Haunted Places in Bakersfield, CA: 3 to Visit and 4 to Leave Alone
A 1928 hotel that sat half-derelict for decades, a pioneer village of 50 moved buildings and a newspaper office with a ghost dog. Bakersfield’s ghost stories are local lore; here is what we could check, and what you can still see.
Bakersfield’s haunted places are all close to downtown: the Padre Hotel on 18th Street, the old Californian building on Eye Street and the Kern County Museum a couple of miles north on Chester Avenue. Several places on older lists are gone, private or simply roads and schools, so we have moved them to a separate list.
Reported ghosts A giggling girl in 1920s clothes, unseen hands, figures on the seventh floor
Visiting A working hotel; bars and restaurants open to the public
Ghost hunting Not offered
The Padre opened in 1928 as an eight-story Spanish Colonial Revival luxury hotel and restaurant. Milton “Spartacus” Miller owned it for 45 years from 1954; from the 1960s the upper floors were condemned and squatted while the bar downstairs carried on. Restored from 2002, it reopened in 2010 as a boutique hotel with restaurants and a rooftop bar.
Published histories repeat stories of a deadly 1950s fire on the seventh floor and of suicides from the roof, though we found no contemporary record of the fire, and most of its ghost stories gather on that seventh floor. Guests and staff describe being pushed by unseen hands, a little girl in 1920s or 1930s clothes who giggles and leaves small handprints, and workers during the renovation said they were touched and pushed. These are reports, not documented events.
What investigators report
On Portals to Hell, investigators reported a REM pod flashing and beeping in Room 704 on the seventh floor, seemingly in response to questions, and heard unexplained bangs on the empty sixth floor.
Where to look The Victorian houses and the one-room schoolhouse in Pioneer Village
Reported ghosts Party sounds in an empty house, chalk on a blackboard
Visiting Museum and outdoor village open to visitors
Hours and season Wed to Sun 9am to 4pm; last entry 3:30pm
Ghost hunting Ask the museum about seasonal events
The Kern County Museum’s Pioneer Village spreads over 16 acres north of downtown, with more than 50 historic buildings moved here from around the county: a one-room schoolhouse, a church, a photography studio, a train station, a hotel, a courthouse and Victorian homes. The county founded the museum in 1941, and out front stands a 1964 rebuild of the Beale Memorial Clock Tower, using the bell and works saved after the 1952 earthquake.
Local stories say the village is not quite empty. Visitors describe the sounds of a long-ago birthday party in one of the houses, voices and figures near the Victorian homes, and the tap of chalk on the blackboard in the schoolhouse, said to be a former teacher. They are museum legends rather than recorded events.
Haunted Rooms tip: Visit in daylight and walk the whole village; the schoolhouse is the one people talk about.
Reported ghosts A German shepherd, an editor and a security guard
Visiting Private building; exterior only
Ghost hunting Not allowed
Publisher Alfred Harrell moved The Bakersfield Californian into this building on Eye Street in 1926, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The newspaper moved its offices to California Avenue in March 2025; the historic building stayed with the Harrell-Fritts family.
Newsroom lore said the building had a ghost dog, a German shepherd who came to work with his owner and kept looking for him after both had died, along with an old editor and a security guard still on duty. With the paper gone, the building is private; admire it from the sidewalk.
These places appear in older lists of haunted spots. We keep them here so you know the facts before you go, but you cannot (or should not) visit them.
Bakersfield High School
Opened in 1893, Bakersfield’s oldest high school has campus legends about the Quad, the auditorium and a couple seen on the bleachers. It is a working school with no public access: see it from the street only.
Garces Memorial Circle
Local legend says the statue of Father Francisco Garces in the traffic circle moves its hands or prays before a crash. It stands in the middle of a busy roundabout; do not stop or walk out to it.
Club Paradise (later Club 902)
Our older guide described a nightclub ghost that locked staff in the storeroom. The club is long gone and the building has been put to other uses, so there is nothing to visit.
Central Park's woman in white
Stories place a woman in white on the Mill Creek canal path at daybreak. We could not trace the story to any record and have left it off the main list; the park itself is open in daylight.
Changed from our older guide: The Bakersfield Californian moved out of its historic Eye Street building in March 2025, so the building is now exterior only; Bakersfield High School, Garces Circle, Club Paradise and Central Park moved to the off-limits list; and we removed the Gaslight Melodrama Theatre and the Sinaloa restaurant until we can confirm their current status and stories from published sources.
Visited one of these places? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from visitors and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your visit. We read every story before it’s published.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most haunted place in Bakersfield?
The Padre Hotel. It opened in 1928, its upper floors sat condemned for decades, and guests and staff describe a giggling girl in 1920s clothes and unseen hands, mostly on the seventh floor, where a fire broke out in the 1950s.
Can you stay at the Padre Hotel?
Yes. It reopened in 2010 after an eight-year restoration and is a working boutique hotel with restaurants and bars open to the public.
Is the Kern County Museum haunted?
Local stories mention party sounds in an empty Victorian house and chalk tapping in the schoolhouse. The 16-acre Pioneer Village has more than 50 historic buildings and is open to visitors.
Can you go ghost hunting in Bakersfield?
There are no regular public ghost hunts at the places in this guide. Haunted Rooms does not currently run events in California; our nearest are listed on this page.
Sources and how we research
Every place in this guide is checked against its official website, historic register listings and news coverage, and we confirm whether it is open, closed, private or gone before we list it. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and local historians tell them; we say so where records contradict a story. Each place shows how many independent sources we checked it against; our own Haunted Rooms pages are not counted.
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team are paranormal researchers who write about historic haunted places across the United States. We research every place in our guides using official sites, historic registers, local archives and news coverage, and we report ghost stories as the stories they are. We review each guide regularly so you are not sent to a place that has closed, changed hands or banned visitors. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
