Since I was a little girl I’ve dreamt of staying at the Hotel Sorrento, and well, I finally did. Here is the history behind the hotel that I’ve been obsessed with since childhood, and I’ll answer the questions of what it was like actually staying there, whether it’s actually haunted, and why I think it needs to be on your travel bucket list.
The Game Changer.
Seattle hasn’t always been a glamorous city. We are the birthplace of grunge, after all, but its beginnings were even more rough and tumble. From the time white settlers came ashore, the city has attracted those looking to make a new life for themselves — whether that be in lumber, prospecting, fishing, or in more recent years, technological endeavors. For a long period of time, the city’s men far outnumbered the women. In fact, in 1860, men outnumbered women 9 to 1. This led Asa Mercer, a member of one of the city’s founding families, to recruit young women from New England, known as the “Mercer Girls”1 All of this is to say that although the Sorrento is not the oldest hotel in the city, being surpassed by the Alexis Royal Sonesta Hotel (1901), State Hotel (1904), Gaslight Inn (1907), and the Morrison Hotel (1908), it was the first one that was built to really attract the attention of tourists, making it absolutely groundbreaking in the evolution of the city. Beyond that, it was the first built on First Hill, the neighborhood where the majority of the affluent newly Seattleites, were taking up residence.
The hotel opened on May 30th, 1909, just days before the June 1st opening of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, which brought over 3.7 million visitors to the city. With 150 rooms available, the brand-new Hotel Sorrento was ready to accommodate the guests. The idea was conceived by local clothing merchant Samuel Rosenberg, who hired Harlan Thomas to design a hotel unlike any Seattle had seen before. The seven-story Italian Renaissance-style hotel boasted the best views in the city, offering sweeping, uninterrupted panoramas. As with many hotels of this era, the hotel rooms would also serve as long-term apartments for people visiting looking to make Seattle either a winter or summer home. Given its location, it is easy to see why this hotel should pop up so often in the Society section of the papers. It seems as though every other day there was a luncheon held, a wedding thrown, or a holiday dinner hosted at the Sorrento. Some of the menus for those dinners still hang up in the lobby today. In 1918 the Sorrento played host to the eight survivors of the 1917 sinking of the USS Jacob Jones, the first US war vessel lost in WWI when it was sunk by a torpedo launched from a German U-Boat while escorting a convoy from Brest, France.
It wasn’t just the location that drew a crowd, the interiors were absolutely stunning with the wood-paneled lobby, restaurant, and famous fireside room. There was very little to not like about the hotel. In fact, the fireside room with its famous large fireplace encased by the beautifully tiled pottery of Rockwood Pottery Company from Cincinnati, Ohio still draws a crowd today, over a century later.2 The hotel had one other unique feature, a restaurant on the 7th floor that made it the highest restaurant in the city.
The clientele of the hotel would evolve over the years and grow from the rough and tumble to Seattle’s elite. It is perhaps due to the clientele that the hotel has maintained its status for so long, as it is the only hotel of the era that still serves its original purpose, making it Seattle’s oldest operating hotel. As with all historical locations, it is bound to have some legends and the Sorrento is no exception to that rule.
A Haunted Hotel?
A quick Google search of the Sorrento will likely come up with more than one paranormal site claiming there is paranormal activity at the hotel. The most common claim? That Alice B. Toklas, famous partner of Gertrude Stein and marijuana advocate, haunts in or near room 408. Well, it just so happens that is the very room we stayed in. As most people know by now, I have stayed in my fair share of allegedly haunted hotels, and I have to say, the “vibe” one usually feels was not at all present in or near room 408. Instead, the room, like the rest of the hotel, felt inviting, warm, and well-loved. I’ve spoken in the past about historic locations feeling like they’re giving you a hug when you enter them, and the Sorrento is definitely part of this group. The corner suite hosted all the things one would hope for in a nice hotel – a comfy big bed, a nice marbled bathroom, a living space with a bar and a nice view, and my favorite, a workstation with a beautifully sketched portrait of the hotel hung right above. Sure, the hallway was a little creepy, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t insist we keep the light on in the hallway so that when I invariably had to use the facilities in the middle of the night, I wouldn’t be freaked out. So the two big questions are: did we see anything and why did people think Alice haunts the room? The short answer, no, and well…it’s unclear.
