Bakersfield's 1928 skyscraper hotel actively markets its haunted seventh floor, the scene of a fire and multiple suicides.
1702 18th St, Bakersfield, CA 93301
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Hotel room rates vary; bar and restaurant open to non-guests. See website for current rates.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Urban hotel with elevator access; standard hotel accessibility
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1928 · Tallest Building in Bakersfield (1928) · Spanish Colonial Revival Architecture · Oil-Boom Era Commercial Hub · 2010 Downtown Rehabilitation
The Padre Hotel opened in 1928 as the tallest structure in Bakersfield, an eight-story Spanish Colonial Revival building designed to serve the city's oil-boom prosperity. At the time of its completion it represented the ambition of a city that had grown rapidly on petroleum revenue, and it functioned as a social hub for downtown Bakersfield through the 1930s and 1940s.
Milton Miller acquired the hotel in 1954 and owned it through 1999—a 45-year span that encompassed both the building's middle period of operation and its decline. A fire broke out on the seventh floor during this ownership period, in the 1950s, causing significant damage to that floor. The circumstances of the fire are documented in the Wikipedia article on the hotel. Multiple suicides from the roof are also documented in the building's history, contributing to its accumulated dark history.
The hotel closed in 1999 when Miller's ownership ended. It sat vacant for eleven years before a restoration and reopening in 2010, which preserved the Spanish Colonial Revival exterior and lobby while updating the interior. Since reopening, the hotel's management has leaned into the building's dark history as a marketing element—the seventh floor is specifically promoted for paranormal activity, and staff maintain accounts of phenomena reported by guests.
Bakersfield's Turn23 television affiliate has covered paranormal investigations at the hotel on multiple occasions, providing local-news documentation of the site's reputation. The hotel operates an active bar and restaurant that draw non-guests, making the building accessible without an overnight commitment.
Sources
The seventh floor of the Padre Hotel is the focal point of the building's paranormal reputation, and the hotel markets it explicitly. The floor was damaged in a 1950s fire and subsequently repaired, but the fire and the building's accumulated history of suicides from the roof established it as the most discussed floor in ghost-tour accounts.
Staff accounts describe two recurring phenomena on the seventh: child-sized handprints appearing on mirror surfaces, and the apparition of a girl in 1920s-era clothing seen in the corridor. The child figure is the most frequently reported entity associated with the building. No historical documentation has been published connecting a specific child death to the hotel's early years, though the building's age and pre-WWII decades of operation leave significant historical gaps.
Bakersfield's Turn23 news affiliate has covered the hotel's paranormal reputation in a segment on ghost hunts at the Padre, corroborating the staff accounts and documenting visitor-conducted investigations using standard paranormal investigation equipment. The local news treatment provides independent documentation beyond hotel marketing.
The suicides from the roof are referenced in building histories without specific dates or names. They represent the kind of documented institutional history—a commercial building with a long operational life in a medium-sized American city—that accumulates dark events across generations without generating archival attention proportional to the events themselves.
Notable Entities
The Padre Hotel's bar and restaurant are open to non-guests and occupy the building's historic street-level spaces. The seventh floor—the site of a 1950s fire and subsequent paranormal reports—is accessible to hotel guests. Staff can describe the building's reported phenomena.
Overnight guests have access to all hotel floors including the seventh, which the hotel markets for its paranormal activity. Staff report child-sized handprints on mirrors and apparitions of a 1920s-era girl on that floor. Local TV news has covered guest investigations.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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