S1 – 12: I am the Poor Fool Who Built All This

turned on. Knowing this was an old hotel, I assumed electrical issues, so I got up and turned the light off, but was slightly weirded out that it was in the on position when I did so. Settling back into bed, I heard the click again and was again blinded by the light above. Even from my bed, I could see the switch I had just turned off off was very much in the on position. Again, Exasperated, I stood up and turned off the light again. As I got back

in bed, it flicked back on. I was trying to temper my frustration and obvious fear, but my need for sleep was great. I kid you not. This song and dance went on at least three more times, until at one point the light flicked on, and laying in bed, almost in tears, I said, please stop. I have so much work to do tomorrow and I just need to sleep. And then I heard a familiar click, but this time the light turned off. This was one of the first of many, many, many experiences I would have at the

Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. So let's take a little trip, shall we. I'm Amy Brunei and this is Haunted Road. The Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire stands as one of the last Grand Victorian hotels still operating in America. So named for their quiet grand appearance in Spanish Revival architectural style, they were all

built in the early nineteen hundreds. These hotels, like the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego and the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, and of course our Mount Washington Hotel, are all large, elaborate structures, stark white with bright red roofs. The Mount Washington has over two hundred rooms in the original hotel and is massive. I can attest to this

because as you pull into the Mount Washington driveway. After having seen nearly nothing but dense woods and mountains for miles, this gem of a Shining hotel greets you like a beacon, which she's been for me ever since I set foot inside almost fifteen years ago. So some fun facts for you know. The Shining was not based on the Mount Washington, nor was it filmed there, but the Grand Floridian Resort at Disney World was modeled after her, and I think

that's way cooler. So while researching for this podcast, I was surprised to learn that the Mount Washington was not the first structure on this property before the landing question was solely owned by Joseph Stickney, who we will talk about in a moment. A lumberman named John T. G Levitt built a simple, almost box like structure with only forty rooms on the property called the Mount Pleasant House

in eighteen seventy five. There was also a sawmill and adjacent housing called stove Pipe City thanks to the number of stove pipes extending from the small log buildings. In eighteen eighty one, Joseph Stickney and Oscar Pittman purchased the hotel from John Levitt right away, the partners enlarged it by adding a fourth story. Now, according to an eighteen nine I'VE map, there were other structures in the vicinity.

There was the loghouse, the homes tavern, another stable near the tavern, and a building called the Blind Tiger, which one can only speculate about what went on at that establishment. Before we die further, let's learn a bit about Joseph Stickney. Joseph was born on May thirty one, eight forty, and conquered New Hampshire. He attended schools and conquered as well as Vermont's Setford Academy, before entering into various businesses from

railroading to coal mining and handling and real estate. Not to fast forward too much, but when he died he was worth an estimated ten million dollars. That's the equivalent of about three hundred ten million dollars today according to currency calculators online, So he clearly had some money to throw around. After about twenty years succeeding as proprietor of Mount Pleasant, a period wherein he refurbished the property and added some turret and flags and made it more ostentatious.

According to Mount Washington director and historian Craig clemmer Our. Mr Stickney got bolder in those decades. He married a pretty twenty five year old He himself was fifty two on his wedding day. Her name was Caroline Foster. He met her at a dance down the road from Mount Pleasant. Caroline's father was a prominent meat merchant, and the family summered at the twin Mountain House in Carol, New Hampshire, where her father's choice cuts were a feature on the menu.

It was around this time, being a driven man with money to burn and strong emotional attachments to the area, that Stickney decided to build the grandest of the grand hotels, going full stop luxury from the foundation's up, a rarity among the resort's rivals, which all boasted humble beginnings. With that in mind, let's review some of the additions he made to the existing Mount Pleasant Hotel, just to give you an idea of what was to come with the

Mount Washington. So in eighteen eighty four, Joseph bought out his partners and planned a major renovation that would turn them Out Pleasant into one of the finest hotels in the region. Much of Stickney's correspondence survives as do many of the bills for the project. Stickney added an electric power plant that would provide for seven fifty lights. He had Walter Trask, a sinker of artesian wells, drill a four hundred foot well to assure a steady water supply,

thereby eliminating a recurring water shortage. There was a bowling alley, baths in every room, a golf course, tennis courts, and a private lake named for his wife, Caroline. Stickney lent a very devoted ear to all ideas about how to increase business, and he opened his check book to bring numerous ones to fruition. He also oversaw the construction of an extensive system of trails behind the hotel on what was then called Mount Stickney. In A bridle path two

miles long was built to the summit. A log cabin was built called the Orchestra's Retreat, another trail called the Carzone Trail. According to the hotel's brochure, zig zagged up the mountain to the Birch Rock Spring and the Susquehanna Spring, with rustic seats along the way. There were other maintained trails in the woods. All of these lessons learned and the remodeling of the Mount Pleasant likely benefited Stickney as he embarked on the construction of the Mount Washington Hotel.

The Mount Washington Hotel lies in a valley of the Amonosak River, six hundred feet above sea level. The mountains surrounding the two thousand five d fifty acre preserve are the Presidential, Dartmouth and Willie Rosebrook Ranges, dominated by Mount Washington at six thousand two hight feet, the highest peak in the northeast. The resort itself sits on three acres as of a June report. The structure was designed by

Charles Allen Gifford, known for designing resort hotels. Joseph Stickney was quite an entrepreneur and wanted the veryt of everything for his guests. The Mount Washington Hotel was the embodiment of new technology and an instant success when it opened between nineteen hundred and nineteen o two. Joseph Stickney shelled at one point seven million dollars almost fifty three million dollars by today's standards, to bring Gifford's design to life.

