Taphophilia.(dot) Com - Haunted Inns: Rumors of ghosts float at Southern spots

Haunted Inns: Rumors of ghosts float at Southern spots

Wednesday, 20 October 2004

By PAULA CROUCH THRASHER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
10/14/04

With Halloween looming, we went in search of hotels where things go bump in the night. At these 10 Southern inns, locking the deadbolt, fastening the chain and hanging the "Do Not Disturb" sign won't deter nocturnal intruders of the ghostly kind. 1. Windsor Hotel, Americus: The stately red-brick Victorian castle in downtown Americus, built in 1892 to attract winter visitors from the north, has had its share of paranormal activity through the years. The hotel is a member of the National Trust Historic Hotels of America, which includes it in its collection of lodgings that boast tales of the unexplained. Guests and staff have reported seeing and hearing the voice of a little girl on the third floor of the hotel. She runs laughing down the hallway at night. Additionally, the kitchen staff has reported seeing pots and pans flying at night and being mysteriously misplaced. 1-888-297-9567, www.windsor-americus.com.

2. Jekyll Island Club Hotel, Jekyll Island: Hold on to your coffee cup lest Samuel Spencer help himself to a sip of joe. The story goes that the president of the Southern Railroad Co. insisted that The Wall Street Journal be delivered to his room on the second floor of the annex. He would linger over the brew while reading the newspaper. In 1906, he was killed instantly in a train accident. Since then, hotel guests in Spencer's former room have found their coffee cups drained and copies of their newspaper disturbed, moved or folded in their absence. If you miss Spencer, you might have an encounter with Gen. Lloyd Aspinwall, the club's first president, who has been seen strolling along the Riverfront Veranda. And guests in the Sans Souci building, originally built in 1896 for members of the hunting club, might catch a whiff of J. Pierpont Morgan's cigar smoke in the early morning. 1-800-535-9547, www.jekyllclub.com.

3. Marshall House, Savannah: Every historic inn in Georgia's oldest city claims to have a resident ghost or two. And why not? Savannah staunchly contends it's the most haunted city in America Ã¢â‚¬â€ although Charleston, S.C., New Orleans and St. Augustine, Fla., might beg to differ. The Marshall House, which opened downtown in 1851 and was restored in 1999, even offers Haunted Hotel Ghost Tour packages. But guests don't have to hit the streets to get that spine-tingling feeling. The 88-room inn, which is featured this month on the Travel Channel's "Haunted Hotels," has been used as a hospital three times Ã¢â‚¬â€ twice during Savannah's 19th-century yellow fever epidemics and during the Civil War by the Union Army. Ghosts have been reported in the hallways and in the foyer. 1-800-589-6304, www.marshallhouse.com.

4. Don CeSar Beach Resort, St. Petersburg, Fla.: The pink palace by the sea is famously haunted by Thomas Rowe, who built the hotel in 1928 as a tribute to his beloved, Lucinda, a Spanish opera singer he met while studying in London in the 1890s. The two met secretly until her parents banished her to their country home, and Rowe was forced to return to America Ã¢â‚¬â€ never to see Lucinda again. To honor his love, who died in the early 1900s, Rowe built the pink castle they had always dreamed of, complete with a replica of the courtyard and fountain where they once rendezvoused. Legend has it that in 1940, her spirit flew to Florida to be with Rowe when he died of a sudden heart attack in the hotel lobby. Rowe's ghost has been sighted in a summer suit and a Panama hat, welcoming guests to the resort and walking hand-in-hand with a beautiful dark-haired woman along the shoreline. The hotel is offering a Historic Haunts Package through Nov. 11. 1-866-728-2206, www.doncesar.com.

5. Myrtles Plantation, St. Francisville, La.: The haunt of a friendly ghost named Chloe is one of the Top 10 haunted hotels scared up by About.com columnist Charlyn Keating Chisolm. Rumor has it that the circa 1796 mansion was built on an Indian burial ground. Think "Poltergeist." Worse, 10 murders are said to have been committed in the same rooms where hotel guests now slumber (or try to). Portraits change expression, rooms are icy cold and bloody handprints appear on the wall. Even the Myrtles Web site proudly boasts it's "one of America's most haunted homes" and posts photographs purporting to show eerie apparitions captured on film. 225-635-6277, www.myrtlesplantation.com.

