HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Sonora's oldest building — an 1850 adobe that served some thirty years as the county hospital before becoming a Gold Country hotel, with hauntings traced to its hospital era.
286 S Washington St, Sonora, CA 95370
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Operating historic hotel; room rates include complimentary breakfast. See the hotel website for current rates and reservations.
Access
Limited Access
Two-story 1850 adobe in downtown Sonora; period building with stairs and uneven historic flooring.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1850 · Oldest building in Sonora; first two-story adobe in the region · Built beginning in 1850 by Dr. Lewis C. Gunn · Home of the Mother Lode's first newspaper, the Sonora Herald · Used as a county hospital for roughly thirty years until about 1899-1900 · Listed on the Sierra Nevada Geotourism (National Geographic) map
Dr. Lewis C. Gunn, a native Philadelphian, came to the California gold country to seek his fortune in the mines. After prospecting failed to pay, he settled in Sonora and built the region's first two-story adobe structure, beginning in 1850. It served first as his family residence and then as his business headquarters.
From this adobe Gunn founded and printed the Mother Lode's first newspaper, the Sonora Herald, in the early 1850s. The building's later history runs through the institutions of a growing Gold Country town: it was sold and put to use as a hospital, operating in that role until roughly 1899 or the early 1900s, a span of about thirty years.
After its hospital years the adobe passed through further uses before being restored and reopened as a hotel. Today the Gunn House Hotel presents itself as the most historic inn in Sonora, with period-antique rooms and complimentary breakfast, and it is included on the Sierra Nevada Geotourism map produced under the National Geographic geotourism program.
The hotel leans into its age and its medical past. Local paranormal accounts specifically tie the building's reported activity to the roughly thirty years it spent as a hospital, when the adobe that had launched Sonora's first newspaper became a place where the sick and dying were cared for.
Sources
The Gunn House's ghost stories cluster around its years as a hospital. The recurring figure in the lore is a matronly woman whose apparition has been described appearing in the parlor, by the fireplace, a presence in keeping with the building's medical past rather than a dramatic, menacing one.
The upstairs rooms carry the more startling accounts. In Room 11, guests have reported waking to find an unseen presence rearranging the furniture in the room. Room 10 is the source of the single most aggressive story in the lore: a guest there reported being thrown from the bed by an unseen force during the night.
The people who collect these accounts connect them directly to the roughly thirty years the adobe served as a hospital, reasoning that a place where so many were treated and some died would be the natural seat of the activity. The Sonora Herald origin, the long medical chapter, and the building's status as the town's oldest structure all feed the same conclusion: the Gunn House is treated locally as one of Sonora's most reliably haunted addresses, and the activity is framed as residual rather than threatening, with the one bed-throwing account as the notable exception.
Notable Entities
Book a room in Sonora's oldest building, an 1850 adobe with period-antique decor and complimentary breakfast. Guests in some rooms have reported the activity that ties the hotel's lore to its decades as the county hospital.
View the exterior of the two-story 1850 adobe that Dr. Lewis C. Gunn built, home of the Mother Lode's first newspaper, the Sonora Herald. The hotel is listed on the Sierra Nevada Geotourism (National Geographic) map of the region.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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