Virginia Point Inn, Galveston: Ms. Sarah on the Stairs

Virginia Point Inn is a four-room, adults-only bed and breakfast in a 1907 house on Avenue K, a few blocks from the cruise terminal. Rebuilt in 1923 in a mix of Prairie, Mission and Craftsman styles, it is one of the calmer and prettier places to stay on the island, with porches off every bedroom and a garden full of the orange trees and oleanders planted by its best-known resident, Sarah Davis Hawley.

The inn calls itself Ms. Sarah’s house, and its finest room is Ms. Sarah’s Master Suite. Ghost tour guides go further: they say Sarah never left, and guests report seeing her at the top of the stairs as if greeting them. The inn says it is part of Galveston’s ghost tours. It is one of the gentlest stories on our list of haunted hotels in Galveston.

The ghosts of Virginia Point Inn

Ms. Sarah at the top of the stairs

Houstonia’s 2025 guide to Galveston ghost stories says that some believe Sarah has never left the house she loved. Guests have reported seeing her standing at the top of the stairs, as if greeting them, and others have caught a glimpse of her out of the corner of the eye.

Nobody describes her as frightening. In the stories she behaves like a hostess, still keeping an eye on who comes and goes.

A house built for a daughter

The ghost tour version of the story says Sarah’s father, named in Houstonia as Walter or Waters Davis, built the house in 1907 as a gift for her. The same telling says Davis, a collector who traveled to Egypt for antiquities, brought a mummy home in 1904 and kept it in a glass case that was not airtight. Galveston’s humidity did the rest, and when the smell grew too much his wife made him bury it somewhere on his property, where it has never been found. Other tellings of the Davis mummy story end differently, which is typical of a legend.

The inn’s own history tells it differently. It credits the house to builder E.W. Smith, at a cost of $5,317, and places Sarah and her husband Harry Hawley in the house, with Harry’s handwritten notes from the 1923 remodel found in the attic. The inn calls her Sarah Davis Hawley, so the Davis link in the legend may be real, but we found no record of the mummy.

The gardener

What the inn’s history does confirm is Sarah’s love of the garden. She was an avid gardener who specialized in citrus, and the orange trees and oleanders on the property still carry her name. Guests who sense a presence in the house often tie it to her, in the rooms and in the garden she planted.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Ms. Sarah's Master Suite: The inn’s largest room, named for Sarah, with a king bed, fireplace, sitting area and private balcony. The obvious choice for a ghost-curious stay.
• The main staircase: Where guests say Sarah appears, at the top of the stairs. Mr. Hawley’s notes on the house’s double stairwells were found in the attic.
• The Secret Garden Room: A queen room with a walkout window to a private balcony over Sarah’s garden.
• The Serenity and Scarlett Rooms: Two large king canopy rooms, each with a sitting area.

History of Virginia Point Inn

According to the inn, builder E.W. Smith completed the house in 1907 for $5,317. It was a two-story wood frame house with two south-facing porches, designed to catch the breeze, and vents built in that year were later used when central air conditioning arrived in the 1970s.

In 1923 the house was completely remodeled, at triple the original cost, in a blend of Prairie, Mission and Craftsman styles, and a copper roof later replaced the original metal one. Notes in Harry Hawley’s handwriting about the light fixtures, double stairwells and large rooms with adjoining baths were later found in the attic, and the quarter-sawn heart pine floors were oiled to his instructions.

Sarah and Harry Hawley both died in 1952. Their daughter, Sarah Hawley Creson, lived in the house until 1983, according to the inn, and the Catlow family later ran it as a popular bed and breakfast under the name Virginia Point Inn. (The inn’s own timeline dates the Catlow years from 1953, which does not quite fit, so treat the exact dates loosely.) Tom Catlow planted the azaleas along the garden wall, and Eleanor Catlow kept a kitchen garden where the rose garden is now.

After Tom Catlow died, two physicians, the Rosebraughs, bought the house in 1997 and sold it within months, in August 1997, to Gail and Bill Jacobs. A second renovation in 2000 sealed the stucco and repaired its cracks. Robert and Pam Fleetwood bought it in May 2021 and replanted the gardens after that year’s freeze. Today it has four rooms, each with its own screened porch.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Book Ms. Sarah’s Master Suite by name, and keep an eye on the landing when you come up at night.
• Join one of Galveston’s evening ghost walks. The inn says it is part of the island’s ghost tours.
• Walk the garden in the morning. The orange trees and oleanders are Sarah’s.
• The inn is close to the cruise port, so it fills up before sailings. Book early for weekend stays.
• Visit Ashton Villa nearby for another of the island’s historic houses with a ghost story.

More haunted hotels nearby

• Hotel Galvez & Spa: the island’s grand 1911 seafront hotel and the ghost of Audra in Room 505
• The Tremont House: a historic downtown hotel near the Strand with its own ghost stories
• Haunted hotels in Texas
• Haunted hotels in Galveston

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.

• Virginia Point Inn (official site)
• Virginia Point Inn: History (official site)
• Haunted Hours: Galveston ghost tours and stories (Houstonia, Oct 2025)
• Virginia Point Inn (Visit Galveston)

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