A number of years ago I was involved in a project that kept me in San Diego for a period of time. Although I never stayed there, I had occasion to visit the Hotel Del Coronado several times. There were a number of good restaurants there and I attended a few “meetings” in the facility.
In case you don’t know, the hotel has become a kind of legend — it’s been there for more than 130 years and has been host to celebrities, royalty, and U.S. Presidents. It was built in 1888 by Elisha Babcock and Hampton L. Story and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977.
Since this is the Halloween “season” I thought it might be a good time to talk about the thing that made the place most fascinating to me — the hotel, affectionately called “the Del,” is home to some noteworthy ghosts….
On November 24, 1892, Kate Morgan checked into the Hotel Del Coronado under the name of Lottie A. Bernard, from Detroit. She looked pale and she wasn’t feeling well. She mentioned that she was planning to meet her brother, a doctor.
After a few days, the staff began to worry. The mysterious woman had checked in with no luggage. Her brother hadn’t arrived, and she had hardly left her room.
On Monday, November 28, the woman went into town and purchased a gun. Her body was found early the next morning on stairs that led from the hotel to the beach. From the gunshot wound to her head, it appeared she had committed suicide. When police investigated, they found few personal belongings in her hotel room.
After Kate’s death, police determined that “Lottie A. Bernard” was an alias. They sent a sketch of her to newspapers, which described her as “the beautiful stranger.” Further investigation uncovered that “Lottie” had been born Kate Farmer — in Iowa, and had married Tom Morgan in 1885.
Morgan was rumored to be a con artist as well as a gambler. He allegedly worked the rails and enlisted Kate’s help in stealing money from train passengers. According to a witness, on a train somewhere between Los Angles and San Diego, Kate and Morgan had an intense argument. Morgan got off the train before it reached San Diego. Kate stayed on the train until it arrived in San Diego and then checked into the Del.
Some people claim the clues at the scene add up to a murder, rather than suicide. Attorney Alan May’s book, written in 1990, The Legend of Kate Morgan, claims the bullet that killed Kate was a different caliber than the gun she’d purchased.
But no matter what happened, Kate’s ghost has taken up residence at the Del. She often manifests as eerie eyes and lips appearing in the mirror or reflected in the window of her room. Kate’s spirit may be responsible for strange noises and unexplained breezes around her room as well. The curtains on closed windows billow for no reason, and lights and televisions turn themselves on and off. Kate also appears as a pale young woman in a black lace dress. A sweet fragrance lingers after apparition disappears.
Kate stayed in room 302. Later, during remodeling, the hotel changed the room number to 3327. The haunted room is so popular that people ask for it as “the Kate Morgan room.” The hotel welcomes and answers questions about the ghost, and everyone treats Kate as an honored guest.
Independent paranormal researchers have documented supernormal activity in Kate’s room using high-tech gadgetry, including infrared cameras, night vision goggles, radiation sensors, toxic-chemical indicators, microwave imaging systems, and high-frequency sound detectors.
There have also been Kate sightings in hotel hallways and along the seashore. Another very “active” area is the hotel’s gift shop. Visitors and employees routinely witness haunted happenings and giftware mysteriously flying off shelves, oftentimes falling upright and always unbroken.
In fact the Hotel sells a book, Beautiful Stranger: The Ghost of Kate Morgan in their gift shop.
Actually, Kate isn’t the only mysterious resident in the hotel. Room 3519 is also haunted — maybe even more intensely than Kat’s room.
In 1983, a Secret Service agent stayed in room 3519 while guarding then Vice President George H.W. Bush. The special agent bolted from the room in the middle of the night claiming that he’d head unearthly gurgling noises and that the entire room seemed to glow.
It’s possible that the Secret Service agent may have encountered a ghost related to the Kate Morgan mystery. According to one legend, while Kate was at the hotel, a maid stayed in what would later be room 3519. In some versions of the story, the maid was traveling with Kate. In others, the maid had simply befriended her. Whatever the connection between the two, the maid allegedly vanished the same morning Kate was found dead.
That’s not the only ghost story connected with room 3519. Another story goes that in 1888, the year the hotel was built, a wealthy man kept his mistress in that room. When the woman found out that she was pregnant, she killed herself. Her body was removed from the Del, and nothing else is known about her, not even her name. Ghost hunters believe she is the one who causes the lights in the room to flicker and is responsible for the unexplained cold spot in front of the room’s door.
In recent years, some hotel guests have reported sightings of the ghost of Marilyn Monroe. She loved the Hotel Del Coronado and stayed there during the filming of Some Like it Hot. Marilyn’s ghost has appeared at several of her favorite places, including Hollywood’s Roosevelt Hotel, where people see her in the lobby’s mirror.
At the Del, Monroe is often seen outdoors as a fleeting, translucent apparition near the door to the hotel or on the beach nearby. Those who see the ghost comment on her windswept blonde hair and her fringed shawl that flutters in the breeze.
So the Hotel Del Coronado continues to be a popular place and seems like an great place to visit, especially around this time of year. Just remember, if you stay there, you’re never alone.
Happy Halloween to everyone.
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