The 3 Haunting Hotels of Sutter Street

The Queen Anne Hotel is perhaps San Francisco’s most popular haunted hotel. However, in a half-mile stretch, there are actually three haunting hotels of Sutter Street: the Hotel Vertigo, the Hotel Majestic and the Queen Anne Hotel.

I realized this during a visit to the City by the Bay in 2019. I used Atlas Obscura to make a list of places I wanted to jaunt to, and two of them included hotels I’d never checked out before: the Vertigo and the Majestic.  Both were on Sutter Street.

I recognized that street name because I’m a little bit obsessed with the Queen Anne Hotel. Was it the same Sutter Street?

Duh. Of course it was! It’s not like Nashville where there are 20 Old Hickory Boulevards all over town.

But how far were the other two from the Queen Anne?

Turns out, when I checked Maps on my phone, they were all not only within walking distance from the hotel we were staying at, but within a half-mile of each other.

Huh. The three haunting hotels of Sutter Street. Let’s check them out.

Hotel Vertigo

I started at the Hotel Vertigo because it was the first one I came to on my route. (Which started with the haunting hotels of Sutter Street, but I’d planned a full days jaunt all around San Francisco.)

The Hotel Vertigo is not a haunted hotel, per se, but it is a bit haunting. It’s exterior was featured in the Alfred Hitchcock movie, Vertigo. It was portrayed as the apartment building where Kim Novak lived.

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It used to be the Empire Hotel, and then for a brief time the York Hotel, but everyone kept referring to it as the Vertigo Hotel so…the Hotel Vertigo it became.

The lobby pays homage to the movie that made it famous. The original Vertigo movie poster, which was predominantly orange and white with a bit of black, is the lobby’s color scheme.

You know why I wanted to jaunt to the Hotel Vertigo at all? Because I’d heard that the movie played on a continuous loop in the lobby.

Sure enough, it did! I’ve started the YouTube video below at the point just before where I show they really do have Vertigo playing in the lobby.

The Majestic Hotel

The Hotel Majestic is one of the oldest and longest-operating hotels in San Francisco. What I like about it is that, in addition to being a gorgeous historic hotel, it’s proud of its history. Including its alleged ghost.

The hotel was built in 1902 by the Schmitt Family. Milton Schmitt’s daughter, Lisa, lived in room 407, which is where many guests have claimed to see a ghost and experience paranormal activity.

Her portrait also hangs in the lobby, but I hadn’t done my research thoroughly enough to know that so I didn’t get a picture of it. Or did I?

I did snap a couple of the lobby’s interior, including one with a picture of a woman, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t the portrait of Lisa. (Because online I’ve seen other photos of the lobby and there’s another larger portrait of a woman hanging on a different wall that looks much more like a portrait.)

The Queen Anne Hotel

The Queen Anne Hotel was built in 1890 and was originally an exclusive girls’ boarding school, The Mary Lake School for Girls. Some think the school’s headmistress, Miss Mary Lake, haunts room 410, which may have been her former office.

Many have reported seeing a woman dressed in period clothing, but instead of being a scary ghost, Miss Mary, if that is in fact among the Queen Anne Hotel’s ghosts, is a helpful spirit doing things like unpacking guests’ bags and tucking them in while they sleep.

I’m not sure if this is San Francisco’s most haunted hotel (because as I mention in the Haunted Capitals Project, how do you determine a “most haunted” anything?). but I can see why people want it to be. It’s a gorgeous Victorian setting and face it. It looks just like the kind of comfy place you’d expect to find a ghost.

Check-In

Have you stayed at any of the haunting hotels of Sutter Street? If so, let me know which one(s)! 

If not, would you want to stay at any of them?