The building has served as a beacon overlooking historic downtown Jackson for 173 years. But change is coming early in 2025 to the 35-room National Hotel, one of the most enduring symbols of California’s Gold Rush era.

The building site dates back to 1852, when the Louisiana House, a general store and hotel, occupied the same location facing Jackson’s Main Street (its actual address is 2 Water Street). It became the National Hotel 10 years later after a fire destroyed the original structure and most of the town. Since then, the rebuilt hotel in Amador County’s seat has hosted three then-future presidents — Ulysses S. Grant, Teddy Roosevelt and Richard Nixon — as well as celebrities such as John Wayne and Mark Twain, all while preserving its haunted, rollicking legacy, known in its Wild West days and into the 1950s for illicit gambling and prostitution.

Since the COVID pandemic roiled the city of around 5,100 residents, the National went through another change cycle when former owner Stanley Lukowicz, who had spent $4 million in 2012 on renovations, sold to the current ownership group. The popular downstairs bar and restaurant remained mostly closed for the past three years (though guests still receive a morning continental breakfast), but after major updates, including those to many of the hotel’s distinctive Victorian-style rooms (ranging from around $100-200 per night), the bar and restaurant will open again in the new year, says current hotel general manager Dave Horner.

“The town is very excited. We get six to 10 inquiries a day on when we’re going to open, and half of them are from locals,” says Horner, who’s been the general manager since late summer but has worked with the hotel for years in his role on the Amador County Council of Tourism and by owning other nearby businesses. He says the bar and restaurant could open as early as late January.

Horner says many of the renovations were spurred by another exciting development — the hotel’s entrance into the Tapestry Collection by Hilton network, which makes the National a Hilton honors property and subject to the program’s benefits.

“We’ll be using Hilton technology, and you’ll be able to book through Hilton and use your honors points,” Horner says. “It will be good for the hotel, really good for the town and good for the guests. We’ll get more visibility worldwide because there are 8,000 hotels worldwide (in the network), and so people that are booking get points, and then when they want to go on vacation, they search, and now we’re going to be one of the targets.”

Though some modernization did occur (“Hilton has its standards,” Horner says), the flavor of the hotel won’t change, and hotel rooms and public areas remain a mixture of modern amenities like Wi-Fi, gas fireplaces and TVs, with antique period furniture. The John Wayne Suite (Room 201), for example, still contains some of the original furniture the actor provided to the hotel to help pay off an almost $50,000 gambling debt he incurred while staying there in the early 1960s.

Celebrities, however, aren’t the only guests who have lent notoriety to the National, as the hotel doesn’t lack for reasons why its grounds are reportedly haunted. During the fire that burned down the original structure in 1862, several people staying in the hotel died, including twin children who, reports say, continue to haunt the National to this day. Many reports describe the pair frequenting the hallways and emerging from rooms. Also, the top two floors were an emergency flu ward during the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918, which resulted in several casualties, and paranormal activity is still reportedly heavy in those areas. 

The National has willingly embraced its haunted legacy, with the YouTube channel Dr. Ghost Hunters and others regularly filming activity. The hotel provides a logbook in the lobby, “Book of Shadows,” where guests can document their paranormal experiences. The book continues to acquire new entries, including a Dec. 5, 2024, entry from Bay Area resident Kimbell Jackson, who stayed in the John Wayne Suite with her husband, actor Jeffrey Weissman (who played George McFly in “Back to the Future Part II”), and wrote that she was knocked to the ground by a “mischievous” spirit outside her room. 

“People have seen a little girl show up here many times; that’s what’s been documented,” says Horner, who noted along with front desk employee Tamara Kurtovich they’ve experienced strange feelings of dizziness at certain locations or seen children playing that weren’t accounted for later. “A lot of the ghost hunters have found tons of activity here with all their gear and meters.”

Horner says the hotel is considering bringing back personal ghost detectors they used to keep on hand for guests to check out. “But they kept disappearing,” he says with a laugh.   

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