During construction, Stickney spared no expense in building the imposing hotel. The latest design and construction methods were used. Innovative and complicated heating and plumbing systems were installed. To this day, the Bretton Woods Hotel has its own private telephone system in post office. Stickney brought in two hundred fifty Italian artisans to build it, particularly the granite and stucco masonry. The general style is based on Spanish Renaissance Revival, with

a red roof to imitate Spanish roof tiles. The building is y shaped, with a forty five degree angle between the wings and main kitchen in the middle. It is the largest wooden structure in New England and has a steel infrastructure, which was quite unique in the early nineteen hundreds. The foundation is made of cut granite corried on the property. Some of the novel features included an auto road at a time when automobiles were rare, electric lights, a pool,

and private bats in every room. Stats about this hotel's original construction are almost hard to imagine. Like for example, it had more than twelve hundred windows containing over half an acre of glass, and construction required nine hundred kegs or three train car loads of nails to complete the extensive veranda. Nine hundred three ft long and the longest in New England, provided exercise for guests no matter what the weather was like then and now, six laps around

the veranda add up to a mile. I wouldn't know this because when I'm on the veranda, I'm usually sitting with a good book and a glass of chardonnay. When the hotel first opened for business on July, a crowd gathered to celebrate. It was then the electrician, a Mr. Thomas Edison, turned on the lights for the first time. At that moment, Joseph Stickney stood before the crowd and proclaimed, look at me, a gentleman, for I am the poor fool who built all this. And poor fool is about

right because a year later he was dead. The New York Times read on December second three, Joseph Stickney, of the firm of Stickney, Conningham and Company, died suddenly at his home Fifth Avenue yesterday morning from a stroke of apoplexy. He was born at Conquered New Hampshire in eighteen forty, and about eighteen sixty became interested in anthracite coal mining, which had been his business ever since. He leaves a

widow who was Miss Caroline Foster of Waltham. He was a prominent member of the Union, Union League, Racket and New York Yacht clubs. His country home was in Westchester. Although the hotel had been Joseph's dream, Caroline was seemingly invested. After Joseph's death, hotels continued to be one of Caroline's focuses. She remained fully involved in the hotels, spending summers at the Mount Washington, making sure her guests were treated second

to none. During the open season, guests arrived by train, sometimes fifty a day or more, from Boston and Portland. They were brought to the hotel by horse and carriage, arriving at the front porch. The hotel originally had three train stations. So here's a glimpse at what life was

like for those who summered at this resort. According to Craig Clemor, it was the early nineteen hundreds, and trains unloading the families of the country's wealthiest people still came thirty five to fifty times a day, so often you hardly even notice it, dumping wives and children for the entire season. They wanted their families in an environment where everything was cleaner, fresher, and cooler. They wanted them away from the yellow fever and the caller in the cities.

The pastimes here were utter turn of the century horseback riding, hiking and golfing. Honestly, not much different than how it is there today. They would work on their watercolors, clamor says, and they'd have meals in a restaurant three times a day, changing clothes four times a day. The floors dedicated to guest rooms offer nearly every guest outside windows with mountain views.

When it opened, Mount Washington was the largest spa in the White Mountains, one hundred seventy miles north of Boston. It's guests enjoyed a service ratio of two to one, a ticker tape, augmented by a telephone office and recreational facilities on ten thousand acres. Guests paid twenty dollars a day, which covered their room and three meals spread out over the generally lengthy days. Mount Washington raked it in twenty dollars per day, was four times the standard rate for

a room and three meals. According to the CPI inflation calcula later, that's about six thirty five dollars per day. In numbered. Among its famous guests were Winston Churchill, Thomas Edison, Mary Pickford, and President's Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding. On the patio level, there's now a bar called the Cave, which is one of my favorite spots to visit on the weekends, but originally it was the hotel's squash courts.

The space was later converted into a bar and grill and was a speak easy during Prohibition, with guests drinking spirits out of teacups. The Great Hall was initially named the Assembly Hall. The focal point of the space is a large guildstone fireplace, as well as several crystal chandeliers

that were added in the nineteen twenties. One point two million dollar renovation in two thousand seven referenced historical photos of Mount Washington's interior and once again features historic details such as furnishings and a very large moose head, as well as custom carpeting depicting local flora and fauna. The Great Hall is filled with many wonderful pieces, but of special note is the nineteenth century Grandfather clock tucked to

the left of the fireplace. Before the hotel was open year round starting in two thousand one, the starting of the clock signaled the beginning of the summer season. On the final day, the last guest would stop the pendulum until the following season began. The clock is one of the few original pieces remaining in the Mount Washington Hotel

Great Hall. In the conservatory, the high dome in the middle of the room provides natural acoustics and was used for musical entertainment, chamber music lectures, and poetry readings, just as it is today. The glass around the dome is Tiffany glass, and the piano is an original eight two Steinway from Joseph Stickney's New York home, The Princess Room number three fourteen is by far the most popular suite, now called the Princess Room after its most esteemed proprietors,

Caroline Stickney Princess You Say Well. Ten years after Joseph Stickney's death, Caroline remarried and her husband was a French prince, Prince Aimon de Fassiny Loosene. Before this second marriage, Caroline apparently confided in a friend, Joe left me every material comfort a woman could desire, But now I am lonesome. If I ever marry again, it will be for companionship. A notice of marriage appeared in paper syndicating a message from the Boston Globe that opened with a celebration of

a hometown sweetheart. From a small house on Main Street, Waltham, to one of the finest residences on Fifth Avenue, to the most socially exclusive homes in Newport and Bar Harbor, to the Palace of the Emperor of Japan, to the home of the Viceroy of India, to Buckingham Palace itself, and finally to the title of Princess bearing the name of one of the oldest families in France. Is the career in brief of Caroline Foster, later Mrs Joseph E.

