St. Augustine, Florida · The Florida haunted hotel collection
Casa de Sueños: Ghost Stories, Rooms & Staying in St. Augustine
An innkeeper’s unsettling encounter, a mischievous presence called Randolph, and the old funeral home behind St. Augustine’s House of Dreams.
Casa de Sueños has the sort of ghost stories that make an ordinary room feel different: a possession that seems to have moved, a sound with nobody to account for it, a sense that someone else is nearby. Its reputation grows out of these intimate disturbances, rather than a single famous tragedy with a neatly identified ghost.
The most interesting way into this inn is through those stories and the building’s changing place in St. Augustine. Below, we follow the published accounts, explore the history of the house and its neighborhood, and then turn to the practical details of staying overnight.
About the stories: Reported hauntings are local folklore, not verified paranormal events. We identify the people and organizations telling each account. This is a researched guide, not a firsthand stay or investigation.
Research reviewed September 24, 2026. Part of our eight haunted hotels in Florida guide.
The ghost stories of Casa de Sueños
Kathleen Hurley and the objects that left their boxes
One of the inn’s more memorable stories is told by local operator GhoSt Augustine. Its account follows former innkeeper Kathleen Hurley as she works through boxes and paperwork. A sound interrupts her. Items have apparently risen out of a box and landed nearby, although the box remains upright.
In the retelling, Hurley initially puts the experience down to tiredness. Then comes another incident: a candle reportedly leaves its box and lands in front of her. The repetition is what unsettles the skeptical innkeeper. An isolated impression is easier to dismiss than an apparently similar event happening again.
The operator also describes reports of figures photographed on the roof, smoky shapes at the edge of guests’ vision, and humanlike forms around trees on the property. Its article does not include the original photographs or dated witness statements for independent inspection.
Randolph: the guest who rearranges your belongings
The name most closely associated with the inn’s folklore is Randolph. In Ghosts & Gravestones’ account, he is a playful presence with a habit of borrowing people’s possessions. Things are said to disappear or turn up somewhere unexpected, then eventually return.
That return is the distinctive part of this version. The story gives Randolph the personality of a mischievous housemate: someone who wants to be noticed and seems to enjoy making a guest look twice. There is an almost domestic quality to it, which suits a small inn where an unfamiliar sound or misplaced object can feel unusually personal.
The operator attributes the returning-items tradition to the inn’s staff and owner, but provides no itemized incident log or identifiable historical biography. “Randolph” is the name used in the legend; the article does not establish a particular former resident behind it.
Footsteps, shadow figures and the Lady in White
US Ghost Adventures tells a darker version of the Casa de Sueños story. Its published account includes footsteps without a visible walker, tapping inside the walls, lights behaving unexpectedly and belongings found away from where guests remember leaving them.
It also describes humanlike shadows and a figure called the Lady in White. Randolph appears here as a presence watching from the shadows, giving the same name a more unsettling role than the playful character in other retellings.
These descriptions are useful for understanding the inn’s reputation, but they are not a single, documented encounter. The article does not provide enough witness names, dates or supporting records to connect all of them to one event or identify the Lady in White. We therefore keep them as separate motifs in the published lore, without assigning her an invented death, occupation or relationship to Randolph.
The quieter story: feeling watched
The inn’s sister property, St. Francis Inn, gives a more restrained description. Its Casa de Sueños passage mentions a roaming presence and the sensation of being watched, while also saying most guests experience nothing unusual.
That version captures a familiar feature of ghost lore: the disturbing part can be the impression of company when nobody is there. It does not require a clearly visible apparition. The sister inn’s account also keeps an uneventful stay within the story; a quiet night is entirely consistent with its description.
How far does the reputation extend?
The haunting is also part of the region’s tourism story. Florida’s Historic Coast, the local tourism organization, includes Casa de Sueños in its haunted-St. Augustine guide, mentioning reported apparitions and moved objects. This shows that the reputation extends beyond one tour company’s version. It does not establish that the accounts are independent witness reports.
