The most haunted places in Williams, Arizona are the Red Garter Inn, the Sultana Theatre, the Grand Canyon Hotel, and the old Saloon Row along Railroad Avenue. The reports run to phantom footsteps on a famously steep stairway, doors that close on their own, figures at the edge of a barroom a century old, and a presence the Red Garter's keepers call Eve. We are Arizona tour guides who research haunted history everywhere we go. We do not run a tour in Williams, so read this as our research notes rather than a sales pitch: the history below is documented, the hauntings are reported, and we are careful to keep the two labeled.
The Red Garter Inn: eight cribs and one endurance test
August Tetzlaff, a German tailor, put up the two-story brick building in 1897 to catch the saloon trade, leasing the ground floor as a bar and running eight cribs upstairs as a bordello. The stairway between the two was steep enough that locals called it the Cowboy's Endurance Test, and the women were known to lean from the upstairs windows to call to the men below. The trade survived nearly five decades, until a murder on those stairs in the 1940s helped trigger the citywide crackdown that closed the houses for good. The building cycled through rooming-house and general-store years before a 1994 renovation turned the upstairs into a four-room bed and breakfast that now sits on the National Register of Historic Places. The reports began with the renovation: footsteps with nobody attached, doors that shut themselves, and a young woman guests describe on the stairs, the presence the inn calls Eve. Which room she is said to favor is a question best asked at the front desk.
The Sultana Theatre: a century in the dark
The Sultana opened in 1912 and has anchored its block ever since, screening silent pictures for the region in its early years and, by local telling, some of northern Arizona's first talkies. The attached offices served as the town hall for decades, and the basement carries long-rumored Prohibition-era stories that Williams has never fully untangled. The barroom is where the reports live: patrons and staff describe figures at the edge of sight and the sense of company after closing, often attributed to regulars from the building's first decades. It is a working bar, not a museum, which is rather the appeal: you can weigh the stories over a drink in the room they belong to.
The Grand Canyon Hotel: taking guests since 1892
The two-story masonry building went up in 1891 and opened in January 1892 as the Boyce Hotel, and its brick walls carried it through the fires that leveled the wooden blocks around it. The hotel's own history counts John Muir and a young John Pershing among the early guests. After sitting dark for decades in the late twentieth century, it reopened in 2005 and now bills itself as Arizona's oldest hotel. The reports are what a register that old tends to earn: cold spots, footsteps in empty halls, and a woman in old-fashioned dress described by occasional overnight guests. The staff will talk about it if you ask, which is our favorite kind of haunted hotel.
Saloon Row and the fires
The south side of Railroad Avenue was the town's saloon district from the 1890s, serving the railroad, lumber, and ranching trades with whiskey, gambling, and the red-light houses that went with them. Fires gutted the wooden blocks more than once in the town's early years, and the district was rebuilt in the brick that still stands. Today's bars and shops pour and sell where the old ones did, and after-hours reports from the people who close those buildings are a running Williams tradition: lights, voices, and the occasional moved glass, offered over the bar with varying degrees of a straight face.
What we did not find
An honest note, because it is the point of these pages: we found no well-documented apparition tied to the depot or the rails themselves, and no verified death behind the Sultana's basement rumors. The haunted addresses of Williams sit a block off the tracks, in the buildings where the money and the trouble actually lived. When a legend does not hold up, we would rather say so than pad the list.
Which tour fits you
A small costumed evening ghost walk has operated in Williams in recent seasons, and the visitor center on Railroad Avenue keeps the current schedule, so ask there first if you want the stories told on the street. By day, the historic district covers easily on foot on your own. For a regular nightly haunted-history walking tour, the closest is Flagstaff, about half an hour east, where our own guides lead the walks: the Flagstaff listing holds a 4.9 TripAdvisor rating across 320+ reviews as of July 2026. Our Prescott and Tucson walks are farther afield, and our guide to the best ghost tours in Arizona puts every option in one ranked list. To see how Williams's neighbors compare, the most haunted places in Arizona roundup holds the statewide map.
Questions people ask
What is the most haunted place in Williams?
The Red Garter Inn, by most accounts. The 1897 saloon and bordello turned bed and breakfast draws the most consistent reports, including the presence guests and staff call Eve, described on the steep stairway where the building's darkest chapter played out.
Can you stay overnight in a haunted building in Williams?
Yes, twice over. The Red Garter Inn rents the four upstairs rooms of the old bordello, and the Grand Canyon Hotel has taken guests since 1892. Both are small properties that fill early in summer, so book well ahead.
Is there a ghost tour in Williams?
Small evening ghost walks have operated in town in recent seasons; schedules shift, so check with the Williams visitor center for what is currently running. The nearest regular nightly haunted-history walks are our own in Flagstaff, about half an hour east.
Are the Williams hauntings documented?
The history is documented: the 1897 Tetzlaff building, the 1912 theater, the 1891 hotel, and the saloon-district fires are all on the record. The hauntings are reported rather than proven, resting on decades of guest and staff accounts, and this page keeps that line visible on purpose.
