Haunted: Ghosts of the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego, California

Today, the locals know the play sas the Dell, and even though the name change makes sense when you say it, it translates to the from which what doesn't mean anything. Its nickname, however, is what sets the tone to live up to the place and its significance. The Lady by the Sea. This is a story of a beautiful place facing the Pacific Ocean in San Diego, California. An enormous hotel, a popular hotspot among celebrities, with fancy construction and the best of everything that has shown up in movies that you may have heard of. But along with all of its fame and a place that looks fit for royalty, it hides a few secrets, tragic stories of ghosts and experiences that have turned it into a place with tails that lurk in its hallways, strange occurrences, and lots more that tell you that things aren't always what they seem to be. Today, we'll travel to San Diego, California to visit one of the most haunted places in the state. Welcome to the Coronado Hotel. My name is Edwin, and here it's a dark memory. Today. San Diego is one of those cities that us here in California, dream of visiting. It has amazing restaurants, beachside entertainment, and lots to do, and some people never want to leave. Back in the late eighteen hundreds, around eighteen eighty five, the area was not what it looked like today, but it was about to boom. People were flocking to live there, but the place was still barren and most of the beaches were underdeveloped, and though not the most affordable, they were definitely cheaper. Elisha Babcock and Hl's Story were interested in the area, and Elisha had a vision. So the partners in business, Elisha being a railroad executive and Story being the owner of a Chicago piano company, came together and purchased the land for one hundred thousand dollars. They were seeing a large opportunity for growth. You see, it made sense because if towns grew, then businesses grew, that itself would attract more people to San Diego. Back then, the town would be judged by their finest hotel. The partners knew it, so they set out to build it, but things slowed down when they realized that people were not buying real estate in the area. Eventually, this man named John Spreckels found out about the project and liked the style of it, so he let them borrow one hundred thousand dollars more to finish it. The loan was never repaid, but that would it matter, since by that time the hotel and the property had gone up in value and he was still tied up with the investment. In a few years he became the full owner of it by buying out the others. This place was truly incredible. The author of Wizard of Oz, Frank Baum designed the chandeliers, and it eventually hosted stays for people like Judy Garland and Walt Disney. In fact, Lucille Ball and desi Arna stayed there together one time, and they developed their famous characters Lucy and Ricky eventually landed their TV show I Love Lucy. The place was fitting, I mean, being on the beach in the Victorian style and far too expensive or regular old person things made sense. Another interesting thing about it was that Liberaci was discovered there in nineteen fifty. While playing the piano. He refused to cancel after being told that his audience would be small and went anyway. That's when a single member of the audience happened to be a television producer. The rest, as they say it, was history, but not everything about this place was all happiness all the time. The Hotel del Coronado also underwent its own set of tragedies. This is where we begin one of the saddest story of the Beautiful Stranger. Records of the guests at the Hotel del Coronado on Thursday November twenty fourth, eighteen ninety two showed several names on the guest list for that evening. One of them was carefully written as Miss Lottie A. Bernard. According to the staff, she was not in a very good mood, and she told them that she would be waiting for a gentleman. She checked in and was given the room number three O two. She was traveling by herself and only had one suitcase with her, but Miss Lottie A. Bernard was in who she sent she was. In fact, nobody knew much about her, except for accounts mentioning that she kept asking for her brother and if he had checked in. According to a bell boy, miss Bernard was ill at the time. The story she told the manager was that her brother had tags that claimed her luggage and she was waiting for him because they had been separated. We also know that on the third day, she went to a pharmacy to buy medicine for her stomach pains, explaining to the pharmacist that her brother was a doctor that soon he would come see her to find out what was wrong. Then Miss Bernard disappeared until the last day, the fifth one, when she went out to buy a pistol as a gift. She went upstairs and stood on the exterior stairs that led to the beach and shot herself. Her body was discovered the next morning. Reports spoke of a smart, beautiful woman with stomach cancer, while others were saying that the gentleman she was waiting for was not her brother, but rather a lover who had left her stories of her real name actually being