This Texas Ghost Hotel Locals Say You Should Never Stay In

Towering over the quiet streets of Mineral Wells, Texas, stands a 14-story monument to a bygone era.

The Baker Hotel, once a glamorous resort destination that drew Hollywood stars and political figures from across the nation, has been silent and shuttered for decades.

While the grand structure at 201 E Hubbard St is currently undergoing a massive historical renovation and restoration project, its reputation as one of the most haunted locations in Texas keeps curious travelers and ghost hunters fascinated by its mysterious past.

A Grand Dame Frozen in Time

Standing tall against the Texas sky since 1929, the Baker Hotel represents an architectural marvel that few small towns can claim. Built during the height of the Roaring Twenties, this 14-story Spanish Colonial Revival building was once the tallest structure between Fort Worth and El Paso.

Its imposing silhouette creates a dramatic contrast against the modest buildings surrounding it in downtown Mineral Wells.

The hotel originally featured 450 guest rooms, each offering modern luxuries that were rare for the time. Guests enjoyed amenities like circulating ice water, ceiling fans, and private baths in many rooms.

The grand lobby boasted ornate details, elegant furnishings, and a level of sophistication that rivaled major city hotels.

What made the Baker truly special was its connection to the town’s famous mineral waters. The hotel featured a full-service spa where visitors could soak in the therapeutic waters believed to cure various ailments.

This health tourism brought thousands of guests annually, transforming Mineral Wells into a destination resort town.

Today, scaffolding and construction barriers surround the building as restoration teams work to bring this sleeping giant back to life after sitting vacant since 1972.

The Baker Hotel’s scale and ambition still feel outsized for a town of Mineral Wells’ size, reinforcing just how important the resort once was to the region.

Its long abandonment has only amplified the feeling that the building exists slightly out of step with the present, suspended between past glamour and uncertain revival.

The Lady in White Who Never Checked Out

Perhaps the most famous ghostly resident of the Baker Hotel is a mysterious woman dressed entirely in white. According to local legend and numerous witness accounts over the decades, she appears on the seventh floor, wandering the corridors as if searching for something or someone she lost long ago.

Security guards who patrolled the empty building before renovation work began reported seeing her apparition multiple times.

Some versions of the story identify her as a jilted bride who discovered her fiance’s infidelity on what should have been their wedding night. Overcome with grief and betrayal, she allegedly took her own life by jumping from one of the upper floor windows.

Others claim she was a guest who died of natural causes but loved the hotel so much that her spirit refused to leave.

Paranormal investigators who have visited the site report cold spots, unexplained sounds, and the sensation of being watched when exploring the seventh floor. Photographers have captured strange orbs and mist-like formations in pictures taken in this area.

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, the persistence of these stories has cemented the Lady in White as part of the Baker Hotel’s enduring mystique and folklore.

Stories about the Lady in White endure because they blend human tragedy with mystery, giving the haunting a deeply emotional core. Whether rooted in fact or folklore, her presence has become inseparable from the hotel’s identity and continues to draw fascination from believers and skeptics alike.

Strange Sounds From Empty Rooms

Even when the Baker Hotel sat completely vacant, neighbors and passersby reported hearing unusual noises emanating from within its walls. People described the sounds of a party in full swing, complete with music, laughter, and the clinking of glasses, despite the building being locked and empty.

These phantom celebrations seemed to echo the hotel’s glory days when elegant gatherings filled its ballrooms and dining areas.

Maintenance workers and security personnel who entered the building during its years of abandonment told stories of hearing footsteps on the floors above them when they knew they were alone.

Doors would slam shut with no apparent cause, and the old elevator shaft produced creaking and groaning sounds as if the machinery were still in operation. Some reported hearing splashing water coming from the long-dry spa area in the basement.

The most unsettling accounts involve voices, conversations between unseen speakers that stop abruptly when someone investigates. Room numbers are sometimes called out, as if a ghostly desk clerk were still announcing guest arrivals.

These auditory phenomena have been documented by multiple independent witnesses over several decades, creating a consistent pattern that skeptics find difficult to explain away as simple building settling or wind.

These reports suggest the Baker Hotel may retain an echo of its former life, as if moments from the past are replaying without warning. The consistency of the accounts across decades gives the stories a weight that makes them difficult to dismiss as simple coincidence.

The Seventh Floor Tragedy

Room 307 and the entire seventh floor carry a particularly dark reputation among those familiar with the Baker Hotel’s haunted history. Multiple tragic deaths reportedly occurred on this floor over the hotel’s operational years, creating what paranormal experts call a concentration of negative energy.

Guests who stayed on the seventh floor during the hotel’s final years of operation frequently requested room changes, complaining of overwhelming feelings of sadness and anxiety.

