Haunted hotel guide · St. Augustine, Florida
The Haunted Casablanca Inn on the Bay, St. Augustine
A 1914 bayfront inn whose Prohibition-era owner is said to still swing her lantern from the roof over Matanzas Bay.
St. Augustine has more ghost stories per block than anywhere else in Florida, and the Casablanca Inn on the Bay has one of the best. It opened in 1914 as the Matanzas Hotel, facing the bay across Avenida Menendez. During Prohibition, the story goes, its widowed owner climbed to the roof with a lantern to warn rum-runners off whenever federal agents were in town. Boaters and people walking the bayfront still say they see a light swinging up there on dark nights.
Unlike many historic hotels, the Casablanca is happy to tell the tale: the inn’s own website has a page called The Lady with the Lantern. Ghost tours have added more spirits over the years, linked to Rooms 8, 10 and 12, the lobby and the courtyard. Some of those tales are newer and harder to trace than the lantern legend, and we flag which is which below.
Casablanca Inn at a glance
Haunted Rooms Score
- Address 24 Avenida Menendez, St. Augustine, FL 32084, on the bayfront facing Matanzas Bay
- Opened 1914, as the Matanzas Hotel, a Mediterranean Revival inn; later a boarding house and then the Casablanca Inn
- Most haunted spots The roof, Rooms 8, 10 and 12, the lobby and the courtyard garden
- Best-known ghosts The Lantern Lady, said to be the inn’s Prohibition-era owner; tour stories add an architect’s wife and a Spanish doctor
- Booking the haunted room Rooms 8, 10 and 12 are the rooms named by ghost tours. Request one when you book directly with the inn.
- Good to know 21 rooms and suites in the Main House, Coach House and Secret Garden. Guests must be 21 or over. Direct bookings include breakfast at Nero’s Waterfront Cafe and drink vouchers for the Tini Martini Bar.
The ghosts of the Casablanca Inn
The Lady with the Lantern
When the Volstead Act banned alcohol, St. Augustine’s waterfront became a busy stop for rum smuggled from Cuba, and the inn tells guests that the Matanzas Hotel was at the center of it. Its proprietor was a well-connected widow who, according to the inn’s own telling, partnered with the smugglers and took one of them as a lover. When federal agents came asking, she said nothing.
Her signal was simple. When a boat approached the inlet and agents were in town, she climbed to the roof and swung a lantern back and forth, and the smugglers sailed on to the next port. When it was safe, the cargo came ashore and she took her cut. Legends of America adds that she was questioned once but never charged, did well enough out of Prohibition to live comfortably afterward and is buried in the Huguenot Cemetery.
Her name has not survived, but her light has. Residents, boaters and pedestrians report a lantern shining or swinging on top of the inn on clear, moonless nights, and some describe a dark figure holding it.
A presence inside the inn
Inside, staff and guests describe a misty female figure, a light touch on the arm, footsteps where nobody is walking and a sudden smell of oranges, all usually credited to the same widow. She is said to be kindly but mischievous: beds unmade after housekeeping, lamps and TVs turning on, objects moved and tablecloths pulled away. One night innkeeper reported loud footsteps and doors opening and closing on an upper floor that had no guests.
Margaret Hantelman in the lobby and Room 8
Ghost City Tours, one of the town’s tour companies, tells a story about the building’s first years. It says the hotel was designed by a German-born architect, Carl Hantelman, and that his wife Margaret died in Room 8 during the hotel’s second season. Her ghost, in 1910s dress, is said to rearrange flowers and furniture in the lobby, mostly around the evening cocktail hour. We could not find records that confirm the death, so treat this one as tour lore.
The Spanish doctor in Rooms 10 and 12
The same company says the site once held a Spanish military infirmary and that its head physician, who died of yellow fever, visits guests in Rooms 10 and 12, standing at the bedside as if taking a pulse, with a smell of medicinal herbs. It also tells of a woman in a white colonial dress searching the courtyard garden. These stories are not in the inn’s own history and could not be checked against historical records, so read them as entertainment rather than history.
