Housed in the 1907 Haslett Warehouse at Fisherman's Wharf, this cannery-turned-hotel reports beds bouncing, small footsteps, and cold spots attributed to unseen children.
495 Jefferson St, San Francisco, CA 94109
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$$
Upscale boutique hotel. Room rates vary by season; book directly through the hotel website.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat Fisherman's Wharf location. Hotel has elevator access.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1907 · 1907 Industrial Warehouse · Del Monte Cannery History · Fisherman's Wharf Industrial Heritage · Post-1906 Earthquake Reconstruction
The Haslett Warehouse was built in 1907 at the corner of Jefferson Street and Hyde Street on San Francisco's northern waterfront, part of the rapid rebuilding of the Fisherman's Wharf industrial district following the 1906 earthquake and fire. The building served as a canning and cold-storage facility for the Del Monte brand — then operating as the California Fruit Canners Association — processing and storing the fruits and vegetables that moved through the San Francisco waterfront shipping trade.
The brick and timber construction is characteristic of early 20th century San Francisco industrial architecture: thick exterior masonry walls with heavy timber interior framing, designed to hold cold storage temperatures and withstand the demands of large-scale commercial food processing. The building's position directly on the Fisherman's Wharf waterfront placed it at the center of the city's commercial fishing and cannery district, which employed thousands of workers through the first half of the 20th century.
The cannery industry at Fisherman's Wharf declined significantly after World War II, and the warehouse underwent several ownership and use transitions before being converted to hotel use. The conversion preserved the building's industrial character — exposed brick, timber beams, and the original structural elements — as a design feature, and the Argonaut Hotel opened as part of Kimpton Hotels' portfolio of historic property conversions. It has operated as an upscale boutique hotel at the Wharf since the early 2000s.
Sources
The paranormal accounts at the Argonaut Hotel share an unusual specificity: they cluster around phenomena associated with children. Guests have reported beds moving or bouncing with no visible cause. The sound of small footsteps — quick, light, running — has been heard in corridors and rooms. Cold spots have appeared without connection to the building's HVAC system. Knocking from empty rooms is reported with enough frequency that it shows up across multiple unrelated accounts.
No documented child deaths in the building's history have been identified to anchor these accounts to a specific event. The Haslett Warehouse operated as a cannery and cold storage facility for most of its early life — an industrial use that would not typically involve children. The question of where the child-associated phenomena originate, if they are genuine, remains open.
Ghost tour operators in San Francisco have included the Argonaut among the city's most haunted hotels, citing the consistency of the child-associated reports from guests who did not know each other's experiences. The hotel's position in the Fisherman's Wharf district, with its layered history of maritime industry, fishing community, and immigrant labor, provides a historical context in which multiple generations of human presence could contribute to an accumulated building character — even if no specific story yet explains what guests report.
The Argonaut Hotel occupies the brick shell of the 1907 Haslett Warehouse, with exposed timber beams and original industrial materials visible throughout. Guests and staff have reported unexplained phenomena associated with unseen children: bouncing beds, small footsteps in hallways, cold spots, and knocking from empty rooms.
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