Was that a ghost? Meet the 4 spirits who haunt the halls of the historic Paso Robles Inn

Tucked in the heart of downtown Paso Robles, amid the wine-tasting rooms and trendy restaurants, is a historic hotel whose long legacy predates nearly everything else in town.

For more than a century, generations of people have walked through its doors, worked in its halls and slept in its beds.

Some, it seems, have never left.

And that has left the hotel with something of a spooky reputation.

Today, the Paso Robles Inn — built in 1889, destroyed by fire and rebuilt — is rumored to be frequented by at least four spirits, according to general manager Erica Fryburger.

From phantom phone calls to sightings of a Lady in White, “sometimes you feel or hear things you can’t explain,” she said.

Who are the spirits that roam the halls of the haunted inn?

Phantom phone calls

During the early 2000s, the manager’s desk and the Paso Robles Police Department received numerous phantom phone calls from from one particular room at times no guest was staying there.

Fryburger believes the spirit of a former hotel employee who died in the mid-1900’s made the calls from Room 1007.

On Dec. 19, 1940, a cigarette discarded in a waste basket ignited a fire on the second floor of the inn. The night clerk J.H. Emsley spotted the fire, raced downstairs to warn people about the blaze, then died of a heart attack.

The inn, located at 1103 Spring St, was destroyed by the fire — leaving only the ballroom intact. Luckily, all hotel guests and staff were evacuated safely.

The inn was rebuilt in 1945 with bricks from the original building.

Fryburger suspects that Emsley’s ghost now haunts the inn — making phone calls to warn people about the blaze.

“We think he’s still here because he doesn’t know that everybody was saved,” Fryburger said.

Emsley isn’t the only former employee that some say still linger at the inn.

Fryburger believes the property is also haunted by Cecilia Blackburn, the wife of one of the original owners.

According to local lore, Blackburn is known to frequent the hostess stand next to the wine cellar.

Sometimes, hostesses report feeling the hair stand up on the back of their neck. They also find the wine cellar locked when staff left it open.

“We think maybe she’s still down there greeting guests to just make sure people coming in to eat are being welcomed,” Fryburger said.

Spirit sightings: A little girl and the Lady in White

Two other spirits are rumored to wander the grounds of the Paso Robles Inn.

The first is Helen Sawyer, a little girl who haunts the hallway outside the ballroom.

“Sometimes when we’re in our boardroom having meetings, you can hear a child running up and down the hallways, but there isn’t a child up there. The rooms aren’t occupied,” Fryburger said.

Sawyer’s father managed the hotel during the early 1900s. The employee’s quarters used to be located above the ballroom, near the hallway where staff sometimes hear children playing.

“That was probably where they grew up and lived, so it might just be a happy place of memories that she comes back to,” Fryburger said.

Additionally, multiple guests have reported seeing Sawyer’s ghost in Room 1211.

There, the little girl taps sleeping guests to wake them up, then wanders to the bathroom and disappears.

Guests recognized Sawyer from a photo at the inn, Fryburger said.

Meanwhile, the Lady in White materializes at the inn’s garden and nearby bridges.

Years ago, when a cook arrived at the inn early in the morning, he spotted a woman wearing a white nightgown in the garden. He approached to ask if she needed help, but she disappeared, according to Fryburger.

The inn doesn’t know the identity of the Lady in White or her connection to the property, Fryburger said.

Luckily, the ghosts only bring positive energy to the hotel, she said.

“You don’t necessarily have to pass away on this property. It’s a place that somebody might want to come back to, a happy place from a good time in their life,” Fryburger said. “We’re always here for hospitality — it’s who we are, and these energies are still here because it was such a happy time in their lives, and we’re still providing that for our guests today.”

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