Queen Anne Hotel

Guests at the Queen Anne Hotel describe the gentle presence of Mary Lake, with reports centred on Room 410, which was her office and is now the Mary Lake Suite: cold chills, a white figure, a woman in period clothing, and the sensation of someone tucking in their feet at night or helping with the unpacking. The hotel allows visitors the run of most floors, which has made it a fixture for paranormal groups. Senator James G. Fair, one of the Comstock Lode silver kings, built the house at Sutter and Octavia in 1890, and it opened that year as Miss Mary Lake's School for Girls, the most exclusive finishing school in San Francisco, where two of Fair's own daughters were pupils. The school closed around 1896, reportedly over money. The building came through the 1906 earthquake and was restored and reopened as a hotel in 1980.