Haunted Hotel Del Coronoda

 Built in 1888, the Hotel Del Coronado is located just a short way down Coronado Beach from where the U.S. Navy trains its SEAL warriors outside San Diego, California. With its iconic red turrets rising into the blue sky and with Victorian splendor throughout the complex, it has long been proclaimed as one of America's most beautiful resorts. Through the years, movies such as Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe, Cry for Happy with Glenn Ford and Donald O'Connor, Moon Over Miami with George Raft, Ida Lupino, Edward Kennedy and John Barrymore and Coronado with Jack Haley and Andy Devine and many others have used the Del as their setting. A large book could be filled just with the names of movie stars, politicians and moguls of industry who have stayed here  

The mysterious "Lottie" about 1886 (historical photo)

Few who stay in this five-star hotel however, know about the eternal guest who lives here until they run into her late at night. Lottie A. Bernard, a beautiful lady in her mid-20's checked in alone on Thanksgiving Day in 1892 and was given room 302 (renumbered to 3312 afterwards and then renumbered again to 3327). Hotel employees who had interactions with her stated she always seemed to be sad or despondent and ill. She reported to them she was waiting on her brother, a doctor, but he never showed up. 

Five days later, poor Lottie was found in an exterior stairwell leading to the beach. She had died with a gunshot wound to her temple. The San Diego coroner declared it to be a suicide, but there were a number of clues which indicated she had been murdered instead. When her room was searched, there were no personal belongings. In fact, there was nothing on her body or in her room that identified her in any way. It was soon discovered there was no Lottie A. Bernard in Detroit where "Lottie" had told people she was from. Police broadcast a picture of the dead woman trying to find someone to identify and claim her body, but nobody ever did. News that "Lottie" was pregnant at the time of her death leaked out and it was said the bullet removed from her brain was a .38 caliber while the gun she owned and was found beside her body was a .44 caliber. The sad case of the "Beautiful Stranger" became a sensation in local and national newspapers for many weeks afterward until "Lottie" was finally identified as Kate Morgan from Iowa, wife of the gambler Tom Morgan who made his living playing card games on trains. One man claimed he had seen Kate and a man (presumably Tom,) arguing on the train and that the man had gotten off the train at the stop in Orange, but Kate had stayed on until arriving in San Diego. Everyone assumed Kate was actually waiting for Tom to join her at the hotel, but when he had not arrived after 5 days, in her despondency, she killed herself.

The Hotel Del Coronado as seen from the beach

Apparently, Kate is still at the Hotel Del Coronado, waiting for her husband, or perhaps she is waiting for the truth to be revealed. Guests staying in her room have reported swinging light fixtures, flickering lights, telephone calls with nothing but hollow-sounding static on the other end when the call is answered. One man became so frustrated by numerous phantom phone calls one night that he finally shouted, "Kate Morgan, enough! Leave me in peace!" The alarm clock immediately buzzed three times and the calls stopped. There have also been numerous reports about the TV coming on by itself. Repairmen can find nothing wrong, but though the hotel has replaced a number of televisions in the room, even brand-new right out of the box sets often come on in the middle of the night and cannot be turned off until all of a sudden, it turns off by itself. Perhaps most frightening, there have been several guests who demanded to be given a different room after awaking to see a dark figure pulling the sheets off them in the night. When they screamed, the figure immediately disappeared. One time, a female guest stopped to unlock her room late at night and saw a pretty woman mirroring her actions a few feet away next door. The woman smiled at her. She didn't realize she’d seen a ghost until she went inside and recalled that the woman was dressed in turn-of-the-century period clothes. The cleaning staff has reported seeing the window drapes move and be pulled back when they go outside right after cleaning the room and they know nobody is in there.

Room 3519 has also been reported to be inhabited by a spirit. Ashtrays and other objects fall off tables and have even flown across the room and the noise of footsteps and loud voices can be heard from the floor above. The problem is the only thing above this room is the roof. In 1983, an unnamed Secret Service agent staying in the hotel on assignment with then-VP George Bush complained of voices and noises above the room so loud that he couldn't fall asleep. When he was finally able to drift off, he awoke to find the drapes standing straight out even though the windows were closed and neither the air conditioning or heat was on. When he jumped up and turned on a light, they slowly drifted back to hanging down perfectly still. He turned off the light to see if it would happen again only to find the room bathed in an eerie greenish glow. He turned on every light in the room and immediately demanded to be moved elsewhere.

Manifestations have been recorded in other rooms as well, but they seem to be confined mostly to the third floor where the hallways are much narrower than on the floors below. A center of activity not on the 3rd floor is the hotel’s gift shop. Hotel management reports that weird things started happening when they started selling Marilyn Monroe merchandise. Marilyn stayed in the hotel while filming Some Like It Hot and several paranormal investigators have said that Kate got jealous when attention was taken away from her. Gift shop workers have seen books fly off shelves, shadow figures in the place after it is locked up, and souvenir mugs jump off a ledge with nobody near them. The store manager once found an entire row of books in her office tuned around so the spines were facing the wall and occasionally  upon first entering her locked office in the morning, will find one or several books turned upside down or thrown onto the floor.

The tree on the grounds of the hotel which
was made famous appearing in a scene from
the movie, "Some Like It Hot"

The Hotel Del Coronado is indeed a beautiful place to spend a romantic weekend or a few nights of vacation or even longer if you can afford it; rates are generally $500 - $800+ per night. Maybe those moans and murmuring voices heard in certain rooms and hallways are just the waves of the ocean rolling onto the nearby beach. Maybe that unexplained chill in the air, those strange cold spots you encounter as you walk down a hallway or enter your room is from the ocean fog. Maybe that's all it is. But if you wake up in the middle of the night with unseen hands pulling the sheets off you, you'll know who it is. You'll know.

The garden area of the Hotel Del Coronado