The differences between the accounts are part of what makes this a worthwhile ghost story. Some tellers emphasize a prankster, others an unseen observer, and others a shadow crossing the edge of a room. Those versions should remain attributed to their tellers. Combining every detail into one supposedly proven resident ghost would create a certainty the sources do not offer.
The house before it became the House of Dreams
The inn’s own history places its beginnings around 1904, cautiously describing a likely one-story wooden residence on land associated with Henry Flagler’s Model Land Company. George A. Colee, from a local carriage-business family, was an early resident.
The Carcaba family, whose wealth came from cigar manufacturing, later transformed the house. Stucco, arched openings, red tile roofs, balconies and broad windows gave it the Mediterranean Revival appearance visitors see today. The architecture belongs to the city’s later development, even though the surrounding streets have a much older history.
The same account identifies the building as the Garcia Funeral Home in the mid-20th century. Institutional and office uses followed. Ray and Sandy Toole established Casa de Sueños as an inn in 1998; Kathleen Hurley operated it from 2001 to 2015.
The current ownership account describes Joe and Margaret Finnegan’s purchase in 2015 and acknowledges Hurley’s 14 years at the property. That chronology matters because some ghost-tour retellings compress the inn’s beginnings into one handover. The official account gives the house a sequence of owners and uses, rather than making the entire timeline depend on a supernatural coincidence.
Why the funeral-home years matter to the haunting
A funeral home changes the associations people bring through a doorway. The building’s recorded purpose introduces real human experiences of loss and remembrance into what is now a holiday setting. It is easy to understand why storytellers return to that contrast.
What the history does not give us is a register identifying Randolph or a connection between a particular funeral and a particular apparition. A mortuary’s presence also does not mean that the people brought there died in the building. The most compelling account of Casa de Sueños leaves room for the mystery while keeping the people in its history distinct from the characters in its folklore.
The older history outside the front door
Cordova Street and the Rosario defensive line
Long before the inn existed, this area lay beside a defended town. The National Park Service explains that an English attack in 1702 failed to capture Castillo de San Marcos but left the surrounding city burned. The Spanish subsequently strengthened the town’s protection.
The Rosario Line followed the western edge of the settlement, near present-day Cordova Street. Along with the northern Cubo Line, it formed part of a system of earth-and-palm-log walls and an outer moat. This was a landscape shaped by the practical fear of another attack.
Knowing that history changes how you read the neighborhood: today’s walking route follows an area once associated with the town’s boundary and defenses. It adds context to a stay without turning an early-20th-century house into a colonial building or claiming a battle occurred inside it.
Tolomato Cemetery: the lives behind the nearby gravestones
Nearby Tolomato Cemetery has its own history, separate from the inn’s ghost stories. The preservation association traces the site to an early-18th-century Franciscan mission serving Guale people. In 1777, Father Pedro Camps obtained permission to bury members of the Minorcan community there after their arrival from New Smyrna.
Its graves reflect the city’s many communities, including Spanish, Minorcan, African, Irish, Greek and Italian residents. Burials ended in 1884 when the city closed cemeteries within its limits amid fears about yellow fever.
A visit can give the surrounding streets names, families and personal histories that a quick ghost-tour stop may leave unexplored. Check the association’s scheduled open days for authorized access. The cemetery is a historic burial place to visit respectfully; its proximity is not evidence that the inn stands on graves or that its reported figures came from the cemetery.
Photo: Warren LeMay (w_lemay) / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Resized; uncropped.
A useful way to hear the stories when you visit
If an innkeeper or guide shares an account, ask which version they know: is it a guest’s recollection, a staff experience or a tale passed between guides? A simple follow-up—what happened, and where?—often brings out the detail that makes a story memorable.
If you notice something unusual yourself, record what you observed before attaching a name to it. Note the time, location, who was present and whether there was a sound, movement or image. Keep an original photograph rather than only an edited crop. That leaves you with an account you can discuss accurately, whether the explanation turns out to be ordinary or remains uncertain.
