Queen Anne Hotel
1590 Sutter Street,
San Francisco, California
94109
Built in 1890 on Sutter Street, the Queen Anne Hotel contains 48 rooms and is well known for its architecture. It was originally a school for girls, and I have heard two different names for it - Miss Mary Lake School for Girls and Lake Seminary, both named after the head mistress of the school, Mary Lake. So attached to the school that she ran, Miss Mary Lake still haunts the hotel to this day.
Mary was born in Little Falls, N.Y. in 1849, but her family moved to San Francisco while she was still a toddler. Her father, Delos Lake, was one of the city's wealthiest lawyers, eventually becoming a judge, and was connected to other wealthy individuals in the Bay Area at the time. Mary established the school in 1889, before moving it into what would later become the Queen Anne Hotel about a year later. Some say the school was established, or at least partially financially backed, by former U.S. Senator James Graham Fair.
Sometimes known as Slippery Jim, and the person the Fairmont Hotel is named after, Senator Fair was worth in excess of fifty million dollars; his fortune originating from his silver mines in the Comstock Lode and making him one of the richest men in the world. A few years earlier, he had gone through a very public and very torrid divorce from his wife, then the most expensive divorce settlement in the country's history at 4.25 million! Speculation existed, although no proof emerged, that Mary Lake was his current mistress and that he was financing the school due to their relationship. Some newspapers even alleged that the two were married, although Miss Mary denied these allegations. There's also been rumors that Senator Fair's two daughters attended the school, although I've found no evidence of this, and I believe at least the older one probably wasn't even the proper age to attend.
As many as 100 wealthy young girls resided at Mary Lake's school at a time. The school taught all the skills young girls "needed" back at that time, such as piano, painting, deportment, flower arrangement, household management, ettiquete, etc. Despite mostly being a finishing school, Mary Lake did try to teach the girls about a broad range of other subjects, trying to make them well rounded, and expose them to as much as possible to prepare them for whatever they would run across later in life. She thouroughly believed in cultivating the imagination of children.
The school unfortunately didn't last long, closing in June 1896, less than two years after Senator Fair passed away. Although some stories claim it soon became a hotel and Mary continued to work there as a chambermaid, sources seem to indicate that it was many things over the next several decades, and did not become a hotel, certainly not one that Mary worked at. Senator Fair's daughters received the building after he passed, and sold it in 1899. At one point was leased to the Cosmos Club, a men's club in San Francisco. Possibly, it was used as a meeting spot for a secret society invoved in astrology. It survived the 1906 quake and later spent twelve years as an Episcopal Diocese lodge. But it did not become a hotel, the Queen Anne Hotel, until the 1980s when it was eventually renovated, fixed up and reopened as the stately hotel it is today.
After the school closed, Mary stayed in San Francisco until 1902, and then moved to Montclair, New Jersey, living with her half sister. She sadly died two years later on her 55th birthday, being buried over 3000 miles away from the Queen Anne Hotel. She was very beloved, especially by her former students, and many people in San Francisco mourned her passing when they found out.
But, it seems that Miss Mary was not done with her beloved school and moved back into the building, haunting it since. She particularly haunts room 410, which supposedly was her office back when the building was a school. She has got to be one of the friendliest and most conscientious ghosts around. She takes care of the hotel guests, having unpacked hotel guests' bags, hung up their clothes, supplied champagne to them, turned down beds, and even, perhaps just a bit creepily, tucked in half asleep guests after they went to bed. She has also been seen wandering the hallways, looking at herself in mirrors and even playing the piano downstairs. Unlike many other ghosts in other hotels, Miss Mary never plays any pranks on the hotel guests nor makes them feel uncomfortable. She simply appears to try her hardest to make sure each guest has a fantastic time in the hotel.
The Queen Mary is open for you to visit, has several rooms you can stay in, including room 410. There is additionally some event space available for events. It is really close to several other famous San Francisco haunts!
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Outside Links:
Outside References:
- The Ghost Detectives' Guide to Haunted San Francisco (2011) by Auerback, Loyd and Martin, Annette, p: 13 - 31, 131
- Haunted Northern California (2009) by Stansfield Jr, Charles A, p: 32 - 33
- Ghosts of San Francisco (2007) by Vercillo, Kathryn, p: 41 - 42
- California Hauntspitality (2002) by Wlodarski, Robert and Anne, p: 166 - 167
First Created: 2021-10-05
Last Edited: 2021-10-05
