Downtown San Francisco’s Most Haunted Places

I thought I had experienced all that San Francisco had to offer me. After spending eight years in this great city, nothing surprised me anymore. But on my most recent return to the City By The Bay, I decided to peer into the world of the unknown, the supernatural, and the strange. Behind San Francisco’s regaled status as the world capital of AI and technology lies the San Francisco of old. Gilded, glamorous, and often ghastly, many of its inhabitants are still here.

I recently took a ghost tour with US Ghost Adventures, and I am here to share this experience with all of you. From the center of Union Square and into the heart of darkness, this walking ghost tour of downtown San Francisco showed me a different side of my favorite city. It was a fascinating tour that took you through the days of the Gold Rush to the 1906 earthquake and into modern times—a memorable peek behind the veil.

Before we get into it, let’s talk briefly about what to expect if you decide to take this journey.

What To Expect On A Ghost Tour in San Francisco

San Francisco is a city known for its steep hills, crowded streets, and hectic traffic. If you plan to take a ghost tour or any other walking tour, you should be prepared for certain things.

• Bring good walking shoes– Tours can last from one to two hours and generally involve a lot of uphill walking. Even though this tour only skirted around Union Square, it was still quite the journey.
• Be aware of your surroundings– While San Francisco has a reputation for being a dangerous and dirty city, this tour was held in a safe and busy part of the city. However, it is always a good idea to watch where you’re stepping in San Francisco and be aware of those around you.
• Stay out of the street- This may seem logical, but many people wander into the street on a ghost tour while following their tour guide. You don’t want to become a ghost yourself! Stay safe and follow your guide’s directions.
• Be Sure to Tip Your Tour Guide- A great guide usually receives a tip of $5 to $10. Please bring a few extra dollars with you to let your guide know you appreciate them.

San Francisco Ghost Tour Basics
Here is a rundown of this ghost tour’s basic facts and information.

• Price: $26 for Adults/$16 for Children/Free for Children Under 6
• Meeting Location: Corner of Powell St. and Post St in Union Square
• Distance: 1 Mile, but I purchased the extended tour for $7, which increased the tour by half a mile!
• Time: 8 pm

Haunted Union Square

The tour began in Union Square, which I have frequented many times. Generally, I would have been busy dodging tourists on my way to work in Union Square, but this time, I was the tourist. Despite visiting the bustling square almost daily, I did not know its origins.
It was once called “The Square,” long before it was a shopping center and a temporary ice rink in the winter. Did you know a series of protests and rallies organized by pro-Union activist Thomas Starr King were held in the square during the Civil War? I sure didn’t! The name Union Square stuck, and it’s been called that ever since.

Our tour guide began by explaining the history of the iconic Dewey Monument in great detail. It commemorates Admiral George Dewey and his victories in the Spanish-American War. Sitting in the center of the square, it appears innocent enough. But little did I know, a mysterious tale was wrapped around it, and this is where the tour took a dark turn.

Apparently, the Knights Templar and Free Masons took over San Francisco in 1934 during a worldwide pilgrimage to San Francisco. They constructed, seemingly overnight, a cathedral-like tower around the Dewey Monument. The story goes that a young man climbed the tower the night after it was built and either fell or jumped off it.

As a result of this tragedy, the Knights Templar and the Masons deconstructed the tower immediately, afraid people would make negative associations between the organization and suicide. To this day, people sometimes still see a man falling from the monument, only to have him disappear before hitting the ground.

The Wandering Bride of California Street

Our tour took us down California Street, which, unbeknownst to me, is considered one of the most haunted streets in the city. First off, there is the tale of the California Street Wandering Bride. I have seen many strange-looking people in San Francisco, especially those living in the Tenderloin for two years, but this story made me think twice about all of them.

It is said that the daughter of a wealthy San Francisco businessman disappeared one evening in 1876. She was set to marry her father’s business partner and was to be told this and introduced to her future husband at an elegant ball. But she did not like the idea much and ran away, still wearing the white wedding dress her father had made her wear. Millions of dollars were offered for her return, and a massive search was conducted, but she was never found.

Stories of a woman in a white Victorian dress began to circulate around the city after the 1906 Earthquake. The spine-tingling ending to this story is that her body was found in Butte, Montana, in 1926, still in the same white dress. What happened to her still remains a mystery, but her ghost has been seen up and down California Street ever since.

The Haunted Fairmont Hotel

As a former San Francisco resident, I have often walked past the Fairmont Hotel. I’ve heard stories about its elegance and history. But I never knew about its haunted past until I strolled past it on this walking ghost tour. Have I ever been inside? No. As our tour guide mentioned, it is one of the most expensive hotels in the city! Happy as ever to finally get a chance to come face to face with the mighty Fairmont Hotel, I listened intently as our tour guide gave us the rundown.

The Fairmont was one of the only buildings atop Nob Hill to escape the disastrous 1906 earthquake. It was nearly complete when the quake hit. The Fair Sisters, whose father, James Fair, was a senator and California’s silver magnate, were constructing the building when the mighty earthquake struck. According to our guide, their spirits are still inside this legendary hotel, along with the spirits of restless sex workers from the hotel’s earliest days.

