Haunted hotel guide · Dallas, Texas

The Stoneleigh, Dallas: Margaret, the Colonel and the Haunted Penthouse

A 1923 apartment hotel with Texas’s first penthouse, a secret love affair and a fall from the top floor. Staff say Margaret is still here, and busiest when it storms.

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

4.2/5Haunted Rooms Score

1923Year opened

12th floorThe Penthouse, Margaret's haunt

Check availabilityMeet the ghosts

The Stoneleigh opened on Maple Avenue in Uptown Dallas in October 1923 as a 12-story luxury apartment hotel, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. For decades it was Le Méridien Dallas, The Stoneleigh. After a full renovation it reopened in May 2026 as The Stoneleigh, Autograph Collection, with 176 rooms and suites, a new Italian supper club and the same famous penthouse on the 12th floor.

That penthouse is the heart of Dallas’s best-loved hotel ghost story. Margaret, said to have been the mistress of the man who built it, is believed to slip through the upper floors, flicker the lights, ride the elevator and shatter glasses at the bar. WFAA, CBS News Texas and Visit Dallas have all covered her, and it is the most romantic entry on our list of haunted hotels in Dallas and Fort Worth.

The ghosts of The Stoneleigh, Autograph Collection

Margaret, the mistress on the top floor

The Stoneleigh’s resident ghost is known only as Margaret. The story, told by the hotel’s staff to WFAA and repeated by Visit Dallas and CandysDirt, is that in the 1930s she was the mistress of Colonel Harry Stewart, the owner who built the penthouse, or in some versions of the hotel’s first manager. She is said to have used hidden service passages and stairways to reach their meetings unseen.

In the late 1930s, the legend goes, Margaret died in a fall from the top floor. Nobody agrees whether she jumped, was pushed or slipped, and some tellings place the fall on a staircase rather than from a window. No record of her death has been published, so her identity remains a mystery. Staff describe a woman in a 1930s-style silk dress, seen mostly on the top floors and around the penthouse.

Shattering glasses and a mind of her own

Margaret is said to make her feelings known. Guests and staff report flickering lights, doors that open on their own and glasses that shatter at the bar, which staff tend to blame on Margaret being unhappy about something.

The most repeated detail is that her activity peaks during thunderstorms. Visit Dallas says the reports intensify when storms roll over the city, and staff have told local media the same.

The elevator that rides to the penthouse

Several accounts describe the elevator moving between floors with nobody inside, sometimes rising all the way to the penthouse level on its own. Staff have tied it to Margaret, still making her way to the floor where she met the colonel.

Colonel Harry Stewart in a black suit

Margaret may not be alone. WFAA reported a female guest who slept with the lights on for two nights after seeing a man in a black suit standing in her room. When staff later showed her an old photograph, she identified the man as Colonel Harry Stewart, the owner who created the penthouse in the 1930s.

The nightstand full of water and the dogs in the hallway

Two of the stranger stories come from WFAA’s reporting. One guest woke to find his nightstand filled with water, with no leak or source anyone could find. It happened again in a different room on a later stay, and he said he would not be back.

Employees have also described hearing dogs barking in empty hallways when no dogs were in the building. During CBS News Texas filming for the hotel’s 100th anniversary in 2023, the reporter felt nothing unusual on site, but the crew say a woman’s scream could be heard in the background when they reviewed their interview footage.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• The Penthouse Suite (12th floor): Colonel Stewart’s 1,508-square-foot residence with a private rooftop terrace, original wood floors and Art Deco details. It is where Margaret is most often placed, and it can be booked.
• The 11th floor: Stewart first turned the 11th floor into his penthouse before adding the 12th-floor residence. Its Signature Suites share access to The Library lounge with the Penthouse.
• The elevator: Said to travel between floors, and up to the penthouse, with nobody inside.
• Bar Leonessa: The new bar where earlier staff reported glasses shattering when Margaret was displeased. A good place to start a ghost-hunting evening.
• Maggie's Suite: A 1920s-inspired suite with carved wood paneling, a gas fireplace and stained glass. The hotel does not say whether the name is a nod to Margaret, but fans of the story will want it.

History of The Stoneleigh, Autograph Collection

The Stoneleigh Court opened on October 18, 1923, as a 12-story apartment hotel designed by Dallas architect Frank J. Woerner, built of brick and terra cotta in a blend of Gothic Revival and early Art Deco. The hotel says it was once billed as the tallest building west of the Mississippi, and it is generally described as the second-oldest hotel in Dallas. Wealthy residents took apartments for long stays.

In 1934 Colonel Harry E. Stewart, a frequent guest, bought the building. He turned the 11th floor into what the hotel calls the first penthouse in Texas, later adding a 12th-floor residence, and hired the pioneering interior designer Dorothy Draper, who brought English oak and Italian marble to the top two floors. Service tunnels and stairways used by staff in those years have since been sealed off, which is where the story of Margaret’s secret visits comes from.

Over the decades the Stoneleigh hosted celebrities including Elvis Presley, Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It traded for years as Le Méridien Dallas, The Stoneleigh, and in October 2023 it celebrated its 100th anniversary with a gala.

The hotel then closed for a full renovation and reopened in May 2026 as part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection. London studio Fettle designed interiors that pay tribute to Draper, and chef Michael White leads the new Lions Den restaurant and Bar Leonessa. The hotel now has 104 guest rooms and 72 suites, including the Penthouse, the Draper Suite and Maggie’s Suite.

Tips for a haunted stay

• If budget allows, book the 12th-floor Penthouse Suite. It is the room most tied to Margaret and Colonel Stewart.
• Watch the forecast. Staff say Margaret is most active during thunderstorms, so a spring storm-season stay is the classic choice.
• Ask staff about Margaret at the bar. The hotel has been happy to talk about her, and in 2025 it hosted a Halloween event on the 11th floor.
• For a cheaper night, book a high floor and spend the evening around the elevator lobby and the bar.
• Make a weekend of it: the Adolphus and the former Scott Hotel downtown are both a short drive away.

More haunted hotels nearby

• The Adolphus: downtown’s 1912 landmark and its Lady in White on the 19th floor
• La Quinta Inn & Suites Dallas Downtown: the former Scott Hotel and its notorious Room 1009
• Stockyards Hotel: Bonnie and Clyde’s room in Fort Worth’s Stockyards
• Haunted hotels in Texas
• Haunted hotels in Dallas

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 Stoneleigh, Autograph Collection: history (Marriott, official)
• Stoneleigh Court Hotel, National Register of Historic Places record (NPS NPGallery)
• Suites at The Stoneleigh (Marriott, official)
• Dallas haunted hotel: Le Meridien The Stoneleigh (WFAA)
• Haunted Hospitality: Dallas Hotels Where the Past Still Checks In (CandysDirt, Oct 2025)
• Dallas' Iconic Stoneleigh Hotel Reopens as Part of Autograph Collection (Dallas Innovates, May 2026)
• Haunted Hotels in Dallas (Visit Dallas)

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.