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Across the U.S., travelers are checking into spooky hotels that once held inmates, soldiers and even cult members.
As travelers crave experiences over ordinary stays, hotels that have transformed grim to glam are now embracing their bizarre and sometimes haunted histories, even hosting weddings and wellness retreats.
Paranormal tours and repurposed spaces built on old bones draw everyone from ghost hunters to history buffs, The New York Times recently reported. Whether it's the "most haunted hotel in America" or a jail-turned-boutique stay in Boston, these locations offer a peek into the darker corners of American history.
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The Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan's Times Square was once the meeting place of the famed Round Table - a daily gathering of sharp-tongued writers, critics and actors whose wit helped define New York's Jazz Age.
Today, guests say the laughter hasn't faded entirely, with reports of footsteps, flickering lights and phantom chatter ringing through the halls. In 2015, a reporter spent a night at the Algonquin with ghost-hunting tools and claimed that eight spirits - possibly including Dorothy Parker - answered her call. Standard rooms can start at around $177.
Today, McMenamins Edgefield, which sits about 15 miles outside of Portland, boasts a winery, brewery, distillery, spa and golf course. But when it opened in 1917, it served as one of the nation's first detention centers for women accused of carrying sexually transmitted infections amid a wartime health panic, according to History.com.
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After closing in 1923, the site became a government-run "poor farm," later housing a military academy, medical staff and elderly residents before falling into disrepair. McMenamins revived the property in 1990 with a ceremonial pipe-and-drum "cleansing," and private rooms now range from $130 to $300.
Widely known as "America's most haunted hotel," guests and staff report encounters with spirits from its past, including a stonemason who died during construction and patients from the 1930s, when con man Norman Baker turned it into a fraudulent cancer hospital, examining cancer patients in the hotel's basement and draining families of their life savings, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Today, the mountaintop hotel overlooking Eureka Springs offers ghost tours through its Victorian halls and former morgue, and the price of a room ranges from about $150 to $600.
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Built in 1893, Milwaukee's Pfister Hotel has long been linked to flickering lights, strange noises and shadowy figures said to haunt its ornate halls. Some locals believe founder Charles Pfister still roams the property, according to reports, and even celebrities like rapper Megan Thee Stallion have gone ghost hunting there. Visiting Major League Baseball players in town to play the Brewers often share eerie stories and Los Angeles Dodgers star shortstop Mookie Betts has said he's too spooked to stay there, ESPN reported.
Rooms start at $149 and go up to $899.
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The upstate hotel occupies the historic Richardson-Olmsted Campus and was originally built in the late 1800s as the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane. The site became overcrowded and used controversial treatments such as electroshock and insulin coma therapy, according to local reports, and since its abandonment, many visitors report paranormal activity in the former ward buildings.
The property also hosts weddings, conferences and events, and is now managed by a nonprofit board dedicated to preserving the historic campus. Rooms there start at $169 a night.
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The Art Deco building in Bozeman was originally constructed in 1941 to serve as the Montana National Guard's armory, featuring 18-inch-thick walls, a rifle range, a soundproof music room and space for military vehicles.
It was reopened as a boutique hotel in 2020 and still offers much of its original structure, according to local reports, honoring its history plus modern amenities, such as a rooftop pool and a Peloton bike-stocked fitness center. A room can cost you from $250 a night to $977.
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The Liberty Hotel in Boston is housed in the former Charles Street Jail, a massive Gothic structure completed in 1851 that remained open until 1990. Notable inmates once held at the jail include Boston Mayor James Michael Curley, anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, civil rights leader Malcolm X and mobster Whitey Bulger, according to records.
It underwent a $150 million conversion and reopened in 2007 as a luxury hotel, preserving many original elements, such as the massive atrium, catwalks, former cell doors and restaurants with names like Clink and Alibi, and rooms start at $590.
The Marin County site was home to a radio receiving station in the 1910s before it was acquired by Synanon, a controversial drug rehabilitation program that evolved into a cult known for weapons stockpiling and attempted-murder allegations, according to reports.
The state took over the property in 1984, incorporating it into Marconi State Historic Park, and after a multimillion-dollar renovation, it reopened in 2023 as a boutique coastal lodge where rooms start at $323.
