Est. 1855 · DeSoto House Hotel — 1855 Greek Revival Landmark · Abraham Lincoln & Ulysses S. Grant Connections
The DeSoto House Hotel opened on April 9, 1855 as one of the largest and grandest hotels west of the Allegheny Mountains. The Greek Revival five-story building dominated Galena's Main Street and hosted figures whose photographs and signed guest registers remain in the hotel's collection: Abraham Lincoln gave a campaign speech from its balcony; Ulysses S. Grant maintained an office at the hotel; and Stephen A. Douglas was among its first guests.
The hotel survived Galena's late-19th-century economic collapse and remains operational. Its ground-floor public spaces, including a small theater room, host the Haunted Galena Tour Company's Murder & Mayhem indoor stage show. The format is intimate — a salon-style storytelling performance capped at 40 tickets per show, with a 15-minute intermission inside a 90-minute runtime. Free hot and cold appetizers and a cash bar are included. Standard ticket pricing runs $30 to $34 per person depending on the date.
A separate Murder Mystery Dinner Theater package combines a Friday-night reception with live music and a three-course dinner theater experience for $72.50 per person plus lodging cost. Lodging is booked through the hotel directly.
Sources
- https://www.hauntedgalenatourcompany.com/murder-mayhem-indoor-show
- https://desotohouse.com/saturday-murder-and-mayhem-in-a-mining-town/
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/desoto-house-hotel
- https://www.visitgalena.org/listing/murder-and-mayhem-in-a-mining-town/2034/
Phantom footstepsPhantom voicesCold spots
The Murder & Mayhem performance is anchored to documented Galena history — named murders and tragedies pulled from period newspapers and county archives — rather than to invented horror. The salon-style format presents these cases as historical narrative with folklore layered atop, consistent with the operator's broader storytelling approach.
The DeSoto House Hotel building itself has accumulated decades of guest reports across its 170-year history. Recurring categories include phantom footsteps in upper-floor corridors, unidentified voices in stairwells, and reports of cold spots in specific rooms. The performance does not promise paranormal contact, but the venue's standing reputation for reported activity is part of its appeal as a setting for the show.
The specific cases featured rotate by performance date. Early-season programs typically lean on Civil War-era Galena, while fall programs draw from mining-town tragedies and post-war crimes.
