Truman's Election-Night Hotel with Three Reported Residents
401 Regent Street, Excelsior Springs, MO 64024
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Room rates vary seasonally. Ghost tour: $25/person, available nightly at 9pm. Book at the front desk or call 816-630-5500.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved, accessible hotel grounds
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1912 · Harry Truman 1948 Election Night · Al Capone Prohibition Connection · Missouri Mineral Springs History · Tudor Revival Architecture
The Excelsior Springs Company opened the first Elms Hotel in July 1888 on 50 acres, a 200-room resort catering to visitors drawn by the area's celebrated mineral springs. A 75-room annex followed in 1889. On May 9, 1898, fire destroyed the original structure.
A second hotel opened July 31, 1909, with approximately 300 rooms. Sixteen months later, on October 30, 1910, it burned as well. The surviving legend holds that fires broke out around 1:30 in the morning on both occasions — a detail that guests who report hearing clanging noises at that same hour in the current building find significant.
The existing structure was built of native Missouri limestone and reinforced concrete — explicitly fire-resistant materials — and opened September 7, 1912, drawing over 3,000 visitors on opening day. Architects Jackson and McIlvain designed the building in Tudor Revival and Gothic Revival styles. Excelsior Springs had by this point established itself as a genuine health resort destination, with the mineral waters attracting both the genuinely ill and the fashionably health-conscious.
During Prohibition, the hotel operated as a speakeasy, with Al Capone among the guests known to have held extended visits. Gambling and drinking in the basement became a known feature of the era's social calendar for those who knew to ask.
In November 1948, President Harry S. Truman checked in during his re-election campaign, uncertain of the outcome. He was at the hotel when early returns showed Thomas Dewey leading — and still there the following morning when the final count reversed the picture. The Elms became, by accident, the site of one of the most dramatic election-night reversals in American presidential history.
The Eppley Hotel Company acquired the property in 1932; Sheraton took ownership in 1956. After several ownership changes, Hyatt Hotels Corporation brought the Elms into its Destination by Hyatt portfolio in 2018. A renovation completed in 2022 modernized the 153-room property while preserving historic features. The hotel remains fully operational as a resort and spa.
Sources
The Elms carries three well-established accounts, each attached to a specific area of the building.
The basement pool area is associated with a man whose death is linked to the Prohibition-era gambling and speakeasy operation. The account describes a violent altercation connected to the gambling activity that characterized the basement during Al Capone's visits. The figure reported near the pool is male and not described as communicative — a presence felt rather than seen.
The third-floor corridor is associated with a maid in 1920s-era uniform. Staff and guests have described seeing her moving through the hallway, apparently attending to housekeeping duties. The figure is consistently described as benevolent. No name has been confirmed for this figure in available sources.
The most kinetic of the three accounts involves a woman searching for a lost child. She moves through the hotel in apparent distress. Guests near the indoor pool area — particularly the former lap pool in the basement — have reported being startled by her presence. The interaction is not always passive: she has pulled visitors' hair and, on multiple reported occasions, thrown objects across the room.
The hotel reports that clanging noises at approximately 1:30 in the morning recur with enough frequency to have become part of the standard ghost tour narrative — a detail anchored to the documented times of the 1898 and 1910 fires.
The property was featured on SyFy's Ghost Hunters in July 2013. The hotel leans into its reputation with nightly 9PM paranormal tours and a Paranormal Tour Package that pairs an overnight stay with tour tickets.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Stay in the 1912 Missouri limestone and reinforced-concrete hotel that served as Harry Truman's base when he learned of his unexpected 1948 presidential victory. The 153-room property includes a spa, indoor pool, and dining. The third-floor rooms are associated with the most frequently reported anomalies.
The hotel's 45-60 minute paranormal tour departs nightly at 9pm, exploring the basement pool area, the third-floor corridor, and the record room — the three zones where staff and guests most frequently report anomalous activity. $25 per person. Book at the front desk upon check-in or call 816-630-5500.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Eureka Springs, AR
The 1886 Crescent Hotel was built as a luxury Victorian resort atop the Ozark mountains of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, then briefly operated as a women's college before its most notorious chapter: Norman Baker's fraudulent cancer clinic from 1937 to 1940. Baker charged dying patients for treatments that offered no medical benefit, and the hotel retains his intact basement morgue.
Estes Park, CO
The Stanley Hotel opened on July 4, 1909, built by Freelan Oscar Stanley, co-inventor of the Stanley Steamer automobile, as a summer resort for wealthy Eastern visitors. Stanley himself had relocated to Estes Park in 1903 seeking relief from tuberculosis, found it, and decided the Rocky Mountain air warranted a proper destination resort. The main building was among the first fully electrified hotels in the American West.
Excelsior Springs, MO
The Elms Hotel in Excelsior Springs, Missouri opened in 1888, was destroyed by fire in 1898, destroyed again in 1910, and rebuilt in 1912 using fireproof limestone and concrete. Harry Truman spent election night 1948 at the Elms while awaiting the results of his upset victory over Thomas Dewey. During Prohibition, Al Capone used the basement as a speakeasy, hosting all-night gambling parties. The hotel operates today as a Destination by Hyatt property with full spa facilities.