Ghost Stories
So the first night we arrived at the Mount Washington Hotel, we were given a corner room at the end of the hall on the third floor. We spent about an hour in the room before dinner before we began to notice flies. It started with two flies buzzing around the room and after a bit became as many as six to seven (that we noticed) that were flying across the room. We immediately called the front desk and asked them to deal with it. We didn't, however, want to be in a room that had just been fumigated by pesticides so when we returned from dinner to a room that reeked of bug spray, we insisted we be moved to another room. There were no other rooms available according to the manager, but he eventually conceded and we were moved to room 314, where we went straight to bed, exhausted. The next morning we got ready and headed down to breakfast and then to the historic tour of the hotel. The tour was led by an old man who had lived his whole life in the town of Bretton Woods, NH, and who slowly led us around the hotel divulging its long history in a series of meandering stories.
The hotel was commissioned by Joseph Stickney in 1900 to be his vision of the perfect hotel. Two years later, the hotel opened its doors, and a year later Stickney dropped dead at the age of 64. But Stickney's wife, Carolyn, continued to summer at the hotel and was described to be a decadent and eccentric proprietor. She would evidently stand at a balcony overlooking the main staircase and wait until every guest had entered the dining room and if she saw any lady wearing a gown that was nicer than her own, she would change into something more elaborate before descending to the dining room for her meal. Once she was inside, the doors were shut and she was the last one admitted. In the year following her husband's death, Carolyn travelled to their home in France to grieve and there met a French prince, who, in the way French men will do, consoled her and they were married within a year. However, the prince died about a year later in a battle in World War I. Carolyn, having just been the sole inheritor of two enormous fortunes and now a princess to boot, was essentially free to do as she pleased. Continuing with her eccentricities, she would travel between France and New Hampshire but always slept in the same bed -- a four-post oak wood bed would travel with her wherever she went. That bed still resides in the hotel, in room 314.
Pause the story... I actually made the guide repeat himself when he said the room number. I had slept in this dead woman's bed. In a hotel said to still be haunted by her ghost. After a problem with flies, which are often associated with spooky things, had driven us out of our first room. So yes, we were staying in the haunted room, of all rooms. People throughout the years since Carolyn's death have claimed in various stories to have seen her roaming the rooms, to have heard her voice, felt her presence. The hotel has been the subject of many ghost hunters, including the show Ghost Hunters (check out the episode here and you'll see the room that I stayed in where they say they heard her voice). Thankfully, I didn't experience any sort of strange happenings and we went on with our stay undisturbed, but I would be lying if I said I slept entirely soundly. Needless to say, I doubt I'll be returning any time soon to room 314 in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of New Hampshire... But orange you glad the haunted hotel made such a pretty fall backdrop?
(I wore a white lace crop top from Nasty Gal, orange ruched midi skirt from Topshop, Chelsea Crew black suede ankle booties, Alex + Ani bracelets, gold hamsa necklace, an evil eye necklace, and globe necklace from Greece.)
