The American Club

The American Club's haunted reputation centers on its original 1918 East Wing, the oldest part of the building. The most frequently told story is that of the 'lady in the blue hat,' a spirit seen near Room 209 — sometimes called the Washington Room — standing forlornly by the fireplace. According to the legend, she took her own life out of grief after learning that her fiancé had been killed in an industrial accident at the Kohler plant. Staff and guests describe disappearing figures and odd occurrences around Room 209 and in the upper-floor hallways, along with frigid pockets of air and faint, hushed conversations in several languages — an echo, some say, of the building's immigrant-dormitory past.

Another often-repeated account describes a man in a dirty, torn flannel shirt and faded corduroy trousers, standing against a wall with a cigar, staring blankly. In the version that first circulated this site online, a staff member greeted the man, passed him, and turned to find him gone; security review of the hallway camera reportedly showed the witness waving and speaking to no one. A similar figure is associated with the third floor near Room 315, where a man is said to walk the hall as lights flicker on by themselves.

These stories are folklore. The named people in them are anonymous figures of legend rather than documented individuals, and the resort itself has not officially claimed to be haunted. They are best understood as the romantic ghost tradition that has grown up around a beautifully preserved historic hotel with a rich immigrant-labor history.