Haunted Lowe Hotel, Point Pleasant
Hotel Has Ghostly Guests Who Have Decided not to Leave
Aug 21, 2007
The hotel opened for business in 1901 and was called the Spencer Hotel after a local judge. There were fifty-four rooms, a lobby with a high ceiling, griffins and a huge fireplace. The lower level contained a bank, saloon, barbershop and liquor business. It is still the largest landmark in Point Pleasant. It was known for excellent entertainment, its ballroom and as a gathering place for society’s elite. The Lowes bought it in 1929 and named it the Lowe Hotel. Rush and Ruth Finley bought the lodging place in 1990 and have upgraded the building. Thirty-four rooms are available, some of which are suites.
Lowe Hotel's "Neighbors"
Across the street is a statue of Mothman, mysterious creature that plagued Point Pleasant from November 1966 until December 1967, and the Mothman Museum is in the hotel’s building. There is a yearly Mothman Festival. Nearby lays the Cornstalk Public Hunting Grounds. Cornstalk was a Shawnee Chief who cursed the land before dying from wounds inflicted by soldiers after he tried to make peace, then was held as hostage. Between 1880 and 1978, at least seventeen major disasters happened in or very close to Point Pleasant.
Lowe Hotel's Ghostly Phenomena
Guests report that they have felt an invisible presence in rooms, halls and the sumptuous staircase to the second floor. Some have sent the Finley’s pictures of eerie phenomena.
The fourth floor contains the ballroom used by the elite during the hotel’s earlier days and an unfinished area used for storage where the blind Mrs. Lowe’s cane rocking chair is stored. Marcia Finley, the couple’s daughter decided to slip up in the storage area to smoke a cigarette so her parent wouldn’t know. Suddenly, the chair began to rock by itself. Employees have found the chair moves to another part of the room by itself.
Riverboats captains enjoyed staying at the hotel. The third floor boasts the ghost of Jimbo, Captain Jim, who tells guests in a three room suite that he awaits his boat’s arrival. He appeared on a night that a passenger vessel, the River Explorer, was to come to Point Pleasant as part of the Mothman Festival and scared guests out of the room.
A tall, gaunt man haunts room 314. He has a long beard and is dressed in the clothing style of the 1930s. His reflection has been seen in a mirror. While he has not been positively identified, he is believed to be Sid Hatfield of the family who feuded with the McCoys.
Room 202 is named the Keel Room after John Keel, a respected cryptozoologist, who has researched and written about Mothman. He lodged there during the first and second Mothman Festivals. No one has experienced paranormal activity there.
Related topics:
Mothman, Winged Anomaly from WV
Shawnee Chief Cornstalk’s Curse
Source:
The Lowe Hotel, Haunted Rooms in Mothman Territory, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, (FATE, August 2007)
