Chase Park Plaza Hotel

A landmark luxury hotel in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, opened in 1922. The Chase Park Plaza has hosted celebrities, politicians, and socialites for over a century and features a grand lobby and rooftop amenities.

The Chase Park Plaza Hotel in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis is a landmark of Art Deco glamour that has hosted some of the most famous names in entertainment since its opening in the 1920s. The Chase Hotel was built in 1922, constructed in just nine months to create a nine-story tower of luxury. Before the stock market crash, the twenty-seven-floor Park Plaza was built adjacent to the Chase, and the two buildings were eventually merged under single ownership in 1961 to form the Chase Park Plaza. In its golden age, the hotel welcomed the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and generations of St. Louis society who gathered in its ballrooms and lounges.

The hotel's most visible ghost is believed to be Chase Ulman himself, the original developer who was so proud of his creation that his spirit apparently refused to leave it. Ulman's apparition is not difficult to identify -- he appears in the tuxedo and top hat that were his signature outfit during his lifetime, moving through the hotel's public spaces with the proprietary air of a man inspecting his property. Staff members who have encountered him describe a figure who radiates satisfaction rather than menace, as if pleased to see his hotel continuing to thrive.

The second well-known ghost is considerably more tragic. In the 1930s, a red-haired woman committed suicide on her wedding day by jumping from the window of Room 306. Her spirit is said to walk the corridors near her room, her red dress and distinctive hair making her immediately recognizable to those who encounter her. Guests staying in or near Room 306 have reported the sensation of overwhelming sadness that descends without warning, a psychic residue of the bride's final moments of despair.

Sam Koplar, who built the Park Plaza Hotel that later joined with the Chase, is the third documented spirit. "He used to roam the halls as it was under construction," noted Ron Elz, a local radio personality and historian who has chronicled the hotel's history. "It's said he still roams the halls." Koplar's ghost is encountered less frequently than Ulman's but follows a similar pattern -- a man making the rounds of a building he brought into existence and seems unwilling to leave.

The Chase Park Plaza's haunted reputation rests on decades of reported encounters, from fleeting glimpses of spectral figures to extended interactions that leave witnesses shaken. The spirits seem drawn to the glamour they enjoyed in life, appearing most frequently in the hotel's most elegant spaces. In a building that has hosted presidents and rock stars, the ghosts of the Chase Park Plaza are simply the most permanent residents of a hotel that has never stopped being the center of St. Louis society.