The Haunted Gadsden Hotel, Douglas: Room 333, Pancho Villa's Staircase and the Border Town Ghosts

The Gadsden Hotel is the tallest building in Douglas, a former copper smelter town on the Mexican border in southeastern Arizona. It opened in November 1907 as the meeting place for the region’s cattlemen, ranchers and mining men, burned in February 1928 and was rebuilt on a grander scale in 1929. Its lobby is the showpiece: a white Italian marble staircase, marble columns, gold leaf and a 42-foot stained glass mural of the desert.

It is also one of the best-known haunted hotels in Arizona. Its manager has said the hotel does not market itself as haunted, but staff have told local TV about visitors who come specifically to stay in Room 333, and Sightings covered its ghosts in 1995. The hotel has been through hard times and a long renovation in recent years, so check what is open before you travel.

The ghosts of The Gadsden Hotel

Room 333

Room 333 is the room people come for. The best-known story is that a young boy fell to his death from its window, and in 2016 the general manager told KGUN 9 that the hotel gets a lot of visitors who want to see Room 333. At the time it was the only room rented on an otherwise empty floor.

Other tellings put a woman in the room. In 2019 KGUN 9 reported that a female ghost there is said to switch the lamp and TV on and off. Guests have also described knocking, and the feeling of someone lying down next to them in bed.

The boy on the mezzanine

Manager Tanya Duarte told Arizona Highways that the hotel does not promote itself as haunted, but she believes in its spirits, including a mischievous little boy. She also described standing on the mezzanine and hearing a voice say “You did a good job” when nobody was there.

Older accounts name a boy called Jonathan among the spirits seen by guests and employees, alongside an elderly woman, a young woman and a soldier.

The headless figure in the basement

The basement once had a reputation for gambling, liquor and women, and the owners at one point planned to turn it into a speakeasy. Ghost stories place a headless figure down here.

This is one of the hotel’s older legends, repeated in ghost guides rather than reported by current staff, so treat it as folklore.

Sara and the upper floors

An elderly woman, sometimes called Sara, is said to walk the upper floors. A guest wrote in 2015 of hearing a child singing and footsteps on an unoccupied floor above.

The upper floors have been closed to guests or used as apartments for long stretches, which only adds to the stories about who is walking around up there.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Room 333: The hotel’s famous haunted room on the third floor. Call ahead to ask if it is available.
• The mezzanine: Home to the Ralph Baker stained glass mural and, staff say, a mischievous boy.
• The marble staircase: Where Pancho Villa is said to have ridden his horse and chipped the seventh step. Look for the mark.
• The basement: Linked to the headless figure. Ask staff whether any part of it is open to visitors.

History of The Gadsden Hotel

Douglas was founded around the copper smelters that processed ore from Bisbee, and in 1907 the Gadsden opened to serve the men who came to do business there. It took its name from the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, when the United States bought this strip of land from Mexico. El Paso architect Henry Trost, who designed hundreds of buildings across the Southwest, drew up the hotel.

On February 7, 1928 fire destroyed most of the building, leaving the marble staircase, the marble columns and the elevator cabin. Trost rebuilt it bigger and grander, and it reopened in 1929 with 160 rooms, each with its own bathroom, a manually operated elevator still in use today, and a telephone switchboard now in the hotel museum. The lobby mural, a 42-foot stained glass desert of saguaros, ocotillo and prickly pear, is by Ralph Baker, who studied under Louis Comfort Tiffany.

The most famous story is that Pancho Villa rode his horse up the marble staircase and chipped the seventh step. Villa was certainly in the area during the Mexican Revolution, but even the hotel’s manager told KGUN 9 in 2016 that he could not say it was true. Hollywood liked the hotel more reliably: The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, Ruby Jean and Joe and Terminal Velocity all filmed here, and Thornton Wilder stayed for about two months in 1962. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Recent decades have been bumpy. In 2016 the hotel was losing money and its future was in doubt; Anel and Florencio Lopez bought it to save it, and in November 2022 three Seattle investors took over. In late 2023 the owners laid off most of the staff and closed the restaurant and tavern to fund renovations, reopening the Saddle and Spur Tavern in January 2024. The Baker mural has been cleaned and repaired, and plans call for rebuilding the upper floors as guest rooms.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Call the front desk before you book to check which rooms, floors and dining are open; the renovation has changed things often.
• Ask about Room 333 directly; it is not sold by number online.
• Visit the lobby in the late afternoon, when the sun lights up the stained glass mural.
• Look for the chip on the seventh step of the staircase, and the cattle brands on the walls of the Saddle and Spur Tavern.
• Combine Douglas with Bisbee, about 25 miles west, and stay a night at the Copper Queen Hotel.

More haunted hotels nearby

• Copper Queen Hotel, Bisbee: Julia Lowell’s Room 315, about 25 miles west
• The Oliver House, Bisbee: where Haunted Rooms has run ghost hunt sleepovers
• Haunted hotels in Tombstone: about an hour northwest
• Haunted hotels in Arizona

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 Gadsden Hotel (official site)
• About the hotel (The Gadsden Hotel)
• Gadsden Hotel: history, legend and hauntings (KGUN 9, 2016)
• New life for the historic Gadsden Hotel (KGUN 9, 2019)
• Gadsden Hotel (Arizona Highways)
• Gadsden Hotel lays off most employees (KGUN 9, 2023)
• Gadsden Hotel reopens Saddle and Spur Tavern (KGUN 9, 2024)
• Gadsden Hotel (Wikipedia)

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