Standing sentinel over Forest Park's western edge, the Chase Park Plaza Hotel embodies the grandeur of a bygone era. Its soaring tower and elegant facade have dominated the St. Louis skyline since 1922, when it opened as the most luxurious hotel between New York and Los Angeles. Presidents have dined in its restaurants, celebrities have danced in its ballrooms, and countless love stories have begun and ended within its walls.
But the Chase Park Plaza holds secrets that no concierge will share and no brochure will mention. Staff members whisper about the ghostly woman who appears in the elevator, dressed in 1920s finery, smiling at guests before vanishing between floors. Guests report unexplained sounds from empty rooms, the sensation of being watched by unseen eyes, and encounters with figures who simply aren't there when the lights come on.
The hotel's haunted reputation centers on a tragic tale from its earliest years - a beautiful socialite whose untimely death left her spirit forever wandering the elegant halls she loved in life. But she is not alone. The Chase Park Plaza's century of history has accumulated other spirits, other stories, other presences that make themselves known to those who are paying attention.
For guests seeking a paranormal experience wrapped in luxury, the Chase Park Plaza offers the rare combination of five-star accommodations and genuine ghost stories. The question isn't whether the hotel is haunted - it's whether you'll be one of the lucky ones to encounter its eternal residents.
The History of Chase Park Plaza Hotel
The story of the Chase Park Plaza begins in the optimistic years following World War I, when America was entering an era of unprecedented prosperity and St. Louis was determined to prove itself a world-class city.
The Birth of a Landmark
The original Chase Hotel opened in 1922, built by prominent St. Louis businessman and real estate developer Chase Ullman. Ullman recognized that St. Louis lacked a truly world-class hotel to serve the city's growing business community and increasingly sophisticated social scene. He set out to create something that would rival the finest hotels in New York and Chicago.
The Chase was designed in the Renaissance Revival style by architect Preston J. Bradshaw, who created an imposing structure that combined European elegance with American scale. The hotel featured 400 rooms, multiple restaurants, ballrooms, and amenities that were cutting-edge for the era.
From its opening day, the Chase established itself as St. Louis's premier hotel. It attracted celebrities, politicians, and business leaders from around the world. The hotel's Khorassan Room became the city's most fashionable dining destination, while its rooftop club offered dancing under the stars with stunning views of Forest Park.
The Park Plaza Addition
Success bred ambition, and in 1929, the adjacent Park Plaza apartment tower was completed, soaring 28 stories above the street. The Art Deco tower, designed by the prestigious firm of Preston J. Bradshaw and Theodore L. Foster, added residential apartments to the complex, creating a self-contained world of luxury.
The timing was terrible. The stock market crashed just months after the Park Plaza opened, and the Great Depression that followed devastated the hospitality industry. The Chase struggled through the lean years, its elegant ballrooms half-empty, its grand suites converted to long-term residences for those who could no longer afford their mansions.
But the hotel survived, and when prosperity returned after World War II, the Chase Park Plaza reclaimed its place as St. Louis's social center. The postwar years brought new celebrities, new wealth, and new stories to add to the hotel's growing legend.
Golden Age and Famous Guests
The mid-twentieth century was the Chase Park Plaza's golden age. The hotel hosted an extraordinary array of famous guests:
- Presidents from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan stayed at the Chase during visits to St. Louis
- Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and the rest of the Rat Pack frequented the hotel's lounges
- Hollywood stars including Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, and Marilyn Monroe graced its rooms
- World leaders, business titans, and society figures from around the globe made the Chase their St. Louis home
The Chase Club became legendary for its entertainment, hosting big band performances and intimate shows by some of the era's biggest stars. The hotel's New Year's Eve celebrations were the social events of the season, with St. Louis's elite competing for reservations.
Through these glamorous years, the hotel accumulated stories - romances that began over cocktails in the Starlight Room, business deals struck over dinner in the Tenderloin Room, and tragedies that unfolded behind closed doors. Some of these stories would refuse to stay in the past.
The Tragic Socialite
The most persistent ghost story associated with the Chase Park Plaza involves a young socialite from the hotel's early years - a beautiful woman whose life ended tragically within its walls.
According to legend, the woman was a prominent member of St. Louis society in the 1920s or 1930s, a regular at the hotel's most exclusive events. She was known for her beauty, her elegant attire, and her vivacious personality. She was also involved in a troubled romantic relationship that would prove fatal.
