A 16,000-square-foot hilltop mansion gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. built as a 50th-anniversary gift for his wife — Wrigley died inside the home in 1932, and staff still report his and Ada's lingering presence.
2501 E Telawa Trail, Phoenix, AZ 85016
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Mansion tours offered for a fee; restaurants and bar require reservations and are priced individually
Access
Wheelchair OK
Hilltop site with steep access road; main floor and restaurant ADA-accessible, some upper rooms limited
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1931 · Built by William Wrigley Jr., chewing-gum magnate and owner of the Chicago Cubs · 50th-wedding-anniversary gift to Ada Foote Wrigley · Site of William Wrigley Jr.'s death on January 26, 1932 · Operated today by the Hormel family as a private club, restaurant, and event venue
William Wrigley Jr., the Chicago chewing-gum magnate whose company also owned the Chicago Cubs and Catalina Island, commissioned the Wrigley Mansion as a 50th-anniversary present for his wife Ada Foote Wrigley. Construction began in 1929 on a 100-acre hilltop site originally owned by the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, which the Wrigleys also owned. The home was designed in a Spanish-influenced Mediterranean Revival style and finished in 1931, with 24 rooms across 16,000 square feet and panoramic views of the Phoenix valley. It was the smallest of the Wrigley family's five residences — they also owned homes in Chicago, Lake Geneva, Catalina Island, and Pasadena — and they had intended to use it only for a few weeks each winter.
The Wrigleys' anniversary celebration at the new mansion proved bittersweet. William Wrigley Jr. died on January 26, 1932 at age 70, only a few months after the home's completion. According to multiple sources including Wikipedia and Phoenix-area history features, he died inside the mansion in Ada's bedroom. Ada continued to use the home as a winter residence and reportedly moved into William's bedroom after his death — a detail Phoenix Ghosts and Ghost Hunting Theories cite as the origin of the home's haunted reputation. Ada herself lived until 1958.
The Wrigley family continued to own the mansion until 1973, when they sold it to Western Savings; the bank used it as a private club for decades. After Western Savings' collapse, the mansion was purchased in 1992 by Geordie Hormel of the Hormel meatpacking family, who restored it and reopened it to the public. Today the mansion is operated by the Hormel family as a private club, a fine-dining restaurant (Christopher's at Wrigley Mansion), an events space, and a venue for guided historic tours.
The Wrigley Mansion is listed on the Phoenix Historic Property Register.
Sources
The paranormal reputation of the Wrigley Mansion is unusually focused: rather than the catalog of legends typical of older estates, the lore centers almost exclusively on William and Ada Wrigley themselves. According to Ghost Hunting Theories and Phoenix-area paranormal coverage, William Wrigley Jr. died in Ada's bedroom on January 26, 1932, only a few months after the mansion was completed. Ada subsequently moved into William's room — a domestic detail Phoenix Ghosts cites as the symbolic root of the home's haunted reputation (Ghost Hunting Theories; Phoenix Ghosts).
Mansion staff are reported in tour-operator and paranormal-blog accounts to share personal experiences of unexplained internal phone calls with no one on the other end, disembodied voices in unoccupied rooms, and a general sense that William and Ada continue to share the house with current owners and visitors. Compared to the volatile poltergeist activity reported at sites like the Hermosa Inn or Westward Ho, the Wrigley Mansion's lore is consistently described as gentle and domestic in character.
The Hormel family, current owners and operators, do not actively market the home as haunted. The mansion's public-facing communications focus on its history, architecture, and dining. Paranormal content is primarily a feature of third-party ghost-tour and paranormal-blog coverage.
Notable Entities
Guided one-hour tours walk through the 16,000-square-foot mansion built in 1929-1931 by William Wrigley Jr., the public rooms, the bedrooms where William and Ada Wrigley lived, and the panoramic views from the hilltop that the Wrigley family chose for their Arizona winter home.
Award-winning fine-dining restaurant by chef Christopher Gross, located inside the historic mansion. Reservations strongly recommended.
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