The Olde Park Hotel

The Haunted Olde Park Hotel

There is this mysterious looking old building that people stare at while driving on Texas State Highway 67 through Ballinger. This building is easy to see as it looms adjacent to the courthouse. Everyone wonders what the building is and what happens inside. For people who actually do dare to stop to visit and go inside……they soon feel its history and ghosts.

Historic Cowboy Haunt

The historic circa 1886 Olde Park Hotel was originally used as a cowboy lodging, meeting hall, schoolhouse, courthouse (while the courthouse across the street was completed in 1889), as well as housing a brothel/bordello twice during the earliest days of Ballinger, Texas development. The original building has been added on to & renovated over the years, used as a bed & breakfast, restaurant, rental to hunters, apartment rentals & and has served as a retail Music and Antique Store With lots of foot traffic, it is located next to a very popular restaurant which was once one of the old saloons in town. With a passion for Texas history, paranormal researchers Dan & Connie LaFave purchased the hotel in July 2016 with a wish to preserve its unique history, its style, and its spirits. The hotel up to that time already had a secret for decades as to being highly rumored to be haunted. Dan and Connie soon heard from many people as to all its paranormal haunting story folklore and soon also had their many experiences.

The Ghosts of The Olde Park Hotel

Some of the ghost stories include talking with women who used to live in the building when it was a parlor house, and then not realizing that they weren’t employees of the antique store. Other spirits such as “Glenn” and “Cowboy” have been noticed by employees, as well as apparition sightings of the brothel women, with voices and doors opening and closing by themselves. People used to walk around the upstairs of the building encountering other people. They would ask questions only to see those people disappear into a room. They would soon find out, when downstairs, that the antiques store had no other employees. The former owner has reported that she feels there are close to 30 identified ghosts in the building which was once told to her by a proven psychic. Footsteps, and strong cold spots accompany the phenomenon along with visitors being touched. Dan LaFave tells visitors that if they suddenly have the feeling of spider webs on their skin and face…..that signals that something bigger as to the paranormal is probably about to occur. People have mentioned that they have had their clothes tugged on and report feelings of extreme uneasiness in the building. Guests who have come to explore the paranormal stories heard and who then also decide to stay overnight encounter a lot. Some guests have encountered extreme scary haunting events, and they have left in the middle of the night. People who come to explore will experience heavy footsteps that sound like cowboy boots, doors opening and closing by themselves and sometimes even locking on their own. There are ghostly voices and noises heard. Objects in the hotel move on their own. People are touched quite often by unseen forces. The scariest moments for some are when they see and encounter the numerous dark shadow figure entities of the hotel. The spirits also late at night like to jiggle the old doorknobs and then sometimes open the room doors while people are sleeping inside.