Curie's Ghostly Tales

Hotel Sorrento was built in 1909 in the historic First Hill district of Seattle, Washington. With 116 years of history, there of course is always going to be a lot of lore and legends attached to a building like this, and Sorrento doesn’t disappoint as it’s been named one of the most haunted hotels in the US. 

The story is a bit unusual though, where we mostly hear about murders and awful deaths on the premises, this hotel’s most frequent spiritual visitor happens to be none other than Alice B Toklas, a well known American writer involved in the Parisian Avant-garde movement, life partner of American Novelist Gertrude Stein, and the inventor of none other than the pot brownie. Yes, you heard that right, Alice had created an entire cookbook with many cannabis infused recipes inside. A true legend, honestly. 

The weirder part about Alice haunting Sorrento? Alice died while living in Paris from natural causes in her old age. No traumatic death in sight. And in fact, allegedly, Sorrento showed no sign of any hauntings at all until Alice died in 1967, which is so fascinating. 

So why exactly does she stay at Sorrento? The main theory we have to run off of is that her family home that she grew up in was actually on the same block, her old address confirmed to be right next to where the hotel stands today, in fact.

Alice B Toklas was born in San Francisco in 1877, but her family moved to Seattle in 1890 and she would grow up there, attending University of Washington, until 1897 when she would move back to San Francisco to care for her ill mother. This puts Alice in Seattle during some of her most formative years, from ages 13-20. It’s said that perhaps why she haunts the halls of Sorrento despite likely never even having stepped foot in the hotel, was because this may have been some of the fondest times and memories for her.

There are other theories that perhaps Alice had visited the hotel at some point to perform, considering she studied music in college, and one the more common paranormal experiences folks have is hearing a phantom piano playing on the 7th floor.

However, the most haunted part of the hotel is known to be the 4th floor, and specifically room 408. This is where an encounter with Alice that is most likely to happen, whether it be flickering lights, unusual cold spots, or even the apparition of the woman herself. 

So, of course, with all this being said….we had to stay the night. In room 408. And if you want to know what we found, the full investigation is up on my Youtube channel.