I live in Salem, Mass. There are lots of 'haunted places' here, but none that come close to The Hawthorne Hotel. I've never had an encounter with anything paranormal before the first time I visited this hotel. That story is long and can be found here, (also copied and pasted below)
The second time I went was a few weeks ago, and this time, it was with friends who host a podcast about the paranormal called GhostStuffs.
I was so sure that I couldn't be lucky enough to have two experiences, one happening each of the only two times I stayed there...but sure enough, we did. The two floors we stayed on were the two that are said to be most haunted, the 3rd and 6th. Each situation and experience was super different from the other. Both times I am almost certain that what happened cannot be explained otherwise...something is going on with the energy in that hotel. Check out the podcast. I don't feel like typing it all out.
From the original blog post I wrote from 11/20/17:
I live in Salem MA, known to many as "Witch City". It is famous for the witch trials that took place way back in the 1600s. The whole city is filled to the brim with museums, shops, tours, novelty stores, etc; all cashing in on this ancient history. We even have a statue of Elizabeth Montgomery (from Bewitched) in our central square. So before I moved here, this place was always on my radar as I love to revel in the "woo" here and there. But besides all of that, there is also an excellent art museum called The Peabody Essex, loads of beautiful architecture, maritime history and historical sites, and cute shops with neat little trinkets just about everywhere.
Before moving here about two years ago, my boyfriend's mother suggested that we spend the night at the Hawthorne Hotel for mother's day; followed by a leisurely trip to the museum the next day. I was all in, as I had never stayed at the Hawthorne before and I loved Salem for all of the reasons mentioned.
When we arrived at the hotel I noticed right away that it had a very authentic feel, as though the building belonged chiefly to the past. The original elevator was still working and intact from the hotel's construction in the 1920s. As we ascended to our room on the third floor, a couple who were in it with us mentioned to each other that the third floor was said to be haunted. I didn't think anything of it. Of course, it's haunted I thought...all of Salem is supposedly haunted. That's the whole shtick. I figured it was just a tourist's fantasy and brushed it right off.
That night Nikki and I went out and had a nice dinner at which I drank no more than two glasses of wine. Then we strolled back to the hotel and got to bed by 11 p.m. Nikki is a morning person so I was hoping to get right to sleep since I knew she would be waking me up at some ungodly hour. I settled in and shut the lights.
At around 1 a.m I was just falling asleep when I heard some strange sounds coming from Nikki's direction. I realized suddenly that she was talking in her sleep. As strange as that was- I thought, "ok, that's o.k, people do that. It's normal". Then the talking got spooky as she started to sound distressed like she was having a nightmare, so I woke her up. She looked at me and said "oh, Kate, were you just lying down here in the bed next to me? I said, "no, I have been here in my bed all night, you were talking in your sleep." Nikki said that she felt like someone was with her on the bed and she was trying to wake herself up. I thought then that it was just a classic case of sleep paralysis. She said that she felt like someone was touching her with their hands on her arm. I did not touch her to wake her, I spoke loudly to her saying her name until she woke up, so at no point did I put my hands on her.
Nikki quickly fell back asleep, but I was still a little weirded out and turned the light off but then turned the t.v. on to help me relax. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was on, and I was comforted by the very not spooky Will Smith and his fluorescent colored wardrobe. I finally started to doze off at about 3am. Just as I was in between the state of waking and sleeping I heard the loudest banging sound, just above my head over the bed. It was so loud that I shot straight up in the bed! I looked around, feeling confused, and then said out loud to myself "no way!". I got up and went to the door. I opened it to see if anyone was in the hallways. No one was there. I tried to replicate the noise with objects in the room, but there was nothing that could have made that noise. I sat up wide awake the rest of the night, annoyed...by the first haunting experience I'd ever had.
Normally I would have loved this kind of thing and been oh so interested in what was happening. This particular occasion however was not prime ghost hunting time. I was just supposed to be having a quiet evening with Nikki spending quality girl time; shopping and seeing art. I wanted to sleep and be a person for her the next day, but I stayed wide, wide awake.
When the sun FINALLY came up, and Nikki got up all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we got ready for the day and then headed downstairs for breakfast in the beautiful dining room at the Hawthorne. I sat across from Nikki, looking disheveled and she asked me how I slept. I said I hadn't and then started asking her more about the sleep talking incident. She said that she doesn't normally talk in her sleep but had the strangest dream and felt like someone was touching her. I told her what happened to me with the banging noise and she and I kind of laughed about our little haunting.
