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The Menger Hotel
San Antonio · 5 places

Haunted hotels in San Antonio: 5 ghost stories, and what the record shows

The best-known haunted hotels in San Antonio are the Menger Hotel, beside the Alamo since 1859; the Emily Morgan, built in 1924 as a medical building; and the Gunter, for its Room 636. Here are 5, what the record shows, and how to see them without a room.

All five stand within a few blocks of the Alamo, the most haunted first. Two have a page of their own with the full story. After them come four places the ghost tours stop at between the hotels, all on our Haunted San Antonio walk.

By the Stories team at Winding Labs · Checked · Sources

Haunted hotels in San Antonio, in order

  1. The Menger Hotel
    Photo: Billy Hathorn, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

    The Menger Hotel

    Hotel, open since 1859 · 204 Alamo Plaza

    The legend. Sallie White, a chambermaid attacked by her husband in the hotel in March 1876, is said to walk the halls; the story adds that the hotel paid $32 for her funeral. Teddy Roosevelt is said to drink in the bar where he recruited Rough Riders in 1898.

    What the record shows. The hotel stands on ground that was part of the Alamo battlefield in 1836. Mary and William Menger opened it in February 1859, and in the Civil War they closed the rooms and nursed the wounded. When William died in 1871, Mary ran it alone, then sold it in 1881 for $118,500 to the contractor who had built it. No record proves a ghost.

    Can you visit? Yes, without a room: the Menger Bar, a copy of the House of Lords pub from 1887, is open to the public from noon, until 11 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and midnight on Friday and Saturday.

    Stop 2 of Haunted San Antonio Walking Tour; Stop 2 of San Antonio River Walk Tour: The Alamo to Main Plaza

  2. Emily Morgan Hotel
    Photo: Mattstone911, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

    Emily Morgan Hotel

    Hotel, built in 1924 as the Medical Arts Building · 705 East Houston Street

    The legend. Guests tell of nurses pushing gurneys down the halls, and of bathroom faucets on the 12th floor that turn on by themselves. Most sightings are said to be on the seventh, ninth and fourteenth floors; the fourteenth, the story goes, is where the surgeries were. Historic Hotels of America put it on its 2026 list of the most haunted hotels.

    What the record shows. Ralph Cameron designed it as the Medical Arts Building, a 13-story Neo-Gothic tower finished in 1924 with doctors' offices and a 50-bed hospital, and it was the city's tallest building until 1928. It became offices in 1976 and was gutted and rebuilt as a hotel in 1984, with the outside kept.

    Can you visit? From the street, yes: look up for the gargoyles, carved suffering from medical complaints. It's a working hotel just north of the Alamo.

    Stop 3 of Haunted San Antonio Walking Tour

  3. The Gunter Hotel

    Hotel, opened in 1909 · 205 East Houston Street

    The legend. In February 1965, the story goes, a man checked into Room 636 as Albert Knox, a woman vanished, and her body was never found; he later took his own life at the St. Anthony. Guests since have reported hammering from the empty room and a blonde woman turning up in photographs.

    What the record shows. We found no primary record of the 1965 case, and its retellings don't agree on the date. The hotel is real history: it opened on November 20, 1909, on the site of the Mahncke Hotel, and on November 27, 1936, the bluesman Robert Johnson recorded songs in Room 414, "Sweet Home Chicago" among them.

    Can you visit? From the street, yes. It's a working hotel, so Room 636, like the rest, is for guests.

  4. The St. Anthony Hotel

    Hotel, opened in 1909 · 300 Travis Street

    The legend. Bartenders tell of a Lavender Lady (one ghost-tour company calls her the Lady in Red), and some employees, the stories say, won't work the tenth floor alone at night. The hotel named one of its bars Haunt, for its ghost stories.

    What the record shows. Two cattlemen, B. L. Naylor and Augustus H. Jones, built it, and it opened in 1909 to James Flood Walker's design. Jones died in the lobby in 1913, while he was mayor of San Antonio. It's credited as the world's first fully air-conditioned hotel. The man in the Gunter's Room 636 story is said to have died here.

    Can you visit? From the street, yes: it fills a block facing Travis Park. It's a working hotel.

  5. The Crockett Hotel

    Hotel, built in 1909 · 320 Bonham Street

    The legend. Ghost tours say the Alamo's defenders still walk here, and the hotel's own assistant manager told KSAT that "sometimes on our fourth floor, we have strange things that happen."

    What the record shows. It stands on part of the original Alamo grounds, behind the church, where the battle ended on March 6, 1836, after a 13-day siege, with Davy Crockett, the hotel's namesake, among the dead. The Odd Fellows laid its cornerstone in 1909. Nothing on record backs a ghost.

    Can you visit? From the street, yes; it's on Bonham Street, behind the Alamo. It's a working hotel, with a bar, the Crockett Tavern.

Haunted places a few blocks away

The ghost tours walk between the hotels by way of these four. All are stops on our Haunted San Antonio walk.

  1. The Alamo
    Photo: Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

    The Alamo

    Mission church, begun in 1758 · 300 Alamo Plaza

    The legend. The oldest ghost story in town: after the battle, soldiers sent to destroy the church saw six spirits at its doors, shouting, "Do not touch the Alamo, do not touch these walls!" They ran, the story goes, reporting six devils.