Stickney and now Princess amon de Fassny Loosene. She was married before a brilliant assemblage to the Prince Wednesday, July two in London. After this, Caroline was affectionately referred to by guests and staff as the Princess. So back to the Princess Room. Originally it functioned as her private dining space where important guests were invited to dine with her. The Princess Room is home to an original chandelier above the bar and It even houses her original bed that

she had assembled wherever she stayed. Yes, she traveled with a massive four poster bed and you can sleep in it. But this is the most haunted room in the hotel, so you may want to rethink that. When summering at the hotel, Caroline would famously watch all the ladies coming down the stairway to dinner from behind a curtain on the balcony near the front desk. If any woman was better dressed than she, Caroline would change her evening ensemble

to ensure she was the finest dressed. Caroline left her mark in the main dining room as well as the Princess Room. In the octagonal room, designed so that no guest might feel slighted by being placed in a corner. Caroline Stickney's table was the first table on the right as you enter the main dining room. It was always reserved for her. There was one seating for dinner, and if she was dining there, she was always the last

one to enter. Up until last year, a table was set for her in the main entrance to the right. I have to admit to being a little bombed last time I visited to see that it was gone. An endearing element of the design is found in the grand staircase, featuring stairs that are wide and shallow, allowing for the ladies of the day to easily travel up and down

without tripping over their skirts. In a similar vein, Caroline's habit of watching the stairs before dinner in case she needed to change into something more elegant is memorialized in a painting at the hotel in the spot where the balcony once was. During events in the dining room, along with an orchestra, the Bretton Wood's Boys singers would perform in balconies on either side of the room. Further adding

to Caroline's princess status is this popular anecdote. There was also the hotel's indoor pool, one of the first of its kind in the country. When Caroline Stickney was in the mood for a swim, all of the other guests would have to get out and leave the room until she was finished. Under Caroline's tenure, construction added the sun Dining Room with guest rooms above the fourth floor between

the towers and the chapel, honoring her late husband. Another source, Janice Brown's article for the New Hampshire History bog claims that Caroline was summering at the resort as latest August of nineteen thirty four. Caroline's second husband passed in ninete and she never remarried. Caroline died on November second, nineteen thirty six, in her Providence, Rhode Island home. In nineteen thirty eight, Caroline and Joseph were both reinterred at the

Stickney Mausoleum in Old North Cemetery. Although it's in conquered New Hampshire, there's a tiffany window inside recreating the view looking from the south verandah of the hotel to Crawford Notch, a V shaped valley to the south of the resort. I think it's pretty clear why Princess Caroline would still be haunting the property and has become their most famous ghost.

But before we get to the ghost stories and deaths on the property, I want to tell you one more bit of very famous history that took place in the hotel. After Caroline died, her nephew Foster Reynolds inherited the hotel in nineteen thirty six. He had a short run with it, as the hotel closed down in nineteen forty two due to World War Two. It was only out of commission for two years, though, because a group out of Boston

purchased the property. Now, if you have visited the hotel, you may have walked past an elaborate room off the Great Hall called the Gold Room. The story of how it came to be as fascinating and historically incredibly significant. Hotel business had waned during the nineteen thirties with Prohibition and the Great Depression, not to mention the nimble automobile

taking an enormous toll in the hospitality industry. In addition to the challenges post of the service industry by the Depression, Prohibition, and war. Both the advent of the income tax and Henry Ford are to blame. The affordable automobile and modern roads made going up to New Hampshire easier, making the scene less exclusive. That's when it really started to wane.

Just a couple of years earlier, when the government was searching for an ideal location to hold a worldwide conference to deal with the financial aftermath of the war, now known as the Breton Woods Conference, they chose them out Washington because of its secure location and ample room for the seven hundred thirty delegates. From forty four nations that

would be attending. Before the conference began, the hotel's interior had suffered neglect, collapsed roof, peeling wallpaper, so the federal government sent one hundred fifty workers and new furniture and put hundreds of thousands of dollars into the hotel, which they had just two months to restore. Each worker was given fifty cans of white paint and was told if it didn't move, they should paint a white which is

what they did. All of the beautiful mahogany doors were painted white, as were the brass light fixtures in the Great Hall, and even some of the tiffany windows. The Gold Room is where the final Articles of Agreement for the International Monetary Conference were signed in July nineteen forty four. It is this room that played an important role in the hotel becoming a part of the National Register of Historic Places in nineteen seventy eight. The table was originally

from Caroline Stickney's private dining room. It has ten legs and is made of rock maple, just like Caroline's four poster bed that's located in the Princess Room. The conference was so important that the lighting in the room was switched from electric to gas in case the hotel experienced a power outage. It was convened in order to create the World Bank, set up to provide long term international funds,

especially to underdeveloped countries. The International Monetary Fund the gold standard at thirty five dollars an ounce and tied the value of other countries currencies to the US dollar. It is said that the conference was more important than the Treaty of PSI after World War One, which devastated Germany's economy, but the Breton Woods Conference established the economic base which

led to prosperity. After World War Two, the German economy was rebuilt and Europe was stabilized for the first time in centuries. Although meetings took place all over the crowded hotel, the Gold Room with its fourteen chairs for the fourteen power nations that took part in the formal signing and doors as a tribute. So in nineteen seventy five, the Mount Washington Hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and in nineteen eighty six it was recognized

as a National Historic Landmark. It wasn't until nineteen ninety nine at the hotel stayed opened for the winter season. Prior to that change, the hotel would close to guests late in the fall and open in the spring. And in January two thousand nine, the Mount Washington Resort completed a fifty thousand square feet edition that includes a twenty five thousand square foot spa and a twenty five thousand square foot conference center. I love the spa, but oddly I do find this to be one of the more

haunted spaces on the property. So let's get to the hauntings. There have been a few deaths on the property. Let's talk about notable deaths, ones that are documented and ones that are important. Obviously, Caroline and Joseph both died elsewhere, but some debts have occurred within the resort. According to author Janice Brown, there at least two verified debts at

the hotel. Realized that in order for it to be New York Times news, the victims had to be fairly wealthy, so if a maid or delivery man keeled over on the front porch, it would not be in that newspaper. So on Friday September nineteen oh seven, Daniel Willis James, a very wealthy merchant of New York and senior member died at age seventy five at the hotel of a

