Haunted College Inn, Seattle: Howard the Sailor and the Snug Room Piano

The College Inn stands on the corner of University Way and NE 40th Street, across from the University of Washington. It opened in 1909 on the same day as the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, the world’s fair held on the campus, and it is often called the oldest hotel building still standing in Seattle. Upstairs is a small, family-owned, European-style hotel with 27 rooms. Downstairs is the College Inn Pub, a basement bar that has been a student hangout since 1973.

The ghost story belongs to the pub. Regulars and staff talk about Howard, a sailor said to have been murdered in the pub’s back room, the Snug Room, who still plays its piano after hours. The pub is run separately from the hotel, but staying upstairs puts you a staircase away from the story. It is the most low-key and budget-friendly of the haunted hotels in Seattle.

The ghost of the College Inn

Howard the sailor

The story goes that Howard was a sailor who took a room at the College Inn and was murdered there, in the small back room of the basement pub now called the Snug Room. Wikipedia’s account of the building gives his full name as Howard Bok.

There is no record of a murder at the inn, and nobody has found a sailor of that name in the city’s archives. Like many bar ghosts, Howard is a story the pub has told for years, and that is how we tell it here.

The piano in the Snug Room

The Snug Room has a piano, and Howard is said to play it after hours when the pub is empty. The Seattle Times’ ghost guide says he is “a bit more active after hours” and likes to tickle the keys.

Patrons describe catching a figure just at the edge of their vision, then turning around to find no one there.

Pool balls and flickering power

KING 5’s Five Star Dive Bars, which featured the pub, reported that Howard is also blamed for messing with the electricity and jostling the pool balls on the tables.

These are the kinds of things any old basement bar sees, which is part of the charm: nobody claims proof, but nobody wants to sit in the Snug Room alone after closing either.

Howard's Special

The pub has long leaned into its ghost. It gave Howard his own email address, and its menu carried a “Howard’s Special,” a bagel dog with a pint of Pabst, with the warning that it “may just come back to haunt you.”

The pub changed hands in 2025 and reopened with a refreshed menu, so ask at the bar whether Howard’s Special is still on it.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• The Snug Room: The pub’s small back room, with the piano Howard is said to play after hours.
• The pool tables: Where staff say the balls get jostled with no one near them.
• The original entry: Look for the terrazzo floor still inscribed “Ye College Inn” from the building’s first years.
• The guest floors: No ghost is reported upstairs, but the 1979 restoration brought back the original 1909 room layout.

History of College Inn Hotel

Landowner J.R. Hendren set up the College Inn as a company in June 1908, and developer Charles Cowen, the man Cowen Park is named for, built it. The architects were Graham & Myers, and the contractor S.E. Young built it for about $30,000. The Tudor Revival design, with half-timbering on the upper floors, is now one of the few classic Tudor Revival commercial buildings left in the Seattle area.

The inn opened on the first day of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in 1909, one of the few commercial buildings near the fairgrounds finished in time. Emily Cridland managed it. After the fair Cowen took over, and by 1916 it was renamed the College Hotel and marketed as a European-style hotel.

Over the years the ground floor held restaurants, confectioners and cigar shops. A full restoration in 1979 brought back the original room layout and turned the attic into a breakfast room and lounge. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 25, 1982.

The College Inn Pub opened in the basement in 1973, modeled on the basement pubs of Cambridge, and became a University of Washington institution. It closed during the pandemic, reopened under new owners, and closed again in June 2025. Jae Chang, owner of Cafe Happy upstairs, took over the lease and reopened it later that year. The hotel itself, family-owned, was fully remodeled in 2024.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Book a premium room if you want a private bathroom; the European-style rooms share bathrooms on each floor.
• There is no elevator, and all rooms are up one or two flights of stairs. Pack light.
• Spend your evening in the pub and grab a seat in the Snug Room; it is a separate business, so check its hours before you go.
• Parking is tight. The hotel has a small reserved lot two blocks away that must be booked in advance.
• For a grander haunted stay, cross town to Hotel Sorrento on First Hill and ask for Room 408.

More haunted hotels nearby

• Hotel Sorrento, Seattle: Room 408 and the Alice B. Toklas legend
• The Arctic Club Hotel, Seattle: Congressman Zioncheck and the fifth floor
• Hotel Andra, Seattle: a phantom jazz-age party on the ninth floor
• Haunted places in Seattle: the city’s other ghost stories
• Haunted hotels in Washington
• Haunted hotels in Seattle

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.

• Wikipedia: The College Inn
• The Ticket (Seattle Times): A ghost hunter's guide to haunted bars in Seattle (2022)
• KING 5: Dive bars with haunting histories
• KIRO 7: 50-year-old U District pub reopens (2025)
• College Inn Hotel: FAQ (official site)

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