Listing

In 1923, J. Graham Brown oversaw and constructed the elaborate Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. At an impressive sixteen stories tall, the Brown Hotel was shaped on the outside with the Georgian Revival style, while the posh interior was decorated with English Renaissance class. Bringing such high flying energy and appearance for the downtown Louisville area, the hotel was an immediate success.

Is the Brown Hotel in Louisville Haunted?

So elegant and desired was the Brown Hotel that such noted guests as Prime Minister David George of England and the Queen of Romania were initial guests. But for all the celebrated opulence and royalty, the Brown Hotel is noted as one of the more paranormally active places in all of Kentucky. Just how active? None of the rooms on the fourteenth or fifteenth floor are available to visitors due to all the activity over the years.

The Ghost of J. Graham Brown

The chief specter seen in the hotel and said to be causing the majority of the paranormal activity is that of J. Graham Brown who died in 1969, presumably in the hotel’s top floor penthouse. Since his passing, the activity began to spike. One of the most celebrated times around Louisville is the Kentucky Derby which is held annually. Both guests and employees have reported seeing a man in an older style tuxedo, walking around the lobby, balcony, and ballroom area of the hotel who strongly resembles J. Graham Brown. People who try to approach him have been said to lose visual sight of him as he drifts around a corner or lobby column, leaving a stale cigar smell to linger despite no obvious sign of smoke.

J. Graham Brown

Groups who have conducted informal paranormal investigations principally remark about the temperature inside the Brown Hotel. Cold spots are reported by both these groups and guests as well, despite being in a Southern climate and even during summer months. There are some fireplaces attached to rooms in the hotel and orbs have been reported as emanating from the hearths when no fire is present.

Employees and guests have reported feeling a sense of someone watching over them, presumably by Brown’s ghost who is vicariously still seeing to the day to day operations. Within no visitors to the top floors, guests who stay on the twelfth floor have spoken of constant heavy footsteps during the nighttime hours. When hotel employees inform them that those floors are off limits with nobody on them, it’s not uncommon for a guest to request a lower floor room. Random sounds of groans, whispers, and even unexplained noises have been heard by hotel staff all throughout the hotel.

The Brown Hotel with its decorated interiors fit for royalty, still enjoy sold-out bookings throughout the year and remains quite possibly the most popular hotel in Louisville. But if you find yourself checking into the hotel, and see a man in a tuxedo, grinning from the overhead mezzanine balcony, then you might just have seen J. Graham Brown’s ghost. Consider yourself one of the lucky ones.

Situated on the Ohio River, the working class town of Brandenburg, Kentucky is an incredibly small place. With a population of barely two thousand people and exactly four square miles in size, there is not much that can be hidden from view. But amongst the serene natural backdrop, against the nearby creek, the Doe Run Inn is one very active paranormal place.

Is the Doe Run Inn Haunted?

The area that the Doe Run Inn rests on was formerly a Native American settlement in the late 1700s. It was recorded that Squire Boone called the nearby creek Doe Run because of the unusually large amount of deer that lived in the area. Originally, the Doe Run was first called Stevenson’s Mill and was an actual timber cutting building.

Over the years, the building ceased operations and was repurposed in 1901 into an inn due to a nearby water spring that was discovered and purported to have healing powers influenced by the Native American history. By 1958, a new set of owners added a restaurant and called it the Doe Run Inn and it was open for business. Decorated with over three centuries the Doe Run Inn is packed with plenty of history, and plenty of ghosts.

Ghosts of the Doe Run Inn

• The activity is spread out against a wide variety of sightings and stories. Laughter and voices of children can be heard at all hours both inside and outside room number twenty, which was formerly a children’s playroom.
• Amongst the furnishings in room number twelve is a rocking chair that is sometimes inhabited by an older man who can be seen slowly rocking in it.
• The reflection of a younger woman can be seen throughout the inn’s mirrors. Her dress is antiquated and her expression said to be somewhat melancholy.
• At other times, staff inside the Doe Run have had physical encounters as well. The apparition of a young mischievous Confederate soldier actually unties the shoelaces of employees and reties them very quickly causing them to fall over to the floor!
• Many times during simple landscaping of the inn, staff have reported seeing a woman dressed in white, edging herself along the creek as if looking for someone in it.

Most stories and accounts from visitors to the Doe Run are non-violent in nature. Nothing demonic or sinister is said to prey upon any visitors to the inn. Paranormal enthusiasts speculate that the inn has simply adapted some of the ghostly energy given off by the centuries of people who have visited the area. For whatever the case may be, in Brandenburg, it is without a doubt the most haunted place there.

