The Lost Love of Thomas Rowe, Continued  

Registration 

with

the signature of

"Miss Lottie A. Bernard, Detroit"

Room 302

(Circa 1892)

(1864-1892)

Kate Morgan, a young woman who checked into Hotel del Coronado on November 24, 1892  under the name, "Lottie A. Bernard" from Detroit though she never checked out.  Instead, it is thought her lovely likeness and gentle spirit remain as the resort's resident ghost.  She arrived on Thanksgiving day, alone and unhappy.  According to hotel employees she said she was waiting for a gentleman to join her.  After five lonely days, Kate allegedly took her own life on November 28. Her body was found on a hotel exterior staircase leading to the beach.  Some skepticism still surrounds the finding that it was determined by the coroner to be self-inflicted. She was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in San Diego. Kate Farmer was born in Fremont County, Iowa. On December 30, 1885 Kate married Thomas Edwin Morgan.  They had one child, a boy, born on October 31, 1886 though he only lived two days.

At the time of her death, police could find nothing to positively identify her so a description of Kate was telegraphed to police agencies around the country.  As a result, newspapers began to refer to Kate as the "beautiful stranger".  After Kate Morgan's true identity was confirmed it was surmised she arrived at The Del hoping to rendezvous with a gentleman who may have been her estranged husband.

Kate had been employed as a domestic in a wealthy Los Angeles household.  From there, she traveled by train to the hotel, where fellow passengers reported that a woman matching Kate's description had argued with a male companion who then deserted her, enroute.  During her stay at the hotel, Kate was described as "sickly and sorrowful", venturing into San Diego to purchase a handgun. 

According to the hotel's book, written by the hotel's professional historian, titled Beautiful Stranger:  The Ghost of Kate Morgan and the Hotel del Coronado by author, Christine Donovan since that time guests and employees have attested to ghostly goings-on.  Most have to do with Kate's original third-floor guestroom where visitors have experienced flickering lights, a television that turns itself on and off, breezes coming from nowhere, inexplicable scents and sounds, items moving of their own accord, doors that randomly open and close, abrupt changes in the room temperature and unexplained footsteps and voices.  One guest reported seeing Kate's initials appear in a steamy bathroom mirror.  A doctor reported during his stay that his shoes and socks (which he always carefully placed by his bed at night) would end up all over the room by the time he woke up. The story of Kate Morgan continues to intrigue hotel visitors and the room in which she stayed is the most requested guestroom at the hotel.

Independent paranormal researchers, in turn, have documented supernatural activity in Kate's room using high-tech gadgetry, radiation sensors, toxic-chemical indicators, microwave imaging systems and high-frequency sound detectors.

There have also been Kate sightings in hotel hallways and along the seashore.  Another very "active" area is the resort's gift shop, established in 1888, where visitors and employees routinely witness haunted happenings and giftware mysteriously flying off shelves, often times falling upright and always unbroken.  

The book, Beautiful Stranger: The Ghost of Kate Morgan and the Hotel del Coronado is the official account of Kate Morgan's 1892 visit and contains a chronology of Kate's hotel activities, a transcription of the coroner's inquest, dozens of newspaper reports about Kate's hotel stay and vintage photos of the hotel as well as detailed descriptions of paranormal sightings.  Kate is described as a "relatively harmless ghost".  "She generally limits her activity to fleeting appearances and inexplicable antics".