1890 San Francisco Victorian, Once Miss Mary Lake's School for Girls
1590 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94109
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Boutique hotel rates; check official site for current pricing.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic four-story Victorian with elevator access
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1890 · Queen Anne style Victorian architecture · Original site of Miss Mary Lake's School for Girls
The Queen Anne Hotel was built in 1890 on Sutter Street in San Francisco, in the elaborate Queen Anne style for which it is named. The building's first major use was as Miss Mary Lake's School for Girls, a finishing school where young women received instruction in etiquette, music, and the social skills expected of San Francisco society at the turn of the 20th century.
Miss Mary Lake (1849-1904) served as the school's headmistress. She was, according to surviving accounts, popular with both her students and her staff. Her office occupied the space now numbered Room 410. The school closed in the late 1890s, and Mary Lake remained in San Francisco until 1902 before relocating to Montclair, New Jersey, to live with her half-sister. She died there on her 55th birthday in 1904.
After the school closed, the building cycled through several uses common to large San Francisco Victorians of its era. It was eventually restored and reopened as a boutique hotel under the Queen Anne name. Today it operates as a 48-room independent hotel in the Pacific Heights district.
Sources
The Queen Anne Hotel's haunting is unusual in its character: Mary Lake is consistently described as a helpful rather than threatening presence. Guest reports collected over the hotel's modern operating life describe luggage being unpacked while the guest was out, clothes hung in closets, beds turned down, and occasional reports of guests being tucked in after they had already fallen asleep. A few reports mention champagne or flowers appearing without explanation.
Room 410 is the most reported location. It was the office Mary Lake occupied during her time as headmistress of the finishing school that ran in the building during the 1890s. Lake died in New Jersey in 1904, and the building's lore positions her return as an act of attachment to the place where she spent her professional career rather than as a haunting tied to violence or tragedy.
The hotel acknowledges its ghost in its guest materials and has been featured in regional ghost-tour itineraries, but the reported activity remains consistently gentle.
Notable Entities
Stay in the restored 1890 Victorian hotel, with the option to request Room 410 - the office of former headmistress Mary Lake, the room most associated with the building's haunted reputation.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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