Haunted hotel guide · Little Rock, Arkansas

Haunted Empress of Little Rock: The Hornibrook Mansion's Maid, Lady in Pink and Sea Captain

An 1888 Queen Anne mansion in the Quapaw Quarter, now a small boutique inn, with four ghosts in its lore: a maid, a dapper man on the stairs, a lady in pink and an old sea captain.

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

2.8/5Haunted Rooms Score
1888Mansion completed
4Ghosts in local lore

Check availabilityMeet the ghosts

The Empress of Little Rock is the Hornibrook Mansion, a towering Victorian house on South Louisiana Street in the Quapaw Quarter, the old neighborhood of mansions south of downtown. It took seven years to build, and its owner lived in it for only two. Since then it has been a women’s college, a private home, a wartime rooming house for women, a nursing home, apartments and a halfway house, before it was rescued as a bed and breakfast in the 1990s.

Today it is a boutique inn of eight or nine rooms with two MICHELIN Keys, run since 2019 by Antonio Figueroa and Keith Sandridge. The inn sells romance and Victorian craftsmanship, not ghosts, but the house has collected four ghost stories over the years. Here is what people tell, where in the house they tell it, and the real history behind the walls. For the rest of the state, see our guide to haunted hotels in Arkansas.

The Empress at a glance

2.8/5
Haunted Rooms Score
Haunted reputation3
History4
Ghost hunter access1
$$$ · Over $300
  • Address 2120 South Louisiana Street, Little Rock, AR 72206
  • Opened House completed in 1888; a bed and breakfast since the 1990s
  • Most haunted spots The divided staircase, the upstairs hall outside the guest rooms and the old maid’s closet
  • Best-known ghosts A maid, a well-dressed older man on the stairs (a top hat in some tellings, a homburg in others), a lady in pink and an old sea captain
  • Booking the haunted room There is no named haunted room. Ask for a room on the main guest floor near the staircase and hall.
  • Good to know Nine named rooms and suites on the inn’s site (the MICHELIN Guide counts eight), several with jetted spa tubs. The inn does not promote its ghost stories.

Check availability

The ghosts of The Empress of Little Rock

The maid by her closet

The story told most often is of a maid, seen near what is described as her old closet. In older versions of the tale she is a servant of the Hornibrook household. She is not said to do anything frightening; she is simply seen where she would have worked, and then she is gone.

The gentleman on the stairs

The Empress has a divided staircase lit by a stained-glass skylight. On those stairs, guests in the lore have seen a well-dressed man in a hat, as if heading out for the evening. Some versions give him a top hat, others a homburg.

This is the one story with a named witness. Bob Blair, who restored the house with his wife Sharon Welch-Blair from 1993, told THV11 that during the work he saw an older man in a dapper suit watching him from the staircase, and felt he was being urged to take good care of the house. It is tempting to wonder whether he is James Hornibrook, who died at his own front gate two years after the house was finished, but nobody can say.

The lady in pink

A woman in a pink dress is said to stand in the hall outside the guest rooms. Nobody has put a name to her. The house was a women’s college and later a women’s rooming house during the Second World War, so there is no shortage of candidates.

The old sea captain

The oddest of the four is an old sea captain, reported in several of the bedrooms. Little Rock is a long way from salt water, and nothing in the house’s known history explains him, which is part of why people enjoy the story. Like the maid and the lady in pink, he comes from guest-submitted lore rather than any record.

Footsteps, doors and the card room

Shortly after the inn opened, a guest reported footsteps climbing the stairs and a door handle twisting back and forth before the door swung open on an empty room, according to THV11. The same report tells of a carpenter who stepped out of the old card room, Hornibrook’s private gaming room at the top of the house, to fetch stain, and came back to find the door locked.

In a house with octagonal rooms, a tower and a lot of old timber, a few creaks are to be expected. None of the current owners’ marketing mentions ghosts, so these are tales attached to the house, not hotel claims.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

  • The Murray Turret Suite: A suite named for the house’s tower. The main entrance sits at the base of the three-and-a-half-story corner tower.
  • The Washburn-Welch Room and The Petit Jean Room: Two of the inn’s named rooms on its guest floors, close to the hall where the lady in pink is said to stand.
  • The Eliza Cunningham Room: Another of the named rooms, a good pick if you want to be near the staircase where the dapper man is seen.
  • Spa suites: The Hemingway, Majestic and Victoria’s Garden spa suites have jetted tubs; the Pagoda and Chatelaine suites round out the nine.

History of The Empress of Little Rock

James H. Hornibrook and his wife Margaret moved to Little Rock from Toronto in 1867. He went into the liquor and saloon business with Miles Q. Townsend, a partnership that lasted about 22 years, and invested in other ventures. His house, designed by architects Max Orlopp and Casper Kusener, took about seven years to build and was completed in 1888 at a reported cost of $20,000.

It was built to impress. The Empress is one of the finest Queen Anne houses in Arkansas: a two-story brick body with projecting gables, a wraparound porch with turned posts, and a rounded corner tower with an octagonal roof that holds the main entrance. Inside are a divided stairway, a stained-glass skylight, parquet floors and octagonal rooms, about 7,200 square feet in all.

Hornibrook did not enjoy it for long. In 1890, at 49, he hosted an evening at his saloon and died of a stroke at his own front gate on the way home, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Margaret lived in the house until her death in 1893. Arkansas Women’s College used it from 1897, insurance agent and federal marshal Asbury Fowler bought it around 1900, and in the 1940s it was a rooming house for women. In the 1970s it became a nursing home, and it later held apartments and a halfway house.

The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and is part of the Governor’s Mansion Historic District. Sharon Welch-Blair and Bob Blair bought it in 1993, removed added walls, bathrooms and an elevator to restore the original floor plan, and ran it as an inn for about 25 years. In 2019 they sold it, with an adjoining parcel, for $825,000 to Antonio Figueroa, a makeup artist who restores historic homes, and his partner Keith Sandridge, who kept it as an inn.

Tips for a haunted stay

  • Book directly with the inn or through Booking.com; ask for a room on the main guest floor if you want to be near the staircase and hall.
  • Spend time on the staircase under the stained-glass skylight in the evening, when the house is quiet.
  • Walk the Quapaw Quarter after dark; the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion is a few blocks away.
  • Pair a night here with the Capital Hotel downtown for a two-stop haunted Little Rock trip.
  • The inn hosts weddings and events, so weekends can be busy; a weeknight is calmer.

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 Empress of Little Rock haunted?

It has a long-standing ghost reputation. Four figures are named in the stories: a maid, a well-dressed older man on the stairs, a lady in pink in the upstairs hall and an old sea captain in several bedrooms. A former owner told THV11 he saw the man on the stairs himself. The inn does not promote the stories.

Who built the Empress of Little Rock?

James H. Hornibrook, a saloon keeper and businessman who had moved from Toronto, built it over about seven years and completed it in 1888. He died at his front gate in 1890.

How many rooms does the Empress of Little Rock have?

The inn’s own site lists nine named rooms and suites, several with jetted spa tubs; the MICHELIN Guide lists eight.

Is the Empress of Little Rock a MICHELIN hotel?

Yes. The MICHELIN Guide gives it two Keys, and the inn calls itself the only MICHELIN award-winning hotel in Arkansas.

Where is the Empress of Little Rock?

At 2120 South Louisiana Street in the Quapaw Quarter historic district, a short drive south of downtown Little Rock.

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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