HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
1897 Williams saloon-and-bordello on the National Register, now a B&B with a resident ghost called Eva
137 W Railroad Ave, Williams, AZ 86046
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Boutique B&B room rates vary by room and season; four guest rooms. See website.
Access
Limited Access
Two-story 1897 brick building; guest rooms are upstairs, reached by a steep historic staircase
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1897 · National Register of Historic Places · Williams Railroad Town History · Route 66 Heritage · Surviving Frontier Saloon and Bordello Building
August Tetzlaff, a German tailor, built the two-story brick building at the edge of the Williams railroad depot in 1897, anticipating business from the traffic the railroad and the nearby Grand Canyon would bring. The ground floor opened as a saloon; the upstairs held a brothel with a parlor and eight small rooms, or cribs, reached by a steep staircase that locals nicknamed the 'Cowboy's Endurance Test.'
Both businesses operated for more than four decades. Accounts hold that the saloon and brothel closed in the mid-1940s following a crackdown on the town's red-light trade. The building passed through other uses and fell into disrepair before John Holst purchased it in 1979 and began a long restoration, converting the eight upstairs cribs into four guest rooms, each with its own bath.
The restored property reopened as the Red Garter, a bed-and-breakfast that keeps the building's history front and center, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The inn sits a short walk from the Grand Canyon Railway depot and is part of the preserved Route 66 streetscape that anchors downtown Williams. Its saloon-and-bordello past is documented in regional histories and in the inn's own account of the building.
Sources
The Red Garter's resident presence is known in the inn's tradition as Eva, described as a young woman tied to the building's years as a brothel. Guests who report seeing her describe a figure with long dark hair in a white nightgown, glimpsed on the upper floor where the cribs once were. The inn treats Eva's story as part of the building's history rather than a marketing gimmick, and its own account is one of the sources for the legend.
Reported activity is mostly auditory and small-scale: footsteps in the upstairs hall when no one is there, doors that open or slam on their own, and unexplained 'clunking' sounds through the building. Several guest accounts published over the years describe waking to a sense of presence in the older rooms.
Local histories note that a killing took place on the building's stairs in the 1940s, an event tied to the crackdown that closed the saloon and brothel; some retellings fold that history into the building's somber reputation. The inn keeps the focus on Eva and on the documented brothel-era history, and points guests interested in the lore toward the upstairs rooms and the steep original staircase.
Notable Entities
Stay in one of four guest rooms inside the restored 1897 building, where the upstairs rooms were once brothel cribs. The inn tells guests its saloon-and-bordello history and its account of Eva, the presence most often reported on the upper floor.
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