Kate Morgan: The Hotel del Coronado Ghost Story

Kate Morgan was a 24-year-old woman who checked into the Hotel del Coronado alone on Thanksgiving Day, 1892, under a false name, and was found dead from a gunshot wound on the hotel’s beach staircase five days later. The coroner ruled her death a suicide. Ever since, guests and staff have reported unexplained activity in her room and around the hotel, which has made her the Del’s best-known ghost and one of the most famous hotel ghost stories in America.

This guide covers what the records show, how the legend grew, what is going on with the different room numbers, and how to experience the story yourself on a visit to Coronado.

Who was Kate Morgan?

Kate Morgan was born Kate Farmer around 1864 in Fremont County, Iowa. On December 30, 1885, she married Thomas Edwin Morgan, according to the Wikipedia summary of her life, which draws on the historical records. The couple lost an infant son in 1886, and by around 1890 the two had separated. The record of the years that follow is thin.

By 1892 she was working as a domestic servant in a well-off Los Angeles household. In the hotel’s own account, she was married but estranged from her husband when she traveled to Coronado.

What happened at the Hotel del Coronado in 1892

The arrival

On Thursday, November 24, 1892, Thanksgiving Day, a young woman checked in alone and signed the register as “Mrs. Lottie A. Bernard, Detroit.” The Del had opened only four years earlier, in 1888, and was already one of the grandest resorts on the West Coast.

Staff remembered her as well dressed and polite but unwell and withdrawn. According to the Del’s account, she asked at the front desk each day whether someone she was expecting had arrived. No one ever came. She visited the hotel pharmacy several times, declined offers to call outside medical help, and burned personal papers in her room.

Her death

On November 29, 1892, her body was found on an exterior staircase leading from the hotel down to the beach. She had a gunshot wound to the head.

Because she had used a false name and destroyed most of her papers, the police could not identify her at first. Newspapers across the country followed the case and called her “the beautiful stranger.” Weeks later she was identified as Kate Morgan. The San Diego coroner’s inquest ruled that her death was self-inflicted. She was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in San Diego.

Questions that remain

Several questions were never answered: who she was waiting for, why she chose the Del, and whether she had money that was never accounted for. The most common theory is that she was waiting for her estranged husband.

In 1990, San Francisco lawyer Alan May published The Legend of Kate Morgan, arguing that she may have been killed. He pointed to inquest testimony suggesting the bullet might not have matched her gun. San Diego Magazine reports that May claimed a family connection to Kate and paid for a headstone on her previously unmarked grave, and that the hotel disputes his version of events. No theory of foul play has been confirmed.

The hotel’s heritage team published Beautiful Stranger: The Ghost of Kate Morgan and the Hotel del Coronado, which includes a transcription of the coroner’s inquest and period newspaper coverage. It is the most complete primary-source account if you want to read the records yourself, and it is sold through the hotel’s shop.

The ghost legend

Most of the stories about Kate’s ghost are tied to the third-floor room where she stayed. Guests and staff have reported:

• Lights flickering and a television switching itself on and off
• Footsteps, knocking and other sounds with no obvious source
• Sudden cold spots and breezes in a closed room
• A woman in a long black dress seen in hallways or walking along the beach at night

The Del also has a second, lighter ghost story. Items in the hotel’s Est. 1888 gift shop are said to fall off the shelves and land upright and unbroken. Some people link this to Kate as well.

Kate’s story has been featured in national lists of haunted hotels and television ghost-hunting shows for decades. In the late 1980s, Alan May spent a night in the room with a paranormal research team, and that investigation added to her fame.

Room 3327, room 3312 and room 3502: why the numbers differ

If you have searched for “Kate Morgan’s room” you have probably seen three or four different numbers. There is a simple reason: the Del has renumbered its rooms more than once in more than a century of operation.

• Room 302 was the room number in 1892.
• Room 3327 is the number the hotel connects to Kate today. San Diego Magazine reports it is the most requested room at the Del.
• Room 3312 appears in some accounts as an intermediate number for the same room.
• Room 3502 appears in older retellings, especially accounts of Alan May’s 1980s overnight investigation, which describe it as the number of the room that later became 3312.

Another room, 3519, has its own legend. It is described as the room of a young maid who supposedly helped Kate and later disappeared. That story is folklore and has no documented history behind it.

The practical point is that room 3327 is a regular guest room. There is no public viewing. To see it you have to book a stay in it, and it is often reserved well in advance.

Visiting the Hotel del Coronado

The Hotel del Coronado is at 1500 Orange Avenue in Coronado, across San Diego Bay from downtown. Its Victorian Building, the original 1888 structure where Kate stayed, reopened in 2025 after a restoration lasting nearly seven years. The Coronado Times reported that the overall resort renovation cost more than $550 million and restored the Victorian courtyard and its fountain.

Haunted Happenings Tour

The Del runs a guided Haunted Happenings Tour every night. It is about 45 minutes long, is limited to ages 12 and up, and covers the events of 1892 and the ghost reports that followed. Book online through the hotel’s tour page. The hotel notes that because it is a working resort, guides can’t guarantee access to specific rooms or areas. Coronado’s visitor center has listed the tour at 7 p.m. and $30 per person, but check the booking page for the current time and price, especially around Halloween, when demand is highest.

History tours and the Ice House Museum

For the wider history of the hotel, the Del offers a daytime docent-led history tour and a self-guided audio tour. Both start at the free Ice House Museum on the property. Details and prices are on the Coronado Visitor Center listing and the hotel’s site. The museum is a good way to see the Del’s past without a tour.

Staying in Kate’s room

If you want to stay in 3327, book directly with the hotel and ask about that room by number. Book as far ahead as you can, especially in October. Most guests who stay there report a quiet night. Whether you find that disappointing or reassuring is up to you.

Visiting respectfully

Kate Morgan was a real woman who died alone and far from family, and the hotel treats her story with care. If you take the tour or walk the grounds, remember that guests are staying in these rooms. Don’t knock on doors, linger in hallways or film in private areas.

Getting there and what to pair it with

Driving to Coronado takes you over the Coronado Bridge, and the Del charges for parking. Many visitors take the Coronado ferry from downtown instead and continue by bus, bike or rideshare. In summer the free Route 904 shuttle stops near the hotel.

Make a day of it with an afternoon on Coronado Beach, which sits right in front of the hotel and is one of the best stretches of sand in the county (see our San Diego beaches guide). For more of San Diego’s haunted and Victorian history, visit Villa Montezuma in Sherman Heights, or Old Town, whose historic adobes have their own ghost stories.

If you or someone you know is struggling, you can call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, free and available 24 hours a day.