HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
+ 1 further entry on record
Prescott's 1917 Boutique Hotel and Abby's Vigil in Room 16
230 South Cortez St, Prescott, AZ 86303
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Room rates vary; boutique hotel with 20 guest rooms. Check website for current pricing.
Access
Limited Access
Historic 1917 building; limited accessibility features
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1917 · Historic Boutique Hotel · Early Prescott History · Tuberculosis-Era Arizona · Whiskey Row Adjacent
The Hotel Vendome occupies a 1917 building on South Cortez Street in Prescott, two blocks from Courthouse Plaza and near the stretch known as Whiskey Row. Original room counts differ: operator 31 versus Sharlot Hall Museum 30. Originally constructed as a boarding establishment, the hotel has been restored and operates today as a 20-room boutique property with clawfoot tubs, a wine and beer bar, and period-appropriate furnishings.
Abby Byr's story begins with acquisition. She and her husband pooled resources in 1921 to purchase the Vendome, a transaction that appears to have quickly gone wrong — the hotel was lost to tax debt before the Byrs could stabilize it. The new owners kept the couple on as managers and assigned them Room 16 as their living quarters.
By early 1921, Abby was ill with tuberculosis — called consumption in the vernacular of the era. Her husband left the hotel stating he was going to obtain medicine. He did not come back. Whether he intended to return, whether he encountered some obstacle, or whether he simply chose not to — the records don't answer this. What the records reflect is the outcome: Abby refused to eat or drink in his absence. She died in Room 16. Noble, her cat, died shortly after.
The hotel has been continuously operating since its restoration. Room 16's history is disclosed to guests, and the hotel's staff have accumulated their own catalog of inexplicable experiences over the years.
Sources
Room 16 at the Hotel Vendome has been occupied by the same guest for over a century, in the accounting of the staff who work there.
Abby Byr adjusts the room's lights. She changes the fan speed. She has reportedly turned off the television when she finds a program objectionable — staff accounts specifically note her apparent antipathy toward MTV. Whether this reflects her preferences in life or represents the legend's way of making her relatable is not possible to determine.
The closet is where Noble lives in the accounts. Multiple housekeeping staff have reported the sound of a cat pawing inside the closet during cleaning — rhythmic, insistent, sourceable to the specific location — with no animal in the room or the hallway.
Guests who request Room 16 — and many do — describe the encounters as friendly. No one has reported feeling threatened. The accounts cluster around awareness of presence rather than anything more forceful: a sensation of being watched, of the room responding to occupancy in ways that suggest more than the building's thermal behavior.
Abby's story generates sympathy rather than anxiety. She was abandoned while ill, by someone who was supposed to return. She is still there. In the folklore of haunted hotels, this is among the more coherent and human-scaled stories: a woman waiting for someone who isn't coming, adjusting the lights in the room she will never leave.
Notable Entities
Book Room 16 at the Hotel Vendome, where Abby Byr died of tuberculosis in 1921 after her husband abandoned her while seeking medicine. Guests report seeing Abby, feeling her presence, and hearing her cat Noble pawing in the closet. Hotel staff describe lights and fans adjusting on their own.
Public beer-and-wine bar inside Hotel Vendome, open to hotel guests and the public; seasonal selections include beer, wine, champagne and sodas.
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