Lizzie Borden, the Massachusetts Sunday school teacher who was accused of murdering her mother and stepfather in 1892, committed her (alleged) famous crime in a home in Fall River, Mass.
That home is now a lucrative bed and breakfast (no, we don't know why anyone would want to stay there either) named after the lovely Lizzie herself! It features historical tours and a giftshop, essentially functioning like a museum. Unfortunately, someone up in Salem, Massachusetts wants to start up an official Lizzie Borden Museum (using her name and all)...and that's not gonna fly with the B&B owner.
Add another to the list of haunted hotels: A former Ford employee purchased the abandoned, vandalized 30 acres of Waverly Hills Sanatorium in south Louisville for $225,000 in 2001, and is now determined to turn the spooky property into a first-class hotel complete with spa and business center.
Currently this gutted old hospital for tuberculosis patients, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, hosts paranormal camp-outs for $100-a-head and was the subject of a six-hour feature on the Sci Fi Channel. Even wikipedia-ing this place will give you the heebie-jeebies. So will night-vision goggles and thermal sensors be part of the mini bar?
Happy Halloween y'all! In honor of the best holiday ever, we decided to drop in some links to our favorite scary hotels and stories.
· HotelChatter's Top Haunted Hotels: Places with known ghosts roaming about. · Haunted Hotels: More places with ghosts. · Hotel Carter: Not haunted, but quite possibly the scariest hotel ever. · Bed Bugs: Let's hope these critters don't getchu! · Chateau Marmont: We have no idea if actual ghosts roam this place but the whole Belushi overdose and its proximity to Hollyweird make is scary enough. · Gramercy Park Hotel: If the deep red carpeting and hallways don't scare you, nor does the rest of the decor, then think about all the dead souls who used to visit GPH and how pissed they must be that Ashely Olsen is making out with Lance Armstrong there. · The Magic Castle Hotel: Any hotel adjacent to a spooky castle where magic is performed on a nightly basis is scary. 'Nuff said.
Halloween is one of our favorite holidays here at HotelChatter and not just because we like to dress up our dog in dandy outfits and eat candy, but because its gives us a chance to spotlight some of the Haunted Hotels that we write about throughout the year. These hotels may be haunted but that's not all there is to them. So here are our top picks for a frightening but fun stay.
· The Timberline Lodge: HotelChatter Maven Annie0007 just wrote about this the other day as part of her Oregon Hotel Trail Guide It was the set for Kubrick's scary The Shining movie but the food here is out of this world.
· Hotel Del Coronado: Who knows if this San Diego hotel is haunted or not. Paranormal researchers believe it is but when we stayed there nothing funny happened. Instead we enjoyed the beach, spa and hotel lounge. Still, the story of the ghost Kate Morgan is pretty scary and the hotel is pretty darn old.
· The Hollywood Roosevelt: Some reports say Marilyn Monroe shows up in her namesake suite, others report a man dressed in black skulking around a ball room. Either way, if you don't see ghosts you will see celebs.
· The Ocean Edge Resort: The hotel has a weepy widow who roams the halls (doing pretty standard ghost stuff) but you can bring the kids along for a ghost-hunting package.
· The Stanley Hotel: This place inspired Stephen King to write one of the scariest books-turned-movies of all time, The Shining. So you know you will be freaked out here whether you see something or are just imagining the Red Rum twins.
We've written about the famously haunted Hotel Del Coronadoand its creepiness before. Legend has it, a 24-year-old preggers golddigger named Kate Morgan checked into the hotel under the false name Lottie Bernard. A few days later, she was found dead near the hotel's back entrance and her death was ruled a suicide.
This was 1892, by the way, and girlfriend has been hanging around the hotel ever since. She pulls the cliche ghost-y moves like slamming doors and randomly turning on TVs, nothing new, but people have also reported an ultra-freaky indentation on pillows (like a head is resting there) that keeps reappearing despite fluffing or tossing the pillow. Ew.
We've written numerous times about the haunted Stanley Hotel in Colorado, which prompted Stephen King to write his novel, "The Shining" after a stay here (which was then made into the movie with Jack Nicholson and the Red Rum twins.)
Now, thanks to YouTube we get to see the Sci-Fi Channel's in-depth look at what it's like staying in the most haunted room of them all, Room 401. We actually got a little scared but still think it is suspicious that all the paranormal activity is happening off-camera.
We got another hotel to add to our Haunted Hotels list. The Ocean Edge Resort & Club claims to have a real ghost wondering their halls and if you book their "Spooky Mansion" package, they will even give you a flashlight to help look for Addie the Ghost.
Here's her backstory:
The original Nickerson Mansion, built in 1906 by Samuel Nickerson for his son Roland and his wife Addie, was burnt down in a great fire. The existing Victorian-style mansion, which is the centerpiece of Ocean Edge Resort & Club and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was re-built in 1912. However, Roland never got the chance to see this mansion, as he passed away just two weeks after the fire. Addie moved into the expansive home upon its completion with nothing but the empty halls to roam. Legend has it that Addie's ghost still wanders the hallways, eternally heartbroken over the loss of her husband and desperately clinging to her Mansion.
The package will get you a chance to see Addie and along with your room you'll get daily breakfast for two, a jack-o-lantern of treats, complimentary late-night coffee and of course, the flashlight. If that's not enough, ask the front desk to use their Ouija board.
For $189 per night, fear not over whether or not you actually do find Addie as the rooms also have WiFi and movie channels and the resort has a fitness center, pools, and the surrounding activities of Cape Cod.
And if you do happent to find Addie, maybe its best if you keep that to yourself.
We've written about Haunted Hotels before but this week we're looking for some good ghost stories. We know, Halloween is not for another month, but if you plan on taking a trip around the end of October, you should know which hotels might have some unpleasant and unwanted guests. Unless, you're into that sorta thing.
New Orleans can be a very scary place and we're talking about things not related to the hurricane. For all things haunted in the city, like voodoo stories and vampire sightingsHaunted New Orleans has whatever you're looking for.
But if you want a taste of "Southern discomfort" in your hotel, then head to the Hotel Maison de Ville. The hotel is supposedly in haunted by a soldier who likes country music.
Twenty years ago, a hotel employee opened the door to Cottage No. 4 and saw a man dressed in military uniform, who then disappeared. Supposedly, whenever the cottage's radio is turned to a classical station, the ghost changes it back to a country station.
All country music, all the time? God, that is scary.
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by Jenna
