The Hotel San Carlos was built in 1927 on the former site of the first school in Phoenix Arizona. A very modern hotel for its time with air conditioning througout, the Hotel San Carlos was the hotel for tourists from the east, one of the few places to be “seen” for Phoenix socialites, and a refuge for movie stars from the golden age of Hollywood. The hotel was updated in 1955 when the swimming pool was added to the sun deck amung other improvements. It was added to the historic hotels of America during the 1990s, and the San Carlos Hollywood Walk of Fame was added to the streets outside.

Ghost Stories

Shortly after the hotel was opened, Leone Jensen commited suicide by jumping off of the roof of the seven story hotel. She had lost the affection of a bell boy at a nearby hotel. Since then a ghostly image has been reportedly seen throughout the hotel along with unexplained breezes.

My wife and I had some odd experiences during our stay that my wife felt were odd. After we checked in, the elevator stopped at every floor on our way to our room. She thought that that was odd, but could easily be explained away. On Friday the 13th while on the 7th floor, my wife felt the hallway move like there was some kind of mild earthquake, but I did not feel anything.

We also received some reports from other guests we encountered while wandering through the hallways. One couple mentioned an odd occurance that happened to them on a previous trip when they were staying in room 716. They were sleeping when the sound of objects falling off the table woke them up. When they looked towards the source of the noise, they witnessed their key-card slide off of the table and onto the floor. The large group that was staying in room 720, the room where most of the strange occurances happen, told us that there is something odd about the small rooms at the end of the hall on the second floor, beyond the room with the couches. They also reported that was a haunting in the area of the thrid floor pool, but we did not get any specifics. They were planning on holding a seance later in the evening, but we did not see them again to get their results.

One of the desk clerks, Carlene, told us that two maids had quit over experiences they had while working there. One saw a figure dressed in flowing white near the stairs on the second floor on two seperate occaisions, and the other just kept saying “red eyes” repeatedly in Spanish.

Our Review

It was very interesting being at the hotel on friday the 13th, especially due to the number of other “ghost hunters” that there were at the hotel for that occaision. Unfortunately a lot of them felt that it was appropriate to get drunk and hold then hold a seance. We got some good stories from the night security guard when he happened by us and another couple as we were exploring the halls late on the evening of the 13th. While he did not persoanally believe in ghosts, he told us a story about a time he was almost convinced. The story ended with the real world explanation for the events that had freaked him out, but it was a very entertaining yarn. The hotel’s amenities were unfortunately not worth the cost. The security guard even made mention of people complaining about the cost versus what you get. He explained that the price goes towards helping to keep the old hotel around, and while that is a good benefit, we’ve stayed in other old hotels that did not have the hot water and other ameneties issues we had here. Its location in downtown Phoenix was convinient, and our stay was on the whole pleasant.