Marrero's Guest Mansion

Francisco Marrero built this mansion in 1889 for his wife Enriquetta and their eight children. What the family didn't know: Francisco already had a wife back in Cuba.

Marrero's Guest Mansion at 410 Fleming Street in Key West holds the heartbreaking tale of Enriquetta and her eight children—spirits who fulfilled a dying vow to remain in their home forever.

In 1889, successful Cuban cigar maker Francisco Marrero built this mansion to entice his young love, Enriquetta, to settle in Key West. Their union produced eight children, and by all accounts they were happy. Then Francisco died under suspicious circumstances during a business trip to Cuba.

The blow that followed was devastating. Francisco, it turned out, had never divorced his first wife Maria in Cuba. She arrived in Key West, took the case to court, and won claim to his entire estate. Maria publicly evicted Enriquetta and all eight children onto the street, taking everything.

Standing on the sidewalk as she was thrown out, Enriquetta swore revenge in Spanish: Esta es mi casa para siempre y nunca me voy a ir—I will always remain in spirit. Within a few years, Enriquetta and all eight children died of tuberculosis or diphtheria.

Today, Marrero's Guest Mansion operates as an adults-only inn—yet guests in rooms 17 and 23 regularly hear babies crying at night. There are no children on the premises or in neighboring buildings. These rooms were once the nursery.

Room 18 was Enriquetta's bedroom. Guests have seen her enter the room searching for her hairbrush, sit at the foot of the bed, and fill the space with the scent of lavender. If she dislikes a guest, she will sway the chandelier back and forth in warning.

The door to the former children's playroom locks and unlocks on its own—even after being replaced multiple times. Objects move or relocate, and children's giggles echo in hallways and stairwells. Enriquetta kept her promise: she and her children have never left.