Haunted hotel guide · New York City

The Haunted Algonquin Hotel, NYC: Dorothy Parker and the Round Table Ghosts

America’s most famous literary hotel, where the wits of the Round Table drank and quarreled, and where guests say some of them never checked out.

By The Haunted Rooms Team · Updated November 2026 · How we rate hotels

3.0/5Haunted Rooms Score
1902Year opened
1919 to 1929Round Table years

Check availabilityMeet the ghosts

The Algonquin Hotel has stood on West 44th Street, a few minutes’ walk from Times Square and Grand Central, since November 1902. It is best known as the home of the Algonquin Round Table, the group of writers, critics and actors who lunched together here through the 1920s, and as the hotel with a resident cat. It is also one of the oldest names on any list of haunted hotels in New York City.

The ghost stories center on the Round Table itself, and above all on Dorothy Parker, the poet and critic whose sharp tongue made her the group’s star. For decades guests and staff have reported seeing figures from the 1920s in the lobby, bar and dining room, and hearing footsteps where no one is walking. Today the hotel is The Algonquin Hotel Times Square, part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, and you can sleep just steps from the famous round table.

Algonquin Hotel at a glance

3.0/5
Haunted Rooms Score
Haunted reputation3
History5
Ghost hunter access1
$$$ · Over $300
  • Address 59 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036
  • Opened November 22, 1902
  • Most haunted spots The lobby and its Round Table portrait, the Round Table room, the Blue Bar, the ninth floor
  • Best-known ghosts Dorothy Parker and other members of the Round Table
  • Booking the haunted room No specific room is linked to the ghosts. Ask for a ninth-floor room when you book.
  • Good to know About 181 rooms and suites; a New York City landmark; the lobby cat is Hamlet VIII

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The ghosts of The Algonquin Hotel

Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker was the Round Table’s most famous voice, and she is the Algonquin’s most famous ghost. Reports of her presence began not long after her death in 1967 and went on for more than fifty years. The best-known story is told by families: children running and shouting in the lobby say a ‘mean woman’ told them to be quiet, and point to her in the large painting of the Round Table on the lobby wall.

There is a strange postscript. Parker left her estate to Martin Luther King Jr., and her unclaimed ashes spent years in a lawyer’s filing cabinet before being placed in a memorial garden at NAACP headquarters in Baltimore in 1988. In August 2020 the Dorothy Parker Society brought them back to New York, and she was buried with her family at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Some fans say the Algonquin sightings faded after that. Skeptics, including Greg Young of the Bowery Boys podcast, point out that the hotel’s haunted history is mostly anecdote.

The rest of the Round Table

Parker is not said to be alone. Staff and guests have long described seeing members of the Round Table, among them George S. Kaufman and Harpo Marx in some versions, walking through the lobby, the bar and the dining room, as if lunch never ended. Reports grew after the 2004 renovation, when some suggested the old regulars did not approve of the changes.

Footsteps on the ninth floor

One well-known guest account comes from the ninth floor. The guest was woken by a sound like a razor tapping on a porcelain sink, switched on the bathroom light and found it empty. The next night, coming back to his room near 2 a.m., he heard footsteps climbing the stairwell toward him, getting closer and closer, but no one ever appeared.

Investigations and odd moments

A paranormal investigation at the hotel in 2016 with investigator Doug McMillan reported a range of activity, and a Gawker writer tried a Ouija board in 2015 and concluded only that Parker ‘may be’ present. Elle Decor reported unexplained noises in the attic during renovations and a photograph of Parker that flew off a wall and shattered. Staff have also mentioned footprints appearing on freshly cleaned floors.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

  • The lobby and the Round Table portrait: Where children say the ‘mean woman’ in the painting told them to hush.
  • The Round Table room: The restored table where the group lunched from 1919 to 1929.
  • The Blue Bar: Opened in 1933 after Prohibition and moved into the main lobby in 2022. A drink here is the easiest way to visit.
  • The ninth floor: Tapping in an empty bathroom and footsteps on the stairs at 2 a.m.

History of The Algonquin Hotel

The Algonquin was designed by Goldwin Starrett and built by the Puritan Realty Company in 1901 and 1902 as a residential hotel. It opened on November 22, 1902. Frank Case, hired as a clerk that year, leased the hotel in 1907, bought it in 1927 and ran it until his death in 1946. He made it a home for writers and actors and started many of its traditions.

The most famous began in 1919, when a lunch for critic Alexander Woollcott turned into a daily habit. For ten years Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Robert E. Sherwood, George S. Kaufman, Edna Ferber, Harold Ross and others traded insults and jokes at a round table in the dining room, calling themselves the Vicious Circle. Harold Ross went on to found The New Yorker in 1925.

The hotel cat tradition dates from the late 1920s, when a stray named Rusty was renamed Hamlet at John Barrymore’s suggestion. Male cats have been called Hamlet and females Matilda ever since, and the current cat, Hamlet VIII, arrived in 2017. Ben and Mary Bodne bought the hotel in 1946 and owned it for about four decades.

Later owners included the Aoki Corporation, Camberley, Miller Global Properties and HEI Hospitality. The hotel joined Marriott’s Autograph Collection in 2010 and was bought by Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors in 2011. It closed for renovation in 2004 and again in 2012, was shut from March 2020 to April 2021 during the pandemic, and had its Round Table area and Blue Bar renovated in 2022. The original round table was restored in 2024. It is a New York City landmark and a member of Historic Hotels of America.

Tips for a haunted stay

  • Ask for a ninth-floor room when you book, and confirm the request at check-in.
  • Even if you are staying elsewhere, have a drink in the Blue Bar or lobby and look for Dorothy Parker in the Round Table painting.
  • Say hello to Hamlet, the lobby cat. He has his own fans and keeps the hotel’s oldest tradition going.
  • Read some Dorothy Parker before your stay. Her short stories and verse are the best introduction to the people said to haunt the place.
  • Combine your stay with the city’s other haunted hotels in our guide to haunted hotels in NYC.

Want to investigate, not just sleep?

Sleeping in a haunted hotel is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through the building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and lets you explore on your own during free roam.

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Frequently asked questions

Is the Algonquin Hotel haunted?

It has one of the oldest ghost reputations in New York City. Guests and staff have reported members of the 1920s Round Table, especially Dorothy Parker, in the lobby, bar and dining room, along with footsteps on the ninth floor. These are stories and anecdotes rather than proof.

Does Dorothy Parker haunt the Algonquin?

That is the hotel’s best-known ghost story. Children have said a ‘mean woman’ in the Round Table painting told them to be quiet. Some fans say the reports faded after her ashes were buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx in 2020.

What was the Algonquin Round Table?

A group of writers, critics and actors, including Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman, Edna Ferber and Harold Ross, who met for lunch at the hotel from 1919 to 1929.

Does the Algonquin Hotel still have a cat?

Yes. The hotel has kept a cat since the late 1920s. Males are named Hamlet and females Matilda, and the current cat is Hamlet VIII.

Is the Algonquin Hotel still open?

Yes. It is The Algonquin Hotel Times Square, part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, at 59 West 44th Street.

Which floor of the Algonquin is haunted?

The best-known guest story comes from the ninth floor, where a guest heard tapping in an empty bathroom and footsteps on the stairs with no one there.

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

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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 hotel in our guides using hotel histories, local archives, news coverage and the accounts of guests and staff, and we review each guide regularly so you are not booking a hotel that has closed or changed its name. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.

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