The Haunted Banyan Resort, Key West: Captain Cosgrove's House

The Banyan Resort is not a single old hotel but a small estate of historic houses on Whitehead Street, joined together in the 1980s and set around two enormous banyan trees. One of those houses, the Cosgrove House, is the heart of the ghost stories. Captain Phillip Cosgrove bought it in 1871, his wife Myrtle planted the banyan out front, and his family kept the house until 1947.

Key West ghost tour guides say the captain never really left, and the resort’s housekeepers have their own story about a little girl who helps herself to the chocolates left on guests’ pillows, even when the door is locked. The resort itself does not promote its ghosts, so these are tales told by guides, guests and staff over the years, and they are lighter in tone than most on the island.

The ghosts of the Banyan Resort

Captain Phillip Cosgrove

The captain is the resort’s best-known ghost. Local tours say visitors have both seen and heard him around his old house and the gardens behind it. One Key West ghost tour guide told a travel writer that on one walk his group watched a man step out of the bushes right behind him at the Cosgrove House, though the writer on that tour did not see anything herself.

Why the captain would linger is part of the charm of the story. He bought the house at a time when it stood close to the deep-water port and the center of town, and his family held onto it for more than 75 years. If anyone has a claim to the place, it is him.

The girl who takes the chocolates

The resort’s gentlest ghost story belongs to a little girl. Housekeepers leave chocolates on pillows, and the story goes that some of them disappear before guests ever see them, even from rooms that are locked. Staff have long blamed her. Some guests also say they have felt a small presence following them along the garden paths. Nobody has put a name to her.

Knocks and a tap on the shoulder

Older accounts, including the earlier version of this guide, describe a guest who heard knocking with no obvious source and felt as if someone had tapped him, when nobody was nearby. Stories like this are common in Key West’s wooden houses, so take them as atmosphere rather than proof.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• The Cosgrove House suites: Five one-bedroom suites with full kitchens inside the captain’s own house. This is where the Cosgrove stories are centered, and the suites look out on Myrtle’s banyan.
• The front yard banyan: Planted by Myrtle Cosgrove in the early 1900s, at a time when Key West gardens were mostly for food. It now shades much of the yard.
• The rear gardens: Home to the resort’s largest banyan, behind the Sawyer-Thorpe buildings. The little girl is said to follow guests along these paths at night.
• Any room with turndown chocolates: If yours go missing, the staff already have a suspect.

History of The Banyan Resort

The land at 323 Whitehead Street once belonged to John Whitehead, one of the four businessmen who first bought the island of Key West. He sold it in 1829 to P. C. Greene, and the main house was built in 1850, by a man named Lord according to the resort. It changed hands a few times before Captain Phillip L. Cosgrove bought it in 1871 for $1,600. The Cosgroves kept it until 1947.

In the 1800s Key West was not the leafy place it is now. Fresh water came from rain cisterns and was too precious to spend on ornamental gardens. Myrtle Cosgrove wanted shade, so she planted a banyan, a fig whose aerial roots drop down and become new trunks. More than a century later, that tree and a second, larger banyan in the back gardens give the resort its name.

The neighboring houses have their own stories. The Delaney House, built in 1898 by customs collector William L. Delaney, is a Queen Anne design and now holds the reception desk. The Locke House is named for James William Locke, a state senator whom President Grant nominated to the federal bench in 1872. Another building was once a cigar factory, from the decades when Key West called itself the cigar capital of the world.

In the early 1980s the owners joined the homes together as the Banyan Guest House. Slow off-seasons led them into timesharing, then a new idea in the United States, and the Banyan Resort was born. More buildings were added in the late 1980s, including a townhouse with arched windows salvaged from a Flagler hotel. Today it runs as an all-suite resort that sells timeshare weeks and also rents suites by the night.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Book direct. The resort is not on Booking.com. Book through its own site or call 305-296-7786, and ask for a Cosgrove House suite.
• Bring ID. All guests must show photo ID proving they are over 25 at check-in.
• Leave pets at home. The resort is pet-free; service animals need approval in advance.
• Look for the captain at dusk. The garden paths under the banyans are where people say they see him, and they are open to guests after dark.
• Walk to the other stories. The Artist House, home of Robert the Doll, is a few minutes away on Eaton Street.

More haunted hotels nearby

• Marrero's Guest Mansion, Key West: Enriquetta’s vow and Room 7, a short walk away
• The Artist House, Key West: the house where Robert the Doll lived, around the corner on Eaton Street
• The Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables: Miami’s most haunted hotel, on your way to or from the Keys
• Haunted hotels in Florida
• Haunted hotels in Key West

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.

• The Banyan Resort: Our history
• The Banyan Resort: Policies
• Key West Historic Marker Tour: Cosgrove House
• Fun in Key West: The Cosgrove House
• Wander Woman: Key West ghost tours
• Visit Florida Keys: The Banyan Resort

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