Haunted hotel guide · San Francisco, California
The Haunted Queen Anne Hotel, San Francisco: Miss Mary Lake and Room 410
This 1890 Victorian mansion began life as a finishing school for the daughters of San Francisco’s richest families. Guests say its headmistress still does her rounds, tucking people in and unpacking their bags in Room 410.
The Queen Anne Hotel is a four-story Victorian mansion on Sutter Street in Lower Pacific Heights, a few blocks from Japantown. It was built in 1890 as Miss Mary Lake’s School for Girls, a finishing school paid for by silver millionaire and U.S. Senator James Fair. After a century as a gentlemen’s club, a residence and a near-ruin, it was restored in the 1980s as a boutique hotel, with antiques, fireplaces, a continental breakfast in the salon and afternoon tea and sherry in the parlor.
It is also San Francisco’s best-known haunted hotel. Guests and staff say the headmistress, Mary Lake, never really left, and that she is most active in Room 410, once her office. The stories are gentle: blankets pulled up, suitcases unpacked, soft singing. The hotel does not hide them and has welcomed TV crews, including the series Haunted Hotels. Explore more in our guide to haunted places in San Francisco.
Queen Anne at a glance
Haunted Rooms Score
- Address 1590 Sutter St, San Francisco, CA 94109 (Lower Pacific Heights, at Octavia Street)
- Built 1890 as Miss Mary Lake’s School for Girls; restored as a hotel in the 1980s
- Most haunted spots Room 410, the grand staircase, the first-floor parlor, the fourth-floor hallway
- Best-known ghost Miss Mary Lake, the school’s headmistress
- Booking the haunted room Room 410 can be booked. Call the hotel on 415-441-2828 or email stay@queenanne.com to request it by number.
- Good to know Rates include a continental breakfast and afternoon tea and sherry. The hotel has an elevator and guaranteed parking. It is about 1.5 miles from Union Square, not next to it.
The ghost of Miss Mary Lake
Room 410
Almost every Queen Anne ghost story begins in Room 410, the room that was once Mary Lake’s office (some tellings say her bedroom). Guests describe waking to find their blankets carefully pulled up and tucked around them, as if someone were putting a child to bed. Others come back to find the suitcase they left packed has been unpacked and its contents put away.
Guests also report cold spots, the scent of flowers or tea, and soft humming or singing at night. One often-repeated story tells of a guest who woke up on the floor, neatly wrapped in blankets. Amateur investigators have posted many recordings from the room online, though most are hard to separate from sounds in the hallway.
The lady on the staircase
Mary Lake is not said to stay in her room. A middle-aged woman in a dark, high-necked Victorian dress has been reported walking up and down the grand staircase. In the first-floor parlor, guests have felt someone sit down beside them, and some say they have heard the piano being played with nobody at the keys.
Evening staff describe cold spots and the rustle of long skirts in the fourth-floor hallway. One housekeeper said she saw a woman smile at her and then walk through a wall where a doorway once stood. Workers during the 1980s restoration told of tools being moved overnight and the feeling of being watched.
Why would Mary Lake haunt the hotel?
Mary Lake ran one of the most fashionable girls’ schools in the city, funded by Senator James Fair, nicknamed “Slippery Jim,” who had made a fortune from Nevada silver. Rumors at the time said the two were lovers or even secretly married, something Lake always denied, and there is no proof of a romance.
The school closed in June 1896, about two years after Fair died. Contrary to many ghost stories, Mary Lake did not die in the building: she moved to Montclair, New Jersey, in 1902 and died there in 1904. Believers say she simply came back to the place she loved most, and that she is still looking after her girls.
The most haunted rooms and places to look
- Room 410 (the Mary Lake Room): The hotel’s most requested room. Reserve it by phone or email so you get the room itself, not just a matching room type.
- The grand staircase: Where a woman in a dark Victorian dress is seen going up and down.
- The parlor and salon: Sit with your afternoon sherry and listen for the piano.
- The fourth-floor hallway: Cold spots and the rustle of skirts after dark.
History of Queen Anne Hotel
The building was put up in 1890 at the corner of Sutter and Octavia streets for Miss Mary Lake’s School for Girls. Senator James G. Fair, one of the Comstock Lode silver kings, paid for it, and wealthy San Francisco families sent their daughters there to be taught manners, music and deportment.
Fair died in 1894 and his daughters inherited the building. The school closed in June 1896, and in 1899 the house was sold and became a gentlemen’s club, the Cosmos Club. It narrowly survived the 1906 earthquake and fire. Later it spent about twelve years as a lodge for the Episcopal Girls’ Friendly Society and was also used as a residence for Episcopal clergy.
Over the following decades the mansion fell into disrepair. It was bought and carefully restored in the 1980s and reopened as the Queen Anne Hotel, named for its architectural style, furnished with period antiques. Mary Lake herself had moved east years earlier and died in New Jersey in 1904.
Today the hotel offers rooms from Victorian kings to fireplace and Jacuzzi suites, and keeps up old traditions such as afternoon tea and sherry in the parlor. Its ghost has made it one of the best-known haunted hotels in California.
Tips for a haunted stay
- Reserve Room 410 directly. Call or email the hotel and ask for it by number; online bookings choose a room type, not a specific room.
- Leave a suitcase packed. Mary Lake’s best-known habit is unpacking for guests. See if anything moves.
- Take afternoon sherry in the parlor. It is the room where guests say someone sits down beside them.
- Plan transport. The hotel is in Lower Pacific Heights near Japantown and Fillmore Street, about 1.5 miles from Union Square.
- Pair it with a night tour of Alcatraz, or cross the bay to the haunted Claremont in Berkeley.
- Want an investigation with a team? Haunted Rooms runs ghost hunts at historic venues across the US.
More haunted hotels nearby
- Claremont Resort & Club, Berkeley: across the bay, with a little girl ghost and Room 422
- Historic National Hotel, Jamestown: a Gold Rush hotel in the Sierra foothills
- Alcatraz: the city’s most famous haunted landmark
- Haunted hotels in California
- Haunted hotels in San Francisco
Stayed in one of these hotels? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from guests and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your stay. We read every story before it’s published.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Queen Anne Hotel in San Francisco haunted?
It is the city’s best-known haunted hotel. Guests say the ghost of headmistress Mary Lake tucks them in, unpacks their bags and sings in Room 410, and staff report cold spots and a woman in Victorian dress on the stairs and fourth floor.
Which room is haunted at the Queen Anne Hotel?
Room 410, once Mary Lake’s office, is the most haunted and most requested room. Reports also come from the grand staircase, the parlor and the fourth-floor hallway.
Can you book Room 410 at the Queen Anne Hotel?
Yes. Call the hotel on 415-441-2828 or email stay@queenanne.com and ask for Room 410 by number.
Who was Mary Lake?
Mary Lake (1849 to 1904) ran Miss Mary Lake’s School for Girls, which opened in the building in 1890 with money from Senator James Fair. The school closed in 1896. She died in New Jersey in 1904, not in the building.
Is the Queen Anne Hotel near Union Square?
Not quite. It is in Lower Pacific Heights near Japantown, about 1.5 miles from Union Square. Buses run along Sutter Street, and the hotel offers guaranteed parking.
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.
- Queen Anne Hotel (official site)
- SFist: Check in to SF's infamous haunted hotel (2017)
- Wikipedia: Queen Anne Hotel
- Ghost City Tours: The ghost of the Queen Anne Hotel
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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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