Famous Haunted Places: The Hotel Valdez, Galveston, Texas
by Christine B.
In 1900 a monumental storm/hurricane hit the popular tourist island of Galveston on the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the buildings were wiped out and many hundreds died. The Hotel Galvez was constructed in 1911 on the site where the Beach Hotel, Electric Pavilion, and the Pagoda Bathhouse stood before the storm The new hotel soon became a popular stop for socialites, celebrities, and Presidents. (Jimmy Stewart, Frank Sinatra, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson and Gen. Douglas Macarthur, to name a few.) Because of the hotel’s gilded history and because of the tragedy that took place on the land it was built on, it’s no wonder that there are many guests who choose to stay there indefinitely.
The staff and many guests who have stayed at the hotel believe that it is haunted. The most infamous of its spirits is the lovelorn lady who inhabits the fifth floor in room #500. She was staying at the hotel while she awaited the return of her sailor fiancé. He was at sea and was to meet her at the hotel when he returned.
She was often seen on the top floor in the turrets, gazing out to sea hoping to see his ship. Even after she was told that his ship had met with disaster, she refused to believe her lover had perished. After a month of denial, she climbed up to the turrets and hung herself. Irony being the frustration of life, a month after she died her fiancé came back looking for her. He had survived the shipwreck.
So the lovely lady still haunts the Hotel Valdez, and who could blame her? Many have felt a cold breeze rush by them with no explanation for it. She also has claimed ownership of room #500. Whenever a staff member attempts to make an electronic key for that room the system goes haywire and will not make the key. A strange light can also be seen in the turret where the lady took her own life. Whenever this is reported to the staff it is checked out and no light source has ever been found in that location.
Other mysterious events occur on a regular basis at the hotel. Often when a staff member is in the ladies rest room cleaning it the toilets will flush on their own many times. Stall doors also rattle violently when no one else is in there. Solid walls have been seen to “bow” outwardly several times in one of the guest rooms.
As in many old hotels, there is a great deal of energy built up from the trauma and drama its guests leave behind. It would be more shocking if this great edifice was not haunted. Check it out for yourself the next time you’re in Galveston and let me know what you discover.
