History Untold: The Haunted Magnolia Hotel

Owners say at times, you can hear glasses clinking in the tavern or spurs on the floor

Once on a list of the most endangered buildings in Texas, The Haunted Magnolia Hotel sits less than an hour away from San Antonio.

Located in Seguin, the hotel is full of history and all things paranormal.

The owners of the hotel, Jim and Erin Ghedi, say it was originally built by James Campbell, the co-founder of Seguin and one a Texas Ranger.

It started off as a two-room log cabin in 1840 and the hotel expanded over the years in many ways.

“It also became a stagecoach stop,” Erin said. “When the stagecoach would arrive, men would come on this side and women on the other.”

Erin said the hotel would remain a stagecoach stop for the next 50 years.

Then in 1847, three rooms were added to the original hotel and eventually, it grew to a 10-room hotel on top with a tavern and restaurant on the bottom.

There is much more to the hotel than just history too.

The owners said the spirits of people who passed through there still linger around.

Erin says at times, you can hear glasses clinking in the tavern, smell beer, and hear spurs on the floor.

However, the Magnolia is more commonly known for the murder of 12-year-old Emma Voelcker.

The story is that Emma was struck on the head with a hatchet in the middle of the night in New Braunfels after a guest failed to rob a pharmacy and home there.

After killing her, the man rode his horse back to Seguin and calmly crawled into bed, not confessing to the murder until his deathbed.

Despite some dark moments in time, Jim said, “It’s a fun place, a good place to come and relax, spend the weekend in Seguin, and it’s a fun house to be in.”

If you would like to stay at the Magnolia Hotel, click here.


About the Author
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Roslyn Jimenez is a news producer at KSAT. Before joining the team, she was a producer and video editor at KIII-TV and a radio intern in Corpus Christi. She graduated from Del Mar College with an Associate's degree in political science and liberal arts. Roslyn is family-oriented and loves spending time with her fiancé and chihuahua Paco.

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