Real Haunts

Built in 1898 by Eugene Elihu Hutton, the Hutton House Bed and Breakfast was built on top of a two-story log cabin. One of the ghosts is reported to bake from beyond as the smell of bread fills the air at five in the morning. People have invested to find everyone in the house fast asleep, and the ovens are as cold as the grave the bread comes from. One guest felt compelled to push his desk against the door, and when he returned from the restroom the desk had been put back in its place.

Haunted Heceta Head Lighthouse

There is something gorgeous, majestic and even awe-inspiring about a historic lighthouse. Once common along lakes and oceans across the country, these once beautiful buildings keep disappearing each year. That might be why the Heceta Head Lighthouse is so popular. This former lighthouse is now a bed and breakfast that is open to the public. You can spend hours playing in the on-site interactive center to learn more about the region, and you’ll definitely enjoy the gorgeous views right outside your window. If you’re lucky, you may even encounter a restless spirit or too. Many believe that this historic lighthouse is one of the most haunted places in Oregon.

The most common ghost story told about the lighthouse surrounds a spirit known as the Gray Lady. Also known as Rue, the lady supposedly once lived in the lighthouse during its early years. Local legend says that she had a daughter who died unexpectedly at a young age. Guests claim that they can hear her footsteps walking around on upper floors and hear the sounds of her rattling cabinet doors. A few construction workers tasked with helping renovate the old property even claim that she caused the fire alarms to go off and moved their supplies.

Heceta Head Lighthouse ghost stories

Stories about the Heceta Head Lighthouse first popped up during the 1950s. Former residents claimed that they experienced a host of unusual things while living there. One recalls the smoke detector going off in the middle of the night. Even after they took out the battery, the alarm continued to shriek throughout the night. Guests of the bed and breakfast claimed that they had problems with doors locking for unexplained reasons and closet doors slamming shut when no one else was around.

Rue earned her nickname after one guest spotted a smoky apparition standing in an upstairs minute. The smoke swirled around the window, took the form of a female figure and became a swirl of smoke again in the span of just a few seconds. Others reported seeing similar figures and spotting a female figure swathed in gray in and around the lighthouse. One bridal party even reported seeing a misty gray smoke surround them and gently lift the bride’s veil before disappearing.

Though no one knows the story behind the Gray Lady or where she came from, it’s clear that this female spirit has no plans to go anywhere and that she has a fondness for the Heceta Head Lighthouse.

For those who like to seek out new experience and dabble in the world of haunted houses, there is no place better than Graceland Inn and Conference Center. Traveling to this historic Inn itself is an experience. When you arrive at the hillside Inn, you’ll immediately feel taken aback by the expansive grounds and landmark property. Several entities haunt the grounds. Guests have reported seeing an entity known as Grace, whose history is as mysterious as her appearances. A servant names Katie is destined to roam the halls fulfilling her chores from beyond. A senator named Henry Davis is also said to haunt some of the upper-scale rooms. There is also an unknown ghost who lurks in the basement. Rumor has it the servant was beaten to death and buried in the hotel.

The Loews Don CeSar hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida is sometimes called the Pink Palace, but it is also known as the most haunted hotel in the Tampa Bay area. Stories say that the broken-hearted man who originally built the hotel, Thomas Rowe, has never left the premises although he died in 1940. In fact, some have even seen him wandering the gardens with the dark-haired beauty Lucinda, the Spanish opera singer Rowe loved and lost in Europe. Others report being greeted in the lobby by a smiling man in a Panama hat only to have the figure fade into nothingness. Rowe’s ghost has also been spotted on the fifth floor where he once lived.

Rowe and Lucinda fell in love when he was a student in London, but due to religious differences, Lucinda’s parents whisked her back home to Spain to put an end to the relationship. Every letter he wrote her was returned to him unopened by her parents. The only message from her he ever received was accompanied by the news of her untimely death. It was said that Lucinda had died of a broken heart, but she was able to send him a final message promising that she would wait for him forever.

A broken man himself, Rowe went to America and married a woman in Virginia, but he did not love her. Eventually, he moved to Florida alone and built the Don CeSar.

The hotel itself is a stunning piece of architecture, a striking pink fairy-tale confection, and it may have been in memory of the lost Lucinda’s homeland and career that Rowe chose the influence of Mediterranean and Moorish architecture and named the hotel after a Spanish character in the opera “Maritana.” As part of the hotel’s original design, Rowe also included a replica of the fountain at which he and Lucinda were supposed to meet for their elopement. In the hotel’s heyday, it hosted the famous and infamous including F. Scott Fitzgerald, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Al Capone.

Thomas Rowe and his beloved Lucinda are not the only ghosts who haunt the hotel. Rowe died before making arrangements to leave the hotel to his staff as he intended, so it passed to his estranged wife who had little interest in its operations. The hotel failed and became a VA hospital from the 1940s until 1973 when it was turned back into a hotel. Sadly, the fountain had already been destroyed.

However, by the time the hotel reopened to guests, it had acquired some additional specters. The second and sixth floors are also said to be haunted, and some guests report seeing a nurse wandering the halls. She is also sometimes seen near the kitchens that were formerly a hospital morgue. Guests also say they have the unsettling feeling of being watched or that someone has come into the room with them. Lights blink on and off without explanation, and people open doors to repeated knocking to find no one on the other side – or no one who is alive.

Guests have also reported sightings of various other apparitions as well as irregular behavior from the elevator. One woman says she woke in the night to see a man standing at the foot of her bed. At the time, she thought someone had mistakenly wandered into her room, and the man went away. Only later did she learn that the hotel was haunted and realize that her late-night visitor had been a dead man.

However, of all the ghosts that haunt the Loews Don CeSar Hotel, it is the lovers Thomas Rowe and Lucinda that the hotel belongs to. Though cruelly separated in life, they will walk the halls of the Pink Palace together for eternity.

If restless spirits is what you’re looking for, the Harpers Ferry Guest House offers a ghostly experience that offers the chance of seeing some real haunted spirits. Several entities are known to walk the streets of Harpers Ferry at night. They tend to be most active when nobody is around, so be sure to go late at night when the living are sleeping. One visitor met with a spirit who glowered at him from the head of the stairway. Later, the same man met with a woman who was dressed in a long, flowing hooded dress. Both of these ghosts have been seen by other guests as well. For your best chance of seeing a ghost, make sure to check out the stairwell when you check in and late at night.

The Haunted Doherty Hotel

Hotel operators downplay any activity in the hotel, but it’s been investigated a few times by paranormal researchers. When we interviewed the hotel they were tight-lipped so any information you have is welcome.