Alice. B Toklas
Born in San Francisco, Alice and her family relocated to First Hill in Seattle in 1890 after the Great Fire of 1889 when she was only 13 years old. Her father, who owned a fine men’s clothing store in the city, was tired of the commute, and after the fire, he wanted to be closer to keep an eye on the business.3 They moved into a house on First Hill, and this is where the Sorrento/Toklas connection comes into play. People claim that the house she lived in might have possibly been at the location of the future Sorrento Hotel. Well, it wasn’t, but it was close. I was able to find a 1895 city directory that listed both Alice and her father Ferdinand at 1006 9th Avenue, approximately right next to the hotel. So yes, we can verify that she was, in fact, familiar with the street. However, by 1909, when the hotel was built, she was already in love with Paris after first visiting in 1907, and would end up passing away there many years later in 1967 at the age of 89. It is verified that she would return on occasion to give piano concerts, as she studied music and received her BA from the University of Washington, and I will entertain the idea that maybe, she performed once or twice at the hotel. Perhaps this is why people hear phantom piano playing? However, I find the idea of her full-on ghost haunting the hotel to be quite hard to believe, but I do take great enjoyment in how much the hotel embraces this legend, even hosting dinners in her honor where they cook things from her cookbook. As for us experiencing anything paranormal? Well I am afraid to say we didn’t get to meet the lovely avant garde woman that was Alice but I did hear a woman humming when I was getting ready in the bathroom the morning we were checking out. Considering how well insulated the rooms are and how room 408 shares no walls with any other rooms….yea, it was odd.
Whether she is there or not, the spirit of Alice is being kept alive in some way, at the Sorrento.
The Crushed Bellboy – Catalino Tarantan.
The fact is, luxury hotels cannot run without help. An army of sometimes visible and sometimes not-so-visible workers is required to make a hotel like the Sorrento function, especially during the turn of the century. For 21-year-old Catalino Tarantan, arriving from the Philippines and landing the job as a bellboy at the Sorrento in 1921, it would have been an exciting job and the start of a new life in a new country. Bellboys are one of the positions that guests have regular contact with, and since this was the period when the hotel was accommodating more long-term guests, people would have had ample opportunity to grow quite close to the sweet, young man. This is likely why, on May 9th, 1923, 10-year-old Suzanne Reid, the daughter of Northern Pacific Railway President, Judge George T. Reid, felt comfortable approaching Catalino when she had lost her “pretty ball” in the elevator shaft. Being the ever-helpful man he was, he offered to retrieve it. He informed the elevator operator that he would enter the shaft but unfortunately forgot about the 2,000 lb counterweight, which would come crashing down on his torso when he went to retrieve the ball. His death deeply affected both residents and staff, but none more so than Lorenzo Villanueva, Catalino’s uncle and Captain of the bellboys, who had brought him over from the Philippines and had promised his sister he would help him build a better life.
Every once in a while, while doing research, I stumble upon a story that baffles me. In all the posts about the Sorrento being haunted, never once did I read about a haunted elevator or the poor bellboy who was crushed to death. If I had to guess who, if anyone, was still lingering in the hotel, I would put my money on Catalino or any of the other residents who passed away in the hotel over the years. The hotel staff that I had a chance to speak to, namely David and Lexi, seemed to believe that whoever was there was benevolent and playful. They would do things like leave little handprints on freshly cleaned mirrors. Because of this, the staff makes a point to announce themselves when entering a space, and I find that to be incredibly respectful.
An Experience Worth Having.
114 years after its opening, the Sorrento Hotel is still every bit of a destination as it was when it was the only luxury hotel atop First Hill. The views may have changed but the hospitality, the beauty, and the good food remain the same. My husband and I fell in love with their in-house restaurant Stella, which we frequented more than once. Executive Chef Paolo Pezzali is an Italian-born gastronomic genius making even the happy hour dishes something to behold. Sitting here writing this I am salivating at the thought of their spinach artichoke dip, which is quite possibly the best I’ve ever had.
I am happy the hotel remains a chosen location for weddings and various functions because historic landmarks like the Sorrento deserve to be enjoyed, laughed in, lived in. I can with 100% certainty that I will be returning to the Sorrento in the future and I truly hope that you will consider booking yourself a room and experience in Seattle’s oldest operating hotel.
Book your room at the Hotel Sorrento – here.
Sources
- https://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/exhibits-and-education/online-exhibits/women-in-city-government/women-in-early-seattle
- https://www.hotelsorrento.com/about
- https://www.thestranger.com/features/2015/09/09/22804271/alice-b-toklas-lived-in-seattle-before-she-met-gertrude-stein