Haunted Tampa, FL: The 11 Most Haunted Places to Visit
A Cuban social club with a ghost on its stage, a 1926 movie palace where the projectionist never left, a Moorish hotel full of footsteps and a pink palace on the beach. These are Tampa Bay’s most haunted places, checked against the record.
Tampa’s haunted places follow its history: the cigar factories and social clubs of Ybor City, the Gilded Age railroad hotel of Henry Plant, the movie palaces of the 1920s boom and the grand resorts across the bay in St. Petersburg. Most of them are open to visit, and several run their own ghost tours. We have checked each place below against current sources, said where a story has no record behind it and moved buildings you can no longer enter to the off-limits list.
Visit on a tourGhost toursParanormal investigations allowed
Address 2010 N Avenida Republica de Cuba, Tampa, FL 33605
Where to look The theater stage, the cantina where the pool was, the stairs and the elevator
Reported ghosts An actor who died on stage, a murdered board member, a boy called Jimmy, a woman on the stairs
Visiting Private event venue; inside on ghost tours and events
Tours Ybor City ghost tours include the club
Ghost hunting Paranormal groups have investigated by arrangement
Cuban cigar workers formed El Circulo Cubano as a mutual aid society in 1902. After their first clubhouse burned in 1916, Tampa architect M. Leo Elliott designed this one, built in 1917 with a theater, ballroom, cantina, pharmacy, library and, in its day, bowling lanes and a pool. It is on the National Register, and a foundation saved it from foreclosure in 1992.
The club says it is reputed to be haunted. Tour guides tell of an actor who took his own life on stage in the 1920s, a board member shot after an argument and a boy, Jimmy, said to have drowned in the old pool. Staff report elevators running on their own, and Ghost Hunters filmed here in 2009.
Haunted Rooms tip: The Ybor City ghost tour goes inside; it is the easiest way to stand on that stage after dark.
Open to the publicGhost toursParanormal investigations allowed
Address 711 N Franklin St, Tampa, FL 33602
Where to look The balcony, the projection booth and seat 308
Reported ghosts Projectionist Foster "Fink" Finley, organist Rosa Rio, a man in a fedora
Visiting Open for films, events and building tours
Tours Ghosts of Tampa Theatre tours each October ($15)
Ghost hunting The theater has hosted its own late-night paranormal investigations
John Eberson designed this atmospheric movie palace, which opened on October 15, 1926, with a painted night sky over a Mediterranean courtyard. It nearly fell to the wrecking ball in 1973, until the city stepped in, and it reopened in 1978. Today it is Tampa’s nonprofit movie palace, showing films and concerts and running building tours.
Staff believe projectionist Foster “Fink” Finley, who worked here for about 20 years and died in the building, still walks the balcony, with footsteps, slamming doors and cigarette smoke near the booth. Organist Rosa Rio, who played here until she died aged 107, is said to still play, and investigators link a man in a fedora to seat 308.
Haunted Rooms tip: The theater’s own Ghosts of Tampa Theatre tours run every October and sell out fast.
Where to look The staircases, the museum hallways and the old ballroom
Reported ghosts The Brown Man with glowing eyes, a man in overalls with a janitor's cart, a dancing couple
Visiting Museum open Tuesday to Sunday; the rest is a working university
Hours and season Tuesday to Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM, Sunday noon to 5 PM
Ghost hunting No
Railroad builder Henry B. Plant opened the 511-room Tampa Bay Hotel in 1891, with silver minarets that still define the Tampa skyline. Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders were based here in the Spanish-American War of 1898. The hotel closed in 1930, the University of Tampa moved in from 1933, and the south wing is the Henry B. Plant Museum.
Students and staff tell WFLA of “the Brown Man” with glowing red eyes, said by some to be Plant himself, a tall man in overalls pushing a janitor’s cart through the museum and footsteps in empty classrooms. Older stories add a couple dancing in the old ballroom. The museum’s October evenings have offered moonlit tours with spooky tales.
Haunted Rooms tip: See the museum by day, then walk round the minarets after dark when they are lit.
Address 3400 Gulf Boulevard, St. Pete Beach, FL 33706
Where to look The lobby, the fifth floor, the beach path and the kitchens
Reported ghosts Thomas Rowe in a white suit and Panama hat, a dark-haired woman, a wartime nurse
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
The Pink Palace has stood on the sand at St. Pete Beach since January 1928. Its builder, Thomas Rowe, died in 1940, and he is the ghost everyone talks about: a white-haired man in a white suit and Panama hat who greets guests in the lobby or walks the beach and then is gone. Staff have described knocking on the fifth floor, where Rowe lived, and showers and doors that work by themselves.
