The Biltmore Hotel

A Mediterranean Revival masterpiece opened in 1926 during the Florida land boom. The hotel housed the world's largest swimming pool and hosted celebrities, presidents, and notoriously, mobster Thomas "Fatty" Walsh.

The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables rises 315 feet with its distinctive tower modeled after the Giralda in Seville, Spain. Built in 1926 by developer George Merrick, it became the playground of the rich and famous during the Jazz Age—and a notorious haunt for gangsters during Prohibition.

In the late 1920s, local gambler Edward Wilson rented the 13th and 14th floor suite and opened a speakeasy, attracting New York mobster Thomas "Fatty" Walsh. On the night of March 7, 1929, as musicians played "Alexander's Ragtime Band," Wilson and Walsh argued over money. When Walsh turned his back, Wilson drew a .38-caliber revolver and fired three shots. Two struck Walsh; a third hit his friend Art Clark, who'd rushed to help. Walsh, the former bodyguard of Arnold Rothstein (whose murder police suspected was connected), died that night. A bullet hole remains visible in the fireplace to this day.

Fatty Walsh's ghost has never checked out. Workers renovating the hotel in the 1980s claimed he constantly moved their tools. Staff report a portly man in period clothing roaming the 13th floor, particularly near the murder suite. He opens doors for waitresses, and the elevator inexplicably stops on the 13th floor as if waiting for a passenger who never boards.

During World War II, the federal government converted the Biltmore into a military hospital for wounded soldiers, then a VA facility. Many patients died within its walls, and ghostly soldiers are still seen marching through the hallways.

Guests report unexplained phenomena throughout the hotel: flickering lights, the scent of cigar smoke in empty rooms, disembodied voices, and the sensation of being watched. From 1994 to 2004, historian Linda Spitzer told ghost stories every Thursday night in the lobby—keeping the Biltmore's spectral residents company.