Est. 1857 · Gold Rush Era Hotel · Continuously Operating Since 1857 · El Dorado County Historical Site
Placerville in 1857 was already shedding its roughest edges. The town had earned the informal name Hangtown early in the gold rush for the frequency of its vigilante executions, but by the late 1850s a more settled commercial district was taking shape along Main Street. The Cary House Hotel opened that year and was known immediately as the best hotel in El Dorado County — its furnishings and service distinguishing it from the rougher accommodation options available to miners.
The hotel occupied a prominent position in Placerville's social life for decades. Mark Twain and Horace Greeley are among the figures said to have stayed there, though these associations, common to historic California hotels, are difficult to verify against primary records. More reliably documented is the hotel's appearance on the Travel Channel's 'Portals to Hell' in 2020, which brought the paranormal investigation community to the building in numbers.
The hotel has operated continuously since 1857, making it one of the older surviving gold rush-era hotels in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Each room is furnished with antiques, and the building retains much of the character of the original structure, including the staircase where Stan, the hotel's most famous ghost, is said to have died.
Sources
- https://www.caryhousehotel.com/
- https://visit-eldorado.com/gold-country-ghosts-top-7-haunts-for-spotting-spirits-in-el-dorado-county/
- https://www.allstays.com/Haunted/ca_placerville_caryhouse.htm
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12437108/
Phantom piano musicApparitionsPhantom catPhysical contact (pinching)Phantom door-handle testingPhantom footsteps
Stanley Devine worked the front desk at the Cary House in the late 1800s. He was, by accounts preserved in the hotel's oral history, a womanizer who did not read refusals clearly. On the stairs, he made an advance at a man whose companion or guest he had targeted. The man produced a knife and stabbed Stan twice in the chest. Stan fell down the stairs and died.
Staff describe Stan as testing doorknobs — guests hear a handle turn, open the door to an empty hallway, and find the door unopenable from outside. Footsteps in the corridors without visible source are reported throughout the building, but concentrate near the lobby and staircase. Women guests have specifically reported being pinched in the lobby, an account that fits the character described in the historical record. The lobby and rooms 208 and 406 generate the most consistent reports.
A piano playing from the top of the first flight of stairs is heard only from one specific spot — step slightly to the left or right and it's gone. Multiple guests over multiple decades have reported it. There is no piano in the building that would explain the sound.
A phantom cat has been described in the corridors, padding through a hallway and then simply not being there. A young woman appears near the bottom of the main staircase — she's been described as attractive and formal in dress — and then she's gone. She has no apparent connection to any documented history of the building.
The Travel Channel investigated in 2020 and featured the hotel in 'Portals to Hell.' The producers' characterizations belong in the television genre; the reports that predate the show come from guests and staff with no reason to promote the hotel's paranormal reputation.
Notable Entities
Stan (front desk clerk)Young Woman (staircase)
Media Appearances
- Portals to Hell (television, 2020)
