HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
An 1890s downtown hotel, the former Hotel Victoria, where guests report a woman in burgundy period dress, children on the third floor, and an elevator that moved on its own.
160 S Washington St, Sonora, CA 95370
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Operating historic hotel in downtown Sonora; see the hotel website for rates, reservations, and its history/'Spooktacular' tour offerings.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Restored downtown hotel with elevator access; multi-story historic building.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1896 · Opened in the 1890s as the Hotel Victoria · Built for Captain William Nevills, owner of the Rawhide Mine · Timed to the Sierra Railway's 1899 arrival in Sonora · Listed by the California Office of Historic Preservation as Hotel Victoria / Sonora Inn (registered 1983)
The hotel that is now the Sonora Inn was built in the 1890s as the Hotel Victoria. It was constructed for Captain William Nevills, owner of the rich Rawhide Mine near Jamestown, who timed the venture to the arrival of the Sierra Railway in Sonora in 1899 and the rush of travelers it would bring to the Gold Country town.
The building has been a downtown Sonora fixture ever since. The California Office of Historic Preservation lists the property as Hotel Victoria, Sonora Inn, a registered historic resource in Tuolumne County. Over the decades the hotel hosted a string of well-known guests as Hollywood productions filmed in the surrounding Mother Lode country.
The Union Democrat, Sonora's local newspaper, profiled the hotel in 2023 as it marked roughly 127 years in operation. The article documented the hotel's pivot into haunted-history programming: general manager Tiffany Stone created a tour after noticing a pattern in guest complaints, particularly from people staying on the third floor.
Today the Sonora Inn is a restored downtown hotel with a restaurant, and it folds its own ghost reputation into its identity through the 'Spooktacular' tours, presenting the haunting alongside the documented 1890s history rather than in place of it.
Sources
The Sonora Inn's ghost stories were specific enough that the hotel built tours around them. The recurring figure is a woman in period dress: Rick Keller, who has worked at the hotel and its restaurant since the 1990s, described seeing a woman whose clothing he could make out in detail, a burgundy color with roughly twenty little pearl buttons fastened up to the neck and lace at the collar.
The third floor is the heart of the activity. Multiple guests have reported hearing children laughing and pranking, knocking on doors and running away down the third-floor hallway. The pattern in those complaints is what led general manager Tiffany Stone to organize the hotel's haunted-history tours in the first place.
The building's elevator is the third element of the lore. Staff describe an elevator that would move on its own, and Stone noted that the behavior stopped once the hotel decided to lean into the hauntings and run the tours. Staff accounts also attach the name Victoria, after the hotel's original name and era, to the presence felt in the halls. Taken together, the burgundy-dressed woman, the third-floor children, and the self-moving elevator make up a haunting that the hotel now presents as part of its history.
Notable Entities
Stay in the restored downtown hotel that opened in the 1890s as the Hotel Victoria. Third-floor guests are the ones who most often report the children's-hallway activity that prompted the hotel's haunted tours.
A history-and-hauntings tour the hotel began running after the general manager noticed a pattern in third-floor guest reports. The tour covers the building's 1890s origins and the accounts of the woman in period dress, the third-floor children, and the self-moving elevator. Check the hotel for current dates.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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