heart attack. On Wednesday, August eighth, nineteen seventeen, Alfred and Beadleston, Sr. Head of the brewing concern of Beatleston and Wortz, died at age sixty nine of an intest tojournal hemorrhage on the property. And in researching for this podcast, I found another rather grizzly death that took place on the property, one I'm not sure many know about. On the morning of August nine, diners enjoying their breakfast in the main

dining room were interrupted by a woman screaming. Running to be of aid, guests found a woman crushed between the wall and the elevator off the main lobby. It is believed the elevator boy lost control of the car as a mss C, a cook from New Bedford, Massachusetts, was either exiting or entering the car. She had to be identified by her family members by her wristwatch. That elevator is still in use today and up until a few

years ago, still required an attendant to operate it. I am sure there are other debts on the property, as many hotels tend to not advertise when tragedy happens within them. But let's get to the hauntings and ghost stories, because there's a lot more than I think we have time for, so I will focus on the juicy ones. Although activity is mentioned to occur throughout the resort, the Princess Room

holds the most concentrated activity. Many guests have been roused from a sound sleep by the sensation of someone sitting on the edge of the bed. Some have even seen the ghost of Caroline brushing her hair and looking out into the void of the night. In three fourteen, guests have noted instances of lights turning on and off on their own, as well as items disappearing and reappearing in strange locations. Other guests reports smelling of floral perfume in

the room. Here's an account from an unnamed staff member in a housekeeper was slated to clean Caroline's sweet A newly what couple had booked the room, but when the housekeeper knocked, there was no response from within. So the housekeeper opened the door but found that it wasn't unoccupied. There was a little girl sleeping on the bed. They went into the hall and spoke with the supervisor sighting the little girl as the reason why the room couldn't

be cleaned. The housekeeper was then asked to leave a note in the room to let the guests know they'd be back in an hour to try again. When the housekeeper went back in the room to leave the note by the table, they looked at the bed and instead of a little girl, there was a woman staring right at them with the most scary smile on her face. She had black hair and was wearing a white dress. The very startled housekeeper left the room to grab a friend,

and when they returned, room three fourteen was empty. The day before this incident occurred, the housekeeper had taken pictures of herself on the bed, and they wondered if perhaps Caroline had taken offense. In a blog post for Red Oak Press, yet another person detailed becoming a believer after experiencing strange events in room three four During the first night, the author was woken up around one am by a scratching sound on the window sill near the sitting area.

They wondered if it might be windy outside, but before they could get up to look, they heard one loud clank on the pipe near the window. They claim that no heat was turned on at this time, and that they heard no indication of wind outside beyond the scratching sound. On their second night, they went to bed around midnight, and here's the author's account of what happened next. At two am, the metal cover on the ice bucket in the room fell off the empty bucket and fell to

the floor with a clang. I sat straight up in bed. I could smell a flowery perfume in the air around me. I could not budge from the bed. I do not wear perfume, So where was this smell coming from? And why would the lid just come off the ice bucket. I now was convinced that there was a ghost in the room. The next morning, we told our waitress about what we had experienced. She just nodded with a knowing smile.

Less frequently cited, the ballroom has been a host to activity, specifically that of disembodied mysteriously sourced music, and I will say that is actually the site of my very first experience at the hotel, which I will talk about later. A staff member had an eerie experience in the room on a night when no performances were scheduled they entered the ballroom late night and to their surprise heard the

faint sounds of an orchestra playing. They thought a rehearsal was going on, but when they checked, no one was there. And then as they started to walk away, the lights suddenly went out and the music got louder. The employee checked the switch and sure enough it was turned off. They turned it back on, but then the switch turned down on its own the entire time the music kept playing.

They ran out and grabbed some security guards. However, when they entered the ballroom to check, the room was silent and the light switch responded just fine. Down the great hall from the ballroom is the lobby, and one account from an anonymous staff member mentioned a frequent experience where a woman was glimsed on the mezzanine from the lobby.

When someone looked closely, she was gone. One evening, in the hotel's bar the cave, two bartenders and two guests heard aloud that at the opposite end of the bar and a stack of tea cups and saucers they had stacked underneath the bar came flying out at least four ft and smashed all over the place. They had no doubt that there was a spirit in the room, and the guests quickly finished up their conversation and left for

the night. They never came back for a drink. New England couple and dear friends of mine, Sarah Vickers and Kyle James Patrick, have stayed at the Mount Washington Hotel numerous times. Once Kyle said he felt pins and needles on his feet in the middle of the night. He also couldn't go back to bed after seeing a man's face in the mirror on the way to the bathroom at three in the morning. They did attend one of My Strange Escapes weekends at the hotel and Sarah definitely

came out of that one a believer. Kyle and Sarah have stayed at the Mount Washington many times on New Year's Eve, and they almost always stayed in the Princess Room. So there was one weekend where the group took their party to Room three fourteen when the formal events at the hotel ended. At some point, a random middle aged man named Steve opened the door and came into the room. He refused to leave. He kept going on about how high he was and how he wanted to talk to

the girls. Steve was escorted out, but again snuck back in. However, the next day there was not a trace of this man in the hotel or lobby. No one knew who he was. Fast forward to them visiting me at a Strange Escapes weekend a couple of years ago. Kyle and Sarah were having a private e v P session with Adam and myself in Sweet three fourteen, and not a lot was happening, so they decided to head back to bed,

and then things got very strange. Knowing that they always left a light on for the sun, the couple was surprised when the light went off about half an hour after they all went to bed. Patrick called out to his brother in law, thinking he turned the light off by accident, but there was no answer. Suddenly the door slams shut, so Sarah says they were very confused and assumed it was a practical joke, but their brother in

law was in bed, unaware that anything had happened. What they didn't realize was in that moment we were still investigating in room three fourteen and through the spirit box, a ghost named Steve kept calling for Kyle and asking to party with the girls. He kept mentioning he was high as a kite? Did I mention that Kyle and Sarah had never told me that weird story with the guy named Steve. I had no idea this had happened to them. So we don't know who Steve is or

