Historic Overnight Stay
Stay in one of 30 restored guest rooms in the 1889 Geiser Grand, including the Cupola Suite and Parlour Suite. The hotel operates the on-site Palm Court restaurant and a full-service bar.
- Duration:
- 10 hr
HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
1889 Baker City hotel restored after a quarter-century vacancy, with the "Lady in Blue" reported on its staircase
1996 Main Street, Baker City, OR 97814
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Boutique hotel room rates roughly $185-$380/night depending on room type and season; ghost hunt and event tickets priced separately
Access
Wheelchair OK
Restored five-story historic hotel in downtown Baker City; public spaces are flat and paved
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1889 · National Register of Historic Places · Baker Historic District · Gold Rush-era "Queen of the Mines" · National Trust Honor Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation
The Geiser Grand opened on Main Street in Baker City on November 11, 1889, as the Hotel Warshauer, built during the town's gold-mining boom by local investors led by Louis F. Cook. Architect John Bennes designed a five-story Italianate building with mahogany columns, a stained-glass ceiling over the mezzanine, and what was reportedly the third elevator installed west of the Mississippi River. Sunset Magazine later called it "the finest hotel between Salt Lake and Seattle."
Albert Geiser bought the property in 1900, and it took his name on January 1, 1902. Under the Geiser family it became the social center of Baker City, hosting dances, banquets, and traveling dignitaries during the peak years of the region's gold and cattle economy. The hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 14, 1978, as a contributing property in the Baker Historic District.
By the late 1960s the mining economy that supported the hotel had faded, and it closed in 1968, sitting vacant and deteriorating for nearly a quarter century. A restoration beginning in the early 1990s stripped away decades of water damage and later renovations, reopening the hotel in 1993 with 30 guest rooms. The project won the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Honor Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation. The hotel now runs its Palm Court restaurant and hosts recurring events, including ticketed evening ghost hunts with the paranormal group Big River Paranormal.
Sources
Staff and guests describe a "Lady in Blue" seen on the hotel's central staircase and around Room 302, most often identified as Annabelle Geiser, matriarch of the family that ran the hotel after 1900. Reported activity connected to her includes footsteps on the stairs after hours and a cold presence near the mezzanine.
A second recurring figure is an unnamed cowboy, tied in local telling to a shooting at the hotel during its early gold-rush years; accounts say the case ended in Baker City's first murder conviction, though no contemporary court record has been tied to the story by name. Employees and paranormal investigators also report a saloon dancer from the 1920s and a former kitchen worker associated with the building's lower floors.
The hotel leans into the reputation rather than downplaying it: it partners with Big River Paranormal for recurring ticketed evening investigations, and the SYFY series Ghost Mine filmed an episode centered on the building in 2013. None of the individual figures are tied to a named, documented death, and the stories are best read as long-running hotel folklore rather than settled history.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Stay in one of 30 restored guest rooms in the 1889 Geiser Grand, including the Cupola Suite and Parlour Suite. The hotel operates the on-site Palm Court restaurant and a full-service bar.
Ticketed after-hours paranormal investigation of the hotel run in partnership with Big River Paranormal, typically starting at 9 p.m. and covering the staircase, mezzanine, and guest floors tied to the hotel's reported hauntings.
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