The Horrors of Huntington Park

After this horrid realization, we made our way to the top of Knob Hill, where things got even more strange. I had frequented this park many times before while living at the bottom of Nob Hill in the Tenderloin. But I never imagined the history behind this small expanse of land would be so epic and eerie at the same time!
Before the most destructive Earthquake that San Francisco has ever seen, this land belonged to Collis P. Huntington. This railroad Barron helped fund the first stretch of land on the Central Pacific Railroad, and the top of Knob Hill was his private mansion. Strange winds and eerie whispers in the wind reminded me that I was not alone at this part of the tour.

His mansion was one of the many homes destroyed by the great earthquake. At that time, San Francisco was a much smaller city. The outside lands where Golden Gate Park is now situated were nothing more than sand dunes and a beach. The majority of the city lived in what we now consider to be downtown,
Because of the high population in the area, thousands became homeless. Camps sprung up around Huntington’s Mansions, now nothing more than a brick wall. Remnants of his mighty estate are hard to come by today. But many hear the whispers and even see the ghastly apparitions of the victims from the 1906 earthquake. They are still huddled about the remains of his mansion, searching for security in a new and unstable world.

It may have been the breezy San Francisco weather that gave me the chills, but something tells me that these goosebumps came from a paranormal wind.

Sir Francis Drake Hotel/Beacon Hotel

After this chilling experience, we traveled a little further down Nob Hill and landed at the infamous Sir Francis Drake Hotel. Named after the great explorer who almost landed himself in the San Francisco Bay, the hotel was built in 1928 and has a reputation for ghastly activities. It was reopened in 2022 as the Beacon Hotel, but it retains much of its former grandeur.

The death of actor James “Bing” Davidson is the main supernatural scandal at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel. Our tour guide explained that he was partying with Bewitched star Paul Lynde one night in 1963 when he slipped out of a window on the 8th floor. I got chills again as I looked up and marveled at the sheer height of this grand hotel. Our guide explained how many people feel an overwhelming sadness when on the 8th floor.

Room 823 is apparently the hotel’s most haunted room. We were told that only newly hired housekeeping staff cleans the room because the rest of the veteran staff refuse to enter it due to the strange and unexplainable things they have had to deal with while cleaning it.

One story about two housekeepers who promptly quit after cleaning the room stuck with me the most. They said they found a mysterious tall man standing in the corner with his back turned when they entered the room. When he turned around and moved toward them, he had no jaw, and his eyes looked grotesque, like he had no eyelids or like they had been removed somehow. These two poor housekeepers quit immediately afterward.

I’d recommend staying the night in the Beacon Hotel if you want an elegant yet spooky experience. As for me, I’d never heard of it until that night! But I might book a room on my next trip to San Francisco just for the chance to look into the world of the unknown.

The Curse of The Curran Theatre

San Francisco’s elegance and eccentricities shone through on this tour. As we stepped back into time into the days of the Gilded Age and onwards, it made me feel like I was wandering the streets with Emperor Norton himself! Something about the beauty of San Francisco has always lured people into its foggy embrace. Many have sat on the edge of madness while stealing a kiss from this black widow of a city. Some never returned.

The Curran Theatre is one of the places we visited where the strange mixes eloquently with the more illustrious side of San Franpsycho. This 1922 theater was the site of a seemingly random act of violence whose paranormal residue has seeped its way into our world in disturbing ways.

Our guide told us about the murder of a theater worker named Hewlett Tarr that filled the sidewalks with blood in 1933. Tarr was soon to be married and a hardworking individual. But one man ended his life tragically with one simple shot from his gun.

Since then, Tarr has been a constant presence in the Curran. Patrons and employees alike have heard a gunshot or screams out front of the building. Other strange and inexplicable noises sometimes fill the theatre late at night, when such things can be heard above the din. Tarr seems particularly fond of mirrors, often appearing to people as if he is trapped on the other side, sometimes clean-cut and fresh-faced, other times covered in blood with a menacing grimace.

I was shocked to learn that the story took an even darker turn in more recent times when one employee became so obsessed with Tarr and the tragedy of his story that she started to lose her grip on reality.

She would come in early for her shift and stare into the mirrors, hoping to get a glimpse before the start of her shift. Her manager even had to tell her to tone down how much she talked about Tarr, especially to ticketholders. Then, everything seemed to calm down until she showed up one day in a wedding dress.

The woman had a breakdown and started yelling about how she was Tarr’s reincarnated fiancé.

Pulling out a gun, she attempted to take her own life, supposedly to join Tarr in the afterlife. She survived the attempt but was never the same. From then on, she insisted that her family and the staff at the assisted living facility she lived in refer to her as Mrs. Tarr.

Haunted San Francisco

It was indeed the stuff of nightmares! As our tour guide returned us safely to Union Square, I felt different. The grimy, gritty, and bustling yet oddly serene San Francisco I had known had been torn from its casing. Underneath it all was a much darker and more twisted city than I had ever known. Needless to say, I had trouble falling asleep at my motel, Motel Capri, in Cow Hollow later that evening.

I highly recommend that anyone visit the City By The Bay and take a walking ghost tour with US Ghost Adventures. It is the perfect experience for the upcoming Halloween season or any time of year. There are many more haunted locations across the historically depraved and often violent city, which is just how I like it, and I encourage you to go out and explore. Taking a ghost tour with US Ghost Adventures is a great way to start!

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