Lizzie Willie, a woman who had run off with the married man, But soon the truth came out. Miss Lottie A. Bernard's real name was Kate Morgan. There was a book written and sold at the Whole Tell Today in case you're interested in her story, and we found a good write up of Kate Morgan written by Heather Monroe in twenty nineteen titled The hopeless death of Kate Morgan ges you're interested in learning more about her. In her life, she worked for a family in Los Angeles, and the story says that she was married to a gambler named Tom Morgan. There were stories of her losing her firstborn son a few days after welcoming him and then running off with someone else, or of her being pregnant and realizing that she would be alone. Stories and theories were endless. But when we take a look at the place now and the many accounts of encounters with her, we realized that Kate may have never left. It is now labeled as room three three two seven, but back then it was room three zero two where she stayed. Report talk about visitors experiencing flickering lights and other experiences where you're sitting in the room and suddenly the television begins to turn on and off. Some guests have reported breezes that come out of nowhere, along with smells and noises that have no apparent explanation. That's not all. Items have been set to move on their own, and doors open and closed by themselves. You can be in the room and within a split second, temperature can begin to drop with absolutely no reason. Nothing will ever be as haunting as hearing footsteps and voices in that room while you'll sleep. But of course, Kate is only one of the ghosts who roams at the Coronado Hotel. Another hot spot and hotels, the Coronado has also become well known, according to the hotel's website, and it comes from the unexplained events in room five zero two, reports of flickering lights, cold spots, and sounds, and if you're familiar with cold spots, they are claimed to be the signs that an entity is nearby as it draws from the surrounding energy, leaving an area feeling cold without apparent explanation. Eerily, guests have woken up to feeling their bed shaking, and also claiming that their windows and doors move on their own. In May of nineteen eighty three, a member of the Secret Service stayed in room five o two and said that while he was in the room, he saw the drape suddenly moving violently, as if there was a large breeze. Stunned, he moved closer to the window and realized that the window had been shut the entire time. In an interview with the Travel Channel, a woman named Karen Lekus talked about her own experience where quote Lekus had put her key into the door and glanced over her right shoulder she saw another woman down the hall, also unlocking the door to her room. Lechuz and the woman nodded to each other as if to say good night, and then Lekuz opened the door to her room and stepped inside. It wasn't until after she entered her room that she realized the other woman was wearing Victorian clothing and did not belong. When she checked, the woman was gone. And then there is this other quote from an anonymous employee that says she noticed someone inside. The woman she saw was stress in Victorian dress and was reading through some of the books in the shop. The employee later equeried those who worked in the gift shop and was told that upon opening the shop on that particular morning, there were several books which had been arranged as if someone had been leafing through the pages. Though these rooms can run anywhere up from six hundred dollars a night, I was happy to see that you can take a tour of the place even if you're not a guest. There are several of them listed on their website. In fact, you can check out the gift shop and almost all of its amenities as well. The Koto Naa Hotel has been shown in movies like Some Like It, hot My Blue Heaven, Canine, and many others, but it has also become famous in the paranormal field for evidence being caught there by investigators, so much that now even the hotel has used it to its advantage by offering books with the stories of Kate Morgan and other scary tales from the place. A quick Google search will give you lots of information of ghosts and investigations that have taken place over the years, along with some terrifying evidence. We may never know exactly what happened to Kate Morgan, despite the many records that have surfaced since her death. The unfortunate death that should have never happened when witnesses spoke of the beautiful stranger looking sad and sick, and she roamed around the hotel. Who knows exactly how many ghosts haunt the Hotel del Coronado, but if you're up for a visit, be sure to avoid that room Room thirty three twenty seven, the one that used to be Room three O two as well as Room FIVELE two. You may never know exactly what is around you you at night while you sleep. What legends or places do you want to hear about next? Find her contact information over on a Dark memory dot com or use an email address in the description of this episode. This episode of A Dark Memory was researched by Medel Inguera and produced by me Edwin Kovaruiz. Follow to stay up to date. For more, see You Assume