M.A. Kleen

A broken heart led to a tragic wedding night suicide. Does the ghost of this jilted bride still linger in Room 812?

• The Hotel Alex Johnson opened in 1928 and was described as the “showplace of the West.”
• It was built by and named after Alex Carlton Johnson, Vice President of the Chicago-Northwestern Railroad.
• Room 812 is supposedly haunted by the ghost of a bride-to-be who jumped from the window on her wedding night.

The Hotel Alex Johnson stands in the heart of downtown Rapid City, South Dakota. This historic luxury hotel features shops, a coffeehouse, a bar and restaurant on the first floor, and a stylish rooftop club on the tenth. Prices are surprisingly reasonable during the off-season, so when a friend and I visited South Dakota in early April, we jumped at the chance to stay there. It certainly did not hurt that the hotel also carries a reputation for being haunted.

Alex Carlton Johnson served as vice president of the Chicago & North Western Railroad. As construction began on Mount Rushmore, he recognized that tourists visiting the Black Hills would need a place to stay, so he invested heavily in building a grand hotel. The Hotel Alex Johnson opened in 1928 and was promoted as the “showplace of the West.”

Over the years, its guests included President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Alex Johnson died in 1938, but according to some hotel employees, part of him never truly left.

Two rooms on the eighth floor are so widely believed to be haunted that the Hotel Alex Johnson offers a special “ghost adventure” package for guests who want to stay there: Rooms 802 and 812.

According to authors Chad Lewis and Terry Fisk, a young couple staying in Room 802 experienced several hair-raising encounters. They heard music with no apparent source, and both awoke feeling as though they were being choked. Their pets also became agitated and behaved strangely.

Room 812 is said to be haunted by the ghost of a bride-to-be who jumped from the window on her wedding night. According to Lewis and Fisk, the legend has some basis in fact: a young woman did die by suicide at the hotel in the 1970s.

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She is said to wander the eighth floor in her wedding dress. Guests have reported the windows in Room 812 popping open on their own, and one visitor stepped out of the shower to find the words “help me” written across the mirror.

There are also stories of a ghostly young girl skipping down the hallway on the eighth floor, knocking on doors as she passes. Yet when guests look through the peephole, they find nothing but an empty corridor.

Beyond these more active spirits, there are smaller disturbances as well. The elevator, for example, will occasionally stop on its own at the third floor. No one has been able to explain why.

Pianos in the lobby and ballroom have reportedly played on their own, and guests have described hearing phantom piano music drifting through other parts of the hotel late at night.

If you ever have the chance to visit Rapid City, spend at least one night in this remarkable hotel. Come for the comfortable accommodations, the rooftop lounge, or the fascinating memorabilia that fills this old “showplace of the West.” And if fortune favors you, perhaps you will experience something a little more otherworldly as well.

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