why he's stuck at the Mount Washington Hotel. But that's just one of the many mysteries within that place. So on that note, I want to talk the hauntings and theories about them at Washington, and I could not think of two better people to speak on this with than my BFF and paranormal investigator Adam Bury and one of my other BFFs, occult specialist and paranormal researcher, John Tenney. So it's going to get very weird. So stay tuned

because that is coming up next. All right, So I am currently sitting here with Mr Adam Burry, paranormal investigator bff um and Mr John Tenney, occult specialist, paranormal researcher and so full disclosure, guys. When I was trying to figure out who to talk to about the Mount Washington Hotel, you know, normally when I do these podcasts, I find people who are closely affiliated with them and at Donnda me. I think that we have investigated the Mount Washington probably

more than anyone else. Yeah, we go back every year and we spend multiple nights and I go back sometimes not affiliated, even with an event. I just go back and investigate. And what I love about the Mount Washington is that they're very open to us. You know, We've had a lot of locations where we do investigations or we do events, and they they kind of almost tolerate us,

where the Mount Washington very much welcomes us. And you know, they've always kind of embraced their history with the princess and everything, and so I think that has a lot to do with it. How do you feel our reception has been at the hotel over the years. I think

they enjoy us. I mean it changed from privately owned right or owned back corporation, one corporation to another because Omni took it over right, we had more access to spaces when it wasn't Omni, because I think the people before the Omni really we're like, Okay, do whatever you want. And you know, I don't think they were so worried about people falling and hurting themselves in spooky in spooky places.

But I think now it's a little more corporate and they have to like dot their eyes and cross their teas, and I think we might be tolerated a little bit more now, you know, we were saying like we're tolerated. I think that's the case. I mean, I think the people before they were like, whatever, it's fine, go up in that spooky cross space or whatever you want to do. But they love it. I mean they've always been very nice. Yeah, we used to be able to go into the towers.

We can't go in the towers anymore. And I can't necessarily fault them for that because when we go in the towers, the floor is you know, almost falling up from underneath their feet. So there is there's probably some

you know, liability issues there. I think that one of the reasons that we're tolerated, so you say, at the Mount Washington, is because if you think about it as an event and resort, Like when you tell an event and a resort that you're going to bring a few hundred people into the place, they get very worried that it's going to be loud and raucous. And sure, we

might have the I p parties and after parties. But we're bringing in hundreds of people who love to be in a historic location and love to explore the haunted location and are respectful of locations and so like to bring in hundreds of people that you don't really have to worry that much about, who are going to love the property because of its history. I feel like for a resort, that's one of the reasons they're like, yeah, bring us, bring us people like this. Yeah, a thousand

per cent. And so that being said, just for people listening, I do own a company called Strange Escapes where we plan like basically paranormal vacations for people, and we do them at the Mount Washington every year. And so we show up with a few hundred of our closest paranormal friends and fans, and we kind of take over the hotel and it's a weekend filled with investigations and lectures and learning and really good energy. And I think that kind of raises the vibe at the hotel and results

in some really interesting activity. But to your point, John, when you tell a hotel a resort that you want to bring in those people and just kind of sit in the dark all night, and be as quiet as possible. They're like, oh, please bring in all your ghost hunting friends. You know, we're not like some crazy wedding or a conference like. These are people who like their whole point is to experience the location to such an extent that they will be quiet and still for hours on end.

And that seems to me like a kind of a dream for some of these hotels, right, It's like they spend a lot of money at the bar, they eat a lot of food, and they are quiet as mice. Yeah, exactly, that's a dream. So any other haunted locations listening, feel free to invite us. We're a lot of fun. My history with the Mount Washington goes back really far. The first time I went there, I think I still lived

in California. I went there for an event. I showed up in the middle of the night, and you know, I had flown all day, had driven hours, had never been to this place, and I remember driving for what seemed like forever up in those New Hampshire white mountains in like pitch darkness, and then suddenly you kind of turned the bend and there is this majestic, insanely lit hotel in the middle of nowhere, and there's really no words to describe the first time you lay eyes on

the Mount Washington Hotel, like it is just it's beyond anything. We've all traveled a lot. It is my favorite hotel I have ever been to. We go back regularly, but I do remember that first night, pulling in and kind of walking into the lobby, getting checked in, and then wanting to check out the event space. I think it's probably one or two in the morning, and so I was with my event organizers at the time, and we all together kind of went or there were three of us.

We walked into the ballroom. It was all dark, but it was already set for our lectures the next day, and we walked in and just kind of checked it out. And I remember as we were walking out, I turned to one of them and I was like, it feels kind of different in here. It feels weird in here. And right end we heard this woman's laugh. This is kind of like like this, very like dramatic like laugh.

We all heard it. We looked around. This place was desolate at that time of night, and we were there in the off season very much on purpose, and I remember being like, Wow, I've been here five minutes and I've heard this this like crazy laugh out of nowhere. So each of you, like, what were your first experiences with the hotel or what were your not even first but just like maybe you're more notable. I know, Adam, you've had the craziest experience. For me, you're absolutely right.

