Sister George, Santa Fe's cigar-smoking ghost walks the halls of the former Loretto Academy

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This article is part of a series on Santa Fe’s ghosts. Read the previous article.    

Some places bring out their ghosts for Halloween; Santa Fe boasts scores of spirits every day. Some are anonymous and others are known by name. Sister George, who belonged to the order of the Sisters of Loretto, has a measure of fame. She makes her home in the hotel built on the site of the former Loretto Academy, a Catholic girls’ school run by the order from 1853 to 1968.

In the early 1970s, the property was sold and a hotel, the present-day Inn and Spa at Loretto, was built. Apparently, Sister George, who died in 1976 in El Paso, returned to the school’s former property after her death. The first reports of her presence came from the Three Sisters Boutique, a shop located on the property in the late 1970s. It is said that no matter how much cash was left in the till overnight, there was always an extra ten-dollar bill in the morning. One day, according to witnesses, a rack of clothing levitated- it went up in the air and came back down. The clothing did not even rustle. There were also reports of lights going on and off in the shop and the odor of cigar-smoke in the air. No one knows if the corporal Sister George actually wielded a stogie. It is doubtful, but the ethereal one sure does.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I worked as a concierge at the hotel and have a few of my own Sister George stories to tell. One day I was walking into the restaurant and smelled cigar-smoke. In those days, smoking was still allowed in Santa Fe so I didn’t give it much thought. When I came out, seconds later, the strong odor was gone. Sister George was here, I thought, only ghostly cigar-smoke would dissipate that fast.

Sister George likes to play with phones. At one time, rooms would receive phone calls with no one on the other end. At one point when the fourth-floor was closed for renovation, the front-desk kept getting calls from that floor, but no one was on the phone. I would come to work in the morning and there would be voice-mails from the middle of the night and they would always play the hotel’s “hold” music back to me. I thought this was strange, but had no explanation for it. Then, one day, someone told me about the nun’s affinity for phones and it made sense.

Sometimes as I sat at my desk, I would feel a very light hand on my shoulder, and spin around in my chair but no one was there. The valets sometimes tapped me on the shoulder when they passed behind me, but I always caught them. My conclusion was that those pats were from the nun, a sort of “Hello”.

The best Sister George story came from a former employee of the hotel. She was in an office in the administration building, the school’s former chicken-coop, catching up on work one night. Her young son was with her. All of a sudden he appeared in her office with a broken set of beads in his hand. An employee’s necklace had broken and had been stored high up on a shelf. The mother, somewhat surprised knowing it had been out of his reach, asked her son how he got the necklace,. “Oh,” he said. “The nice lady gave it to me.” They left rather quickly and she never worked there alone at night again.

If you want to meet Sister George when visiting Santa Fe, book a room at the Inn and Spa at Loretto and hope she stops by.

Photo: The Inn and Spa at Loretto/Steve Collins