Delray Beach's 1926 Mediterranean Revival landmark, closed each summer for decades while pulsing lights and shadow figures drew police calls
525 E Atlantic Ave, Delray Beach, FL 33483
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Hotel room rates vary by season; Cabaña Club access for guests
Access
Wheelchair OK
Three-story hotel with elevator access
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1926 · Spanish Colonial Revival Architecture · Historic Hotels of America · Palm Beach County Landmark
The building at 525 East Atlantic Avenue was constructed in 1925 by Albert T. Repp and a consortium of investors for approximately $250,000, with another $100,000 in furnishings. Designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style — three stories, two domed corner towers, Mediterranean Revival detailing — it opened as the Alterep Hotel in January 1926 and almost immediately ran into financial difficulties.
In 1935, George Boughton purchased the property for $50,000 out of receivership and renamed it the Colony Hotel. His model mirrored a Maine property he also operated: the hotel opened each January and closed each April, with the entire staff migrating north to Kennebunkport for the summer season. For most of the twentieth century, the building sat locked and dark during those long off-season months — a condition that, locals would later note, made it impossible to explain away certain things people were seeing through the upper-floor windows.
The Boughton family retained ownership for decades. Since 1999, the hotel has operated year-round and holds membership in Historic Hotels of America. The separate Cabaña Club, located 2.2 miles away at 1801 South Ocean Boulevard, provides guests with private beach access.
Sources
The haunted reputation at the Colony tracks closely with the years the building sat vacant each summer. Accounts from the 1980s describe observers on Atlantic Avenue watching "orbs, or balls of light, flying erratically in front of second-story windows" over a period of several months before the activity tapered off around 1989.
In 1989, during the off-season closure, two witnesses reported seeing movement inside the darkened building and contacted police. Officers found the perimeter secure with no sign of entry — but while they were inside investigating, the elevator activated on its own, moved, stopped, and chimed. The doors opened to an empty car. No explanation was recorded.
The shadow figures described at the Colony are not uniformly threatening. A granddaughter of George Boughton recounted seeing "an older, well-dressed man reflected in the glass cover of a painting" that she identified as her grandfather. Staff have described hearing pots clanging and utensils being dropped in the empty kitchen, finding everything undisturbed on inspection. Muffled voices suggestive of a debate or argument have been reported from the back office area.
Since 1999 the hotel has run year-round, and the reports have not stopped — they have simply shifted from outside accounts of lights in empty windows to inside accounts from guests and staff sharing the building with something that apparently never fully checked out.
Notable Entities
Book a room in the original 1926 building and stay in one of the property's storied upper-floor rooms where shadow figures and unexplained elevator activity have been reported by guests and staff. The lounge and kitchen area on the first floor has historically generated the most concentrated reports.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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