An 1890s hilltop guest house in Hot Springs, South Dakota, with a colorful past as a club and retreat, where the scent of perfume lingers in the upstairs dormer rooms and a girl-spirit called Giselle is said to roam happily.
801 Almond Street, Hot Springs, SD 57747
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Historically operated as a bed and breakfast; current operating status is uncertain. Confirm availability before planning a stay.
Access
Limited Access
Hilltop property with stairs; upper-floor dormer rooms reached by an interior staircase.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1891 · 1890s hilltop retreat building in the Hot Springs mineral-water resort era · Associated with a former club/retreat use · Renovated circa 1990 into an upscale bed and breakfast
The Villa Theresa Guest House sits on a hill overlooking Hot Springs, a Fall River County town in the southern Black Hills that grew in the late 19th century around its warm mineral springs. The building dates to the 1890s. Travel and lodging directories describe it as a restored 1890s structure once associated with a 'Sioux City Club' meeting house, while paranormal-tourism accounts attribute its origin to Black Hills developer Fred T. Evans, who built it around 1891 as a retreat for well-to-do Iowa businessmen visiting the springs. These accounts agree on an early-1890s origin and a recreational, social-club character.
By several accounts the building's early use included gambling, parties, and other vices typical of a resort-town retreat. In 1974 the Akhtar family purchased the property and lived there into the mid-1980s; after a brief interim ownership it was bought around 1990 by owners who renovated it extensively into a seven-room upscale bed and breakfast known as the Villa Theresa Guest House.
The inn has been listed in regional bed-and-breakfast directories, though its current operating status is uncertain and it may no longer be taking guests. Because the building is a private residence/guest house rather than a public museum, details of its earliest construction and ownership are drawn largely from lodging and tourism sources rather than from a formal historical-society record.
Sources
According to multiple independent paranormal-tourism accounts, the Villa Theresa Guest House hosts several non-threatening spirits. The most repeated phenomena are the scent of perfume lingering around the upstairs dormer rooms, visions or apparitions seen at the main staircase, and the presence of a girl called Giselle who is said to roam the household happily. The lore frames the haunting as inviting rather than frightening.
The haunting is documented by at least two independent sources beyond the Shadowlands index. Unexplainable.net (an independent paranormal compendium) specifically names 'Giselle' and describes her as causing no harm, corroborating the lore's identifying detail. Great American Ghost Tour (a UK-based ghost-tour operator with a dedicated Hot Springs page) features the Villa Theresa as a haunted location on their coverage of Hot Springs, South Dakota, with additional details about apparitions at the main staircase.
Some accounts connect the activity to the building's reputed history: it is claimed that a young maid who worked there in the 1950s vanished without a trace, and that a psychic told a former owner a woman had been killed at the house by a violent man and thrown into the river. These specific claims are uncorroborated and appear only in paranormal-tourism retellings, not in independent local-news or historical-society sources. The gentle, named-ghost tradition (Giselle) is presented here as independently documented regional haunting lore.
Notable Entities
Stay in one of the historic upstairs dormer rooms of this 1890s hilltop guest house, where lingering perfume and the spirit of 'Giselle' are part of the lore. Confirm current operation before booking.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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