Haunted hotel guide · Wichita, Kansas

The Haunted Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview, Wichita: Clarence and the Crystal Ballroom

A 1922 brick hotel on the Arkansas River that hosted Lindbergh and, the story goes, Al Capone, where guests blame a ghost called Clarence for phones that will not stop ringing.

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

2.5/5Haunted Rooms Score

1922Year opened

8th floorWhere Clarence's story ends

Check availability Meet the ghosts

The Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview stands at 400 West Douglas Avenue, right where downtown Wichita meets the Arkansas River. It opened in 1922 as the Broadview Hotel, an eight-story brick landmark built for the city’s boom years, and local tour guides say it welcomed aviators Charles Lindbergh and Clyde Cessna, gangster Al Capone and, during Prohibition, a speakeasy crowd. Today it is a full-service Drury hotel with an indoor pool, a fitness room and river views from the upper floors.

It also has a ghost with a name. Wichita ghost tours have told the story of Clarence for years, and guests have added their own reports: phones that ring over and over, furniture rearranged overnight and dancers in 1920s clothes in the Crystal Ballroom. It is the best-known haunted stay in Wichita and one of the classic haunted hotels in Kansas.

Drury Plaza Broadview at a glance

2.5/5
Haunted Rooms Score

Haunted reputation3

History3

Ghost hunter access1

$$ · $150 to $300

Address 400 W Douglas Ave, Wichita, KS 67202
Opened 1922 as the Broadview Hotel; north wing 1929, Crystal Ballroom 1948; National Register 2009; renovated by Drury Hotels in 2011
Most haunted spots The eighth floor, the Crystal Ballroom and the guest-room phones
Best-known ghosts Clarence, said to have died in 1929, and dancers in 1920s dress in the ballroom
Booking the haunted room There is no haunted room to book. Ask for a high floor in the historic building; Clarence’s story ends on the eighth floor.
Good to know A large, modern chain hotel inside a historic shell. The ghost stories come from tour guides and guests, not from the hotel itself, so do not expect staff to play along.

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The ghosts of the Broadview

Clarence, the jealous husband

The story told on Wichita ghost tours is set in 1929. A businessman named Clarence was staying at the Broadview with his wife when he found her with another man. He shot her, the tale goes, then went back up to his eighth-floor room and jumped from the window to his death.

Tour guide Jared Hansen, who told the story to a KMUW reporter on a 2014 tour, openly admitted that he adds a few details of his own. No newspaper record of the shooting has been published, so treat Clarence as a local legend rather than a documented case. Hansen also describes him as more of a prankster than an angry spirit.

The phone that rings over and over

Clarence’s favorite trick, by most accounts, involves the telephones. Guests have complained of a room phone that rings “over and over and over” with nobody on the line, and stories passed on by travel writers say he also places calls to the front desk from rooms that turn out to be empty.

Other reports blame him for lights switching on and off, items moved around the bathroom, furniture shifted so far that the room looks rearranged and doors that shake hard in the night.

The upside-down room

The strangest Broadview story belongs to a flight attendant. According to the tour, she came back to her room to find the curtains stuck to the ceiling, as if the whole room had been turned upside down. She spent the rest of the night in the lobby.

It is a single, secondhand account, but it is the one Wichita guides like to finish on.

Dancers in the Crystal Ballroom

Some visitors say the party never ended. A KMUW reporter heard on the 2014 tour that people have seen dancers in 1920s clothing moving across the floor of the Crystal Ballroom when the room was empty.

There is a wrinkle in that story: according to Drury Hotels, the Crystal Ballroom was not built until 1948, a generation after the flapper era. Whatever people are seeing, the room itself never hosted a 1920s dance. Other reports from the hotel include the sound of flapping wings in an empty hallway and an empty soap dispenser clicking by itself in the kitchen.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

The eighth floor: The top of the historic building and the floor where Clarence’s story ends. Ask for a room up here when you book.
The Crystal Ballroom: Added in 1948, with a mosaic by Native American artist Blackbear Bosin, and where the 1920s dancers are reported. It is used for events, so look in if the doors are open during the day.
Your room phone: The most common report. If it rings and nobody is there, you are in good company.
The lobby: Where the flight attendant is said to have spent the night after finding her curtains on the ceiling.

