If you love history—disturbing history, you’ve come to the right place. Santa Fe, New Mexico’s rich past is preserved in spooky historic sites located throughout the city. With such a layered history, Santa Fe draws visitors back over and over again to uncover a fascinating past and experience its unforgettable present. So, as the crisp fall air descends and the nights get longer in The City Different, it is time to share with you a few spooky ghost tales.
A Man Betrayed
Just off of the lobby of La Fonda Hotel is the La Plazuela restaurant, once a courtyard of the old hotel. Many dignitaries and historians were guests at the hotel, and legend has it that one high-ranking politician caught his wife with another dignitary and killed the man. At that time justice was swift and severe—the politician was hung from the limbs of one of the courtyard’s trees. Many years later, the ghost of the man is said to still be seen in the restaurant, wandering about aimlessly.
La Plazuela at the La Fonda Hotel. Do you see the ghost?
Cigar-Smoking Nun
Cigar-smoking nun, Sister George, apparently haunts the Inn And Spa At Loretto in Santa Fe. She was a member of The Order Of The Sisters Of Loretto and taught at the Loretto Academy, a Catholic girls’ school located where the hotel is now from 1953 until 1968.
As recanted by the former Santa Fe Travelers blog, “The first reports of her presence, according to local tour guide and ghost expert, John Lorenzen, were in the late 1970s. Owners of The Three Sisters Boutique, a shop located at the hotel, had some interesting experiences. Every morning, there was an extra ten-dollar bill in the cash drawer. One day, according to witnesses, a rack of clothing levitated. Reportedly, the lights would go on and off in the shop and the odor of cigar-smoke would permeate the air. No one knows if the corporal Sister George actually wielded a stogie.”
Where there’s cigar smoke, you’ll find Sister George. (Photo courtesy: Destination Hotels)
Spend the Night in Room 256
Located on six historically rich acres in downtown Santa Fe is the historic La Posada de Santa Fe resort. Within its beautiful landscaped grounds and fountains sits the hotel’s centerpiece, the Staab House, a Victorian mansion built by an old Santa Fe Trail merchant in 1882. Amassing a fortune as a major supply contractor for the U.S. Army during the Civil War, Abraham Staab built the beautiful three-story brick mansion for his wife Julia
The large Staab family, including six children, primarily lived on the second floor, accessed by a grand staircase. On the third floor was a beautiful ballroom which soon became one of the social entertainment centers of Santa Fe society, as Julia loved to show off the home that she adored.
This story is featured on SantaFe.org from The Santa Fe Travel Insider
Read the full article HERE