Guests’ privacy comes first. Hear the stories from permitted public areas, your own accommodation or a booked activity with clear access arrangements. A room reservation or street tour does not give permission to enter another guest’s room or staff-only spaces.
Casa de Sueños at a glance
- Where
- 20 Cordova Street, at Saragossa Street, in historic downtown St. Augustine.
- What it is
- A seven-room bed and breakfast with private bathrooms.
- Best fit
- Couples and small parties who prefer individual room choices and time exploring on foot.
- Choose carefully
- Floor, bed, balcony and bathing arrangements vary. Nieves is the room to investigate for accessible access.
The accommodation link goes directly to Casa de Sueños. No room price or availability is implied.
Which Casa de Sueños room should you book?
The inn lists three rooms on the first floor and four upstairs. The comparison below follows each room’s own description, with links to photographs and current availability. A balcony is not a universal amenity, and a Juliet balcony is different from a furnished outdoor sitting area.
| Room | Bed & floor | Useful distinction |
|---|---|---|
| Valencia | King · second floor | The inn’s largest balcony; a two-person jetted tub and separate shower. |
| Cordova | King · second floor | An east-facing private balcony, two-person whirlpool tub and walk-in shower. |
| Sevilla | King · second floor | A south-facing balcony, small desk, two-person jetted tub and walk-in shower. |
| Castillo | California king · second floor | A Juliet balcony and a large shower; a different choice from the tub-and-balcony rooms. |
| Granada | King · first floor | A walk-in tiled shower and barrel-vaulted ceiling. |
| Saragossa | Queen · first floor | A two-person jetted tub plus walk-in shower without choosing an upstairs room. |
| Nieves | Queen · first floor | Private ramp entrance, accessible shower and grab bars; a twin sleeper allows a third guest for an extra charge. |
Three useful ways to narrow the choice
- For outdoor sitting space: compare Valencia, Cordova and Sevilla. Check the photographs for shade, seating and the view you prefer. A street-facing balcony also means the city is close by; ask about outside noise if you sleep lightly.
- For a first-floor king bed: start with Granada. If a tub matters more than bed size, compare Saragossa instead.
- For accessibility or three guests: start with Nieves. The inn describes it as ADA-compliant, but confirm your specific needs, including doorway clearance, shower setup and the route to breakfast. “First floor” on another room does not establish the same access.
Reserve the named room you have chosen. If a particular feature is essential, obtain confirmation rather than relying on a general request attached to a booking.
Parking, breakfast and what is actually on site
The inn’s amenities page lists complimentary guest parking: five spaces beside the building and two across the street. Ask where to pull in and unload, especially with a large vehicle or mobility equipment. Check whether parking before check-in or after check-out can be arranged.
Breakfast, an evening social and boxed desserts are listed among the inclusions. Ask about dietary needs before arrival, and leave enough time for breakfast if you book an early activity. These small-property routines can make a slower morning worthwhile.
The pool is at sister property St. Francis Inn. Casa guests are offered access there; it is not a pool beside your room at Casa de Sueños. The inn also lists selected museum admissions and discounts, including lighthouse admission. Ask how passes are issued and what they cover before buying duplicate tickets.
For exploring the immediate area, the practical advantage is being able to return to your room between outings. You can build the day around one main attraction, come back for a rest, then head out again for dinner. For a beach day or an attraction farther afield, make a separate transport plan.
Read the rate’s cancellation terms before paying
The published lodging policies list check-in after 4 p.m., checkout by 11 a.m., guests aged 13 and over, and no pet accommodation. Arrange late arrival directly.
- Best Available Rate: the full stay is collected at booking. The stated refund window is 24 hours after making the reservation; later cancellation forfeits the stay cost.
- Rest Easy Rate: selected when booking, with an additional $50 per night. The detailed policy gives a noon deadline the day before arrival; a qualifying refund excludes that fee.
The page also summarizes Rest Easy as cancellable “24 hours before arrival,” which differs from its detailed noon cutoff. Ask the inn to confirm the exact deadline and amount refundable in writing. Use the terms attached to your selected reservation.