Like I remember driving to the Mount Washington for the first time and thinking to myself, there is nothing here, and then you make that turn and you're like, oh, there's a magical wonderland here, like there's all of a sudden, it just appears like a ghost, it just shows up. And then for me, I think the first night I was there, it was late at night, it was probably two or three in the morning, and I was just walking the hallways, being quiet, trying to get a feel

for the building. And I knew that people would be coming for the event and that they were interested in ghosts and stuff. And so I heard a man talking to a woman and they were down the hallway from me, and I thought, oh, these people are up late, they're probably interested in ghosts as well, So I will sneak up behind them and give them a little ghostly shock. So I walked faster down the hallway, and they were

staying ahead of me. And then I came around a corner and started to go down the stairs, and I could still hear them in the stairwell, but then they stopped talking and I went further down the stairs and I was out of the hallway, so I could kind of run down the stairs. And I ran down the stairs and there was no one at the bottom of the stairs, and I was like, I've been here fifteen minutes and I just chased a man and a woman

who don't exist through the hallways. Yeah. Yes, And it's weird because a lot of those experiences and a lot of those kind of people encountered and seen don't necessarily line up historically or as far as like death's on record and everything with the property. And I'm very curious

as to why. Like so, Adam, your experience resonates very much with me, if you want to talk about it, because it's like it's so out of character for what anyone would expect from the hotel, and so earlier in the first half the podcast, we did talk about our friends Kyle and Sarah and their experience with Steve, who was clearly some guy from a more modern time who was very interested in like meeting girls and getting high, and like this was this guy like not at all

like a death that was on record with the hotel or anything you would expect from the princess. She would be appalled at that behavior. And your experience in mind me a lot of that. Yeah. So it was the first time I had ever been to the Mount Washington. It was April of twenty eleven. Actually, wow, pull that out of my just pull it out, um. And we were investigating it at this point. We were we were allowed to investigate the towers, which you can't get into anymore.

But when we investigate, we investigate in small groups. And so at the beginning of every group there are dues and don't because we were in this space, it was like, please don't go, you know, into the middle of the space. There's a giant glass ceiling thing that you could fall through. Anyway. I was giving instructions and I said, okay, go and investigate. And I turned around to watch people leave. And I turned back around and there's this woman standing in front

of me. She has black hair, bangs, long straight hair. She's wearing a gray sweatshirt, red sweatpants, old ish rebox and she's holding a diet coke bottle and she's looking at me, and I say, I'm like, can I did you hear what I said? I gave all the instructions are you Are you familiar? And she was like, no,

I'm not. And then I repeated myself and all the instructions, and I got to and I don't go in there because if you go up there, you could trip and fall through that glass ceiling and that would not be I mean, and you could die. And I was like making a joke about it, because you know, and she goes, oh, that'd be okay, And she's just staring at me in my face, holding this diet coke bottle. And I noticed at this point, like the diet coke bottles a little

dirty there. It's about an inch of water, brown murky water. Maybe there's some cigarette butts in it. It's just so weird and out of place and out of character. And she's staring at me through me, looking at me, and I said, hold on a second, and I turned around my back. I turned my back to her, and I look into this other room to check on these people and say, how is it going there like it's great, and then I go, oh, my gosh, she's not wearing

a lanyard. Maybe she crashed the event because we have crashers sometimes. And I turned back around to confront her about it, and she is gone. And the weird thing is when you get to that tower, you go up an entire flight of stairs to get there, and when you open and close the door to get into the stairs, it is very loud. That did not happen. She did not go downstairs. So I started making my way around this octagon, you know, tower, looking in every room to

be like, where is this woman? Where is this woman? Where's this woman? I screamed for everybody to come back to me, and I asked them. I was like, have you seen this woman? And nobody knew who I was talking about. No one had seen her. I was the only person that saw her. No one. And I asked every single group all night long. I remember asking you. I probably asked Tenny if he was there, Like you know, I was telling everyone who would listen, and I kept

looking for this woman and I couldn't find her. And then months later I was at another event, and this is when the hotel would send somebody to events to get people to come and hunt ghosts, and the sky sees me come in the door and he belines it for me and he says, Adam, we've seen her, And I was like, who, And it has to be reminded.

He was like that woman that you talked about. We've seen her, but every time we see her, she's down at the end of a hallway, turning a corner, or she's going somewhere, you know, and they can't catch up to her. Like she goes down the hallway where there's no exit and she's not there. And she looks like that. I mean, she looks like she's wearing the sweatpants and she has the It's the weirdest thing because it looks like a person. And I was talking to her and I had no doubt in my mind that it was

a person until she was it wasn't a person. Well, John brings that up a lot in his lectures. How you know how many ghosts have we seen that we just had no idea where ghosts? You know, how how many times have we seen an apparition that just looked so real that we went about our day and we had no idea that this was someone you know who

was potentially a ghost. And you know, going back in the history of the mountawah Rington, there really aren't any recorded modern deaths on property, but that doesn't necessarily mean they don't exist. You know, a lot of these kind of bigger hotels and things, they don't really advertise that when you go back and look at deaths that took place there in the early nineteen hundreds or whatever, when there was all these like very well to do people

there and things. There were two documented deaths of two gentlemen. But like I mean, these people arrived with kind of a cavalcade of like servants and you know, helpers and assistants. If any of those people died, that would not have been in the New York Times. And then even so later on and so I did uncover one death that we did talk about earlier, but I don't know that you guys know about it. But I did find one really gruesome death that happened on property in the twenties.

And basically everyone was at breakfast one morning. This was they're all at breakfast. They hear a woman screaming from the lobby. People run to the lobby and they find this woman basically crushed between the wall and that elevator in the lobby right there. So the elevator boy had that that's what they called him in the newspaper article.

By the way, the elevator boy his title, had lost control of the elevator either when she was getting on or getting off, and she basically was crushed between the wall and the elevator, and her family had to identify her only by her wrist watch. Good lord gnarly. And that elevator has been in use, I mean the elevators in use today. I mean now they don't have an attendant. When we first started going, there was an attendant, but there's not one there anymore. But that's the only other

like really crazy death I could find there. But that does not explain your diet coke lady, or the people that John Tenny saw. Right. I have a new theory and I'm interested to hear your thoughts on it. So every time we go to the Mount Washington, I bring up this story because you know, the drive is long. It's like going to the Shining Hotel, you know. And I we were talking about this story again and Ben was like looking at photos and it was like, does

this did this look like her? Because we're trying to figure out what she looks like. And I look at the picture and I said, oh, sort of like she could be a relative of that person, like a cousin or aunt, like the same features. And he was like, that's the princess. And so I was like, what if? What if? Because of because this woman wanted to know why I was there, wanted to know why I was leading the group, what I was doing in the space

