Hotel: Cadillac Hotel
Year Built: 1890
Eternal Guest: A crying woman and child, among other random lingerers
This historic hotel, known as the Elliot House until 1906, was one of the first hotels built atop the ashes of the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. The hotel served predominantly as a working man's hotel, attracting fishermen, loggers, railroad, and shipyard workers with its inexpensive rates.
In 1970, due to the hotel’s lack of funds to oblige to the newly enforced Ozark Ordinance, an ordinance that required hotels to install sprinkler systems to their upper floors due to the burning of the Ozark Hotel, the Cadillac Hotel was forced to close its doors. Only the main floor remained open to allow small businesses to continue.
For 31 years the upper rooms were abandoned, leaving furniture, and personal belongings as they were. It wasn't until 2001 when the Cadillac Hotel was purchased for restoration by Historic Seattle, a preservation organization, and became the permanent home for the National Park Service's Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.
Although restored, the long-term guests of the once-deserted Cadillac Hotel remain. Some claim they've seen apparitions wandering in the hotel’s upper offices. Others have reported strange feelings of a ghostly presence in elevator and occasional strange noises.
But even more haunting are the reports of hearing a woman and child crying way into all hours of the night. Rumor has it that she was a single mother who took her and her child's life after being evicted during financially difficult times.
The Cadillac is, unfortunately, no longer a hotel—so there’s no overnight visits with the ghosts. But the Gold Rush National Park is open for day trips.