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In New Orleans French Quarter: Hotel Provincial (a former war hospital), Bourbon Orleans (site of famous Quadroom balls, but I think the ghosts are those of children from when it was a school), Bisquit Palace, Hotel St. Pierre, the Andrew Jackson (another child ghost, I think).

Surprised my suggestion isn't here yet --- try The Myrtles, an old plantation in Lousiana, north of Baton Rouge. It has been the subject of numerous specials on haunted houses, and is considered by some to be "the most haunted house in America." I believe they count 12 spirits. The most fascinating tale is that one of their slaves (Chloe?) poisoned the wife and two young daughters, and was hung for her crime. Try a search, you'll find lots to read!

Oh my God, my husband and I stayed at the Myrtles and it is definitely haunted! I have never been so scared in my life. It is in St. Francesville. If you want to be scared I recommend this place.

Okay, Okay, I’ll continue with the story. The only reason I didn’t before was that there didn’t seem to be any interest. While what I printed before is as much of the text as would be permitted here by Fodor’s, I’ll continue by relaying our own experience when we stayed there. First a tad more history… After sitting vacant for forty some-odd years, in 1963 The Inn was purchased by a couple named Van Der Hout. I don’t recollect his first name but I remember hers was Amy (just because it was so close to my own wife’s name, Anee). Anyway, according to Amy and her husband they spent the better part of twelve years renovating the place and reopened it as a B & B in late 1975: That’s when the first trouble began. Although the Van Der Houts would never admit it, it seems that within a month of them opening the place up to tourists, The Inn was already beginning to get a reputation…and I don’t mean that in a good way. Supposedly, the very first couple to check in had reserved their room for four nights—but left after only two. Now that is itself wouldn’t be so strange except for the fact that over the next several months not one single couple stayed for the duration they had paid for. Bad service? Uncomfortable Beds? Lousy food? Not according to the rumors spread around the area. It turns out that many of the people who attempted to stay there (but ended up leaving early) talked about their experiences in the neighboring towns. Some spoke of hearing “unholy” moans and cries during the night (and, no, they did not attribute them to other couples in bed) while others claimed that “ungodly” smells would jar them from their sleep, intensify to the point where the odors would cause the couple to begin gagging and then, just as suddenly dissipate—without a trace. Still others said that they heard somebody “pacing up and down the stairs” during the night, yet—and many reported this—when they opened there doors to look, there was nobody there. Some of them claimed to have checked “several times” over the course of the night but never found anyone in the hall or on the stairs. Now, to those of us who are skeptics, much of this can be explained away. Many old places creak and moan—which could explain the moans and cries. The Inn sits on rocky cliffs overlooking the ocean in a heavily fielded area; something could easily have crawled under the place and died—which would explain the smell. Breezes might have picked up and died off quickly—which might explain why the odor came and went so suddenly. And, as for the pacing noises, who among us hasn’t heard the “tick, tick, tick of a furnace during the night or of the noises associated with the settling of a house. I’m not saying these things are the real causes of what went on, merely that they MIGHT be. None of this; however, comes close to explaining what occurred on February 10th, 1980. To be continued on 5/10/02…

