The Hauntings of the Haywood Park Hotel

ASHEVILLE, NC -- Premier builder W.E. Grove constructed today's Haywood Park Hotel complex in the early 1920s. From 1923 to 1937, the building was known as Bon Marche, Asheville's first upscale department store. Ivey's Department Store then occupied the space for 38 years before the classic-revival Haywood Park Hotel opened its doors in 1985 -- apparently to people and ghosts alike. Among the many stories recounted to us is this [unedited] TripAdvisor review:

“Haunted?”

Reviewed December 6, 2011 by an2nini

from New Orleans, Louisiana

 

Am I the only one who had a paranormal experience at this hotel??? It's a great place to stay but I got really scared so we checked out one day early. This was back in January of 2007. I woke up around1:45 a.m. to use the bathroom. I was in one of the beds with my young daughter and my husband was in the other. The suites are large (very nice) and as i walked toward the bathroom, I could hear a man and a young girl conversing back and forth. It was very muffled but I heard it. I back up to check on my daughter and husband and of course, they were both sound asleep like they were seconds before when i got out of bed. As i got closer to the bathroom, i heard a little girl's voice singing "lalalalala..." very faintly. I couldn't understand why I would hear someone talking in another room? outside the hotel room door? - because it was beginning of Janauary and the hotel was virtually empty. I thought only 3 of the 8 rooms on the floor were taken. Also, why would a young kid be awake at the time of the morning? Anyway, I proceeded into the bathroom and as I'm about to sit on the toilet, very LOUD in my ear, I hear a man's voice say "GOOD MORNING!" It scared me sooo much! I ran out the bathroom hitting my thigh on the point of the dresser. Jumped back into the bed with my daughter and just lay there quietly, listening. Never heard anything else and eventually I drifted off back to sleep. I told my husband about it first thing in the morning. It was so surreal but I know what i heard! This happened on our 2nd night there and although we checked out one day early, it was not because of the hotel itself, which I thought was really nice. If you want to try and have an encounter with something "unknown" - I would recommend staying there.

 

Spooked, Freaked, Scared

One of the most frequently asked questions on the tour is "What has been your spookiest experience [on the tour]?" Ghost Hunters of Asheville's Downtown Interactive Tour is a family-oriented, kid-friendly tour so there really wasn't much of an answer to this ... until now.

It was an intimate, adult-only tour. There was an opportunity to enter a darkened, extremely haunted, venue. Paranormally sensitive guests and psychics had warned that a very angry ghost inhabited this structure. An older balding man in overalls, the spectre doesn't even realize he's dead. He is angered by ouside presences and photographic evidence points that he has chased away most of the numerous spirits who once inhabited the place.

Walking through a dark, haunted facility, armed only with flashlights, was thrilling, fun, and exhilarating -- until we came to the doorstep of a basement room. I lack the words to adequately describe the foreboding, heaviness, all-nerves-on-alert feeling that literally slammed my psyche. I asked a guest to take a picture of the room. It was filled with pilot blue orbs in every photo he took. There would be no paranormal photos in any other space of the building.

It may seem a fairly innocuous experience (e.g., What's the big deal?), but to someone who has never before felt this type of presence, it was shatteringly disturbing. I actually felt dirty and shaken until mid-day the following afternoon. It was, for all intents and purposes, my first truly paranormal encounter. That I "called" it -- verified by photos -- increased my awe and shock.

I've purposely stayed paranormally insensitive, but have noticed a recent intuitive awakening. I guess you can't be around this stuff as much as I am without it affecting -- and changing -- who you are. Nonetheless, I find it jolting. Believing something is "out there" is very different from experiencing what is out there.