History of Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview

Construction of the Broadview began on September 15, 1921, on the east bank of the Arkansas River at Douglas Avenue, the main street that ties downtown Wichita to the river, and the first guests arrived eight months later, in 1922. The National Park Service credits the design to Ed Forsblom and George Siedhoff. Wichita was growing fast on cattle, oil and grain money, and the eight-story brick hotel was built to be the city’s grand address, with rooms that looked out across the water. A north wing followed in 1929.

In the 1920s and 1930s Wichita became the “Air Capital of the World,” home to Cessna, Beech and Stearman. Local guides say the Broadview hosted aviation names such as Charles Lindbergh and Clyde Cessna in those years, along with less respectable visitors including Al Capone. During Prohibition, the same guides say, the hotel kept a speakeasy for guests who wanted a drink.

In 1948 the hotel added the Crystal Ballroom, with a mosaic by Blackbear Bosin, the Native American artist who later created Wichita’s Keeper of the Plains sculpture. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 19, 2009, and Drury Hotels completed a renovation in 2011. Today it trades as the Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview, a full-service hotel with suites, an indoor pool and hot tub, a fitness center and meeting space, close to the Old Town entertainment district and the riverside trails.

The ghost stories grew up alongside Wichita’s walking ghost tours. A 2014 KMUW report followed one of those tours to the Broadview, where the guide told the story of Clarence and his guests reported the phones, the curtains and the ballroom dancers. The tales have been repeated by travel writers ever since.

Tips for a haunted stay

Ask for a high floor with a river view. The eighth floor is where the Clarence story ends.
Keep your room phone where you can reach it. If it starts ringing with nobody on the line, note the time.
Walk the river path at night: the hotel facade and the river lights make the best photograph in downtown Wichita.
Old Town, with its restaurants and bars, is a short walk east along Douglas Avenue.
Pair your stay with other haunted places in Wichita, and see Haunted Rooms ghost hunts in Kansas for organized investigations.

More haunted hotels nearby

The Beaumont Hotel, Beaumont: about an hour east, a fly-in railroad hotel with Zeke the cowboy ghost
Midland Railroad Hotel, Wilson: an 1899 limestone hotel with a haunted third floor, about two hours northwest
The Eldridge Hotel, Lawrence: home of the famous Room 506, about two and a half hours northeast
Haunted hotels in Kansas

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Frequently asked questions

Is the Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview in Wichita haunted?

It has a long ghost reputation. Wichita ghost tours tell the story of Clarence, a guest said to have died in 1929, and guests report phones ringing with nobody on the line, moved furniture, lights switching on and off and 1920s dancers in the Crystal Ballroom.

Who is Clarence at the Broadview Hotel?

According to the local ghost tour, Clarence was a businessman who found his wife with another man in 1929, shot her and jumped from his eighth-floor room. The guide who tells it admits the story has been embellished, and no records of the event have been published.

When was the Broadview Hotel in Wichita built?

Construction began in September 1921 and it opened in 1922 as the Broadview Hotel, an eight-story brick hotel on the Arkansas River at Douglas Avenue. A north wing followed in 1929 and the Crystal Ballroom in 1948. It is now the Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview and has been on the National Register since 2009.

Did Al Capone stay at the Broadview Hotel?

Local tour guides say Al Capone stayed there, along with Charles Lindbergh and Clyde Cessna, and that the hotel ran a speakeasy during Prohibition. These are popular local stories rather than documented guest records.

Which room is haunted at the Drury Plaza Broadview?

No single room is named. Most stories point to the eighth floor, where Clarence’s tale ends, and to the Crystal Ballroom.

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.

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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