The famous love story about Rowe and an opera singer called Lucinda is a fable that a Tampa Bay Times writer traced back to the hotel’s own marketing. The wartime hospital years are real, though, and some of the stories involve a nurse and convalescing airmen. The hotel reopened in March 2025 after Hurricane Helene flooded the ground floor.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the hotel’s own history tour, then walk the beach after dark looking back at the lit-up towers.
Address 501 5th Avenue NE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
Where to look Rooms in the original 1925 building, the upper hallways and the bathrooms
Reported ghosts A man in a 1930s-style coat, a man in a formal suit, a sandy-haired young man
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
The pink Vinoy on St. Petersburg’s waterfront is the hotel that spooked a generation of major league ballplayers. Visiting teams stay here for series against the Rays, and players and coaches have told reporters about a man in an old-fashioned coat by the curtains, a translucent figure by a window, faucets and toilets running on their own and locked, chained doors swinging open in the night.
Opened on New Year’s Eve 1925, the Vinoy was a wartime training base, closed and decayed in the 1970s, then was restored and reopened in 1992. It left the Renaissance brand in 2023 and is now The Vinoy Resort & Golf Club, Autograph Collection. Most stories come from the original building rather than the newer tower.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a room in the historic main building rather than the newer tower.
Where to look The Ashley grave and the oldest plots by Morgan Street
Reported ghosts William and Nancy Ashley walking together, Charles Owen near his grave at sunset
Visiting Grounds open to visitors by day
Ghost hunting No: a historic cemetery
Tampa’s first public burial ground sits at Morgan and Harrison streets downtown. Its graves include the city’s first mayor, Joseph Lancaster, Ybor City founder Vicente Martinez Ybor, yellow fever victims, Confederate soldiers and the gangster Charlie Wall, beaten and killed at his home in 1955. With the neighboring St. Louis Catholic Cemetery it was added to the National Register in 2017.
Its best-known story is a love story. William Ashley and Nancy, a woman he had enslaved, share a single headstone, and local lore says the pair are seen walking the paths together. Historian Deborah Frethem adds Charles Owen, hanged in 1882 after breaking into a wealthy family’s home, who is said to appear near his grave at sunset.
Haunted Rooms tip: Look for the Ashleys’ shared headstone by daylight.
Visiting a haunted place by day is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through a historic building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and vigils, and gives you time to explore on your own. These are the nearest ones we run.
Where to look The original 1897 halls and the cafe named for Maisie Plant
Reported ghosts Maisie Plant, wife of Morton Plant
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
Henry Plant opened the Belleview Hotel in 1897, and for over a century the Belleview Biltmore was one of the largest wooden hotels in the world. Most of it was torn down in 2015 and 2016, but the original 1897 section was saved, moved 375 feet and reopened in December 2018 as the 35-room Belleview Inn.
The old hotel was known for its ghosts: in 2004 the Tampa Bay Times reported staff accounts of apparitions in the halls, knocking on doors and lights switching on and off. Today’s inn is said to keep its most famous resident, Maisie Plant, wife of Henry’s son Morton, whose name lives on in the inn’s cafe, Maisie’s Marketplace.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask the front desk to show you the historic photos of the full hotel before it was cut down.
Reported ghosts Isabelle, a man in 1950s clothes and a ghost cat
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
For most of the last century this Gulfport landmark was the Historic Peninsula Inn & Spa. The building is more than 115 years old, served as a hospital during World War II and later a nursing home, then returned to life as an inn. It closed in 2022, sold, and reopened in late 2023 as The Peninsula Bed & Cocktails, a 16-room boutique hotel with cocktail-themed rooms.
The renovation did not erase its reputation. Author Carol J. Perry describes a gentle ghost known as Isabelle and her small phantom cat, while older accounts tell of a man in 1950s clothes and thumping noises in the rooms and hallways that paranormal investigators have come to record.
Haunted Rooms tip: It is a short walk to Gulfport’s waterfront and casino ballroom; book a room upstairs.
Reported ghosts Unnamed figures reported by staff and guests
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
When the Floridan Hotel opened in 1927, its 19 stories made it the tallest building in Tampa, a title it held until 1966. It stopped taking overnight guests in 1966, closed in 1989 and sat empty for years, reopened as the Floridan Palace in 2012, and after a 25 million dollar renovation became Hotel Flor Tampa, a Hilton Tapestry Collection hotel, in 2024.
The Floridan has long been named among Tampa’s most haunted buildings, and downtown ghost tours stop outside. Visitors and staff have reported unexplained activity in the lobby and the guest rooms, though, unlike some Florida hotels, it has no single famous ghost. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996, and today it has 210 rooms above a restored lobby.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a high floor; the views over downtown are the best in the building.
