NATIVE GROUNDS, AN OLD SCHOOL HOUSE BUILT OVER AN OLD WATER WELL AND NOW A HOTEL WHERE DEAD PEOPLE ROAM THE HALLS! NO WONDER THERE ARE GHOSTS HERE!!!

It was from the roof of the seven-story Hotel San Carlos in Phoenix, that 22-year old Leone Jensen decided to end her life. She was dressed in a white evening gown as she had expected to enjoy a night on the town with her boyfriend. After her dreams for a wonderful night of dancing were shattered, she decided she could not live with a broken heart. After writing a suicide note she made her way to the roof of the brand new hotel in 1928, looked over the edge to the streets below, and jumped to her death, thus giving Phoenix its first suicide.

This is in a frame on one of the
floors. It's newspapers clipping
from the death of Leone.

Leone's suicide note.

I just this weekend got to visit this wonderful hotel. I did not get to investigate because the staff at the front desk is VERY strict about you "looking for ghosts". The lady at the desk didn't want to answer any of my questions about the hauntings at the hotel. She would not even let me walk around and see the hotel. So, I sat in the lobby trying to figure a way to walk around and take some pictures(for you guys of course). From where I was sitting I could see a staircase behind where you catch the elevators.... HHHUUMMM I could just "walk" up to the floors and look around........so I got up and walked slowly to the staircase....trying not to bring any attention to myself and much to my surprise....you had to have a KEY just to use the stairway. I thought this was really unusual because most of the time stair ways are for emergencies or if the elevators doesn't work. Why would you have to have a KEY just to go up the stairs??? I'm guessing....there's something they don't want you to see.

Now, before you jump in your car and head out to this place, let me warn you..... the lobby area is extremely small, the smallest one I have ever seen as a matter of fact and there are camera's everywhere!!! So if you CAN get permission I would and if you can't...... don't say I didn't warn you. :)

Now, I am just going to leave it at this.....Deak and I where able to get upstairs and take a look around. Enough said..... :)

Ever since that night of May 7, 1928, guests of the Hotel San Carlos have reported many sightings of her ghost. Typically, she is seen as the "white cloud of a woman's figure, accompanied by unexplainable breezes". While some guests may find the idea of the hotel being haunted either exciting or frightening, it has become an accepted responsibility for working at the hotel. For example, the housekeeping staff are so superstitious that they refuse to work on a floor alone; it has become standard procedure now that they work in teams of two or three, no matter what floor they work on.

Business Center.

The ladies restroom.

The ladies restroom.

This orb is right by the Marilyn Monroe's suite.

Most of the hallways look the same.

Leone is probably the most famous permanent resident of the San Carlos, but she is by no means the only ghost. Guests have also reported hearing the sounds of at least three or four children running up and down the hallways, laughing and playing. The story of these children can be traced to a history before the hotel was built, but I shall take a moment and go even further into our prehistory.

Jumping backwards in time roughly 400 years, the Native American tribe known to us today as the Hohokam, made the Rio Salado valley their home. In the heart of this valley, an underground countercurrent water spring provided refreshment to the tribe. The natives worshipped their god of Knowledge and Learning at this spot. They believed that from this spring came mahchig, or great knowledge. Whatever great wisdom they gleaned there however was lost when the tribe was forced to move on. It was the modern Pima tribes who named them huhugam, or "those who have gone."

Fast forward again to the early settlement of Phoenix, this very same spring was re-discovered and tapped with a well. Phoenix's very first schoolhouse was built on this site in 1874, with this well water providing refreshment to a new generation of students. It was a one-room adobe building with a dirt floor, but it served the humble forefathers of our town well. Five years later, in 1879, that building was replaced with a two-story brick building - only the fourth brick building in Phoenix. At that time, it was the northernmost building along Center Street, now known as Central Avenue. In 1893, the brick schoolhouse was expanded to sixteen rooms.

The haunted pool area on the 3rd floor.

It was at some time during the late 1890's that we have different accounts of three or four boys drowning in the well. The school building was eventually declared unsafe, condemned, and the property put up for sale in 1916. Could these be the boys who can still be heard playing in the hallways of the Hotel San Carlos?

This very special well is still in use today; it resides in the basement of the Hotel San Carlos. It serves as the sole source of water to the guests of the hotel. The San Carlos is the only building in Phoenix that is not part of the city's water supply. Even today, hotel guests remark to the staff about the high quality of the cool, refreshing water that comes from the original, antique brass fixtures in their rooms.

The penthouse that resides on the roof has a very interesting story of its own to tell. Charles Harris owned half of the hotel, and also managed it with his wife Elsie and their two sons. Mr. Harris had the penthouse built on the roof for his family to live in. When Charles Harris died in 1946 of natural causes, the hotel went into his family trust. The Harris family moved out and let the trust take over management of the hotel. The original intention was to rent the penthouse out to VIP guests, including some of the many Hollywood actors who frequented the hotel. However, to this day, the penthouse has never and will never be rented out. Yet, work is always being done to maintain it. Electricity is still supplied to it, and it is kept air-conditioned. An expensive proposition to say the least, especially if there are no living guests staying in the penthouse.