    What the record shows. Spain founded the mission in 1718. The church was begun in 1758, after an earlier one collapsed, with limestone walls four feet thick, and its towers, third story and dome were never built. The battle ended on March 6, 1836, after a 13-day siege, with Bowie and Crockett among the dead. The famous curved top came later, when the U.S. Army used it as a depot from 1849.

    Can you visit? Yes, every day from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The church is free, but you need a reservation, made on the Alamo's site.

    Stop 1 of Haunted San Antonio Walking Tour

  2. The Spanish Governor's Palace
    Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

    The Spanish Governor's Palace

    Presidio captain's house, 1749 · 105 Plaza de Armas

    The legend. Ghost tours tell of spirit children, a presence in one of the bedrooms, and a woman thrown down the 37-foot courtyard well.

    What the record shows. No record backs any of it. The keystone over the door carries the arms of King Ferdinand VI and the date 1749. This was the home and office of the captain of the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar, the fort that guarded the missions, and it is the last visible trace of it. San Antonio became the capital of Spanish Texas in 1772. The city restored the house in the 1930s, and it became a National Historic Landmark in 1970.

    Can you visit? Yes, Tuesday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10, closed Mondays; $6 for adults. The city runs it.

    Stop 7 of Haunted San Antonio Walking Tour; Stop 8 of San Antonio River Walk Tour: The Alamo to Main Plaza

  3. San Fernando Cathedral and Main Plaza
    Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

    San Fernando Cathedral and Main Plaza

    Cathedral, dedicated in 1755 · Main Plaza

    The legend. Ghost tours tell of Alamo spirits, a Man in Black and a white stallion galloping past the front. Workers renovating the church once dug up a box of charred bones, nails and scraps of uniform, and the story says they are the Alamo's defenders.

    What the record shows. The Texas State Historical Association says the defenders are almost certainly not buried here. The church is older than the battle: Canary Islanders started it in 1738, and it was dedicated in 1755. Jim Bowie married Ursula de Veramendi inside in 1831, and in February 1836 Santa Anna flew his flag of no quarter from its tower.

    Can you visit? It's a working cathedral. After dark, The Saga, a free 24-minute light show, plays across its front at 9 p.m. on many nights; check the dark dates first.

    Stop 6 of Haunted San Antonio Walking Tour; Stop 7 of San Antonio River Walk Tour: The Alamo to Main Plaza

  4. La Villita
    Photo: Johnpeter2008 at en.wikipedia (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons

    La Villita

    Neighborhood, one of the city's first · 418 Villita Street

    The legend. The ghost tours tell of Comanche warriors killed here, and of headless figures walking the lanes late at night.

    What the record shows. The tour company that tells it also says there's no record of Spanish soldiers beheading Comanche warriors here. The real story: before the Spanish, this was a Coahuiltecan village, then brush huts for the mission's soldiers. A flood in 1819 swept most of them away. By the early 1900s it was a slum, and in 1939 the National Youth Administration, backed by Mayor Maury Maverick, restored it instead of clearing it.

    Can you visit? Yes: it's a few blocks of shops, galleries and restaurants by the river, and the hours vary shop by shop.

    Stop 5 of Haunted San Antonio Walking Tour; Stop 5 of San Antonio River Walk Tour: The Alamo to Main Plaza

The map

The numbers are the list's. Colored pins have a page of their own with the full story; open the map to zoom into the streets.

Walk them with Dot

6 of the 9 places on this list are stops on our Haunted San Antonio Walking Tour (7 stops, 1 h 10 min). Dot, the green dot on your map, takes you from one to the next and plays each story when you get there. Stop 1, The Alamo, is free: hear it before you go.

Haunted hotels in San Antonio: questions people ask

What is the most haunted hotel in San Antonio?

The Menger, by most ghost tours: it has stood beside the Alamo since 1859, and its stories, a chambermaid named Sallie White and Teddy Roosevelt in the bar, are the best known in town. Historic Hotels of America's 2026 list of the most haunted named two others in the city: the Emily Morgan and the Gunter.

What is the haunted history of the Emily Morgan hotel?

It was built in 1924 as the Medical Arts Building, with doctors' offices and a 50-bed hospital; one account adds a psychiatric ward and a morgue. Guests tell of nurses in the halls and faucets that run by themselves on the upper floors. It became a hotel in 1984.

Is the St. Anthony Hotel in San Antonio haunted?

That's its reputation: bartenders tell of a Lavender Lady, staff stories put something on the tenth floor, and the hotel named one of its bars Haunt. No record backs a ghost. What's on record is that a mayor, Augustus H. Jones, one of its builders, died in its lobby in 1913.

What hotel did they move in San Antonio?

The Fairmount. In 1985 the three-story hotel from 1906, about 1,600 tons of brick and cast iron, was rolled on 36 dollies about six blocks through downtown to 401 South Alamo Street. Guinness lists it as the heaviest hotel ever moved.

Can you see San Antonio's haunted hotels without staying there?

From the street, all of them, and they sit within a few blocks of the Alamo. The Menger Bar is open to the public from noon. Our Haunted San Antonio walk passes the Menger and the Emily Morgan, and its first stop, the Alamo, is free.

Where these facts come from

The record for each place is what our fact-check matched to a source in its story (the place's page lists them), or a page we read on the day below. Hours and prices change: check the official site before you go.

Checked November 2026. More in town: San Antonio.