The Most Haunted Hotel in Texas

Jefferson is the most haunted small town in Texas, and proud of it. Visitors to this tiny community, tucked away in the pine forests of East Texas, will find plenty of ghost stories to thrill them. Locals and tourists alike are eager to share their haunted tales with others. If you listen long enough, you'll notice that many of the ghost stories take place in the most haunted location of all: the Jefferson Hotel.

Built in 1851, the Jefferson Hotel is a lovely two-story building that originally served as a cotton warehouse. The hotel foyer is bright and welcoming, filled with bright, overstuffed chairs, and cabinets full of antiques. But the foyer's most striking feature is the old wooden staircase that leads up to the second floor. It creaks obligingly when stepped on; an appropriately eerie sound for such a haunted place.

Guests at the Jefferson Hotel have their choice of twenty-three rooms, and each room in the hotel has its own ghost story. Some involve mysterious writing that appears on steamy bathroom mirrors. Others involve phantom men, taken at first to be hotel staff, who vanish under direct scrutiny. Still others tell of faucets that turn themselves on, hot and cold spots where none should be, malfunctioning electrical equipment, and the strong sense of a "presence" in the hotel rooms. Past visitors have logged their experiences in a ledger that can be borrowed from the front desk. This book is very entertaining to read, if you enjoy being scared. Some accounts come from guests who didn't manage to stay the night. Whatever your reading preference, the ghostly guest book can certainly prepare you for your own brush with the paranormal (or just set the mood for some spooky fun).

The most haunted room in the Jefferson Hotel is Number 19, where guests have been awakened by the touch of a dead woman's hand. The resident ghost has been known to stroke people's arms as they sleep, and to sit down on the bed with weary travelers. Number 19 is so notorious that guests are frequently offered the chance to switch rooms, vacancies permitting, if they become too frightened during their stay. As you can imagine, this room is often reserved by thrill-seekers, especially around Halloween.

Many legends attempt to explain why the Jefferson Hotel is so haunted. One story tells of a young bride who hung herself when she got word that her betrothed was not coming to marry her. Guests have reported visions of a young woman, as well as the sound of sobs that seemingly come from nowhere. (Perhaps the bride never left?) Another legend blames the hotel's haunting on a different woman: a wife who lost nine of her children to miscarriage or stillbirth. Hotel guests commonly hear the sounds of children playing when no children are present.

Is the Jefferson Hotel really haunted? Believers will always believe, and doubters will always doubt, but I happen to have a personal anecdote to share.

During my own stay at the hotel in 2005, I was awakened in the middle of the night by the distinct sound of children running back and forth on the floor above my room. I assumed that the sounds were being made by the children of some upstairs guests, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. The running continued, rousing me several times throughout the night.

The next morning, I saw my upstairs neighbors sitting on the hotel's front porch, conspicuously absent of any children. I asked them if they'd heard anything unusual during the night. The wife said that they'd been kept awake by the sound of kids running up and down on the floor above them. They'd gone so far as to ask the hostess if anyone was staying on the third floor. Imagine their surprise when the hostess informed them that there was no third floor - there was nothing above their room except the roof.

That gave me chills. I asked the couple if they would mind showing me their room, since it was the notorious Number 19. They kindly obliged, and I was chilled again when I saw that the small room didn't have enough open floor space for anyone to walk back and forth unhindered, let alone run around like the children I'd heard the night before. Their path would have been obstructed by a bed in the center of the room, and an angled wall that almost touched the foot of the bed. Navigating the room took some doing. It was simply impossible that I'd heard children running to and fro - at least, children of the living, breathing sort!

When we left Number 19, I noticed what appeared to be fingernail scratches trailing the length of the hallway. They were noticable on both sides of the corridor, but only when the light hit them a certain way. Though the scratches were too low for a grownup to produce without stooping down, they were precisely where a child's fingertips would be if the child stretched out both of their arms and ran up and down the hallway.

Is the Jefferson Hotel haunted? Your mileage may vary, but I choose to believe.