One persistent account involves a traveling salesman who checked into a seventh-floor room in the 1940s and was found deceased the next morning under mysterious circumstances. Another story tells of a long-term guest who lived at the hotel for months before being discovered in their room several days after passing away.

These tragic events, combined with the alleged suicide of the Lady in White, have given the seventh floor its notorious reputation.

Paranormal investigation teams who have explored the building report that their equipment malfunctions more frequently on the seventh floor than anywhere else in the structure.

Electromagnetic field detectors spike without explanation, cameras drain batteries rapidly, and audio recording devices capture unexplained voices and sounds that weren’t audible during the actual investigation.

The concentration of unsettling stories tied to this floor has made it the emotional center of the hotel’s haunted reputation. For many visitors and investigators, the seventh floor represents the point where history, tragedy, and folklore converge most intensely.

Celebrity Spirits Still Lingering

During its heyday, the Baker Hotel hosted an impressive roster of famous guests, including Judy Garland, Clark Gable, Lyndon B. Johnson, and members of the Barrow gang.

The hotel’s guest registry read like a who’s who of 1930s and 1940s American culture. Some believe that certain celebrity spirits have never truly departed from this place they once enjoyed.

Local folklore includes stories of a phantom figure resembling a famous actor seen in the lobby area, dressed in period-appropriate clothing and appearing completely solid before vanishing without a trace.

Others report the scent of vintage perfume in certain hallways, a fragrance that matches descriptions of what a particular Hollywood actress was known to wear. These sensory experiences create an eerie connection to the building’s glamorous past.

The hotel’s grand staircase, where celebrities would make dramatic entrances to adoring fans and photographers, is said to be particularly active with paranormal energy. People have reported seeing well-dressed figures descending the stairs, only to disappear halfway down.

Footsteps on the staircase echo through the empty building at night, as if invisible guests are still making their way to long-forgotten engagements and social events that ended decades ago.

These tales blur the line between star-studded history and paranormal legend, adding another layer to the hotel’s mystique. The idea that echoes of fame might linger alongside ordinary guests reinforces the Baker’s role as a crossroads of American cultural memory.

The Haunted Basement Spa

Beneath the Baker Hotel’s elegant public spaces lies a sprawling basement that once housed the famous mineral water spa facilities. Guests would descend underground to experience therapeutic baths, massages, and treatments using the mineral-rich water pumped directly from local wells.

This subterranean level now sits dark and abandoned, but reports suggest it remains one of the most actively haunted areas of the entire building.

Visitors who have ventured into the basement describe an oppressive atmosphere that makes breathing feel difficult. The temperature drops noticeably as you descend the stairs, even on hot Texas summer days.

Shadow figures have been spotted moving between the old treatment rooms, and some people report feeling invisible hands touching them or tugging at their clothing in the darkness.

The most disturbing accounts involve what sounds like someone struggling in water, gasping and splashing, coming from the empty spa pools that have been dry for over 50 years.

Paranormal researchers theorize that residual energy from the thousands of people who once used these facilities might create these phantom sounds.

Others believe an actual drowning or near-drowning incident occurred here, leaving behind a traumatic imprint that replays itself for those sensitive enough to perceive it.

The basement’s isolation and former purpose make it especially vulnerable to unsettling interpretations, as water and underground spaces often carry symbolic weight in ghost lore. Its reported activity taps into primal fears, turning what was once a place of healing into one of the hotel’s most disturbing areas.

Restoration and the Spirits Within

The Baker Hotel is temporarily closed as it undergoes a massive historical renovation and restoration project aimed at returning the building to its former glory.

Construction crews working on the restoration have added their own stories to the hotel’s haunted legacy, reporting unexplained incidents that have made even skeptical workers reconsider their beliefs about the supernatural.

Workers have described tools going missing and reappearing in completely different locations, strange noises that can’t be attributed to construction activities, and the unsettling feeling of being watched while working alone in certain areas.

Some crew members refuse to work on the seventh floor without a partner, citing an uncomfortable atmosphere that makes them anxious and uneasy.

The restoration team has taken great care to preserve the building’s historical integrity while updating it for modern safety and comfort standards. Many locals wonder whether disturbing the long-dormant building will awaken or intensify paranormal activity.

Ghost hunting enthusiasts eagerly await the hotel’s reopening, hoping to book rooms and experience the reported phenomena firsthand. Whether the spirits will welcome new guests or resent the intrusion into their decades-long solitude remains to be seen when the Baker Hotel finally opens its doors once again.

As restoration progresses, the tension between preservation and disturbance continues to fuel speculation about the hotel’s unseen inhabitants. The Baker’s reopening promises not only renewed life for the building but also a new chapter in its long and uneasy relationship with the paranormal.