‘Haunted hotels’ for people who like a good scare
Special To The Washington Post
For those of who have an interest in the macabre, staying at a haunted hotel might be more relaxing than terrifying. Domestic tribulations, politics, even existential crises vanish like smoke when you sense that long-dead eyes are watching or you catch a glimpse of a dark figure out of the corner of your vision who isn’t there when you turn around.
Besides, you can’t hear things go bump in the night if you don’t spend the night.
In the spirit of Halloween, here are a few haunted lodgings, all of which trace their legends back to true-crime stories. The spirits of the victims have never left these premises. Thankfully, you can.
1. The Island Hotel & Restaurant, Cedar Key, Florida Website: islandhotel-cedarkey.com Cost: Rooms from $90
I have many happy memories of Cedar Key, a tranquil town on Florida’s north Gulf Coast, so ghosts provide even more incentive to visit the Island Hotel & Restaurant there. Built in 1859, the Colonial-style hotel is an ideal place to unplug from the world.
While giving a tour of the 10-room lodging, Andy Bair, who owns the hotel with his wife, Stanley, opens Room 29 and says in a deep, almost Sam Elliott voice, “Some people call this a portal to the other side.”
Someone seems to have left the portal open, too, because this place has several spirits.
One for “Forensic Files,” though, is an apparition that Stanley’s daughter, Shields, saw in the family’s private apartment. It was “a head with some fuzzy beard” which “floated through the room and the wall and was gone,” Bair says.
When Shields was shown a portrait of former owner Simon Feinberg, she identified him as the owner of the floating head. Feinberg died in suspicious circumstances, expiring of food poisoning in Room 33 after dinner with his property manager, whom he had confronted about an illegal still on the property.
And that “portal” room? That belonged to Bessie Gibbs, a cheerful soul who owned the inn from the 1940s through the 1970s. The whole hotel has a very relaxed, beachy, comfortable feel to it, but Bessie’s coral-colored quarters feel eerily magnetic, as if inviting me to stay. Forever. And ever.
2. The Myrtles Plantation, St. Francisville, Louisiana Website: myrtlesplantation.com Cost: Rates from $175
Of the many ghost stories at the notoriously haunted Myrtles Plantation, opened in 1796, one that seems ripe for a cold case investigation is the death of William Winter.
William was married to Sarah, the owner’s daughter. In 1871, a stranger on horseback arrived at the Myrtles calling for a lawyer, tour director Hester Eby says by phone. William came outside, and the stranger shot him.
“That (shotgun) blast blew him back into the gentlemen’s parlor,” Eby says. William tried to reach his wife, made it to the 17th step of the staircase, “and died in her arms.”
Sarah and William are two of the numerous spirits said to haunt the grounds of the plantation, which offers daytime and nighttime tours. Guests have reported hearing a woman, possibly Sarah, crying, or seeing a doorknob turning and finding it warm to the touch, among other occurrences.
The sprawling plantation property, with cypresses, live oaks and draping Spanish moss, was built in 1796 by Gen. David Bradford. There are 12 rooms on the property: six in the spare-no-expenses antebellum mansion and six detached cottages, which sleep up to either four or six people. Assuming people sleep.
3. The Read House Historic Inn & Suites, Chattanooga, Tennessee Website: thereadhousehotel.com Cost: Rooms start at $219
Many men do not sleep well in Room 311 at the elegant Read House hotel, especially those who are smokers. Annalisa Netherly, the ghost of 311, doesn’t like it.
“We think that’s because of the husband,” says Wesley Sang, director of marketing for Read House’s owner, Avocet Hospitality, in a telephone interview. Annalisa’s husband found her in 311 with another man, the story goes, and “ended up decapitating her in the bathtub.”
Men are said to sometimes check out of 311 in the middle of the night because of weird activity.
When the rooms were gutted this year for the start of a $27 million renovation, the door to 311 wouldn’t open. “We ended up using a saw and cut the door in half,” Sang says.
Built in 1926, the 242-room hotel consists of two buildings, the Read House and the Manor House. The first phase of renovations, which restored the Read House to the sumptuous Gatsby-esque style of the period, is complete. The Manor House, which includes Room 311, will be completed in December.