The exact details have been lost to time - or perhaps deliberately obscured to protect the families involved. What the stories agree upon is that the woman died in the hotel, either by her own hand or through violence, her life ending in one of the upper-floor rooms or perhaps in the elegant elevator she had ridden so many times.
Her spirit, dressed eternally in the fashions of her era, is said to walk the halls still, trapped in the hotel she loved, unable to move on from the tragedy that ended her life. She is the Chase Park Plaza's most famous ghost - but not its only one.
Modern Era
The Chase Park Plaza has been carefully restored and modernized over the years, most significantly in a major renovation that was completed in 1999. The project preserved the hotel's historic character while adding contemporary amenities.
Today, the Chase Park Plaza Royal Sonesta Hotel operates as a luxury property with over 250 rooms and suites. It remains one of St. Louis's most prestigious addresses, hosting special events, conferences, and discerning travelers who appreciate its blend of historic grandeur and modern comfort.
The renovations and changes in ownership seem to have done nothing to diminish the paranormal activity. If anything, reports of ghostly encounters have increased in recent years, perhaps because guests are more willing to share their experiences publicly. The hotel maintains a discreet silence about its supernatural residents, but staff members privately acknowledge that strange things happen regularly.
The Ghosts of Chase Park Plaza
The Chase Park Plaza's haunted reputation rests on decades of reported encounters, from brief glimpses of spectral figures to extended interactions that leave witnesses shaken. The spirits here seem drawn to the glamour they enjoyed in life, appearing most often in the hotel's most elegant spaces.
The Lady of the Elevator
The most famous ghost of the Chase Park Plaza is a woman who appears in the hotel's elevators, typically in the original Chase tower. She is described as young and beautiful, dressed in the fashions of the 1920s or 1930s - a beaded dress, perhaps, or an elegant evening gown, with her hair styled in the Marcel waves popular in that era.
The Lady of the Elevator appears solid and three-dimensional, so realistic that guests often don't realize they're encountering a ghost until she disappears. She enters the elevator when the doors open, sometimes smiling at other passengers, sometimes seeming lost in thought. She presses no buttons and makes no sound.
As the elevator ascends, witnesses report that the temperature drops noticeably. The Lady rides in silence, and when the elevator reaches one of the upper floors, she simply vanishes - no exit through the doors, no fading away, just sudden absence where a moment before a beautiful woman stood.
Some accounts suggest she disappears on the same floor every time - possibly the floor where her room was located, or where her life ended. Others say she vanishes on different floors, as if searching for something or someone she can never find.
Staff members take the Lady in stride, though they don't advertise her presence. Housekeepers working the upper floors report frequent encounters, as do guests staying in the original tower. She seems harmless - simply a woman who loved the hotel so much that she never left.
The Ballroom Spirits
The Chase Park Plaza's grand ballrooms have hosted countless celebrations over the decades - weddings, galas, New Year's Eve parties that became legendary. Perhaps it's no surprise that some partygoers never left.
Staff members setting up for events have reported seeing figures in the empty ballrooms - couples dancing to music no one else can hear, solitary figures standing at the windows, groups gathered as if at a cocktail party from another era. These apparitions wear formal attire from various periods, suggesting that multiple generations of guests have left their marks on the spaces.
During events, guests occasionally report glimpsing people who don't quite fit - a woman in a vintage dress who wasn't on the guest list, a man in an old-fashioned tuxedo who vanishes when approached. Photographers have captured anomalies in their shots - mysterious figures in the background, unexplained lights, and faces that appear in mirrors but belong to no one in the room.
The ballroom ghosts seem benevolent, even joyful. They appear to be continuing the celebrations they enjoyed in life, oblivious to the passage of time and the changing world around them. Some staff members believe the spirits are drawn by music and laughter, appearing most often during happy events.
The Phantom Parties
Late at night, when the hotel quiets down, guests and staff report hearing sounds of parties from empty spaces. Music - typically big band or jazz from the hotel's heyday - drifts through halls where no band plays. Laughter and conversation echo from ballrooms that are dark and locked. The clink of glasses and the shuffle of dancing feet suggest celebrations that exist outside of normal time.
These phantom parties are heard most often in the early morning hours, perhaps when the veil between past and present grows thin. Guests have reported following the sounds, convinced that an event is taking place somewhere in the hotel, only to find empty rooms and silent corridors.
The sounds seem connected to the hotel's history as a social center. For decades, the Chase Park Plaza was where St. Louis came to celebrate, and perhaps some echo of those celebrations has become embedded in the building itself.