Haunted Myrtles Plantation

Built in 1796, The Myrtles Plantation is located near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In the 1970’s, the mansion was converted into a Bed & Breakfast. Those who visit are treated to the splendor of 1790’s southern architecture, with the grandeur of a traditional plantation-style home. In addition to opulent chandeliers, a vast veranda, and ornamental furnishings, the Bed & Breakfast also offers a ghastly history full of violence and scandal. Visitors experience the mystery firsthand via daily guided tours… and firsthand while they sleep.

History of the Myrtles Plantation AKA Laurel House

The stairs where William Drew Winters died on the 17th step. Listen for Winters’ ghostly footsteps.

Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville Louisiana certainly has one of the most intricate histories dating back to the Whiskey Rebellion of the 1790’s. The house was built by General David Bradford in 1796; it was originally called “Laurel house” and lies on 600 acres. The plantation was passed down to General David’s son-in-law, and eventually came to be owned by Ruffin Gray Stirling and his family, who changed the name; it is now casually referred to as “The Myrtles.”

When Ruffin Gray Stirling died in 1854, his wife Mary Cobb Sterling was left to manage the property. She enlisted the help of attorney William Drew Winter, who would later marry her daughter Sarah; they had several children, one of whom died at the age of 3 of typhoid fever. In 1871, William Drew Winter was shot while standing on the front porch of the Myrtles home. He is said to have stumbled inside the home and climbed the staircase, making it only to the 17th step before succumbing to his wounds. His murder has never been solved.

The Hauntings Begins

Over the following decades, the Myrtles Plantation changed hands several times. Eventually the house and property were purchased by Marjorie Munson, who reported “odd happenings” within the home. Her accounts were just the beginning of a long list of reports of paranormal activity taking place on the plantation over the following century. These stories have been given new life in the form of the Bed & Breakfast’s “Mystery Tour,” and by numerous accounts of guests brave enough to spend the night within its haunted walls.

Guests who stay in the mansion have reported paranormal activity happening in the night: While some have had their bedsheets mysteriously removed while they slept, others have been violently pushed from their beds! And in the notoriously creepy “Fannie Williams Room” also known as the “Doll Room,” visitors have awoken to finding ceramic dolls inexplicable tossed across the room!

Fannie Williams Doll Room in the haunted Myrtles Plantation

Ghost Story: A Slave to Vengeance

The most infamous report of paranormal activity involves a young slave who was said to have been owned by previous plantation owners, Clark and Sara Woodruff. The slave girl, who was named Chloe, was taken as a mistress by Woodruff. The affair went on for some time, but eventually ended and when it did, Chloe began to spy on the family; driven by her fear of being banished to working the fields. One day Woodruff discovered the young slave lurking outside his study and cut off her ear as punishment. Chloe became known for wearing a green turban to hide her unsightly scars.

In a quest for vengeance, Chloe is said to have poisoned the family with a cake containing boiled oleander leaves. While Clark failed to consume the poisonous pastry, Sara and two of her young daughters who ate the cake were sickened and died within hours. Chloe was consequently hanged by fellow slaves who feared the ripple effect of her treachery. To this day, visitors report ghost sightings of the “girl in the green turban” hiding in shadows throughout the plantation.

Many ghost sightings of Chloe have been reported over the years.

Clark Woodruff’s revenge did not go unpunished. Residents and visitors alike have long reported sightings of his wife Sara and their children trapped within a 200-year-old parlor mirror in the mansion. Hand prints and drip marks are visible and appear to be inside the mirror, as no amount of cleaning has been able to remove them.

Murderous History

As many as 10 murders have been reported to have occurred in the Myrtles Plantation home, but the most famous is that of William Drew Winter in 1871, who you’ll remember was shot while standing on the front porch of the Myrtles mansion. Over the last hundred years, residents and visitors have reported hearing his ghostly footsteps ascending the staircase in the night, always climbing no further than the 17th step.

In the 1970’s the plantation’s owner Frances Kermeen published a book about the mansion, calling it “the most haunted house in America.” The plantation has more recently gained notoriety through several television features including Unsolved Mysteries (2002), Ghost Hunters (2005), Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures, and even an episode Oprah.

The Myrtles was recently mentioned as a “bucklet list must,” for those interested in historical and paranormal mysteries. The author encourages visitors to take the guided tour, but aptly advises against eating the cake…