I was not done sleuthing the situation however so I scrolled through some of the reviews of the Hawthorne online. Multiple accounts from the customers described hauntings on the third floor, and in the elevator. Most of these accounts involved two things. The first was "phantom hands" the feeling of someone touching you when no one is there. The second was loud knocking or banging sounds late in the night. The hotel responds to all of these posts very professionally trying to debunk the claims, saying that it is a very old hotel so noises, of course, happen, etc., etc.
We experienced two of the most common haunting scenarios that night.
It would have been less convincing to me that we had indeed had been haunted if I did not see that these two things were so common. After all, in between waking and sleeping, both of us could have been simply dreaming. I know that we were not though. I know it from both the experience and my intuition that this was what it was.
The Hawthorne Hotel...is haunted!
Before moving here about two years ago, my boyfriend's mother suggested that we spend the night at the Hawthorne Hotel for mother's day; followed by a leisurely trip to the museum the next day. I was all in, as I had never stayed at the Hawthorne before and I loved Salem for all of the reasons mentioned.
When we arrived at the hotel I noticed right away that it had a very authentic feel, as though the building belonged chiefly to the past. The original elevator was still working and intact from the hotel's construction in the 1920s. As we ascended to our room on the third floor, a couple who were in it with us mentioned to each other that the third floor was said to be haunted. I didn't think anything of it. Of course, it's haunted I thought...all of Salem is supposedly haunted. That's the whole shtick. I figured it was just a tourist's fantasy and brushed it right off.
That night Nikki and I went out and had a nice dinner at which I drank no more than two glasses of wine. Then we strolled back to the hotel and got to bed by 11 p.m. Nikki is a morning person so I was hoping to get right to sleep since I knew she would be waking me up at some ungodly hour. I settled in and shut the lights.
At around 1 a.m I was just falling asleep when I heard some strange sounds coming from Nikki's direction. I realized suddenly that she was talking in her sleep. As strange as that was- I thought, "ok, that's o.k, people do that. It's normal". Then the talking got spooky as she started to sound distressed like she was having a nightmare, so I woke her up. She looked at me and said "oh, Kate, were you just lying down here in the bed next to me? I said, "no, I have been here in my bed all night, you were talking in your sleep." Nikki said that she felt like someone was with her on the bed and she was trying to wake herself up. I thought then that it was just a classic case of sleep paralysis. She said that she felt like someone was touching her with their hands on her arm. I did not touch her to wake her, I spoke loudly to her saying her name until she woke up, so at no point did I put my hands on her.
Nikki quickly fell back asleep, but I was still a little weirded out and turned the light off but then turned the t.v. on to help me relax. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was on, and I was comforted by the very not spooky Will Smith and his fluorescent colored wardrobe. I finally started to doze off at about 3am. Just as I was in between the state of waking and sleeping I heard the loudest banging sound, just above my head over the bed. It was so loud that I shot straight up in the bed! I looked around, feeling confused, and then said out loud to myself "no way!". I got up and went to the door. I opened it to see if anyone was in the hallways. No one was there. I tried to replicate the noise with objects in the room, but there was nothing that could have made that noise. I sat up wide awake the rest of the night, annoyed...by the first haunting experience I'd ever had.
Normally I would have loved this kind of thing and been oh so interested in what was happening. This particular occasion however was not prime ghost hunting time. I was just supposed to be having a quiet evening with Nikki spending quality girl time; shopping and seeing art. I wanted to sleep and be a person for her the next day, but I stayed wide, wide awake.
When the sun FINALLY came up, and Nikki got up all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we got ready for the day and then headed downstairs for breakfast in the beautiful dining room at the Hawthorne. I sat across from Nikki, looking disheveled and she asked me how I slept. I said I hadn't and then started asking her more about the sleep talking incident. She said that she doesn't normally talk in her sleep but had the strangest dream and felt like someone was touching her. I told her what happened to me with the banging noise and she and I kind of laughed about our little haunting.
I was not done sleuthing the situation however so I scrolled through some of the reviews of the Hawthorne online. Multiple accounts from the customers described hauntings on the third floor, and in the elevator. Most of these accounts involved two things. The first was "phantom hands" the feeling of someone touching you when no one is there. The second was loud knocking or banging sounds late in the night. The hotel responds to all of these posts very professionally trying to debunk the claims, saying that it is a very old hotel so noises, of course, happen, etc., etc.
We experienced two of the most common haunting scenarios that night.
It would have been less convincing to me that we had indeed had been haunted if I did not see that these two things were so common. After all, in between waking and sleeping, both of us could have been simply dreaming. I know that we were not though. I know it from both the experience and my intuition that this was what it was.
The Hawthorne Hotel...is haunted!
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