With Halloween just around the corner, check out these haunted bed and breakfasts for a fear-filled weekend.
When most think of “getting away from it all,” the last thing that comes to mind is a weekend in The Shining hotel. But since vacationing is really about re-awakening the senses, for some there is no better a way to achieve that than by getting a little scared. If you fall into that camp, you might try these haunted destinations:
Tudor Gothic Mansion, Washington State
Thornewood Castle was handpicked by Steven King for the setting of Rose Red.
This 1911 Tudor Gothic mansion was once the home of Charles ‘Chester’ Thorne, a wealthy bank president, community leader, and one of the three founders of Port Tacoma in Washington State.
Known as Thornewood Castle, the lush gardens of this bed and breakfast draw many visitors simply interested in a relaxing getaway, but the reported haunting and the house’s appearance as a central character in the Stephen King miniseries, Rose Red, brings in another group of guests with slightly more niche needs.
After receiving proposals from over 30 states, ABC selected the castle for the TV series’ location, as the mansion matched the age, size, and style as described in King’s script. The fact that many people claim it is haunted didn’t hurt its case, either.
The ghost of Anna Thorne is said to look out over the gardens from her bridal suite.
Chester Thorne is said to have built the home and gardens for his wife, Anna, whose ghost has often been spotted gazing wistfully upon her gardens from her bridal suite. The couple had been married for 41 years when Mr. Thorne died at the home of an undisclosed illness in 1927.
Anna would continue to live in the mansion until its size and the loneliness that composed it became too much for her to handle. Anna survived her husband for 27 more years until she passed in 1954. It is also said that Anna’s image frequently appears looking out from one of the mansion’s vintage mirrors.
The estate caters to visitors looking to relax in elegance as well as those seeking ghostly adventures. Photo by Joe Mabel. Source: Wikimedia
As for Chester Thorne himself, he too is said to have had many interactions with guests, especially if they stay in his old room. Mr. Thorne has also been known to loosen light bulbs, and if asked – help guests in financial matters.
The Foley House, Savannah, Georgia
The Foley House Inn overlooks Chippewa Square, which was prominently featured in the film Forrest Gump. Source: Foley Inn
The Foley House dates back to 1896, but its reputation for scaring guests is much more recent. Wealthy Irish widow Honoria Foley built her bed and breakfast on the grounds of a home lost to the Great Savannah Fire of 1889, and the historic abode remained free from reports of haunting until the 80s, when property renovators discovered human skeletal remains behind a wall.
Savannah is known as the most haunted city in America, and the Foley House Inn was the city’s first bed and breakfast.
According to Foley Inn’s website, the skeletal remains were never identified, but are presumed to be those of a wealthy exporter in town on business in the late 19th century. It’s speculated that the man was murdered for his money after disappearing from the bed and breakfast one night, never heard from again.
Honoria Foley’s inn was located where a home burned to ashes in the Great Savannah fire.
According to the official website, ever since the discovery of the man’s body the Foley Inn staff have received reports from guests concerning a number of unexplained phenomena – ranging from gusts of wind blowing in from nowhere, strange sounds on the property, and even a well-dressed man – complete with top hat – walking the perimeter of the house at night.
The Artist House, Key West, Florida
The Artist House is the second most photographed historical home in Key West, Florida, surpassed only by the Ernest Hemingway House. Source: Patricia Kirsch
A true Key West landmark, The Artist House was built from 1890-1898. The former residence of painter and author Robert Eugene Otto and his wife, Anne, has been featured in New York Magazine, The Miami Herald, and The Ladies Home Journal – and is a centerpiece of the Key West historical tour.
There have been reports (by guests and proprietors alike) of a beautiful apparition on the stairwell, adorned in a wedding dress. This ghostly visage is believed to be the spirit of Anne, as stated on an episode of the Discovery Channel’s Would You Believe It featuring the classic bed and breakfast.
Most encounters at the Artist House revolve around Robert the Doll; an antique doll the belonged to former owners Anne and Robert Eugene Otto. Source: Cayobo
The eeriest and most reported supernatural activity revolves not around Anna’s ghost – but around Mr. Otto’s beloved doll, Robert. Upon receiving the doll at age four from a recently fired servant woman, Otto became enamored with the toy. Even into adulthood, Otto was known to have Robert by his side while painting in the home’s turret.
Anne hated Robert the doll so much that upon Otto’s death she demanded that it be kept in a cedar chest in the attic. Many years after her own death, Robert was found and donated to the Key West Historical Society, and now resides at the Fort East Martello Museum in Key West. This particular doll has been the catalyst for dozens of modern “haunted doll” tropes in the media.
The Borden House, Fall River, Massachusetts
One of the most famous crime scenes in American history, the Borden House, has now become the Lizzy Borden Bed and Breakfast.
Most everyone knows the story of Lizzie Borden, the 32 year old thought to have murdered her parents in the Fall River, Massachusetts home they shared in August 1892. As the rhyme goes, “Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.”
A former crime scene seems like the location of a bed and breakfast slated for failure, but the space draws enough history fans, thrill-seekers, and supernatural aficionados to keep the spot in business.
All bedrooms of the house are available for overnight stay. Guests can also rent out an entire floor, or the whole house, with rates ranging from around $250 all the way up to $1,650 a night.
The most popular rooms to stay in are the Lizzie and Emma Suite consisting of the sisters’ rooms, as well as the John V. Morse room, the room in which Lizzie’s stepmother, Abby Borden, was found dead.
The room of Lizzy’s sister Emma Borden, who was 15 miles away in Fairhaven, Massachusetts visiting a friend when the murders took place.
Property owner Lee-Ann Wilber says that while many guests have bolted out of the bed and breakfast, it’s likely of their own fear production. Said Wilber, “Sometimes I think some come in already worked up about it. It could be something as simple as a light bulb burns out, and their mind starts going into overdrive. Some guests scare themselves out of here.”
However, Wilber does admit that in the time she has owned the Borden House there was one night that she was too afraid to sleep there.
A staged recreation of the discovery of Andrew Borden’s corpse, boldly and unapologetically displayed in the sitting room of the bed and breakfast.
In 2004, not long after she had purchased the home, Wilber looked down the front entryway, illuminated by an antique chandelier. “As I’m looking at it, it walked up the staircase,” Wilber said.
The lights flickered for a few seconds and then burnt out simultaneously. Everything went dark, Wilber said.
“I said to no one in particular, ‘You win tonight,’ and went to sleep in my car.”
“Living here,” said Wilber, “very quickly, I became a believer.”
For more haunted destinations, check out photos of the real Shining Hotel.
