Hotel del Coronado — the beautiful stranger of San Diego's grand hotel

The Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, California, completed in 1888, is one of the most iconic seaside resorts in America and one of the most haunted. The hotel's ghost story centers on Kate Morgan, a young woman who checked into the hotel on November 24, 1892, under the name Lottie Bernard. Five days later, she was found dead on an exterior staircase leading to the beach with a gunshot wound to the head. Her death was ruled a suicide, but circumstances suggest she may have been murdered — the bullet recovered from her head did not match the gun found near her body. Kate's ghost has been reported at the hotel for over a century. Room 3327, where she stayed, is the most frequently haunted — guests report televisions turning on and off, curtains billowing when windows are closed, the faucets running on their own, and a gentle, flickering light that appears in the room. Kate has been seen walking along the beach near the exterior stairs where she died, and some guests have described seeing a beautiful young woman in a Victorian black dress standing in the hotel's corridors. The hotel has embraced its haunted reputation, and Room 3327 is one of the most requested rooms. The case remains one of the best-documented ghost stories in California, with a clearly identified ghost and over 130 years of consistent reports.