Address 253 2nd Avenue North, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
Where to look Room 305, the lobby and the front desk
Reported ghosts A longtime concierge who still helps guests
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
Ghost hunting No ghost hunts; stay the night instead
The Cordova Inn opened downtown in 1921 as the Hotel Scott, a modest neoclassical alternative to the grand Vinoy and Don CeSar. It has gone by several names, including Hotel Cordova and the Pier Hotel, and took back the Cordova name in 2014, with a wide front porch a block from the waterfront.
Its ghost is a helpful one. Staff told Axios that the presence they feel is most likely the hotel’s longtime concierge, who is said to have died on the premises and still looks after guests. There are no grim legends here, just the sense that someone is still keeping an eye on the front desk. That makes the Cordova a gentle first haunted stay, a short walk from the Vinoy and the waterfront parks.
Haunted Rooms tip: Pair it with a drink at the Vinoy, a five-minute walk away, for two haunted hotels in one evening.
Where to look The shop floor where the tailor's chairs stood
Reported ghosts Chairs that moved, a man in a top hat, bloodied scissors
Visiting Now a cafe and bar, open to customers
Ghost hunting No
This downtown storefront on North Tampa Street was a Richard Bennett tailor’s shop until late 1989, when it was abandoned with everything inside. Ellen and David Brown opened a secondhand bookshop here in the 1990s, keeping the tailor’s old tables, shelves and low chairs, and the Old Tampa Book Company became part of Tampa’s ghost lore. The bookshop has gone, and since 2023 the space has been Little Tina, a coffee and cocktail bar.
The stories say the tailor’s chairs moved on their own, that the owners found a pair of bloodied scissors on the floor one night, and that passersby photographed a man in a top hat and a woman who seemed to be in pain. The Browns said the tales grew from walking tours and that the blood came from a burglar who cut himself breaking in, so treat it as lore. You can stop in for a coffee.
Haunted Rooms tip: Stop in at Little Tina for a coffee and picture the old bookshop and tailor’s chairs.
These places appear in older lists of haunted spots. We keep them here so you know the facts before you go, but you cannot (or should not) visit them.
The former Don Vicente de Ybor Historic Inn
Ybor City’s “Hotel Hell”, with its stories of a deranged doctor and a man at the foot of the bed in Room 305, closed as an inn after it was sold, and the new owner announced plans to turn it into studio apartments. It is private; see it from the street or on an Ybor ghost tour.
Britton Theatre, Dale Mabry Highway
The old South Tampa cinema with stories of slamming restroom doors and a lady on the balcony closed some years ago and is now a place of worship, WFLA reports. Please do not visit for ghost hunting.
The Florida Brewery building, Ybor City
The old brewery where a man is said to have died after a fight on opening night now houses law offices, according to WFLA. It is private.
Changed from our older guide: the Don Vicente Inn is now apartments, and the Britton Theatre and the old Florida Brewery are no longer public, so they moved to the off-limits list. The gangster Charlie Wall was not killed three days after testifying, as our old page said: he was beaten to death at his home in April 1955, and we could find no source for his ghost at the old federal courthouse, so we removed that entry. We also removed the Fort Brooke parking garage and the Sulphur Springs water tower, because we could not find a reliable source for their ghost stories (soldiers’ and Seminole remains from the Fort Brooke cemeteries were reburied, and the 1927 tower is a restored city landmark). New in this update: Oaklawn Cemetery, Hotel Flor, the Vinoy, the Cordova Inn, the Peninsula and the Belleview Inn.
Visited one of these places? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from visitors and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your visit. We read every story before it’s published.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most haunted place in Tampa?
The Cuban Club in Ybor City is the best known, featured on Ghost Hunters and the Travel Channel. The Tampa Theatre and Plant Hall at the University of Tampa are close behind.
Can you take a ghost tour in Tampa?
Yes. Ybor City ghost tours go inside the Cuban Club, and the Tampa Theatre runs its own Ghosts of Tampa Theatre tours every October. The Henry B. Plant Museum has held October evening tours with spooky tales.
Where can I stay in a haunted hotel near Tampa?
Hotel Flor downtown, the Don CeSar on St. Pete Beach, the Vinoy and the Cordova Inn in St. Petersburg, the Peninsula in Gulfport and the Belleview Inn in Belleair. See our haunted hotels in Florida guide.
Is the Don Vicente Inn still open?
No. The inn in Ybor City closed after it was sold, and the building was converted to apartments. You can only see it from the street.
Does Haunted Rooms run ghost hunts in Tampa?
Not at the moment. Our nearest ghost hunts are listed on this page.
Sources and how we research
Every place in this guide is checked against its official website, historic register listings and news coverage, and we confirm whether it is open, closed, private or gone before we list it. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and local historians tell them; we say so where records contradict a story.
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every place in our guides using official sites, historic registers, local archives and news coverage, and we report ghost stories as the stories they are. We review each guide regularly so you are not sent to a place that has closed, changed hands or banned visitors. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
