The Red Garter Bed & Bakery in Williams, Arizona.
While bunking down at the Red Garter Inn in Williams, Arizona, you will not only sleep alongside a rich history but perhaps a ghost. The building that houses the Red Garter has been standing for more than a century, serving as a saloon, a bordello, a rooming house, a general store, and more.
Built in 1897 by August Tetzlaff, a German tailor, Tetzlaff planned to cash in on the expected silver and copper boom anticipated at the Grand Canyon. The building first housed a saloon on the first floor and a brothel upstairs, with a parlor and eight cribs, where the girls were often known to hang out of the windows and call to the working men below. A steep flight of stairs, known as the “Cowboy’s Endurance Test,” led to the girls’ upstairs rooms. The second floor also boasted a two-story outhouse off the back of the building, so that brothel “guests” wouldn’t have to navigate the steep stairs once again.
Behind the saloon, two rear rooms once housed Chinese railroad workers, who lived and operated a chop house and an opium den in the small space. During this time, the local sheriff was often called to the site to investigate a murder, only to arrive to find nothing out of the ordinary.
At one point, the tales became so frequent that the local garbage collector was lowered into the cesspool below the outhouses to search for bodies, only to be lifted back up empty-handed.
The saloon was operated for years by Longino Mora, a notable figure as a U.S. Cavalry Scout, and his heroism in the Indian Wars. Born in 1848 in Socorro, New Mexico, Longino also became legendary in Williams for having five wives and 25 children over the years. When his youngest child was born, his oldest child was sixty years old.
The saloon and bordello thrived as miners, loggers, cowboys, and railroad workers stopped in for a drink and often to partake of the services of the ladies upstairs.
By the turn of the century, Williams had gained a reputation as a rough and rowdy frontier town filled with saloons, brothels, gambling houses, and opium dens. Soon, the town restricted vice to an area called “Saloon Row” on Railroad Avenue.
Though Arizona outlawed prostitution in 1907, the law was only loosely enforced. Even during prohibition, the saloon and brothel continued to operate, hiding their bar and poker tables behind a divider. Both businesses continued to operate successfully until the mid-1940s, when a murder was committed on the stairs of the Red Garter, leading to a city-wide crackdown on houses of ill repute. The crackdown ultimately led to the closure of the saloon and brothel after more than forty years of operation.
Over the next several decades, the building would house different types of businesses, including a rooming house and a general store. In 1979, John Holst bought the building but continued to lease it out until 1994. At that time, Holst renovated the building, converting the eight cribs into four guest rooms, each with its own bathroom, and opened the Red Garter Bed and Bakery.
Longino Mora at the Red Garter Bed and Bakery
After opening, guests and staff began reporting ghostly activity, including footsteps when no one was around, doors mysteriously slamming, and strange “clunking” noises throughout the building. Though one might think that the spiritual activity could be attributed to the murder that occurred on the stairway or the many missing people during the Chinese opium days, the spirit is said to be that of a young girl, for which no one can account.
Guests have reported seeing the apparition, describing her as a Hispanic girl with long dark hair dressed in a white nightgown. One guest who claimed to have made contact with the spirit said her name was Eve or Eva.
While most guests of the historic inn report getting a good night’s sleep, others have reported feeling their beds shake or someone touching their arms.
The most unusual phenomenon is that the ghost sometimes appears in photographs. One such photograph that owner John Holst frequently shows his guests is a 1934 picture of the unsmiling faces of Longino Mora, his fifth wife, Clara, and their 25th child, Carmina. Oddly, the photograph also shows a woman behind the counter, standing before a mirror, smiling broadly. The woman is not reflected in the mirror she stands in front of. Might this be the mysterious Eva?
Now called the Red Garter Inn, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It offers an excellent bed-and-breakfast experience that downplays Eva’s stories as “greatly exaggerated.” Still, though, the legend and experiences of the past will live on in Williams.
Contact Information:
The Red Garter Inn
137 Railroad Avenue
Williams, Arizona 86046
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated October 2026.
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