The Ghosts of the Emily Morgan Hotel

Before perhaps the thought even entered anyone's head to build a structure at the site of the current-day Emily Morgan, the marble rock yard land was used for construction throughout the nineteenth century in downtown San Antonio.

Until 1924, that is.

It was at that time that builder J.M. Nix and architect Ralph Cameron came together to erect what came to be known as the first "skyscraper" west of the Mississippi River. Nix and Cameron held nothing back when it came to building what was at the time San Antonio's tallest structure. The final design was a thirteen-story tower dressed in Gothic Revival architecture. The bottom three floors and the top three floors were glazed with a terra-cotta finish, while the middling seven floors were made out of a light-hued brick.

Nix and Cameron's work caught the eye of many, at first because of its triangular shape. Situated on what has been called, San Antonio's Flat Corner," the structure was meant to mimic New York's Flat Iron Building from the 1800s. During that era, the big cosmopolitan cities in North America all had a similarly styled triangular buildings, including San Francisco, Chicago, Denver and Toronto. San Antonio, once considered one of the four most unique cities in the States, was not about to be left out of the race.

Thing was, San Antonio's first skyscraper was in a league all unto its own.

A historic photo of the Emily Morgan Hotel from 1927

It had been designed with the mindset that it would be built as the city's first Medical Arts Building. The building's most noticeable feature—then and now—were the terra-cotta gargoyles crawling up its sides. In what had to be some sort of witty commentary on Nix and Cameron's end, the gargoyles were all styled to depict various medical ailments. Some faced the plague of a perpetual toothache, their mouths gaping wide to reveal lines of broken teeth, while others clutched their bellies in pain.

No welcome can possibly best the rows of Gothic gargoyles glaring down from the now-Emily Morgan Hotel.

In 1926, after two years of construction, the Medical Arts Building was the first doctor's building in all of the city. Apparently it was so large that nearly one hundred doctors and office space for four hundred people could be accommodated within.

When it operated as a medical facility, the downstairs levels functioned as offices for the doctors, while the top floors were used as the best working hospital in the city. The basement, alternatively, was the facility's morgue. As the story goes, the decision had been made to place the hospital and surgery space on the upper levels so that the smell would not be locked inside, as the windows could be cranked open for relief from the stench.

Though Medical Arts Building continued its operation for the next fifty-or-so years, in 1976 it was converted into an office building.

Less than ten years later, in 1984, it became the Emily Morgan Hotel.

All those deaths, those sad stories, and the pain that existed within the Medical Arts Center's walls during its heyday as San Antonio's premiere medical center, have left a mark on the Emily Morgan Hotel. The twelfth, fourteenth, and seventh floors are widely considered to be the most haunted, although guests may report that the phantoms in this hotel of marble don't merely discriminate which floors they haunt.

The Emily Morgan Hotel may not resemble the place it once was, but it's clear that the souls who passed within its hospital rooms and wards still remain within the building.

For those brave enough to book a room on the fourteenth floor of the Emily Morgan, there's quite a few phantom experiences at your fingertips. For starters, guests have watched in shock as an apparition of a woman in white has materialized in the hallways, and then passed right through the many doors that line the halls.

You may ask how such a feat is even possible: the Emily Morgan's fourteenth floor—the "true" thirteenth floor—was formerly a psychiatric ward, and it was because of this that many of the doors where outfitted with deadbolts installed on the outside of the rooms instead of the inside.

Other encounters on the fourteenth floor include the scent of a strong perfume with no identifiable origin, the sounds of laughter and giggling, and doors opening of their own accord. Some guests have complained of feeling watched or receiving the eerie impression that they should be anywhere other than on the fourteenth floor.

The twelfth floor of the Emily Morgan Hotel is most remembered for the surgeries and operations that took place on the floor.

If you happen to spend a little time on the twelfth floor of this old medical center, you may be subjected to a slew of sounds which seem to mimic the sounds of surgery. The clank of metal or the sound of an electric saw running are two of the most common sounds people have reported hearing in the wee hours of the morning, when even the nurses of this defunct center would have been well past their shifts.

There also seems to be a few spirits trapped in perpetual anguish; one maid who cleans on this floor described hearing cries and moans emanating from an empty room. Later, she and another maid swore they heard shouting and screams of pain nearby. Their supervisors were not convinced that the maids could have been witnesses to a residual haunting replaying itself in an old hospital room.

Elevators are in-and-of-themselves incredibly spooky to guests and workers of the Emily Morgan Hotel. For starters, there's the phenomenon of the elevator stopping at a floor that no one has requested and the elevator doors opening to reveal that no one is there. There's also the sightings of shadowy figures riding the elevator alongside you, getting out at the fourteenth floor only to totally vanish.

But perhaps the most disconcerting elevator phenomena is the elevator that takes you all the way to the Basement Level, whether you pushed the button or not.

The Basement Level of the Emily Morgan Hotel—a.k.a. the hospital morgue. What can I say about the Basement Level?

Not much needs to be said as the morgue itself is enough to cause guests to stay away. (Although, I'd argue that saying it was a morgue is enough to attract a particular type of visitor).

The basement has a reputation of being the most haunted area of the hotel, even more so than the fourteenth floor. It's because of this that most of the stories about the basement have remained a mystery, as only staff and hotel employees are authorized to traverse the basement. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until the elevator malfunctions and takes you there of its own accord.

Perhaps one of the greatest ghost stories to come out of the Emily Morgan Hotel is the tale of a ghost bride who allegedly haunts Floor Seven.

As the story goes, she'd been getting ready for the happiest day of her life: the day she said her long-awaited "I Do's." The location for the big day? The Emily Morgan Hotel, of course.

On the morning of her wedding day, the bride-to-be took a tumble down the grand staircase of the hotel and died instantly. (All dressed up in her white wedding gown with nowhere to go!). The reception went on, in true corpse bride fashion, though the bride herself was laid to rest.

Or was she?

Since this story has gone through the grapevine at the Emily Morgan, guests staying on the seventh floor have complained of feeling a presence in their rooms at night. More often than not, the "presence" in question is described as the semi-translucent figure of a woman wearing a wedding dress. In one story, a worker claims to have seen the bride on floor seven stepping into the elevator; when the worker joined her a moment later, the elevator was completely empty.

Despite its incredibly spooky, Gothic and ghostly appearance, the inside of the Emily Morgan Hotel is often regarded as luxurious and comfortable. Upon check-in, travelers can expect to be greeted by a charming lobby boasting marble floors and lofty ceilings set to impress any guest who passes through its doors.

Guests can enjoy the following at the Emily Morgan Hotel:

• Rooftop pool (with a gorgeous view of downtown San Antonio and the Alamo)
• Fitness center
• Business center
• Bar lounge
• A hotel restaurant and room service
• Complimentary wifi

With 177 rooms and 24 suites for guests to choose from, it's not hard to see why the Emily Morgan Hotel is one of San Antonio's most beloved hotels… regardless of the hauntings. That's right—whether you're someone who believes in ghosts or not, the Emily Morgan promises to be a comfortable and clean abode for any tired traveler visiting San Antonio.