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CHAPTER 5

Crockett Hotel

DOWNTOWN SAN ANTONIO

ONE OF THE OLDEST HOSPITALITY establishments in San Antonio, the historic Crockett Hotel is also one of the most haunted and has a wealth of ghostly lore and paranormal phenomena associated with it. When one considers where it is located, of course, this is not overly surprising. The Crockett Hotel is right across the street from the Alamo, is located on the grounds of the battle that centered on it, and can often be spotted in photos of the famous mission or news stories about it. It is, in fact, believed to be built on the very spot where David Crockett and the last of the Alamo defenders were killed, on what had been the southeast palisade of the fortified mission. Crockett was one of at least 189 Texian revolutionaries who were ultimately overrun and killed by some 1,800 Mexican troops under the command of General Antonio López de Santa Anna at the end of a 13-day battle that ended on March 6, 1836.

For many years following the Battle of the Alamo, the site where the Crockett Hotel would eventually be built was simply used for farming, and the property changed hands numerous times. It was eventually acquired by a fraternal organization known as the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, which in 1877 erected a building on the site for use as a lodge. This structure served the organization well for more than three decades but, eventually, its members opted to create something bigger, and in 1909 they raised the current six-story building to serve both as a new fraternal lodge hotel and a lodge.

The seven-story west wing of the hotel was added 18 years later, in 1927. Other modifications made to the building over the following decades include the addition of a section of guestrooms to accommodate people attending the 1968 World’s Fair. Time, however, eventually took a toll on the historic structure. In 1982, it was meticulously renovated to preserve its historic appearance and was added to the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior; it was eventually also added to the list of Historic Hotels of America by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Then, in 2007, the Crockett Hotel was renovated once again and a number of dramatic changes were made, including restoration of the striking seventh-floor suites and removal of the rooms that had been added for the World’s Fair so as to enhance the pool area.

The Crockett Hotel was, of course, named in honor of the man believed to have been killed on its grounds in the most famous battle in Texas history. It is also one of the relatively few sites where a credible case can be made for a haunting by a specific known person. Things that support the probability of this include it being the place of Crockett’s violent and untimely death, his passion for Texas independence in life, and the site essentially being commemorated to him.

“You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas,” was Crockett’s definitive statement on his emigration to the Lone Star State, summing up a determination in life that some people believe has kept his spirit present in death. His resolution and that of his companions served as inspiration for the ongoing Texas Revolution, and, some six weeks later, cries of “Remember the Alamo” bolstered the victorious Texian forces at the Battle of San Jacinto, final conflict of the war, in what is now Houston.

Beyond Crockett himself, the hotel has long been believed to be haunted by the spirits of others who fought and died in the Battle of the Alamo, Texian settlers and Mexican soldiers alike, and people have noted many sorts of paranormal activity throughout the building. There are also stories about a housekeeper said to have been murdered by her jealous husband during the early days of the hotel and whose ghost is believed by some to haunt the Crockett Hotel.

Particular areas in the building where people have traditionally noted possibly supernatural phenomena include the bar, a number of the guest rooms, and the lobby, where the main doors sometimes open and close on their own. The number and variety of things guests and staff alike have reported experiencing throughout the hotel is striking and far exceeds what is typically found at most other reputedly haunted sites. These include the sound of disembodied footsteps and even horses’ hooves, faint whispers, curtains moving on their own, air conditioning and other electrical equipment going off or on by themselves, strange chanting, the sound of doors opening and closing when no one is present and even when locked, the sudden appearance of cold spots, and even the apparition of a man in a dark-blue military-style jacket.

People also complain of problems with the elevators, including them going up and down on their own, opening on floors people had not pressed the buttons for and where no one was waiting, and abruptly shifting floors after stopping. It is this anomaly that led to a very recent tragedy at the hotel and, according to some, the possible addition of a new ghost to it.

On the evening of December 28, 2011, 65-year-old housekeeper Gloria Rodriguez was killed when she fell six floors to the bottom of a service elevator shaft. According to Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation chief inspector Lawrence Taylor, what likely happened is that Rodriguez called for the elevator and that it came up from a lower floor, caused the doors for it to open, but then continued up to the next level. When they did open, Rodriguez, unaware that the elevator car itself was actually on the floor above, backed through them with her cleaning cart and plummeted to her death at the bottom of the shaft.

According to people who knew Rodriguez, she claimed to have seen ghosts on a number of occasions at the Crockett, where she had started working 12 years earlier, in 1999. She was not the only person who believed the hotel was haunted.

“You should be scared, mija, this hotel is haunted,” a housekeeper named Yolanda reportedly told a former front desk clerk named Rosalie who expressed apprehensions about working in the hotel at night and said she felt as though some dreadful presence were watching her. Yolanda said many other people had experienced supernatural things at the hotel and that Rodriguez in particular believed she could hear ghosts whispering in the elevator shaft where she ultimately died. “Everyone knows we’re haunted now. She told us that’s where the voices come from, in there.”

“No one will use that elevator anymore,” Yolanda continued. “Us girls are too scared. It’s where she heard a lot of voices. No one believed her, but now we do. She got worse toward the end. She was terrified of that elevator, but still no one believed her. No one wants to take that elevator, and I don’t blame them.”

For better or worse, visitors to the hotel will not likely have access to the elevator in question. But, like many hotels, the Crockett is ideal for an investigation, and a casual one might be possible even for visitors who are not guests of the hotel but who behave both subtly and responsibly. It should, in fact, be considered for inclusion in any investigation of the Alamo itself, and is in many ways more accessible, especially for those who prefer nighttime ghosthunts and opt to stay at the hotel.

When my wife and I visited the Crockett Hotel in the course of doing research for this book in January 2014, we had no trouble thoroughly photographing the lobby and adjacent areas (or, naturally, the exterior of the hotel). We then spent a few hours in the hotel bar, conducting a mini-investigation of it and chatting with the bartender, who was quite outspoken about inexplicable things she had experienced at the Crockett and ones she had heard about from others. In addition to the anomalies commonly associated with the site, she mentioned items flinging themselves off the bar and from counter surfaces in the kitchen.

So, if you find yourself in San Antonio, especially if you are conducting a paranormal investigation of the Alamo, there is no better place to both stay and look for local ghosts than the Crockett Hotel. Even if you cannot stay the night, stop by the bar for a drink. You may just notice something ever so small that lets you know you are in the presence of David Crockett, Gloria Rodriguez, or one of the other people whose lives ended here but whose spirits might still haunt it.