The Most Haunted Hotels In Dallas

Posted: 12.06.2024 | Updated: 12.06.2024

Dallas, Texas, was known worldwide in the 1980s as the setting for the eponymous oil industry television drama. Millions tuned in to find out who had shot J.R. Ewing. The show contained one of the most famous twists in television drama history, as the deceased character Bobby Ewing magically returned from the grave. Spectral visits from the afterlife may be far more common in Dallas than the shows’ writers of the time so shockingly suggested, and Dallas’ haunted hotels have more than their fair share.

You can find out which ghosts have appeared from out of the spiritual vortex on a Dallas Ghost Tour. Our historical haunted walking tour takes you through

WHAT ARE THE MOST HAUNTED HOTELS IN DALLAS?

Dallas, Texas, has a pretty shocking blend of the eerie and downright gruesome woven through its historic and storied haunted hotels. Here, we look at three that tingle the spine and put a chill in the air. 

• Adolphus
• Le Meridien Hotel, The Stoneleigh
• Holiday Inn Express, Dallas

THE ADOLPHUS

HISTORY OF THE ADOLPHUS HOTEL

When Adolphus Busch, a German immigrant and co-founder of beer giant Anheuser-Busch, set about building the Adolphus in 1910, it was a herculean task. The creative vision was painstakingly brought to life in 1912 with the architect Thomas P. Barnett’s’ Beaux Art’-style behemoth. 

Erecting Dallas’s first luxury hotel was laborious. Given the practices of the time, materials were moved slowly by horse and carriage. Yet, as difficult as the process was, the completed hotel sang loudly of the wealth it encapsulated. 

Standing as the tallest building in Dallas for over a decade, the regal Adolphus cost a sizable $1.5M to construct. By today’s reckoning, it would be in the region of $50M. The princely cost of the hotel, however, was more than visible in the opulent extravagance of the interior. 

The luxurious setting of the hotel brought with it a certain caliber of guests. Over the years, the hotel has welcomed the likes of Presidents Reagan, Carter, and H. W. Bush. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. 

ADOLPHUS APPARITIONS

This haunted hotels’ elevator is certainly no stranger to death. A mere 2 weeks after the hotel’s opening in 1912, a young waiter had turned to talk to a friend. But, as he stepped back into the elevator shaft, he plunged to his death. 

In 1915, a traveling collector for an Iowan concrete company excused himself. Not feeling well, he proceeded to his room’s bathroom after dinner. He later was found lying across his bed next to half a bottle of poison. Next to him, a note read: “I got the wrong bottle, love to all.”

In 1917, a new elevator boy with some pep in his step attempted to leap into a moving elevator car. His poor timing cost him his life as he plunged 100ft down to the basement.

In 1924, a hotel employee asked another to check if the elevator car had arrived. Peering down into the shaft, the young employee quickly found his answer as the falling car killed him instantly from above. 

Late-night guests riding the elevator have claimed to have caught glimpses of mangled staff in period uniforms riding the car with them. Staff often report the sensation of being watched while guests have recorded video footage of the cold-blooded elevators behaving erratically. 

Perhaps the most famous of phantasmal figures at the hotel is that of the jilted bride. A 1930s high society wedding at the hotel was cut tragically short when the bride was left heartbroken at the altar. The Groom did not appear. The woman was so distraught and embarrassed that she tragically chose to hang herself on the 19th floor. 

Guests and staff alike have claimed to have seen a vaporous, forlorn figure wandering the halls in a wedding dress. Others have heard the disembodied sound of a woman sobbing.

LE MERIDIEN HOTEL (THE STONELEIGH)

HISTORY OF LE MERIDIEN DALLAS, THE STONELEIGH

The second oldest hotel in Dallas boasts some of the city’s spookiest tales. Built in 1923, the Beaux Arts-style Stoneleigh Hotel was purchased by the Le Meridien organization as it celebrated its centenary. The hotel has a rich history dating back to the birth of luxury hotels in Dallas.

One 1934 visitor to the grandeur of the Stoneleigh was so taken by the spacious elegance that he bought it. Col. Harry E. Stewart instilled his vision for the hotel by undertaking a series of firsts. 

Stewart hired Dorothy Draper, the first interior design firm owner in America, to create an Art Deco Penthouse on the 11th floor. Stewart’s private quarters became Dallas’s first hotel penthouse.

Through the years, the hotel has played host to celebrities such as Elvis Pressley, Aretha Franklin, Audrey Hepburn and Tom Cruise. Even Yoko Ono and American architectural icon Frank Loyd Wright have enjoyed a stay at The Stoneleigh. 

PHANTOMS OF LE MERIDIEN

Some visitors can overstay their welcome. if staff and guests are to be believed, The Stoneleigh has been home to ghostly guests for a very long time. In the 1930s, hotel owner Colonel Stewart is believed to have had a mistress named Margaret. She would use the haunted hotels’ prohibition tunnels and secret passages to conduct their illicit affair.

Margaret would eventually fall to her death from the 11th floor, with continued speculation even today as to the nature of her death. Hotel Front Office Manager Julie Garret succinctly states
“She either fell…..or she was pushed.” Hotel guests on the 11th floor where Colonel Stewart had resided claim to have seen both of these long-dead souls appearing before them. 

One frantic guest approached Garrett, claiming there had been a man in her room. Upon seeing an image of Colonel Stewart, the guest cried out that this was the frightening figure she had seen. Another visitor to the hotel took a photograph in a 100-year-old mirror. 

Peering from behind the guest, as if photobombing from the afterlife, is what appears to be Colonel Stewart’s onlooking face. 

HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS, DALLAS 

HISTORY OF THE HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS, DALLAS

While a Holiday Inn Express may not scream ‘rich history’ to readers, make no mistake. This old European-style lodging, dating back to the Roaring 20s, has quite the tale to tell. Opened in 1925 by hotelier George C. Scott, the 10-story structure started life as the Scott Hotel, serving primarily as stop-over housing for travelers coming and going from the nearby Union Station.

Situated on the corner of Houston and Jackson, the structure has seen a flurry of ownership and name changes over its near century of existence. Formerly known as The Lawrence Hotel from the 1930s, its mixed fortunes and revolving door of ownership saw it near derelict by the 1970s. 

Dallas authorities went as far as to consider turning the building, a mere three blocks from the infamous site of JFK’s assassination, into a minimum security prison. Times changed, however, and the towering skyscraper remained an abode for more willing occupants. The hotel has seen death, darkness, and dastardly deeds more befitting of a prison, though.

SMILEY JACKSON AND THE GHOSTS OF HOTEL LAWRENCE

In the early days of the hotel, a woman suffered this fate after falling, assisted or otherwise, from the 10th floor. In fact, the 10th floor features heavily in the murkier and unsettling side of the hotel’s dark past. 

A Texas congressman is believed to have committed suicide on the very same floor. Guests have reported odd footsteps where no living person can be found and chilling voices in empty spaces. It seems the 10th floor is held in special regard by the dead.

Jack ‘Smiley’ Jackson, a local gangster, was murdered in room 1009. Jackson’s ghost is said to haunt both the floor and the room. Guests and staff at the hotel have noted that unless asked politely (“Move over Jackson!”), the door to the room often won’t open. 

In the 1940’s, a man by the name of Brookshire is believed to have been murdered in the very same room.

HAUNTED HOTELS DALLAS

A city etched in popular culture, dark American history, and the oil boom of the 20th century.

This Texan jewel does not disappoint when it comes to its historic haunted hotels and the ghostly figures within. Explore it all on a historical and haunted Dallas Ghost Tour with Dallas Terrors. 

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