In an age when boutique hotels vie for dollars with Instagram-worthy amenities like celebrity chefs and infinity pools, some properties have discovered that their greatest asset may be their checkered past.
A growing number of hotels built in places like former prisons, cult compounds, defunct military installations and graveyards are banking on dark, dramatic histories.
There’s real estate and commercial opportunism, for sure. Some hotels have met the demand for narrative with in-house historians. But there’s also a fascination with being immersed in locations where forebears confronted terrible circumstances. Perhaps even the most troubled places can find redemption through thoughtful design and the passage of time.
Here are seven places to stay where the mood has a hint of the macabre.
Troutdale, Ore.
McMenamins Edgefield
McMenamins Edgefield, about 15 miles outside Portland, Ore., offers a relaxing atmosphere where guests can sip craft beer, book a massage or swing a golf club.
Few guests realize that they’re staying at what was once known as the Cedars, believed to be among the first detention centers for women accused of carrying sexually transmitted infections. The Cedars opened in 1917 as part of a public panic around social hygiene, fueled by the fear of male troops being infected. Thousands of women were confined, often without due process, across the country.
“Of course it was always the woman’s fault,” Caitlin Popp, a tour guide manager with McMenamins, said. “It was very much of its time.”
The Cedars closed in 1923 after negative press when Ruth Brown, a Black woman, successfully sued for freedom. A portion of the site became a “poor farm,” a publicly funded institution that provided food, shelter and sometimes employment in the era before Social Security. Then it was converted into a military academy for young boys, doctor and nurse staff housing and a residence for older adults until it fell into disrepair in the 1980s. After the site was abandoned, McMenamins began its revival in 1990 with a “cleansing” performed by a pipe-and-drum band.
The building that once housed the Cedars is now a spa with an attached soaking pool. A vegetable garden supplies the restaurants, and a former detention building has been converted to storage and artists’ studios. The hotel maintains a “ghost log” for guests to chronicle supernatural encounters, which has many entries, particularly for the “most haunted room,” 215, where a large pentagram was once spray painted on the floor.
Private rooms range from $130 to $300.
Buffalo
The Richardson Hotel
Set on a 44-acre campus in Buffalo, N.Y., designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and designated a national historic landmark, this building, designed by Henry Hobson Richardson in the late 1800s, served as a mental hospital until the last patients left in 1974.
Olmsted conceived the tree-filled campus to be open so that patients wouldn’t feel confined and could experience nature daily. The complex followed the model of Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, a pioneer in care for the mentally ill, to reject almshouses and jails in favor of more livable environments.
“His model for treatment, fresh air, helpful work, socialization, a bucolic setting, getting out of the busy, dirty cities resonated,” said Paris Roselli, president of the Richardson Olmsted Campus, a nonprofit that manages the property.
After the hospital closed, it “just rotted,” Mr. Roselli said. Community activists fought for it to be transferred to the nonprofit.
In 2017, the nonprofit Richardson Center Corp., following a community-led master plan for the campus, converted three buildings into an 88-room boutique hotel and meeting space, with a ballroom and a wine bar. Dr. Kirkbride’s large hallways with natural light were preserved.
Rooms start at $169 a night.
Milwaukee
Pfister Hotel
This Milwaukee hotel, whose founder, Guido Pfister, died before its completion, has been riddled with ghost sightings since it opened in 1893.
Legend has it that the hotel was built on a private burial ground, said Anna Lardinois, a writer and the owner of Gothic Milwaukee, a company that offers tours of spooky sites in the city. Guests have reported feeling haunted presences on the second floor and seeing a shadowy figure in the ballroom balcony.
Among the Pfister’s frequent guests are visiting Major League Baseball teams in town to play the Milwaukee Brewers. Some of those players have recounted strange happenings at the hotel like odd noises and flickering lights; the Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts has said he refuses to stay there because of possible ghosts. Megan Thee Stallion, the rapper, shared on social media that she had engaged in ghost hunting during her stay in 2021.
