The Haunted Curry Mansion Inn, Key West

Key West has plenty of haunted guest houses, but only one was built on the fortune of Florida’s first self-made millionaire. William Curry arrived on the island as a penniless teenager in 1836 and died in 1896 as the richest man in the state. The white mansion his son Milton rebuilt on Caroline Street, with its wraparound porches and widow’s walk, has been an inn since the late twentieth century and still holds the family’s stone hearth.

Its ghost stories are small and domestic. Staff believe a woman seen by the old kitchen hearth is Sarah “Aunt Sally” Curry, the family member credited with making the first Key lime pie. Guests on the second floor describe waking to a housekeeper folding sheets at the foot of the bed and hearing coins drop, and lights are said to drift along the widow’s walk after dark. The inn does not advertise any of this, but Key West’s ghost guides know it well.

The ghosts of the Curry Mansion

Aunt Sally by the hearth

The stone hearth and brick chimney are among the few parts of William Curry’s original 1869 house that survived the rebuild. According to the Haunted Key West guide, a visiting psychic once met the ghost of a woman standing by the hearth in the kitchen. Staff believe she is Sarah Curry, known as Aunt Sally, who is said to have made the island’s first Key lime pie in the house’s cookhouse.

The pie story is itself a local legend: Key West has several claimants to the first Key lime pie, and a Florida Keys history piece tells it as the work of Curry’s daughter-in-law in the stone kitchen. Either way, the hearth is the spot where the family’s cook is said to still be at work.

The housekeeper folding sheets

The most personal story comes from the second floor of the main mansion. Guests describe waking in the night to see a woman in old-fashioned dress folding sheets at the foot of their bed, calm and busy, before she fades away. Some also report hearing coins dropping onto the floor when nobody is there. One version of the tale says she was a maid in the first Curry house who was swept away in a storm, though no record of such a death has been found.

Lights on the widow's walk

From the street, people report small lights moving along the mansion’s rooftop widow’s walk after dark. In a seafaring town where wives once watched for returning ships from just such walks, it is an easy story to believe, and it is visible from Caroline Street without a booking.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• The kitchen hearth: The original stone hearth from 1869, where Aunt Sally is said to appear.
• Second-floor rooms in the main mansion: Where guests report the housekeeper folding sheets and the sound of dropping coins. Request the main house.
• The widow's walk: The rooftop lookout where lights are reported after dark. Best seen from Caroline Street.

History of Curry Mansion Inn

William Curry was born in the Bahamas in 1821 and came to Key West in 1836 at the age of 15. He started as an office boy earning a dollar a week plus room and board, became a clerk and then a partner in his firm, and took it over completely in 1861. Shipping, wrecking, shipbuilding, trade and shrewd investments made him a fortune, and when he died in January 1896 his estate was valued at about $1.5 million, making him Florida’s richest man and its first self-made millionaire. He and his wife Euphemia had eight children, and three sons carried on the business as William Curry’s Sons.

Curry built his family home on Caroline Street in 1869. His son Milton tore most of it down and rebuilt it as the Georgian Revival mansion that stands today, finished with Dade County pine and bird’s eye maple; the inn dates the rebuild to 1901, while other histories give 1905. The original stone hearth and brick chimney were kept. The family left the house around 1920.

After passing through relatives and private owners, the mansion belonged to Dr. Brooks Talton, who opened it for tours during Old Island Days and lived there until 1971. It then stood empty and decayed for several years until Al and Edith Amsterdam, a yachting couple, spotted its chandeliers through the windows on an evening stroll, saw the For Sale sign and bought it. They restored the interiors and turned it into a guest house, and Edith ran the property until her death in 2016 at the age of 91.

Today the Curry Mansion Inn has 29 rooms spread across the mansion and two neighboring buildings, including the James House, with a heated pool and free parking. The inn says it is now owned by Brightwild.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Book the main mansion. The stories come from the second floor of the Curry house itself, not the annex buildings.
• Look up from Caroline Street at night to watch the widow’s walk, whether or not you are staying.
• Take a Key West ghost tour. Several walking tours cover Old Town’s haunted houses, and our Key West haunted hotels guide lists more places to stay.
• Use the parking. Free parking is rare in Old Key West, so it is worth booking here if you are driving down.
• Eat a slice of Key lime pie in Aunt Sally’s honor; the town is full of it.

More haunted hotels nearby

• Marrero's Guest Mansion, Key West: a few blocks away, home to the ghost of Enriquetta Marrero
• The Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables: Florida’s grandest haunted hotel, on the drive back to the mainland
• Haunted places in Miami: more South Florida ghost stories
• 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.

• Curry Mansion Inn (official site)
• Florida Keys Treasures: Tales from the Key West Curry Mansion
• Haunted Key West: Hotels
• Roadtrippers: Ghost Guide to Key West

Booking links on this page are affiliate links. If you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.