Hotel del Coronado

A stunning Victorian beach resort built in 1888, one of America's most magnificent historic hotels. Named to Historic Hotels of America's 2024 Most Haunted Hotels list.

The Hotel del Coronado, a stunning Victorian beach resort built in 1888, harbors one of California's most enduring ghost stories. The haunting centers on Kate Morgan, a 24-year-old woman who checked into Room 302 (now 3327) on Thanksgiving Day 1892 under the alias "Lottie A. Bernard of Detroit." Born Katie K. Farmer in Hamburg, Iowa in 1864, Kate had endured profound tragedy—losing her mother at age two, her father at twelve, and her infant son just days after his birth in 1885.

Kate arrived alone and visibly distressed, telling hotel staff she was waiting for a gentleman who never came. Over five lonely days, her behavior grew increasingly erratic. She complained of stomach cancer, heart disease, and neuralgia. On November 27th, she ventured into San Diego and purchased a .44-caliber American Bulldog revolver at Chick's Gun Shop, claiming it was a Christmas gift. The next night, during a violent coastal storm, she walked to the exterior staircase leading to the beach. The following morning, an electrician discovered her body—soaking wet, stiff, and cold, with a ragged gunshot wound to her right temple and the revolver two inches from her outstretched hand.

The coroner ruled her death a suicide, but questions have persisted ever since. In the 1980s, San Francisco lawyer Alan May examined the case files and made a startling discovery: the bullet recovered from Kate's head did not match her .44 caliber gun. May theorized that Kate's estranged husband, Tom Morgan—a gambler with a history of con schemes—may have murdered her, possibly because she was pregnant. His 1989 book "The Legend of Kate Morgan" laid out compelling evidence for foul play, though officials reviewed his findings and declined to reopen the case.

Since that fateful night, guests and employees have reported an extraordinary array of paranormal activity. The phenomena are most concentrated in Room 3327, which has become the hotel's most requested room. Visitors experience flickering lights, televisions turning on and off by themselves, sudden temperature drops, and inexplicable breezes through closed windows. Objects move without assistance—one doctor reported his shoes and socks mysteriously relocating around the room each night despite placing them neatly by his bed. Perhaps most chilling, Kate's initials (KM or LB for her alias) have repeatedly appeared drawn on the steamed bathroom mirror or the ceiling, prompting staff to paint over the marks numerous times.

In 1992, the hotel commissioned parapsychologist Christopher Chacon to conduct a confidential year-long investigation. His team spent nearly 10,000 hours monitoring the property with cutting-edge equipment—infrared cameras, electromagnetic sensors, radiation detectors, and temperature monitors. They confidentially interviewed 1,100 people, and remarkably, half reported unexplainable experiences. The investigation documented recurring phenomena that defied scientific explanation: moving chairs and furniture, disembodied shadows, doors and windows opening on their own, water faucets turning on and off, concentrations of extremely cold air, and disembodied voices and footsteps. In Room 3519 alone, their equipment was triggered 400 times over the 365-day study, with one day recording 37 abnormalities in 24 hours.

Kate is not alone. Other spirits reportedly haunt the property: a young maid who hanged herself in Room 3519, and the ghost of Elisha Babcock (wife of one of the hotel's founders) in Room 3502. The Est. 1888 gift shop is particularly active—items mysteriously fly off shelves but consistently land upright and unbroken. Ghost Adventures filmed at the hotel, and during an interview in Room 3327, a plastic water bottle flew out of the publicist's hand and landed two yards away, leaving her in tears. A skeptical staff member filming for the British TV show Dead Famous became so overwhelmed by Kate's presence that she grew physically ill and had to be helped from the room.

Kate's apparition has been seen throughout the property—a woman in a black lace dress wandering the hallways, gazing from the window of Room 3327 as if still waiting for the man who never came, and walking near the beach where her body was discovered before vanishing. She appears to be a relatively benign presence; as hotel historian Christine Donovan notes in the official book "Beautiful Stranger: The Ghost of Kate Morgan and the Hotel del Coronado," "If you have to spend eternity somewhere, what better place than The Del." The hotel embraces its haunted reputation, and the room where Kate spent her final days remains in high demand by guests seeking a brush with the supernatural.