When comparing rates, record the full total for your dates, including taxes, any extra guest charge and chosen add-ons. Compare flexibility as well as price. A cheaper nightly figure is less useful if losing the entire booking would make a change of plans expensive.
A relaxed two-night stay in St. Augustine
This is a suggested itinerary, not a package or a route we have personally tested. Use it as a framework and check attraction hours and tour availability for your dates.
Photo: Warren LeMay (w_lemay) / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Resized; uncropped.
Arrival day: settle in, then take one ghost walk
Leave time to find the parking space, check your room and ask about breakfast and any passes. A short orientation walk along nearby St. George Street is enough before dinner; there is no need to fill the afternoon with timed tickets. Choose an evening tour that leaves you a comfortable meal break and time to reach its meeting point.
Old City Ghosts’ current tour preview includes Casa de Sueños among its storytelling locations. Check the selected tour’s route, meeting point and access requirements. A walking-tour booking does not grant entry to guest rooms or promise an investigation inside the inn.
Affiliate link: Go Ghostly may earn a commission from the Old City Ghosts booking button, at no extra cost to you.
Full day: choose one historic attraction and leave a break
After breakfast, use our St. Augustine destination guide to choose a museum or historic sight. Tolomato Cemetery is nearby on Cordova Street, but interior access is scheduled: check the preservation association’s open days. An evening ghost-tour stop outside the gates is a different experience from an authorized cemetery visit.
Keep the middle of the day flexible. Return for a rest, spend time on your balcony if you booked one, or use a confirmed museum pass. A second evening gives you room for an unhurried meal and a walk without needing to book another tour.
Questions before booking Casa de Sueños
Which room is the most haunted?
There is no dependable room ranking in the sources reviewed. Choose from the named rooms using the floor, bed and bathroom comparison above. Lily’s Room belongs to St. Francis Inn, not Casa de Sueños.
Is Casa de Sueños the same place as Casa Monica?
No. Casa de Sueños is the seven-room inn at 20 Cordova Street. Casa Monica Resort & Spa is a separate, larger historic hotel. Compare them if you are deciding between an intimate B&B and a fuller hotel setting.
Does every room have a balcony or a jetted tub?
No. The seven room descriptions differ. Castillo has a Juliet balcony; Valencia, Cordova and Sevilla list private balconies. Review the individual room page rather than assuming the cover image represents your room or view.
Can you stay with children or a pet?
The published minimum guest age is 13, and the inn says it does not accommodate pets. Confirm occupancy for your chosen room; Nieves lists space for a third guest.
Can you stay without joining a ghost tour?
Yes. A ghost walk is an optional outing, not the reason every guest books. The inn also works as a base for architecture, museums and time in the historic district. Check your chosen rate for any package inclusions.
Is this the right Florida stay for you?
Choose Casa de Sueños if a small inn, a carefully chosen room and a walkable St. Augustine itinerary sound appealing. If your priority is a larger hotel, compare Casa Monica; if a named room with its own published legend matters most, read about St. Francis Inn.
For another region or a different style of trip, return to our Florida haunted hotel collection or browse all hotel guides.
Sources & how this guide was researched
The ghost sections link to the published tellers: GhoSt Augustine, Ghosts & Gravestones, US Ghost Adventures, St. Francis Inn and Florida’s Historic Coast. These are attributed accounts, not independently verified paranormal findings. The building chronology follows Casa de Sueños’ official history and innkeeper pages. Neighborhood context comes from the National Park Service and Tolomato Cemetery Preservation Association.
The seven official room descriptions are linked in the comparison table. Practical information is retained from the September 24, 2026 check of the inn’s amenities, lodging policies and packages. Confirm current arrangements for your own dates. The suggested itinerary and advice on hearing or recording stories are Go Ghostly’s editorial guidance.
Affiliate disclosure: Go Ghostly may earn a commission if you book through the marked Old City Ghosts link, at no extra cost to you. Casa de Sueños room and package links go directly to the inn and are not affiliate links. Read our full disclosure.