31 Days of Spook – Ellis Hotel

Buckle up my friends… it’s going to be a bumpy ride today.  Today we are focusing on the Ellis Hotel that is located in downtown Atlanta, right in mom/dad’s backyard if you will.

The Ellis Hotel used to be called the Winecoff Hotel.  On December 7, 1946 it had over 260 guests checked in for overnight.  Around 3:00AM (the witching hour some say), an elevator operator smelled smoke near the fifth floor and notified other employees.  Unfortunately by that time, the third, fourth and fifth floors were already on fire. The hotel was suppose to be fireproof and it turned out that night that it wasn’t.  Due to being ‘fireproof, there was no fire escapes, no fire doors, no sprinklers or alarm system.  Over 119 guests perished that night.

The hotel was reopened in 1951 as the Peachtree Hotel on Peachtree.  It passed through multiple ownerships and in 2007 it was named the Ellis Hotel.  There are rumors of items being moved, voices, children running and woman screaming down the hallways.  One time, two weeks in a row, the current alarm system went off at 2:48AM – the same time each week.

Mom/dad felt festive one day about a year ago.  It was during their monthly date night and they spent the night at the Hotel Ellis.  It doesn’t take much to spook dad but mom on the other hand is a hard one to crack.  They stayed on the third floor in a very nice room.  Dad woke mommy up around 2:30AM complaining about the activity in the hallway.  When mom checked it out, there was nothing.  She didn’t hear it or see anything but dad said it woke him up.  Around 3:30AM, mommy woke up smelling smoke.  She’s very sensitive to the smell and she said it was overwhelming.  Again, she woke daddy up and he didn’t smell anything.  And for some reason, the elevator door went up and down a lot that night.  They could hear the doors opening and closing but no foot steps.  Needless to say, they didn’t get much sleep that night.