I wasn't supposed to be in. What if the Princess just manifested herself as something as close as she could get to modern day so that I would talk to her, Because if she showed up in victorian dress, I'd be like whoa and like running around with my flappy arms,

like breaking out. I don't know. After having heavily researched the Princess the last couple of weeks, I feel like that could be a possibility, But I don't think she would show up as a woman with a coke bottle with cigarette butts in it and sweatpants, Like that is not our princess. Okay, you know what? Like the algorithm got off and like she's like well, this will have

to do. But it's like I felt like as if you know, she is just showing me herself as something, so I will talk to her because she needed that information, Like why are you here, what are you doing? What's happening? I don't know. I just thought it was really really weird. And you know, I've never seen her again. And every time I go, I sometimes I just sit in hallways and like watch for her and wait, you know, I've never seen her again. So maybe this is putting it

out in the universe. We're all going to see her next this this November when we go back to your to your point though, Adam, like, maybe she's not manifesting those clothes and that dirty coke bottle, but I mean, because we don't really know why ghosts wear clothes and and where they get their clothes from, Like maybe it is her, but your brain is manifesting her in a way that doesn't scare you and make you run around

with your arms flapping and breaking out. Like maybe maybe your brain couldn't see it at that time in that spooky way, and so your brain put her in a normal outfit. A very relaxing woman from the eighties with a dirty cigarette butt filled Coca Cola bottle. I mean, maybe we're learning something new about Adam Barry exactly. That's an internal like an internal weird thing I need to work through. We've talked about this before though, there's a at least one of the ideas that we've we've I know,

we've spoken about and I talked about it lectures. Is. One of the difficulties with ghost hunting any place is that sometimes these entities or spirits or ghosts show up and we don't know who they are, and we don't know why they're there. And maybe it's because they are on a type of vacation. Maybe they go to the places that they loved and they just check in and walk around owned because they loved it when they were alive,

and so it's not that they died there. It's that now that they're not tethered to their body, they can go anywhere they want, so they go to the places that they love. I mean, I would one hundred percent if I was a ghost, I would one hundred go back to the Mount Washington, Like it's one of my

happy places. As you guys don't, like, we go there all the time and I could definitely see myself in like spirit form being like, you know what, I'm gonna go check up on the Mount Washington and see what's going on there and like have those feels, you know,

get that nostalgia. So that being said, something that has kind of done, not necessarily related, but just something that I've thought about more now, just because you know, Charlotte loves hiking, and so she and mr X mr X being my significant other that chooses to remain unnamed, um mr X, she and uh Jimmy, they go hiking a lot up there, Like she's hiped Mount Washington twice now and like you know, she's eight. She loves it. But every time they go up there, I you know, I do,

being the morbid person I am. They'll go on to like a certain mountain, and I will of course google, like you know, Eisenhower deaths, and I will learn about people who died hiking up there and hiking, especially back

when the Mount Washington was first. I mean, obviously it's a huge part of that now, a huge component of it now, but even back in like the early nineteen hundreds, like they forged a lot of trails back there and stuff, and there were a lot of deaths, and there are a lot of deaths of people who were staying at the hotel and never made it back they went out.

I mean, keep in mind, we're talking millions of people hiking there over the years, but there are moments where people like that staff has that job of cleaning out that room of someone that didn't make it back from a hike. It's very rare, and so sometimes I wonder that, like, are those people kind of you know, they didn't die on property, But it's just interesting because there is that weird energy there. I don't know, I'm I'm reaching. Maybe

it makes sense though. Also you're talking about the land it's built on being you know, it's very beautiful. Native Americans were around there. I know that you and I have had many weird experiences down in the lecture area in the SPA, And I actually brought that up in the history earlier, was that, like, we have found that to be one of the most haunted places in the hotel, even though it's new to the structure, and they have since added on to that, there's a whole other wing

of new rooms. What's really weird is that when you pull up you don't see any of that, Like they've really done it cleverly. Were like you pull up, but it is still very much the original facade of the hotel. You do not see the spa wing or the new rooms. It just looks exactly like it did when it was built. But in the back there are these new structures. But we've investigated the Presidential wing many times and had really

crazy experiences. So John, maybe you can speak to that, Like why do you think that area would be more haunted or have so much activity? Well, I think people who ghost hunt and go on investigations. We know this. Like whenever a house is being rebuilt or an addition is being put on, like that seems to kick up activity.

And it's almost like if there are spirits and entities who are used to roaming the halls, like oh now I have a new area to go into, like and and plus people, you know, whether we think about this in the forefront of our mind, but like when you're building something, you have people doing a craft, usually something

they love. They're putting their like emotional energy into building a new whole segment, and they might talk about people are gonna get married here, and people are going to have memories here, and people are going to stay here, and that intentional energy might even act like a magnet to the entities that are already in the other parts

of the hotel, like what is happening? Why are so many people thinking about this other area where there's nothing, where it's being constructed, And so they go and hang out and they see all the activity and they're like, oh, well, I'm gonna see what happens over here. And now that new part is as haunted as the rest of the place. I will say one of my best friends, she didn't really know the history there. I told her that we were doing an offense there or whatever, and she said,

you won't believe this. I was at the spa one time, the the spa, you know, not not in the main hotel, and she was like, I was getting a massage, and she said, and the woman left for whatever reason, and she said, I felt like someone literally started pushing down on my chest so hard. She was like, I couldn't breathe. I was gasping for air. And she was like, I had the worst feeling. And she's like, I literally had to throw myself off of the massage table and I

had to get her. I had to convince her to come back to the hotel. I was like, it's fine. That was it's like, you know, in my brain, I was like, it's so weird because that, like we've said, like that is seemingly one of the more haunted spots in the hotel, and she had this experience like completely, you know this, She's not into ghost or anything. I will say I've had many massages there and I've never

