1899 Victorian-era hotel built by the man who named Bartlesville, now a Washington County history museum said to retain its original proprietor.
801 N Delaware St, Dewey, OK 74029
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Small admission fee for museum; ghost tour pricing by appointment — contact Washington County Historical Society.
Access
Limited Access
Two-story Victorian structure with stairs; call ahead for accessibility options.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1899 · Built by Jacob H. Bartles, founder of Bartlesville · Completed 1900 as Washington County's premier hotel and dining destination · Served cowboys, oilmen, and travelers during territorial and early statehood period · Operated by Washington County Historical Society as museum
Jacob H. Bartles was among the most consequential figures in Washington County's early development. He operated a trading post on the Caney River in the 1870s that eventually grew into the community bearing his name — Bartlesville. In 1899 he began construction on a Victorian hotel in the nearby town of Dewey, completing it the following year. The building stood as the most fashionable lodging and dining destination in Washington County through the territorial and early statehood period, drawing cowboys driving cattle through the region, oilmen working the prolific Washington County fields, and the occasional outlaw passing through northeastern Indian Territory.
The hotel operated commercially for several decades before eventually passing out of use as Dewey's commercial center shifted. The Washington County Historical Society later acquired the building and converted it into the Dewey Hotel Museum, preserving the Victorian-era architecture and furnishing the rooms with period artifacts and local historical collections. The museum documents the history of Washington County from the territorial period through statehood and into the early twentieth century.
The building remains one of the more intact examples of late-nineteenth-century territorial hotel architecture in northeastern Oklahoma. Its association with Jacob Bartles — a name embedded in the county's geography and history — gives the structure a documentary significance beyond its physical form. The Washington County Historical Society operates the museum and offers tours by appointment, including occasional ghost tours drawing on the local haunting lore documented in published accounts of Bartlesville-area folklore.
Sources
The haunting lore associated with the Dewey Hotel Museum centers on its builder. Rita Cook's 'Haunted Bartlesville, Oklahoma,' published by The History Press as part of its Haunted America series, documents accounts placing the ghost of Jacob Bartles in the hotel he constructed. Cook interviewed local residents and documented firsthand accounts of unexplained sounds — footsteps in vacant upper-floor rooms, doors that open and close without drafts — attributed to Bartles's continued occupation of the building he never fully left in life.
The Washington County Historical Society has formalized the haunting lore enough to offer ghost tours of the museum by appointment. The tours frame the Bartles legend within the broader history of Washington County's territorial period, grounding the ghost story in the documented biography of the man who gave the county seat its name. No violent or traumatic event is associated with the haunting — the lore is that of a proprietor who simply stayed on.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Explore the 1899 Victorian hotel that Jacob H. Bartles — founder of the town later named Bartlesville — constructed to serve Washington County's cowboys, oilmen, and travelers. Period furnishings and local artifacts fill the building that once stood as the most fashionable dining destination in the county.
The Washington County Historical Society offers ghost tours by appointment through the Dewey Hotel Museum. Local lore, documented in Rita Cook's book on Bartlesville hauntings, holds that Jacob Bartles himself never left the building — staff and visitors have reported unexplained sounds and a lingering presence in the upper floors.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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