1922 Wichita Hotel with Ballroom Mosaic & Clarence Lore
400 W Douglas Ave, Wichita, KS 67202
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Overnight rates typically $130-$250 depending on room type and season.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Modernized historic hotel with elevator access
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1922 · Wichita Aviation History · Blackbear Bosin Mosaic · 1920s Hotel Architecture
Construction of the Broadview Hotel began on September 15, 1921, just outside what was then downtown Wichita's railway corridor. Owned by George Siedhoff, the hotel opened to its first guests on May 15, 1922, after only eight months of construction.
The Broadview was conceived as the premier hotel of the Midwest plains, intended to serve railway passengers traveling between Kansas City and the western lines. Its location on the banks of the Arkansas River, near the historic path of the Chisholm Trail, made it a natural meeting point for Wichita's emerging aviation and oil industries. Documented guests during the hotel's first decades include aviators Charles Lindbergh and Clyde Cessna, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the Chicago organized-crime figure Al Capone.
The hotel's architectural signature is its second-floor ballroom, which preserves a 1,500-square-foot mosaic by the Kiowa-Comanche artist Blackbear Bosin. Titled "The Advance of Civilization in Kansas," the mosaic depicts early settlers, Native peoples, regional wildlife, and the railroad. The ballroom also retains its original crystal chandeliers.
Drury Hotels acquired the Broadview in 2011 and undertook an extensive historic renovation, preserving the lobby's hand-crafted moldings, the original tile floor, and the Bosin mosaic in the ballroom. The hotel reopened as the Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview Wichita and remains a downtown landmark.
Sources
The Broadview's reputation as one of Wichita's most-discussed haunted hotels rests on a small set of recurring stories, anchored by a figure called Clarence. Local folklore frames Clarence as a hotel guest who discovered his wife with another man, killed her in the hotel, and then jumped from a balcony. The factual basis of the story is regional folklore rather than confirmed reporting; multiple Kansas paranormal sources repeat the narrative without underlying news citation.
Reports attributed to Clarence and to other unnamed presences include lights flickering in guest rooms but not the hallways, doors shaking violently with no one on the other side, and furniture found rearranged within seconds of a guest leaving the room. The original Shadowlands account describing furniture rearrangement and door-shaking matches what later sources continue to publish.
The ballroom is the source of the hotel's most evocative reports: staff and guests have described seeing couples dressed in 1920s clothing dancing on the floor, then disappearing on closer inspection. Kitchen staff have reported a clicking sound from a soap dispenser that has been disconnected and is no longer in use, and a recurring noise described as wings flapping down an empty corridor.
The hotel does not market itself primarily as a haunted destination, but the Broadview's stories are documented in local public-radio coverage and Kansas paranormal-tourism guides.
Notable Entities
Stay in the 1922 Broadview, restored by Drury Hotels in 2011. The lobby retains hand-crafted moldings and the original tile floor; the ballroom preserves a 1,500-square-foot mosaic by Native American artist Blackbear Bosin titled 'The Advance of Civilization in Kansas.'
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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