Room Hauntings
Individual guest rooms throughout the hotel report paranormal activity, though certain rooms seem more active than others:
The Upper Floors: The highest floors of the original Chase tower report the most activity, possibly because this is where the Lady of the Elevator seems to be headed. Guests report feeling watched, hearing whispered conversations, and waking to find their belongings moved.
Temperature Anomalies: Many rooms experience unexplained cold spots - areas where the temperature drops dramatically for no reason. These cold spots often precede other paranormal activity.
Bathroom Haunts: Several guests have reported encounters in bathrooms - glimpsing figures in mirrors, hearing running water when no taps are on, and feeling presences in these intimate spaces.
Electrical Issues: Rooms throughout the hotel experience unexplained electrical problems - lights flickering, televisions turning on and off, phones ringing with no caller. These issues occur even after thorough inspections find no technical problems.
The hotel doesn't advertise which rooms are most haunted, but staff members know which rooms generate the most unusual reports. Guests interested in paranormal experiences might try requesting rooms in the original tower, on the upper floors.
Staff Encounters
The employees who work at the Chase Park Plaza have accumulated countless ghost stories over the years. Their experiences lend credibility to the hotel's haunted reputation, as these are people who know the building intimately and can distinguish normal occurrences from genuinely unexplained phenomena.
Housekeeping: Housekeepers report rooms that seem to clean themselves - beds found made when they should be unmade, items arranged that they know they didn't touch. They also report the sensation of being watched while working alone, and occasionally glimpsing figures that shouldn't be there.
Night Staff: Overnight employees have the most stories. They report elevators operating on their own, doors opening and closing in empty hallways, and figures seen on security cameras in areas where no guests should be.
Maintenance: Workers conducting late-night repairs have encountered apparitions, heard voices in empty spaces, and experienced equipment malfunctions that seem intentional - as if something doesn't want certain areas disturbed.
Long-time employees accept the ghosts as part of working at a historic property. Most report that the spirits are harmless, if occasionally startling. Some even feel a fondness for the ghostly residents, viewing them as part of what makes the Chase Park Plaza special.
Paranormal Evidence at Chase Park Plaza
While the Chase Park Plaza doesn't officially promote itself as a haunted hotel, paranormal researchers have documented activity at the property over the years.
Photographic Evidence: Guests have captured numerous unexplained images at the hotel - orbs, mists, and occasional figures that weren't visible when photographs were taken. Many of these images come from the ballrooms and elevator areas.
EVP Recordings: Audio recordings made at the hotel have captured voices and sounds with no apparent source. Some recordings seem to capture fragments of conversation, music, and other sounds that may be echoes of the hotel's past.
EMF Anomalies: Electromagnetic field readings at the hotel show unexplained spikes, particularly in the elevator shafts and certain guest rooms. These anomalies occur even when all electrical equipment is accounted for.
Personal Experiences: The most compelling evidence comes from the sheer volume of personal experiences reported by guests and staff. When hundreds of people over decades report similar phenomena, the consistency suggests something genuinely unusual is occurring.
The hotel's management maintains discretion about the paranormal activity, neither confirming nor denying the ghost stories. This restraint actually adds credibility - there's no commercial motive to fabricate hauntings, and the reports come from people with no reason to make up stories.
Staying at the Chase Park Plaza Today
The Chase Park Plaza Royal Sonesta Hotel continues to operate as one of St. Louis's premier luxury properties, offering guests the rare opportunity to experience both five-star accommodations and potential paranormal encounters.
Accommodations: The hotel offers over 250 rooms and suites, ranging from comfortable standard rooms to luxurious suites with stunning views of Forest Park. Rooms blend historic elegance with modern amenities.
Dining and Entertainment: The hotel features multiple dining options and bars, carrying on the tradition of hospitality that has defined the Chase for nearly a century. The atmosphere echoes the glamour of the hotel's golden age.
Location: Situated at the western edge of Forest Park, the hotel offers convenient access to many of St. Louis's best attractions, including the Zoo, Art Museum, and Science Center.
For Ghost Hunters: Guests interested in paranormal experiences should request rooms in the original Chase tower, preferably on upper floors. The elevator rides alone might provide an encounter with the famous Lady. Evening hours, when the hotel quiets down, seem to be the most active times for paranormal phenomena.
The Chase Park Plaza is located at 212 N Kingshighway Boulevard in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis. Reservations can be made through the hotel directly or through major booking services.
Whether you come for the luxury, the history, or the ghosts, the Chase Park Plaza offers an experience that connects you to nearly a century of St. Louis's most glamorous moments - and perhaps to some guests who never checked out.
