta-style building offers a true taste of old New Mexico, but it’s not just the ghosts of Spanish gunfighters and executed Wild West outlaws that apparently haunt the building’s halls.
Some have said that they’ve spotted the ghost of judge John P. Slough, who was shot in the hotel lobby in 1867 and now perhaps roams the hallways in his signature long black coat. Ghosts of a failed businessman who fell into gambling and drinking before dying at the hotel and a murdered bride are also regular haunts at the hotel and its adjacent restaurant.
As one of Texas’ cultural centres, Austin has its quirks, including a community of ghost enthusiasts, many of whom cite the ritzy Driskill Hotel as one of the city’s best places to feel a supernatural chill. The hotel was founded in the 1880s by cattle baron Colonel Jesse Driskell, who would stand in the lobby smoking a cigar. Over the years guests and staff have smelled a whiff of the late Driskell’s cigars and seen visions of smoking figures.
The hotel’s namesake isn’t the only non-living visitor of note. The poltergeist of a young girl named Samantha who apparently slipped and fell on the stairs while staying at the hotel with her senator father has reportedly 'played' with living children over the years. A man named Peter Lawless, who lived in the hotel for 30 years, is believed to have loved it so much that he declined to leave even after he died – his spirit has had numerous interactions with staff.
When it comes to attracting ghosts, Mackinac Island’s Grand Hotel has two major things going for it: a remote location and an uncompromising marine setting. In the 1800s Mackinac was a major fishing hub, which meant many brave fishermen lost their lives on the waters of Lake Huron, leaving their ghosts to haunt this expansive hotel, which first opened its doors in 1887.
Rumours suggest that builders found human remains under the hotel as they dug out its foundation, perhaps remnants of the Anishinaabe people who once lived on the island. Hotel guests have reported seeing a mysterious black cloud floating in the hotel, scaring one man so badly that he fell while running away and landed himself in hospital. An apparition in a top hat is said to also frequently sit at the hotel’s piano, only to disappear moments later.
One of the most opulent hotels in Louisville, the Seelbach opened in 1905 and its glitz and glamour quickly began attracting celebrity guests. The hotel was a favourite of F. Scott Fitzgerald, who included a fictionalised version of it in The Great Gatsby. But literature isn’t the Seelbach’s only noteworthy legacy – it’s also home to some very choice ghost stories.
The 'Lady in Blue' was supposedly first spotted in the 1980s by a chef who saw a woman in a blue dress walk into the hotel restaurant before its doors were open, only to immediately disappear. As the story has it, the lady was the ghost of Patricia Wilson, whose husband died in a car accident in 1936 on his way to meet her at the hotel. She was so distraught she fell down the lift shaft to her death and has legendarily haunted the hotel ever since.
This Windy City landmark was built in 1893 when Chicago needed hotel space to accommodate visitors to the much-anticipated World’s Fair. It’s a huge part of the city’s history with lavish guest rooms and banquet halls (particularly the Gold and Florentine rooms) that have hosted extravagant events like weddings and fancy parties attended by some well-known names, which has resulted in some drama that may have yielded a few ghosts.
Famous Congress Plaza ghosts include Al Capone (who isn’t confirmed to have actually stayed at the hotel but could have used a false name) who has walked the halls in his wing-tip shoes. Guests have also spotted the spirits of a drifter who may have been murdered in the hotel, a worker who was buried in the walls when the hotel was being built, and supernatural bridesmaids who mysteriously show up to pose for wedding photos.
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A gorgeous Miami-area resort that oozes Florida elegance, the Biltmore is a fabulous place to stay but a little digging into its storied history reveals some circumstances showcase it as a natural spot for some heavy-duty hauntings. When it first opened as a hotel in the 1920s, a gangster was said to be shot on its 13th floor. Then, during the Second World War, it was converted into a military hospital. The hotel was later abandoned and became a hangout for local kids who scared themselves with macabre tales.
With Boston’s oldest graveyard at King’s Chapel located just across the street, the stately Omni Parker House is as much a hotel for visiting spirits as it is for living souls lucky enough to stay in such a legendary spot. The hotel was built in 1855 by hotelier Harvey Parker and his ghost used to be seen quite frequently, but it must have found peace since a sighting hasn’t been reported in several decades.
Parker isn’t the only spirit who didn’t seem to want to say goodbye to the hotel. Guests have called security to complain about noise coming out of room 1040 on numerous occasions only for the room to be found unoccupied. There have also been reports of gleeful whispering coming from empty hallways and the smell of whisky and cigars from rooms that have been freshly cleaned. These spirits must have had so much fun at Parker House parties that they wanted to spend their afterlife in residence.
A cool old hotel located in the historic district of Savannah’s Broughton Street, The Marshall House prides itself on its haunted status, which is not too out of the ordinary given that Savannah itself is considered to be a famously haunted city. Another former hospital, the building saw a lot of suffering through the Civil War and two yellow fever epidemics, leaving spirits with potentially unfinished business in this world.
The reported paranormal experiences are what one would expect from a hotel with The Marshall House’s history, thanks to sightings of ghosts in the halls, faucets running on their own and sounds of phantom children playing. To make the legends more fun, the hotel offers ghost tour packages of not just the hotel but also the surrounding area and nearby cemeteries.
Settled in Pioche, Nevada, a state with many ghost stories itself, The Overland Hotel and Saloon was erected in 1863. Throughout the years, the building was home to a brothel, gambling house, boarding house, grocery store, bowling alley and restaurant. The structure visitors can stay at today was built in 1946 after a devastating fire ravaged through a third of the town. With a long and diverse history like that, it comes to no surprise that the Overland is believed to be crawling with spirits.
Even though the hotel’s owners haven’t openly talked about the supernatural activity within their establishment, several employees have reported seeing ghosts or witnessing other eerie occurrences. The Overland gathered national attention when the popular show Ghost Adventures spent an evening in the hotel, trying to contact spirits and ghosts roaming its halls.