“If you’re going to have a lot of history,” Ms. Lardinois said, “there are going to be some ghosts.”
Some locals welcome the supernatural, considering it a supernatural way of trying to help the hometown teams win.
Rooms cost $149 to $899.
Eureka Springs, Ark.
The Crescent Hotel and Spa
The Crescent Hotel and Spa was built in 1886 in Eureka Springs, Ark., in the Ozarks near springs with water believed to have healing properties. In 1937, Norman G. Baker, a celebrity millionaire who claimed to be a doctor despite having no training, turned the Crescent into a hospital, declaring that he could cure various ailments. Those claims — including that he could cure cancer — led to his conviction on mail fraud charges.
In 2019, archaeologists uncovered bizarre ephemera from Baker’s era in the hotel’s soil, including bottles of secret elixirs, remnants of bone saws and disturbing medical specimens in jars. Much is on display in what was once the morgue.
These days, the Crescent, which claims to be America’s most haunted hotel, hosts a murder mystery weekend and a paranormal conference, both annual events. Guests can take ghost tours designed either for adults or for children ages 5 to 12. Ghost photos and guest stories are shared by paranormal influencers on TikTok and YouTube. The hotel today is elegant, with impressive views, chandeliers and lush gardens.
“We lean into our paranormal past,” Gina Rambo, director of marketing and communications for the Crescent, said. “We have some guests who say, ‘We’ll visit, but we won’t stay the night.’ That’s fine. We get it.”
Rooms cost $149 to $599.
Bozeman, Mont.
Kimpton Armory Hotel
If you’re in Bozeman, Mont., and looking for a place to stay that’s pet-friendly and Peloton-stocked and that once hosted a rifle range, then look no further.
The Kimpton Armory Hotel, which opened in 2020, occupies the historic Bozeman Armory. The Art Deco building, completed in 1941, served as a base for the 163rd Infantry Regiment of the Montana National Guard for more than 60 years.
The wartime origins are impossible to ignore, and that’s the point. The rifle room, soundproof music room (for the military band) and 18-inch-thick walls all serve as reminders. The former gymnasium and drill floor have been transformed into the Armory Music Hall.
Military retirees often visit the Tune Up, a bar that pays tribute to the regiment, said Cory Lawrence, the chief executive of Off the Beaten Path, a travel company, who led the restoration.
“They love their experience,” he said. “Because the remnants are still there.”
Rooms cost $250 to $977.
Boston
Liberty Hotel
On Beacon Hill’s cobblestone streets stands an audacious hotel conversion. The Liberty Hotel, which opened in 2007, occupies the bones of the Charles Street Jail, a Gothic Revival fortress that was home to New England’s most notorious inmates for 140 years (The mobster Whitey Bulger, the Boston mayor James Michael Curley, and the anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti among them).
Because the building is designated a state and national historic place, designers “were able to keep a lot of the original structure then add that luxury feel,” said Mark Fischer, the hotel’s general manager.
Today, some of the original cells are visible as conversation pieces. The 90-foot-high rotunda, once the jail’s focal point for guards monitoring cell blocks, is a dramatic lobby. Catwalks are used as sitting areas or for events.
The hotel’s restaurants embrace the history with names like Clink and Alibi, the former being the location of the jail’s “drunk tank.”
Rooms start at $590.
Marshall, Calif.
The Lodge at Marconi
Perched above Tomales Bay in Marin County, the Lodge at Marconi occupies one of Northern California’s more bizarre sites.
Originally owned by Guglielmo Marconi, a pioneer in radio technology, the site was used as a radio receiving station.
In the early 1960s, the notorious drug rehabilitation program Synanon purchased the property as its headquarters. What began as an innovative approach to addiction treatment transformed into a cult, leading to weapons stockpiling and allegations of attempted murder.
The state took control of the property in the 1980s and it was converted into a conference center before a 2023 renovation. Today, the luxury lodge offers hiking trails, bird watching and board games.
Probably a good idea to pack some sage to ward off negative energy, just in case.
Rooms start at $323, according to its website.
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