Haunted Hotels in Iowa
Haunted Places to Stay in Iowa
Iowa’s 4 haunted hotels preserve the agricultural heartland’s hidden traumas, where farming accidents, rural isolation, and frontier hardships created unexpected supernatural concentrations. When you search for haunted hotels online or on Google Maps, you’ll find over 33,000 matching results, but we’ve meticulously reviewed every single one to create the most realistic, historically accurate collection of truly haunted hotels you can actually visit and stay in.
These prairie properties house spirits of homesteaders, Civil War volunteers, and agricultural workers whose quiet desperation rarely makes national headlines but creates intense local hauntings. Experience rural American hauntings where the peaceful facade of farm country masks generations of tragedy, isolation, and the psychological toll of endless prairie horizons.
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Haunted Hotels in Davenport, IA
Hotel Blackhawk, Autograph Collection
Address: 200 E 3rd St, Davenport, IA 52801
Phenomenons reported: Hollywood Actor Cary Grant Fatal Stroke Spirit; Ballroom Phantom Piano Music; Room 907 Benevolent Celebrity Ghost; Fifth Floor Mysterious Female Entity; Natural Disaster Historical Deaths
Why it's Haunted
Built in 1915 as Davenport’s grandest hotel, the Blackhawk became forever haunted when legendary Hollywood actor Cary Grant suffered a fatal stroke in the ballroom on November 29, 1986, after attending a fundraiser, his spirit now permanently residing in Room 907 where guests feel his friendly presence watching with benevolent interest while maintenance workers report his tall shadow observing their activities with curiosity.
The hotel’s most active paranormal location is the ballroom where Grant died, now echoing with phantom piano music when completely empty, the melodies played by the actor’s 6-foot-tall spirit who loved performing and continues entertaining guests from beyond the grave, though his ghost remains camera-shy and mysteriously causes film to rewind and ruin photographs whenever investigators attempt to capture his image.
The fifth floor harbors the hotel’s most concentrated supernatural activity, particularly Room 515 where a female entity creates such disturbing encounters that regular guests refuse to stay there, while staff document a tall dark shadow figure walking through various rooms throughout the property as additional spirits from the hotel’s history of devastating floods and terrible fires continue their eternal residence.
Cary Grant’s benevolent spirit embraces the hotel’s renovations and improvements, welcoming both paranormal investigators who rent Room 907 hoping to communicate with the beloved actor and regular guests who experience his gentle presence as he continues providing hospitality from the afterlife.
Haunted Hotels in Malvern, IA
The Malvern Manor
Address: 103 E 3rd St, Malvern, IA 51551
Phenomenons reported: Mental Patient Grace Multiple Personalities; Dark Inhuman Attic Entity; Child Suicide Inez Hanging Death; Institutional Abuse Neglect Spirits; Cottage Hotel Railway Traveler Ghosts
Why it's Haunted
Built in the 1870s as the fourth structure in Malvern, Iowa by elected mayor Isaac Ringland before becoming the Cottage Hotel in 1891 for Wabash Trail railway travelers, the Malvern Manor transformed into a residential care facility for mentally ill patients including alcoholics, drug addicts, and schizophrenics, where decades of abuse, neglect, and patient mistreatment created one of America’s most violently haunted locations.
The manor’s most infamous spirit is Grace, a severely disturbed patient with multiple personality disorder whose 13 documented personalities continue manifesting in her former room, where staff heard a man’s gravelly voice screaming ‘The Devil’s coming to get me’ emerging from Grace’s body, creating paranormal activity so intense that seasoned investigators flee the building swearing never to return.
The facility harbors additional tortured souls including twelve-year-old Inez who was found hanged with a jump rope around her neck, Hank the cranky old man who violently hates women touching his belongings, the Captain who was one of the original owners, and Suzie, a middle-aged woman with the mental capacity of a child, all victims of the institutional neglect that plagued the facility until its closure in 2005.
Most terrifying is the dark inhuman entity that manifests beneath the attic, a malevolent presence created from the bundled traumatic energy of hundreds of abused patients, particularly concentrated in rooms where sexual assault occurred for years before staff discovered the ongoing violence.
