1927 Jacobean Revival luxury hotel in downtown Portland whose seventh-floor Room 703 anchors nearly a century of unidentified-female-apparition reports.
1001 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 97205
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Boutique luxury rates typically $200-$400/night; 150 rooms. Tea Court lobby is publicly accessible without a stay.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Downtown sidewalk approach; elevator service throughout the 10-story building.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1927 · Jacobean Revival Architecture · National Register of Historic Places · Portland 'Great White Way' Era · Historic Hotels of America
George Heathman opened the original Heathman Hotel one block away in 1926 at Park and Salmon streets at a cost of $1 million. Its success prompted construction of the larger New Heathman a year later at the corner of SW Broadway and Salmon, completed in December 1927 after employing 1,200 workers. Governor I. L. Patterson and Mayor George Luis Baker delivered dedication speeches at the formal opening on December 17, 1927.
The Portland architectural firm of DeYoung & Roald designed the building in the Jacobean Revival style, with a concrete-and-brick 10-story massing trimmed in stone and dark wood paneling. The Tea Court lobby — finished in eucalyptus paneling with carved Jacobean detail — became the property's most celebrated interior. Broadway in the late 1920s was Portland's so-called 'Great White Way,' lined with theaters and restaurants, and the New Heathman positioned itself as the corridor's flagship hotel.
The property has changed hands several times across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries while preserving its historic character. A $16 million renovation between 1984 and 1986 restored period details and prepared the building for a new era of luxury operation. The hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 16, 1984, as the New Heathman Hotel. A further $20 million renovation around 2018-2019 modernized guest rooms and public spaces. As of February 2023, the Chicago-based Aparium Hotel Group owns and operates the property as the Heathman Hotel.
The entrance is marked by a bronze sculpture of Zelda, an English bulldog wearing a Beefeater costume, donated by Banfield Pet Hospital in 2010. The Heathman holds memberships in Historic Hotels of America and remains one of the few continuously operating luxury hotels on Portland's historic Broadway corridor.
Sources
The Heathman's primary reported entity is a woman seen on the seventh floor and particularly in and around Room 703. According to Portland Ghosts, US Ghost Adventures, and Ghost City Tours, the column of rooms ending in 03 — running from 303 through 1003 — collectively form the most-reported zone of activity in the building, with the seventh-floor unit at the focus.
Hotel staff have shared a rumor that someone once jumped from Room 703 to their death, falling through a skylight into the library below. The story is presented by the hotel manager (per US Ghost Adventures) as a rumor rather than a documented event; no contemporaneous newspaper account or coroner record has been publicly cited corroborating the death, and the identity of any such guest has never been confirmed.
Reported phenomena include towels being thrown to the floor in guest bathrooms when the room is unoccupied — one widely-circulated 2008 account describes a guest reporting fresh towels found on the bathroom floor twice in one evening despite the room being empty. Guests have also described drinking glasses and water glasses moving on bedside tables, televisions turning on without input, cold spots, and the impression of a hazy face watching from a dark corner of the room.
Despite the longevity of the reports, the woman's identity remains unestablished. No prominent death, suicide, or violent event in the hotel's documented history aligns cleanly with the lore, and Portland Ghosts notes explicitly that 'the identity of the Heathman Hotel's ghost remains unknown.'
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Book a room in the 1927 Jacobean Revival hotel on the National Register of Historic Places. The column of rooms ending in 03 — particularly Room 703 — carries the property's strongest paranormal reputation. The Tea Court lobby retains its original eucalyptus paneling and Jacobean detailing.
Pacific Northwest dining in the hotel's restored ground-floor restaurant and Tea Court lobby — open to non-guests.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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