A 1903 Beaux-Arts landmark in Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood, now condominiums with active Owl Bar and event spaces — site of multiple documented deaths and tied to the unsolved 2006 Rey Rivera case.
1 East Chase Street, Baltimore, MD 21202
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
The Belvedere is a private condominium building. The Owl Bar restaurant and 13th Floor event space are publicly accessible.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic hotel with renovated public areas
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1903 · National Register of Historic Places · Beaux-Arts landmark of Mount Vernon · Hosted multiple U.S. presidents and Wallis Simpson · Site of the unsolved 2006 Rey Rivera death
The Belvedere Hotel opened on December 10, 1903 at the corner of Charles and Chase Streets in Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood. Designed by the firm of Parker and Thomas in the Beaux-Arts style, the thirteen-story hotel had 240 guest rooms and was for decades among the most prestigious addresses in the Mid-Atlantic. Notable guests across the 20th century included Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson (a Baltimore native), F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Clark Gable.
The Belvedere's documented history includes several public tragedies. On July 24, 1909, 17-year-old Thomas E. Sutton Jr. died by chloroform-inhalation suicide in a Belvedere room after his father took his hotel key. In 1918, Bernice Chaney Webster was murdered in the hotel by her husband. In 1921, Harry C. Hassett died by self-inflicted gunshot in the hotel. The deaths were reported in Baltimore newspapers at the time and have since become part of the hotel's documented history.
The hotel ceased operating as a hotel in the 1970s and was converted to condominiums in 1991. The original lobby, ballroom, Owl Bar restaurant, and a thirteenth-floor event venue (the 13th Floor) remain publicly accessible. The Owl Bar takes its name from a pair of stained-glass owls original to the 1903 building.
In May 2006, writer and filmmaker Rey Rivera disappeared from his Baltimore home; eight days later his body was found in an abandoned conference room on the second floor of the Belvedere, having fallen through the roof of an annex. The Baltimore Police ruled the death a suicide jump from the hotel's roof, but the medical examiner classified the case 'undetermined.' The case has been featured on Netflix's 'Unsolved Mysteries' reboot and remains unresolved. The Rivera case has dramatically increased the building's national paranormal profile.
Sources
The Belvedere's paranormal reputation rests on three distinct historical layers: the early-20th-century Sutton, Webster, and Hassett deaths (1909-1921); a folkloric 1920s-30s ballroom shooting story; and the 2006 Rey Rivera case.
Local ghost-tour sources and Baltimore-area news coverage describe the 12th floor as a particular hotspot. The folklore there centers on a man said to have been shot in the ballroom by his wife after she discovered him dancing with his mistress. His ghost reportedly remains, with staff and event hosts describing glasses falling, objects being moved, and disturbances that — in the tour-circuit telling — 'only bother women.' The historicity of the specific shooting incident is less clear than the documented Sutton, Webster, and Hassett deaths.
The ballroom and Owl Bar are also linked to apparition reports — including disembodied piano music, full-bodied apparitions in period dress, and electrical anomalies. The 13th Floor venue is a frequent stop on Mount Vernon ghost tours.
The Rey Rivera case has added a contemporary unresolved-mystery layer to the Belvedere's reputation. While the Rivera death is treated factually as an unresolved case, paranormal-tourism sources frequently link it to the building's broader pattern. The Rivera case is presented here as an unresolved investigative matter, not as paranormal evidence.
The Belvedere has been featured in regional paranormal television, Newsweek, the Baltimore Fishbowl, and the Netflix 'Unsolved Mysteries' reboot.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Historic on-site bar and restaurant operating in the original 1903 Belvedere space. The 13th Floor cocktail and event venue at the top of the building is famed for views and ghost-tour stops. Both are publicly accessible.
The Belvedere is one of the marquee stops on Baltimore Ghost Tours' Mount Vernon Ghostwalk, which covers the hotel's documented Depression-era and 20th-century deaths and the unsolved 2006 Rey Rivera case. Tours stop outside the building and in publicly accessible spaces.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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