Flagstaff's Taxpayer-Funded Hollywood Haunt Since 1927
100 N San Francisco St, Flagstaff, AZ 86001
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Hotel rooms from approximately $115/night. Parking $50/day nearby. Restaurant and bars on site with separate pricing.
Access
Limited Access
Paved downtown streets; historic building without full ADA elevator access in all areas
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1927 · Route 66 Heritage · Hollywood Western Film Era · Historic Downtown Flagstaff
The Hotel Monte Vista was not built by investors or a hospitality corporation. In 1924, V.M. Slipher — director of the Lowell Observatory and one of the scientists who discovered evidence for an expanding universe — organized a public campaign that raised the funds for construction. The hotel opened on New Year's Day, 1927, a 42-room property at the corner of San Francisco and Aspen Streets in downtown Flagstaff.
The decision to build a first-class hotel reflected Flagstaff's position as a staging point for Grand Canyon visitors and a location scouts' destination for Western film production. During the 1940s and 1950s, the guest registry included John Wayne, Bing Crosby, Jane Russell, Gary Cooper, and Spencer Tracy. Wayne stayed repeatedly; he appears in multiple rooms' documented histories.
The building was renovated without losing its original character — the deep red brick exterior, the vintage neon signage, and the period-appropriate interior decor remain largely intact. The property is now a 42-room boutique hotel with two bars and a restaurant, operating continuously at 100 N. San Francisco Street, Flagstaff, Arizona 86001.
Sources
The woman in Room 305 sits in a rocking chair by the window. She has been reported there by multiple guests and housekeeping staff across decades of accounts. The chair itself has been documented as moving: placed against the wall at night, found near the window by morning. The woman is not associated with a named historical incident; she appears in accounts simply as a presence, patient and stationary.
Room 210 carries its own documented history. John Wayne reported hearing knocking on his door during multiple stays, followed by a call announcing room service. On opening the door: nobody. The report was not unique to Wayne — staff members independently described the same figure, a bellhop, appearing in the hallway and then disappearing. The encounter has been attributed to no specific historical person.
Room 306's history is more concrete and more violent. In the early 1940s, two women were brought to the room and killed; their bodies were thrown from the third-floor window to the street below. The room is documented in the hotel's own paranormal materials, and the accounts from guests are consistent with disturbance-type phenomena rather than residual.
The Bank Robber haunts the hotel lounge. During a 1970 robbery, one of the perpetrators was shot and made it back to the hotel, dying in the bar before receiving medical attention. Staff and guests report cold spots and movement in the lounge area during off hours.
Additional reports throughout the building include unexplained elevator behavior — stopping on floors where no one is waiting, doors opening without cause — and the periodic sound of what guests describe as band music coming from spaces that have been dark for decades.
Notable Entities
Room 305 has generated more independent paranormal reports than any other space in the hotel: a female apparition repeatedly observed in the rocking chair by the window, with the chair found relocated each morning. Room 210 is where John Wayne reported phantom room-service knocks during his stays. Two women were reportedly thrown from Room 306's third-floor window in the early 1940s.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Tucson, AZ
The Hotel Congress opened in 1918 as a railroad hotel adjacent to Tucson's Southern Pacific Depot, designed by the Los Angeles architectural firm William and Alexander Curlett. On January 22, 1934, a basement fire inadvertently exposed John Dillinger and his gang, who had been hiding on the third floor using aliases — setting off a chain of events that ended in Dillinger's transfer to Indiana and eventual death in Chicago.
Globe, AZ
The Noftsger Hill Inn was originally the North Globe Schoolhouse, built in 1907 and operating as Globe's primary elementary school until it closed in 1981. After renovation, the building reopened as a bed and breakfast. The conversion preserved the original classroom structure, with each former classroom becoming an oversized guest suite.
Genoa, WI
Big River Inn dates to either 1879 or 1896 (sources vary) in Genoa, Wisconsin. The building originally functioned as a restaurant before evolving into a combined inn and restaurant. It now operates as Water View Inn, maintaining its paranormal reputation while serving contemporary hospitality functions.