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Reported phenomena, as catalogued
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Old Town Temecula's 1927 founding hotel — the first with electricity and indoor plumbing — and one of Southern California's most thoroughly documented haunted properties
28545 Old Town Front St, Temecula, CA 92590
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$$
Entire building rents for $1,500/night (up to 13 guests across 7 rooms). Not available for individual room bookings.
Access
Limited Access
Multi-story historic building in Old Town Temecula. Stair access to upper floors.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1927 · One of Old Town Temecula's Oldest Commercial Buildings · First Hotel in Temecula with Electricity and Indoor Plumbing
In 1927, Lena McCulloch constructed the building that would become the Palomar Inn on Old Town Front Street, naming it Hotel McCulloch after herself. The building distinguished itself from Temecula's earlier accommodations by offering electricity and indoor plumbing — a meaningful difference for the ranchers, farmers, and workers passing through the Temecula Valley at the time.
New ownership took the property sometime in the following decade and renamed it the Palomar Inn, the name it has carried since. Over the years the building housed not just hotel rooms but a drugstore, a soda shop, and at one point a post office, a typical commercial flexibility for a main-street structure in a small regional town.
The inn appeared in the 1967 television series The Invaders (Season 1, Episode 1), an early bit of pop-culture notice that preceded its later paranormal reputation. A 2022 renovation brought the property to its current configuration: seven rooms sleeping up to 13 guests, rented as a complete building rather than by individual room.
The building stands on Old Town Front Street within Temecula's historic commercial district, which has undergone significant revitalization as the surrounding wine country region grew into a tourism destination in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The Palomar Inn is recognized by Visit Temecula Valley among the city's historic properties.
Sources
The Palomar Inn's paranormal record is anchored by a documented investigation. In April 2009, Dale Garcia — a history buff who managed Old Town Temecula Candlelight Tours — recorded multiple EVP sessions in the building. The recordings were described by investigators as containing voices that became progressively hostile during the session, including language directed at a female member of the investigation team. Some EVPs were characterized as threatening and demeaning, which researchers noted was unusual given the relatively benign exterior history of the building.
Guest accounts describe a recurring apparition: a man in old-fashioned attire, seen standing near cleaning staff before vanishing. Doors in the building have been heard and seen opening and closing on their own, and the sound of a woman's high-heeled footsteps has been reported in a hallway when no one was there. In another incident, guests reported hearing arguing voices and what sounded like a gunshot in an empty corridor; a separate couple described hearing a loud crash with no visible cause.
Paranormal historian and photographer Craig Owens, who has documented Southern California haunted sites, cited the Palomar Inn as the most actively haunted hotel in Southern California when measured by paranormal incidents per square foot — a claim that circulates in regional paranormal media. The San Diego Ghosts website documents the site with multiple independent guest accounts corroborating the general pattern of phenomena. The Backpackerverse feature article confirmed the Craig Owens attribution and the April 2009 EVP recordings.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Rent the entire Palomar Inn — 7 rooms sleeping up to 13 — for an overnight stay in Old Town Temecula's oldest hotel. April 2009 EVP recordings in the building documented threatening voices; guests have reported apparitions of a man in old-fashioned attire, doors opening on their own, and footsteps in empty hallways.
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