had that experience and would go back anytime. But it's just so weird that, you know, she had no idea of the history or that it was haunted and she had this wild experience there. Well, you know, we always talked to about like the different types of experiences. And one of the things that I don't mention very much because it's one of my little I feel like it's a personal, little not trick, but I don't know what

the good word is. But when I'm at places like the Mount Washington, I'm a cigarette smoker, and so I'm super sensitive to the smell of cigarette smoke and there are places like the Mount Washington where I can tell if activity quote unquote ghostly activity is going to kick up in an area because I start to smell cigarette smoke, and then I remember at these locations, the majority of the time they've been open, people used to smoke inside of them, and so I feel like my brain is

like up, someone smoking in here, and I know that they're not. I know that no one's smoking in the building, but it's almost like that's how the spirit or the ghost figures out a way to let me know that they're there. I don't know if that's stranger now. No, I think they're very personable. I cannot pinpoint what goes on in that place. People always ask me, what is the most haunted place you've been in the US, And I'm like, the Mount Washington Hotel, like, hands down to me,

is the most haunted place I've been. I've been into asylums and hospitals and crazy things, but like the Mount Washington, something always happened. You Know, there was a night where, like my the light in my room kept going on and off, and like I would get up and I could hear it flicking back on, and I would be like, you need to turn this light off, and then finally it would turn off. And you know, things like that

happen all the time. There was a time where Charlotte and I my water we rented a room there in March, which is very much slow season there because ski season is winding down, and we were one of three rooms checked in into that entire hotel, and Charlotte was just running circles around the lobby and there was like a blizzard that night, and we were up with than one of the tower suites and the wind was howling and I literally was living like my haunted life in that moment.

It was like, there is no place more haunted than this. I was gonna say, I think the hotel remembers us. Oh, it totally does. I've been there so many times. I feel that, Yeah, it's like has a mind of its own.

And you know, we have our fun things that we always do when we're there, right, we have we always do like sort of the same things to go to the spot, or we have a cocktail in the same spot, or we watch an episode of Kindred Spirits, you know, with a group of people, and we make these lasting memories. But I don't think the tel forgets us. And when we return, it's like, oh, welcome back. Let's like, let me show you this new thing I've got to show you today. It's it's fascinating and I wish, I mean

I sort of wish I could live there. Did you have you talked about the portrait of Stickney? I haven't. I was going to talk about that in the end, So everybody stay tuned. I'm going to give you a little four one one. Yeah, it's a it's a doozy it is. And like what you were saying, I think we might be the only people who go up there

regularly and talked to the hotel. I think people go up there, they experienced the hotel, and they do their thing, and they have their weddings and they have their vacations. But I think all of us have like an active conversation with her. I'm going to call her her well and to the extent, like to the extreme about like Adam saying that the hotel remembers us. So the first time I was at the hotel, I did the investigation out in the area where they have of the horses

and a pig and the stable. Yeah, the stable, and nothing really seemed to happen. Every year since that time, when I go out into the stables, the activity in the stables is like, Oh, it's Tenny and those people again, because the last time we were hearing horses outside of the stable and people were seeing little shapes move around on the floor that looked like dogs and pigs and cows, and so it's like even the animals like love them out Washington to the extent that they're staying there. Yeah.

I mean, I think this was the best unpaid for advertisement for the Mont Washington they've ever had amongst us spooky people. Yeah, they're listening upgrade every time we It's just one of my favorite places. And I just I feel like what you guys was. I think that it's very easy for people to go up there and have a beautiful, lovely vacation. But if you're into ghosts and you want to shift your focus and maybe try to

experience something there, I think it's pretty easy. And it's also like very safe and secure, and so it's a good spot for people like us. So and I feel like we just scratched the surface, by the way, because I know we've all had way more experience and we could literally talk about them at Washington for six hours maybe more. But just tell me like individually, like John, I know you have a podcast happening, tell us where people can find you and you know how to support you.

So my podcast is called What's Up Weird? Though it's not paranormal at all. It's just two people, two friends, talking to each other. But all of my social media is just John E. L Tenny. That's Twitter, Instagram, all of it. Or you can just type Tenny Weirdo into Google and follow where it leads you. That's fabulous. Mr Barry. I know you don't have anything going on, so I'm just gonna end this right now, and I'm just kidding.

Anything happen. You know, you can watch Candred Spirits. I feel like there's going to be a new season around the corner at some point. Whenever you're listening to this podcast, stay tuned. Oh this is coming out very soon. But our new season is coming out early early next year, right, So I'm doing that and then you can follow me find me on the social just google Adambury, Instagram's Adambury. My Twitter is Adam J. Berry because the Adam Bury in the UK will not give it to me, so

that's okay. But we're friends now, so that's that's a plus. I think you just haven't you need to up your your price for that? He was like, why would I sell it? It's my name and I'm like, okay, fine, like it's also my name's also well. Thank you so much, you guys. I can't wait for us to get back to the Mount Washington in November. Although by the time people listen to this might not be November, but we are up there almost every November of every year with

my company, Strange Escape. So check it out and join us. Thank you, guys, love you. I'm so happy to have had this conversation. My thank you for joining me on this extremely deep dive into the Mount Washington resort and all of its hauntings. I don't claim to know what's going on there, because it's not a haunting that fits any textbook haunting by any means. I do know that despite every strange and maybe slightly scary experience I've had there,

I keep going back, and we'll always go back. It will continue to be a special spot for me and my family, and that veranda with those spectacular mountain views, will always be my happy place. I did just want to say a quick thank you to all of you who have enjoyed season one of Haunted Road. We are already very much at work on season two and your support and your comments and reviews and feedback have just been incredible. So thank you for getting weird with me

every Wednesday. And I can't wait to be back with season two, so we will be talking again soon. I'm Amy Bruney, and this was Haunted Road. Haunted Road is a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. The podcast is written and hosted by Amy Bruney. Executive producers include Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. The show is produced by rema Ill Kali

and Trevor Young. Taylor Haggerdorn is the show's researcher. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.