The Mulberry Inn (Seven Wives Inn), St. George: The Attic Where Polygamists Hid

For more than 40 years, travelers knew this house on North 100 West as the Seven Wives Inn. It is an adobe brick home built in 1873, and it became St. George’s first bed and breakfast around 1980, making it the longest-running B&B in town. In 2020 Peggy Armour and her husband bought it and renamed it The Mulberry Inn, so you may see both names when you search.

The old name came from the attic. After polygamy was outlawed, men are said to have hidden up there, behind a secret panel, when U.S. Marshals came to town. That story, and the house’s age, have earned it a place on many online lists of haunted places, and ghost hunters often book the attic room. The owner, though, says she has never seen anything resembling a haunting. Read on for both sides, then see the rest of our haunted hotels in Utah.

The ghosts of The Mulberry Inn (former Seven Wives Inn)

The attic and the hiding men

The heart of the inn’s legend is the attic, now the Sherlock Room. It had no staircase. The only way in was through a secret panel at the back, and local history says polygamist men hid there when U.S. Marshals visited after plural marriage was outlawed.

There is no ghost story tied to a particular man, but people who believe the house is haunted tend to point here first. Ghost hunters often rent the Sherlock Room for that reason, according to St George News.

A feeling of being watched

Our original guide described a strong, creepy feeling in parts of the house. That is still the most common thing people say: not a figure or a voice, but a sense that someone else is in the room.

An old adobe house full of antiques, creaking floors and stories of secret hiding places is bound to put some guests on edge, so take the feeling for what it is.

Things that move

The other recurring claim is that objects move from place to place. Guests describe putting something down and finding it elsewhere.

Some people have linked this to the ‘seven wives’ of the old name. That is guesswork: the name came from the hiding story, not from seven real women who lived here.

The owner's view

Peggy Armour, who bought the inn in 2020, told St George News in 2024 that she has never seen anything resembling a haunting. She knows the house appears on online lists of haunted places, and she welcomes the ghost hunters who come for the attic.

We think that balance is worth knowing before you book: this is a historic home with a great story, not a hotel with a long record of strange events.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• The Sherlock Room: The original attic, once reached only through a secret panel. This is the room ghost hunters ask for. Book it by name.
• The Becky Thatcher Room: One of six rooms named after characters from books of the house’s era. Becky Thatcher comes from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
• The Model T room: One room has a 1927 Model T converted into a jetted tub, which is reason enough to ask about it when you book.

History of The Mulberry Inn (former Seven Wives Inn)

The house was built in 1873 by George F. Whitehead for Edwin G. Woolley, a judge and merchant, in the early decades of the Latter-day Saint settlement of St. George. It is built of adobe brick, the common building material of southern Utah at the time, and the Washington County Historical Society says it was considered the mansion of the county, with fifteen rooms and much of its early furniture shipped from England.

After polygamy was outlawed, the attic is said to have become a hiding place. In Woolley’s day it was unfinished, with no staircase, and pioneer legend says polygamists hid there when U.S. Marshals came looking for them. The Historical Society calls it a legend, but notes that later owners found a concealed door opening from the outside of a second-floor closet, with a hole in the ceiling above it. That story gave the inn its famous name.

In 1907, when the Woolleys moved to Salt Lake City, Charles Franklin and Pamela Foster bought the home. They had ten children and took in orphaned relatives, so they finished the attic into bedrooms and installed one of the first bathrooms in town. A 24-year-old Foster daughter died soon after the family moved in, and her funeral was held in the parlor. The Fosters kept the house until 1952, and together the two families gave it its historic name, the Woolley/Foster home.

After 1952 the house was a rest home, a Dixie College dormitory and a care center, and it fell into such disrepair that it was nearly demolished before new owners restored it. Jay and Donna Curtis then opened it as the Seven Wives Inn, St. George’s first bed and breakfast. The Historical Society dates that to 1981, while the inn’s 150th-anniversary coverage says 1979. It became the longest-running B&B in St. George. Peggy Armour and her husband bought it in 2020, renamed it The Mulberry Inn and restored the stucco, roof and chimney, adding laundry facilities and outdoor lighting. The inn celebrated its 150th anniversary in January 2024.

Inside are pieces with their own stories: a hall stand said to have been given to the original owners by Brigham Young, a chandelier from the St. George temple, 1930s wallpaper, a 1904 pump organ and a headboard made from a cold box from the old Leeds General Store. The inn now has seven en suite rooms and a garage apartment.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Book the Sherlock Room by name if you want the attic; it is the room ghost hunters ask for.
• Our old guide listed this inn as The Cottage at 241 North; the main inn is the Mulberry Inn at 217 N 100 W.
• Ask the owners to show you the hall stand and the temple chandelier; they are part of the house’s story.
• St. George summers are very hot, so spring and fall are the most comfortable times to visit.
• Zion National Park is about an hour away, which makes the inn a good base for a longer trip.
• Moore’s Old Pine Inn in Marysvale, about two and a half hours north, makes a good second stop on a haunted southern Utah trip.

More haunted hotels nearby

• Moore's Old Pine Inn, Marysvale: an 1882 frontier hotel with women on its porch swings
• Overland Hotel, Pioche, Nevada: a mining-town hotel across the Nevada line
• Haunted hotels in Arizona: south of St. George
• Haunted places in Utah: more ghost stories across the state
• Haunted hotels in Utah

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.

• St George News: Historic St. George bed and breakfast celebrating 150 years (2024)
• Washington County Historical Society: Edwin G. Woolley Home
• JacobBarlow.com: Woolley-Foster Home (2016)
• Greater Zion: The Mulberry Inn
• Booking.com: The Mulberry Inn

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