HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
1908 San Francisco hotel with an intact Prohibition-era basement speakeasy and two reported long-term resident apparitions
114 Powell St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Hotel overnight rates; see website for current pricing. Bar and lobby accessible to non-guests.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Downtown San Francisco hotel with elevator access. Powell Street cable car stop at the door.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1908 · Post-1906 Earthquake Reconstruction Era · Prohibition-Era Speakeasy · Union Square Historic Hotel District
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed most of the city's downtown lodging stock, prompting a rapid wave of hotel construction between 1907 and 1912. The building at 114 Powell Street, built in 1908 as the Golden West Hotel, was part of that rebuilding era — a six-story structure located a half-block from Union Square in a neighborhood that has remained a commercial hotel district for more than a century.
During Prohibition (1920–1933), the building's basement reportedly housed a speakeasy known as 'The Golden Bubble.' The accounts describe a space of approximately 10,000 square feet with access controlled from the hotel above. Whether the space is truly intact and sealed behind existing walls or whether that characterization reflects later embellishment has not been independently verified; the claim circulates in hotel history accounts and tour guide scripts.
The hotel occupied a building that once stood adjacent to the Elks Club and various other Union Square commercial properties. The Powell Street corridor changed substantially over the 20th century with cable car line renovations, Union Square park redesigns, and successive cycles of hotel renovation and rebranding.
The property has operated under the Hotel Union Square name as a boutique property in recent decades, positioned as one of San Francisco's older continuously operating hotels in the Union Square district.
Sources
Two rooms at Hotel Union Square generate the most sustained paranormal reports in local accounts. Room 207 is described as hosting the apparition of a woman identified in ghost-tour tradition as playwright Lillian Hellman — said to appear waiting near the window as if expecting someone. The connection to Hellman is based on the fact that she and mystery writer Dashiell Hammett maintained a long and well-documented relationship that included stays in San Francisco; however, no archival record has been located tying Hellman specifically to this hotel or this room. The attribution should be understood as part of the building's folklore rather than as a documented historical fact.
Room 514 carries a separate account. The reported connection is to Florence Cushing, identified in local sources as a woman who died after a fall from a neighboring property in 1911. The accounts describe her apparition as appearing near the room's window. No contemporary newspaper records confirming the identity, date, or circumstances of this death have been located in the sources available; the account circulates primarily in paranormal aggregator write-ups. The death, if it occurred as described, would have taken place at an adjacent building, not this hotel.
The 10,000-square-foot Prohibition speakeasy in the basement — described in hotel marketing and tour accounts as still sealed behind existing walls — adds a layer of documented historical intrigue that doesn't depend on the ghost stories to hold interest. The building's age and its post-earthquake construction context place it in a period of San Francisco history that has generated paranormal claims across dozens of properties in the neighborhood.
Notable Entities
Where this legend is told
Guests can book stays at the hotel. Rooms 207 and 514 are the two most commonly associated with reported paranormal activity. The 10,000-square-foot Prohibition-era speakeasy in the basement — reportedly still intact behind sealed walls — is not currently open to guests, but the hotel's public areas include the lobby and bar.
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