SANTA FE (KRQE) — Some say Room 100 at the La Posada de Santa Fe is never really vacant. Instead, they will tell you, it’s occupied by the ghost of Julia Staab, a mid-19th German immigrant whose family’s home on Palace Avenue later became part of the La Posada Resort.
“If they’re in this room, they feel the presence of someone on the bed, and maybe the lights flicker,” said Annabelle Tiberi, an employee with La Posada de Santa Fe. “Nothing spooky or scary or anything like that.”
Others would disagree with that statement.
“A lot of people wake up in the middle of the night – they feel the blankets tugged off,” said Hannah Nordhaus, Staab’s great-great-great granddaughter, who wrote about Staab’s legacy in the book “American Ghost: A Family’s Haunted Past in the Desert Southwest.”
The book chronicles Nordhaus’ discovery of her family heritage and provides a history of immigrant life in mid-1800s New Mexico. It also delves into Staab’s alleged haunting of her home-turned-hotel.
“She lost a child soon after she moved in, so a lot of people think it’s the grief of losing a child – or maybe she was insane or murdered,” Nordhaus said.
Nordhaus doesn’t know if she totally buys the ghost theory, but that could change.
“The stories I’m hearing tonight about Julia Staab, about her ghost, from the people who stayed in the room – I’m starting to believe more,” Nordhaus said at a book-signing Friday night. “I would say…I have no idea.”