My hubby and I stayed at Hotel Provincial in New Orleans about a year ago. I've posted about this hotel before, a few months back. Anyway, when we checked in they assigned us a room overlooking Decatur street, and upon check-in I expressed to the hotel clerk that we didn't want a room overlooking yucky Decatur, that we wanted a different building. So, the story goes like this. We basically just decided to take the Decatur St. hotel room anyway. Well, upon checking into the room, it was cramped, tiny, not at all the hotel that this place touted itself to be (i.e., all antique rooms, blah blah blah.) It was just plain dingy, if you consider 1975-style furniture "antique" Oh, and there was a chandelier hanging above the bed. I absolutely refused to stay in that room. It's the only room in my life that I've ever felt so adamant about not wanting to be in, so we marched back to the check-in desk, told the clerk that we weren't going to take that room. He says, "Okay." Then nonchalantly assigns us a courtyard room. And he even informs us that "we are always changing people out of their rooms. We do it all the time." Well, we did like that room much better. It turns out that the first room facing Decatur was the old civil-war hospital that had been converted to an ice house, then a hotel in 1972. We had no idea about this until we went on a haunted history tour in the Quarter, and our guide stops right in front of our hotel and proceeds to explain that in that hotel, several guests have had the experience of returning to their room, pulling back the covers on the bed and finding pools of blood in the bad. Then the guest, naturally, always freaks out, calls housekeeping; housekeeping shows up with the sheets and by the time the new sheets arrive, the blood has "disappeared" from the original sheets. Then our guide went on to say that that was the old civil war hosipital where several soldiers died! Well, maybe that explained why I refused to stay in that first room; eerie feeling or something. But the most freaky thing about this place was that when my husband and I pulled back the covers to go to bed on that first night (in our reassigned room -- not the civil war hospital room) well, what did we find? Bloodstains all over the pillowcase on the bed -- not on the sheets) I just grossed out (not even knowing about the blood story at that time) and I tossed that pillow aside and slept on a rolled up towel. so after we heard that blood story from the tour guide, of course I really got the chills then, because what are the odds of having bloodstains on your pillow case in a hotel? Neither one of us had encountered that one before and we've stayed at plenty of places. So, make of this story what you will, but I think there may be something to this "Haunted Hotel" thing. Also, Place d'Armes is a haunted hotel in the french quarter.

Not a hotel but......... Marrero's Guyest House on Fleming Street in Key West is supposedly haunted. A show on the Travel Channel had the story, which I unfortunately cannot remember.

The Horton Grand Hotel in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter has a haunted room.

Arnie! Where are you? Are you going to finish this today?

Since I was at the library last night doing research anyway, I decided to look up any references to Syrus Aeckey and his place. I had just about given up when I came across a listing in the archives for a book written in 1950, titled: "Unholy Evil: The Awful Truth Behind Syrus Aeckney". Unfortunately, my library doesn't have a copy of this and says it is no longer in print. The publisher is listed as "Partisan Publishing" and the author is listed as "A. Norman". If any of you out there are interested in this and happen to locate a copy would you please e-mail me? Thanks, Natalie

Arnie, where are youuuuuu?? We need to hear the rest of the storyyyyy!!!

Oooooohhhh...this just keeps getting creepier & creepier! Too bad it's not closer to Halloween.

How timely - Travel Channel is having their Haunted Hotels show on May 15 at 9:00 pm (ET). I can't wait to hear the rest of Arnie's story.... When I lived in Virginia, there was a house around the corner that had been a civil war hospital and it was so creepy.... There were even gravestones out back - one was an 8 year old girl. Okay, the hair on the back of my neck is standing up just thinking about it...

Arnie We are waiting with pins and needles. You story is great...come on, it is May 10 and we are waaaaaiiiiittttting.

A R N I E We are waaiittiinngg! Are you waiting to get enough responses for you story?

The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. In addition to reports of ghosts, Stephen King supposedly used it as inspiration for The Shining.

David -- Found your mention of the Brown Palace hotel in Denver quite interesting. Didn't know it had a history of ghosts. When I stayed there several years ago at the end of a tour, I sat at the end of the bed (watching the TV) to take off my shoes. Having recently gotten over a broken elbow, I purposely left the shoes there so I wouldn't trip over them if I got up at night. The next morning one of the shoes was next to the bed. Creepy! Don't remember the room number, now wish I had written it down.

The Dauphine Orleans in New Orleans. I asked the bartender if they were working on the roof because I had heard footsteps above our third floor room. She replied that I was hearing the "ghost". The ghost is a confederate soldier who was stabbed in a fight outside what was then the bordello. I can vouch that I did actually hear footsteps above our room and their was no actual consturction going on at the hotel.

Damn it, Arnie! I have to leave in one hour!!!!!!

Everyone, I am sorry for taking so long to finish this story, however, the computer I normally connect with CRASHED this morning (I am only able to borrow this one for a few minutes and the story is on the other one). I am trying like the dickens to fix the problem and hope to have it solved by tonight. Please bear with me--even if it takes til Monday (hopefully it won't). Thank you for your patience. Again, my sincerest apologies. Arnie