The most haunted rooms and places to look
- The roof: Where the Lantern Lady signals. Best seen from the bayfront walk or the seawall across Avenida Menendez after dark.
- Room 8: Linked by ghost tours to Margaret Hantelman. Reported cold spots and temperature swings.
- Rooms 10 and 12: Where tour guides place the Spanish doctor’s bedside visits.
- The lobby: Where furniture and flowers are said to move, usually in the early evening.
- The upper hallways: Footsteps and doors on empty floors, reported by a night innkeeper.
History of Casablanca Inn on the Bay
The inn opened in 1914 as the Matanzas Hotel, a two-story Mediterranean Revival building facing Matanzas Bay, at a time when Henry Flagler’s railroad and grand hotels had made St. Augustine a winter destination for wealthy Northerners. Tour company histories credit its design to a German immigrant architect named Carl Hantelman, with white stucco walls, ornate metalwork and decorative tile.
Around 1920 the building was bought by the widow at the center of the lantern legend. Legends of America says she first ran it as the Bayfront Boarding House, known for clean rooms and good meals, then renamed it the Casablanca Inn a few years later. During Prohibition the inn reportedly hosted federal agents as guests while its owner quietly helped the smugglers working the bay. Prohibition ended in 1933.
Later decades brought the usual changes for a small seaside hotel, and according to tour histories it housed officers from nearby military bases during World War II. The building was restored as a boutique inn, and the same accounts say renovation workers were among the first to report odd activity.
Today the Casablanca Inn on the Bay has 21 individually decorated rooms and suites spread across the Main House, the Coach House and the Secret Garden, with bay views, a historic verandah, Nero’s Waterfront Cafe and the Tini Martini Bar. It is adults only, for guests 21 and over. The inn sits a short walk from the Castillo de San Marcos, the Bridge of Lions and the downtown ghost tour departure points.
Tips for a haunted stay
- Watch the roof from across the street. The Lantern Lady is reported on clear nights with no moon, seen from the bayfront rather than from inside.
- Request Room 8, 10 or 12 when you book directly. Direct bookings also get breakfast for two and drink vouchers that third-party sites do not include.
- Remember the age limit. Guests must be 21 or over, so this is a couples’ haunted stay, not a family one.
- Join a walking ghost tour. St. Augustine has several, and many pass the inn on the bayfront. See our guide to haunted places in St. Augustine.
- Pair it with the lighthouse. The St. Augustine Lighthouse is a short drive over the Bridge of Lions and is famous for its own ghost stories.
More haunted hotels nearby
- Casa Monica, St. Augustine: an 1888 castle hotel a few blocks inland
- St. Augustine Lighthouse: the town’s most famous haunted landmark
- Haunted places in Jacksonville: more ghost stories about 45 minutes north
- Haunted hotels in Florida
- Haunted places in St. Augustine
Stayed in one of these hotels? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from guests and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your stay. We read every story before it’s published.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Casablanca Inn in St. Augustine haunted?
It is one of the town’s best-known haunted inns. Its signature story is the Lady with the Lantern, a Prohibition-era owner said to signal rum-runners from the roof, whose light boaters and passers-by still report. The stories are legend and personal accounts, not proof.
Who is the Lantern Lady?
According to the inn, she was the widowed owner of the Matanzas Hotel during Prohibition who swung a lantern on the roof to warn smugglers when federal agents were in town. Her name is not known.
Which rooms are haunted at the Casablanca Inn?
Ghost tours name Rooms 8, 10 and 12 as the most active, along with the lobby. You can request these rooms when booking directly.
Is the Casablanca Inn adults only?
Yes. Guests must be 21 or older.
When was the Casablanca Inn built?
It opened in 1914 as the Matanzas Hotel and took the Casablanca Inn name in the 1920s, according to local histories.
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.
- Casablanca Inn on the Bay (official site)
- Casablanca Inn: The Lady with the Lantern
- Legends of America: Haunted St. Augustine
- Ghost City Tours: The Ghosts of the Casablanca Inn
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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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