6. Casablanca Inn, St. Augustine, Fla.: This gleaming white bed-and-breakfast overlooking Matanzas Bay is known for its lively ghost: the Lady With the Lantern. The Prohibition-era innkeeper waved a lantern from the widow's walk to warn her rum-running beau and his cronies when revenuers were in town. Guests next door at the Casa de la Paz (which has its own resident ghost) have reported seeing a light moving back and forth. And shrimpers and fishermen passing through the inlet have also seen a light atop the Casablanca, and it always disappears once they've passed safely through. To hear about the Casablanca specter and many others, join Ghost Tours of St. Augustine for "A Ghostly Experience" walking tour (1-888-461-1009, www.aghostlyexperience.com). For more on the Casablanca, which is on the National Register of Historic Places: 1-800-826-2626, www.casablancainn.com.

7. Grove Park Inn Resort, Asheville, N.C.: A mysterious Pink Lady has been in residence at the historic inn for more than three-quarters of a century. Around 1920, a young woman dressed in pink fell to her death at the hotel's Palm Court atrium. Separate accounts of unexplained severe cold in Room 545 and an apparition in a dense pink smoke, said to be a very gentle spirit, have been reported ever since. 1-800-438-5800, www.groveparkinn.com.

8. Monmouth Plantation, Natchez, Miss.: The Historic Hotels of America also spotlights this antebellum plantation whose former owner pays frequent visits Ã¢â‚¬â€ from the grave. Gen. John Quitman, a Mexican War hero and early governor of Mississippi, returns from time to time, startling guests and employees alike. A guest in room No. 30 recalls being awakened in the early hours of a cold morning by an unusual sound. Unable to go back to sleep, he sat in the wicker rocking chair on the porch. As he kept hearing that unusual sound, he saw a gray-headed man in a blue military uniform with dust appearing to come off his shoulders. As the man got closer, the guest realized that the noise was coming from the spurs the man was wearing on his boots clinking on the brick hallway. As the guest stood up to talk to the mysterious man, he disappeared in the early morning mist. The next morning while taking a tour of Monmouth, the guest recognized the man from a painting as Gen. Quitman. 1-800-828-4531, www.monmouthplantation.com.

9. The 1891 Castle Inn of New Orleans, New Orleans: The Garden District inn is included in BedandBreakfast.com's annual roundup of "Great Places to Sleep With a Ghost." A regular stop on the Haunted History Tour of the Garden District, the castle was featured on the Travel Channel's "Haunted Hotels." The owners report objects moving by themselves, electric lights and appliances turning on and off on their own, unexplained sounds, lots of footsteps, water faucets turning on and off in empty bathrooms, and brief glimpses of a "translucent man" standing in corners and on the front porch late at night. There are actually two ghosts. One is the spirit of a horse carriage driver who accidentally killed himself by starting a fire in his room either through smoking in bed or by knocking over a heating pot. He was so drunk he didn't wake up. The second ghost is a little barefoot girl who drowned in a nearby pond. 1-888-826-0540, www.castleinnofneworleans.com (be sure to click on the Our Ghost link).

10. Pinhook Plantation House, Calhoun, Tenn.: Another of BedandBreakfast.com's "boo-tiful accommodations" is a white-columned 1810 mansion on a hill overlooking the Hiwassee River in the Tennessee Overhill region. The house was occupied by Confederate and later Union officers during the Civil War. Tales of spirits abound, including the Lady in the Gray Gown opening the front door and walking up the winding stairs, and the Monk and other ghosts holding a meeting in the Gathering Room late one night. A schoolteacher who formerly lived in the house would bring her students to show them the rocking chair that frantically rocked, and then stopped as if someone got up. 423-336-1296, www.pinhookplantation.com.

http://www.ajc.com/travel/content/travel/content/1004/TRtenhaunts1017a.html

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