Haunted Hotels in Strawberry Point, IA
The Franklin Hotel, LLC
Address: 102 Elkader St, Strawberry Point, IA 52076
Phenomenons reported: Lily Victorian Lady Staircase Ghost; Phantom Piano 2 AM Music; Former Merchant Business Spirit; Little Boy Child Apparition; Small Town Iowa Hospitality Phantoms
Why it's Haunted
Dating back to the early 1900s in the small Iowa town of Strawberry Point, the Franklin Hotel harbors the gentle spirits of Lily, a woman in a long formal dress who appears on the main staircase and mysteriously unlocks doors for startled guests, and a former merchant whose ghostly presence continues conducting business from beyond the grave in this historic establishment.
The hotel’s paranormal activity centers around the antique piano in the dining area that plays haunting melodies at precisely 2 AM with no living performer, while guests experience shower curtains moving by themselves, unexplained touching, and disembodied conversations echoing through the corridors as the spirits of long-dead residents continue their eternal routines.
Staff and visitors consistently report the overwhelming sensation of being watched throughout the hotel, particularly when encountering the ghost of a little boy who appears alongside Lily, suggesting multiple generations of spirits who died within the building and chose to remain as permanent residents rather than move on to the afterlife.
The Franklin Hotel’s supernatural residents seem benevolent rather than malevolent, with Lily’s helpful spirit unlocking doors and providing assistance to guests as if still serving in her role as hostess, while the phantom piano music creates an atmosphere of melancholy beauty rather than terror.
Operating as both a functioning hotel and restaurant while embracing its haunted reputation, the Franklin Hotel represents small-town Iowa’s connection to the spirit world, where the boundary between past and present dissolves in a historic establishment where death has not ended the commitment of dedicated staff members who continue serving guests from the supernatural realm, making this Strawberry Point landmark a haunted testament to hospitality that transcends mortality and the enduring presence of souls who found peace in continuing their earthly duties as eternal caretakers.
Haunted Hotels in Dubuque, IA
Hotel Julien Dubuque
Address: 200 Main St, Dubuque, IA 52001
Phenomenons reported: Al Capone Prohibition Criminal Hideout Ghost; Female Voices Harmonized Singing Apparitions; Elevator Basement Malfunction Transportation Spirits; Abraham Lincoln Buffalo Bill Mark Twain Historical Phantoms; Mississippi River 1839 Fire Rebuilding Supernatural Bridge
Why it's Haunted
Originally built in 1839 as the Waples House along the Mississippi River, Iowa’s oldest hotel became forever haunted when it was destroyed by fire in 1913 and rebuilt in 1915, creating a supernatural bridge between two eras where the spirits of its illustrious past including visits from Abraham Lincoln, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Mark Twain continue manifesting alongside the restless souls who died during the hotel’s most dangerous periods including Al Capone’s ownership and use as a criminal hideout during prohibition.
The hotel’s most prominent spirit is believed to be Al Capone himself, whose apparition wearing period clothing appears on upper floors as the notorious gangster continues his eternal residence in the establishment he loved as a Midwestern retreat when Chicago became too dangerous, his ghostly presence reflecting his deep attachment to Dubuque and the hotel that provided sanctuary during his criminal empire’s most violent years.
The property’s supernatural epicenter experiences multiple forms of paranormal activity including disembodied female voices whispering full words in hallways, mysterious two-woman choruses erupting into beautiful harmonized singing that awakens sleeping guests, elevator malfunctions that transport visitors to unintended basement destinations, and the overwhelming sensation of being watched while walking through corridors where countless notable figures lived and died.
The hotel harbors additional tragic spirits whose manifestations include strange rotten egg odors concentrated in specific bedroom locations, unexplained physical contact leaving burning sensations and red scratches on guests’ skin, electrical disturbances including lights activating during intimate moments, and the persistent presence of those who found both luxury and death within walls that witnessed 170 years of Mississippi River history.
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