Burlington Hotel, Port Costa Haunted

Burlington Hotel History

The Burlington Hotel in Port Costa is haunted.  Numerous people including paranormal research teams have experienced ghostly phenomena within its walls.  The Burlington Hotel is located in the SF Bay Area, in the small town of Port Costa.    

It is documented that the Burlington Hotel was once a brothel.  As its hallways still have names of the women on the doors that used to work there.  The hotel served as a bordello in the early 1900s and would service the seamen who would visit and work at the port. 

The hotel was all but left abandoned once the port stopped being heavily used during World War II. Being from the Bay Area I had never heard of Port Costa until 2006 when I first learned of this location and its charm still captivates me to this day.

haunted burlington hotel
Inside the haunted Burlington Hotel

Port Costa is nestled along the Carquinez Delta in California.  It was founded in 1879 and served as a bustling Port for wheat until the 1930′s.  Many referred to the town as one of the wildest on the west coast.  Early in the 1900′s the city once housed over 3,000 inhabitants, but now it has dwindled down to just over 190.

There are no records that can give us a definitive answer of when the Burlington Hotel was built, or even what it’s intended use was.  However many speculate the hotel is over a hundred years old due to its architecture.

The building oozes Victorian architecture in both its exterior and interior which leads many to believe it was built somewhere around 1890 to 1905 when most of the other structures were built in Port Costa.  Many residents and historians believe that it was used for prostitution as well as a speakeasy, which could help fuel the paranormal activity there.

Haunted Burlington Hotel Ghosts

The Burlington hotel has many types of hauntings and there is no doubt that the hotel is haunted.  But who haunts this hotel and why? Numerous psychics and sensitive believe that the hotel is haunted by the women who once worked when it served as Bordello. 

The Lady in White – Many people report seeing an apparition of a woman who roams the 2nd and 3rd floors of the Burlington Hotel. 

The Shadow Man – People have also reported seeing a dark shadow figure that passes through the walls of rooms of the hotel.  The shadow man is believed to be the energy of man who ran the bordello during the early 1900’s.

burlington hotel hauntings
Who haunts the Burlington Hotel in Port Costa?

The Hanging Lady – A psychic also reported seeing the vision of a woman who hung herself in one of the 2nd-floor rooms.  The psychic described that her presence at times can fill the room with extreme despair, and make a person feel depressed as well. 

Disembodied Voices- Many people report hearing disembodied voices that seem to emanate out of nowhere.  These ghostly voices often sound like women yelling, or even talking in softvoices.  People also report hearing a baby that seems to cry within the walls of the 2nd floor. 

Paranormal Investigation

During our last visit in December, we captured a couple of electronic voice phenomena using our Digital Recorders.  Most of the environmental data we picked up proved rather inconclusive.  However, we did pick up interesting spikes on a natural EM meter that was placed in a room where one of the housekeepers had witnessed some anomalous activity in the past. 

ghost picture 3rd floor burlington hotel

We were unable to replicate the spikes on the EM device, and they only happened once in that location for 4 hours, it was during this time we picked up our most conclusive EVP for the night.