Herrmann Hall at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, a long Spanish Revival building with arcades and a red tile roof, the former Hotel Del Monte

U.S. Naval Postgraduate School – Monterey, CA: The Man in Gray, the Hotel Del Monte and What the Dates Show

Southwestern US Haunted Schools

Herrmann Hall, the main building of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, is the former Hotel Del Monte. A “man in gray” is said to walk its ballroom, halls and stairs, and the figure is often named as Charles Crocker, the railroad pioneer who built the first hotel. The school’s own library and podcast keep a detailed record of the building, and that record does not fit the usual identification well. This guide keeps the documented history and the ghost stories apart. The campus is a secure Navy installation, so it is not a place to visit on a whim.

The Hotel Del Monte: what the record says

The Dudley Knox Library’s Historic Hotel Del Monte page says Crocker opened the hotel in June 1880. Critics called it “Crocker’s Folly,” and the hotel went on to become one of the best known resorts in the country. Fire destroyed the hotel in 1887, according to the library’s NPS History page, and a second, grander hotel went up at the same site. The Trident Room podcast, produced at the school, dates that first fire to April 1, 1887, and says no cause and no deaths were documented.

In the early morning of September 27, 1924, fire destroyed the central wooden structure again. The library says the replacement, a Spanish Revival building designed by Lewis Hobart and Clarence Tantau for owner Samuel F. B. Morse, was dedicated in May 1926 before more than 3,000 guests. The Navy took over the hotel in 1942 as a pre-flight school for aviators. Congress authorized its purchase in 1947, and the school moved from Annapolis in December 1951. The former hotel was named Herrmann Hall at a May 31, 1956 dedication, for Rear Adm. Ernest Edward Herrmann, who supervised the move.

The people who died here, and the people who did not

Two deaths are well documented. The humorist Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) was taken ill at the hotel and died on October 14, 1885, at age 67. The New York Times headline attributes his death to apoplexy, and a Monterey local history column gives the same cause. Charles Crocker died on August 14, 1888. A contemporary wire report in the Ann Arbor Register says he died in Monterey at 3:30 p.m. after a year of failing health, and the school’s podcast places his death in the hotel.

Other deaths are sometimes attached to the building but do not belong to it. The podcast says three soldiers died fighting oil tank fires on the Monterey waterfront in September 1924, in the days before the hotel fire, and that no deaths were recorded in the hotel fire itself. These men are part of Monterey’s history, and they are not part of the hotel’s ghost stories.

The legend of the man in gray

The legend is told in several forms. A 2003 Monterey County Now article by Brett Wilbur says an official guide pointed out the usual haunted spots. In the ballroom, service carts are said to steer themselves, cups fly up to the chandeliers, and an older man in a gray suit demands quiet in “my house.” Visitors are also said to meet him asking for help finding the stairs, after which a ghostly staircase appears with a woman in white at the top who beckons and vanishes.

The school’s podcast says the front desk of the hotel keeps a logbook started around 2010 with 57 entries of stories from people who stayed there, and the hosts compare it with the building’s history. The earliest printed source identified here is Randall A. Reinstedt’s Incredible Ghosts of Old Monterey’s Hotel Del Monte, listed with a 1980 publication date. The text was not available for this guide, so it cannot be said what the booklet first printed.

Who is the man in gray?

The same 2003 article shows how unsettled the identification is. The guide proposed David Jacks, the Monterey landowner who sold the property that became the hotel. The psychic on the tour sensed an older, wealthy man with stomach cancer who said his name was “Charlie,” and decided it was Crocker. The reporter then notes that the man in gray is thin, while Crocker “was known to be fat.” No other source examined here offers a firmer identification.

The dates add a second problem. Crocker died in 1888, and the building the ghost is said to walk was dedicated in 1926. The ballroom where he is said to appear belongs to the Spanish Revival hotel, which Crocker never saw. A legend can work around that, but the documentary record ties Crocker to an earlier, different building.

What the record does not support

  • The 1906 honeymoon story. The 2003 article says the 1906 San Francisco earthquake toppled a chimney over the bridal suite and killed a pair of newlyweds. The podcast tells a similar story, from a letter, of a chimney falling through a roof onto a couple. The host adds that no other death records turned up and says “don’t quote me.” No primary record was found for this guide, so it is treated as unverified.
  • A cause for the 1887 fire. No documented cause was found, and nothing links the fire to any person.
  • Harm from the ghost. The 2003 article portrays the figure as cranky, not dangerous, and nothing found reports anyone hurt.
  • Settled dates. Other web pages give different years for the rebuilding, the Navy purchase and the naming. This guide follows the NPS library pages above.

Visiting

The Naval Postgraduate School describes itself as a secure naval facility where only students, staff, faculty and approved visitors are allowed on campus. Its Ask a Librarian page says the school holds some public events, such as a Memorial Day concert on the lawn, and listed Sunday brunches in the ballroom, which were on hold at the time of its last update on June 28, 2022. Check the school’s visit page for current access. Entering a military base without permission is not an option.

Sources

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Top image: Herrmann Hall, the former Hotel Del Monte, at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, photographed April 19, 2012. The right wing runs past the edge of the original photo. Photo: Daderot, CC0 (public domain dedication), cropped, via Wikimedia Commons