Cadillac Hotel Hauntings
Posted: 11.23.2024 | Updated: 11.25.2024
The old adage that it takes one match to burn a thousand trees could very well have found its origins in Seattle, especially at the Cadillac Hotel. One forgetful act would raze a city to the ground and set the stage for the birth of the sprawling metropolis that exists today. The most haunted places in Seattle still remember this event well.
The flames would lay waste to the city but not to the numerous tales of an otherworldly nature. However, the city’s rebirth from the fire was not without shadowy figures. Seattle’s ode to the ominous is the surprising number of spectral stories woven into the city’s journey back from the dead.
Along the way, Seattle would also find a certain notoriety for its ghostly goings-on. You can learn more for yourself on a Seattle Ghost Tour if you dare.
WHO HAUNTS THE CADILLAC HOTEL?
The Cadillac Hotel and one tragic resident serve as a chilling reminder that birth, rebirth, and loss so often go hand in hand. A former sex worker haunts the grounds of the Cadillac Hotel. She is forever in search of a cure for her never-ending and painful existence.
THE CADILLAC HOTEL: PHOENIX FROM THE FLAMES
The smallest of acts can have monumental consequences. In 1899, when a city carpenter forgetfully left a glue pot boiling, this truth would be shockingly illustrated. Seattle was a city exclusively built from abundant timber of the surrounding forests. When a wood maker’s gluepot spilled out, starting a fire, there was only ever one likely outcome.
The fire spread at a terrifying pace. As rolling waves of flame lept from building to building, consuming all in its path, a staggering 100 acres were swallowed up in the inferno. Seattle was reduced to ashes in less than a single day. The city that sprung from the ruins would be a place of brick and mortar.
A year after the fire, a three-story Victorian Italianate hotel named Elliot House sprung from the ashes. In 1906, the hotel transitioned to the time before new owners renamed the building ‘The Cadillac Hotel’.
Primarily cheap lodging for blue-collar workers and single men, the hotel acted as a lighthouse for the city’s souls, grafting day to day. The Great Depression brought poverty, disrepair, and abandonment to the area that is now considered a historic district of Seattle.
The hotel has narrowly avoided destruction on more than one occasion. Having survived an arsonist attack on March 20th, 1970. The hotel would once again teeter on the edge of oblivion as the Nisqually Earthquake all but demolished the front of the building on February 28th, 2001.
The renovated hotel now holds the distinction of being Washington State’s smallest national park. The Cadillac now plays host to the Klondike Gold Rush Museum. Despite the transient comings and goings through the years, it is said that the area, and indeed the hotel, has some notable and eerie permanent residents.
POLTERGEISTS OF PIONEER SQUARE
Today, Pioneer Square is considered a historical gem within the city of Seattle. Fluctuating fortunes, changing times, and even the onset of World War II have affected the area, often bringing more hardship than happy days. The Cadillac Hotel is one of many places said to be haunted in an area that sprung up in the days of gunslingers and the Wild West.
The Cadillac Hotel and the surrounding buildings are, in fact, roughly 12 feet above what was originally street level in the city. The Great Fire prompted many changes, and with the street level raised, the old city became ‘The Seattle Underground.’ It was a haven for gangs, sex workers, and the seedier, darker side of Seattle.
The 1950s saw their permanent closure. It is said that the ghost of a bank worker named Fred still occupies the subterranean building where he was shot dead in a robbery. The spine-chilling sight of sex workers who died in the darkness has also been sighted, while many visitors to the tunnels claim to have found unnerving strange figures in pictures they took below the streets above.
The iconic Coleman Building was also built in the aftermath of the blaze that all but erased Old Seattle. The Owl & Thistle Pub now resides within the building, and it is believed that the ghosts of that almighty blaze may still inhabit the area.
Bar staff have continually spoken of feeling like they are being watched and that a presence is with them on the property. Some have gone as far as to suggest that the shadowy Coleman entity mischievously interferes with keyboards while staff work away. As unsettling as a mischievous presence might be, it surely pales in comparison to the tragic tale of The Cadillac Hotel’s permanent resident.
TEARS IN THE DARKNESS
The early rough and tumble of Pioneer Square would have seen corruption, steely lawmen, and gun-toting miscreants alike. Even as the hotel settled into an age of Gold Rush and working men, Pioneer Square maintained a reputation as a tough and violent neighborhood, not for the faint of heart.
As the blue-collared masses came and went about their daily and nightly business, invariably, the area attracted its share of prostitution and sex workers to cater to the largely single male workforce that would call the Cadillac home for a quarter a day.
It is said that one such prostitute can still be found within the confines of this aged monument to a time long since past. It is said that the sounds of a crying woman and child can be heard some evenings, emanating from the upper floor of the Cadillac.
The woman is said to have fallen on hard times, like so many of the age, and turned to sex work to earn the money she needed for survival. The poor soul fell pregnant and, in an unthinkable act of desperation, attempted to perform an abortion on herself.
Taking both her own life and that of her unborn child, the woman is believed to have bled to death in the room she occupied. Her anguished cries and that of the child taken too soon are said to carry on the air, terrifying and shocking hotel visitors in equal measure.
HAUNTED SEATTLE
The hotel stands today as a monument to both its strength and the turbulent times that swirled at its base through the years. Fittingly, the Cadillac serves as a museum highlighting the furor and chaos of the Gold Rush years but also as a figure of resilience that couldn’t be bowed by fire, water, or earthquake. The hotel also, literally and figuratively, stands upon the old city’s streets, businesses, and seedy underbelly now confined to the eerie darkness of the Seattle Underground.
Pioneer Square and the Cadillac have many tales to tell of lives gone by, and depending on where you look and listen, they may tell you themselves. Will you dare to get to know the more terrifying tenants of Seattle’s bygone age? Make your story theirs and take a Seattle Ghost Tour today.
Keep reading our blog for more spooky Seattle stories, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for the latest in everything haunted.
Sources:
Seattle Terrors
https://seattleterrors.com/ghosts-of-pioneer-square/
History.com
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-great-seattle-fire
Haunted Seattle
https://hauntedseattle.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/the-cadillac-hotel/
The Lunatics Project
Geographics
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