HGB Ep. 567 - 1886 Olde Park Hotel

Moment in Oddity - Dr. Suess House (Suggested by: Michael Rogers)

There is a very strange tower of a home located just outside of Talkeetna, Alaska. The home looks like it came straight out of a children's book. The outward appearance looks like 12 different homes all stacked on top of eachother with each subsequent house, smaller than the last. This is why it is known by locals as the Dr. Seuss House. The house itself has no correlation to the actual author, however the whimsical nature of the building's structure is the reason for the moniker. The home stands a towering 185 feet high. The creator and builder, Phillip Weidner, calls the structure his "poem to the sky". There are various ladders and staircases to the different levels which, according to what you are traversing, have a total of 14 to 17 floors respectively. The home is still currently under construction and due to the owner's day job as one of Alaska's top trial lawyers, Weidner finds it difficult to find the time needed to complete this unusual structure. He surmises however, that once it is complete, he and his family will enjoy the tower and he looks forward to sitting atop it to enjoy the Northern Lights in the future. We definitely recommend looking up photos of this unique home because it certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Phillips Brooks Born

In the month of December, on the 13th in 1835, Phillips Brooks was born. He was born into a wealthy New England family. He graduated from Harvard in 1855 and after a brief stint as a school teacher at the Boston Latin school, he began to study for his ordination in the Episcopal Church in 1856. While in seminary, Brooks preached at Sharon Chapel in Fairfax County, Virginia. After graduating in 1859, from the Virginia Theological Seminary, Phillips Brooks became an ordained deacon and in 1860 he became an ordained priest. His sermon at Harvard's commemoration of the Civil War's dead garnered Brooks nationwide recognition. After time spent in Germany, Brooks spoke of "thrilling music" and "thrilling incense" during church services. He encouraged many aspects of the liturgical movement, including congregational singing during the liturgy. Phillips Brooks had several publications based upon sermons and preachings he had delivered, but one thing he is most well known for today, is his authoring of the Christmas carol, "O Little Town of Bethlehem" which was based on the text that Phillips Brooks wrote in 1868.

1886 Olde Park Hotel 

The Olde Park Hotel has stood for over 130 years in Ballinger, Texas, which is known as the Greatest Little Town in Texas. From the outside, the hotel looks pretty unpretentious, but it has a storied history. The building has housed not only a hotel, but a brothel, a boarding house, school, restaurant and antique store. Today, it is run as an event host that can be rented. This is mostly for ghost hunts because this hotel is said to be one of the most haunted hotels in Texas. Join us for the history and hauntings of the Olde Park Hotel!

Ballinger, Texas was a railroad town. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway built a line west from Brownwood that terminated in a new town they built. They decided to name the town for a stockholder in the railroad company, Galveston attorney William Pitt Ballinger. The line was completed in 1886 and the town would be incorporated in 1892. Ballinger is home to one of the few Carnegie libraries still operating in its original building. This opened in 1909 with funds from Andrew Carnegie. The towns economy exploded around cotton production and the railroad. Soon saloons were popping up and outlaws started showing up. Gun battles happened occasionally. The current downtown historic district features a courthouse square with many buildings dating back to the late 1800s. These buildings include not only the library. but the Texas Theater, the historic post office, the County Building and City Hall. And then there is the Olde Park Hotel.

Pinning down a history of the hotel is very difficult. A flood in 1905 wiped out the official records in Ballinger. As we said, the hotel is unpretentious. The architectural style is hard to describe and pretty simple. Clearly, this is a building that has been added onto through the years. It is believed that it started as a white, two-story house that existed before 1886 as it appears in a picture dated before that time. The house would become a hotel in 1886 known as the Three Sisters Hotel. Ballinger would become a rough and tumble place that outlaws gravitated towards. The hotel would be multi-purposed into a bordello twice and the first time would have been in the 1800s. Outlaws more than likely stayed at the hotel, especially when it was a brothel. These outlaws could have included Sam Bass who committed the biggest train robbery in US history, the Newton Boys who were bank and train robbers and had stolen more than any other gang at the time they were caught, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, John Wesley Hardin was a gunfighter who killed his first man at age 15, Emmanuel "Mannen" Clements headed the ruthless Clements family who were cattle rustlers and gunfighters, and Jim "Killer" Miller aka,"The Deacon" who was a gunfighter." He got his nickname because he attended church and didn't drink or smoke. Bonnie Parker grew up in a nearby town and that's why its thought that she and Clyde had stayed here at some point. 

When prohibition started, the hotel became a place for bootlegging. Some time in the early 1900s, Washington Hampton Secrest II owned the hotel and called it the Secrest Hotel. The Keel family would buy it in 1922 and they owned it for multiple generations. The hotel would get the name Olde Park Hotel at that time. The history of the hotel also claims that this was called the Royal Hotel at some point and that the building would serve as a meeting house, boarding house, school house, restaurant, music store, a brothel for a second time and antique store. Jeanette Findley Truehardt was the owner who bought the hotel and opened it as an antique store. In 2016, Dan and Connie LaFave purchased the building from Jeanette. The couple began their own ghost hunting team in 2009 called Graveyard Shift Paranormal Investigations and that is why they were attracted to the hotel. They focused early on with local private hauntings. They branched out to bigger locations and the ghost town of Helena, Texas became one of their favorite places to investigate. Dan has penned four books, one of which is about the Olde Park Hotel. 

The couple renovated the 10,000 square foot hotel, creating 10 themed rooms. There is the Pink Room upstairs that is also known as Helen's Azalea Suiteroom in honor of Helen Keel. The Green Room is upstairs and is the only room with original furniture from the Keel family. There's also a doll in there called Ginny. The Rice Marriott Room is also known as the Red Room and is decorated with red and white pinstripes and was named in honor of the son of a previous owner of the hotel. The Yellow Room was also named Iona’s Oleander Suite named after Jeanette’s grandmother, Iona. There's a doll named Abigail in there. Downstairs is the LaFave’s Master Suite and its decorated in gold and burgundy. Preston’s Parlor was once Jeanette’s grandson’s room. The Pruiett Wildflower Room is named after “Tex” Pruiett Keel who was one of John and Virginia Keel’s sons. The Chrisco’s French Bordello is named after Jack & Juanita Chrisco and has blue and gold colors and a haunted mirror. The Presentation Room has a 10 foot movie screen and there is also the Secrest Sitting Room, Anne's Theater and Virginia's Country Kitchen.

Despite having all these rooms, the hotel is not run like a traditional hotel. The hotel is run as a haunted venue that can be rented for an evening. There are claims of over two dozen spirits at this hotel. Talk of haunting activity has been going on in Ballinger for decades. When Jeanette had the antique store, people would ask if they could go upstairs and when they came back down they would ask if the place was haunted. Many customers would tell her that they saw somebody walking around upstairs who would disappear. There was also the spirit of an older gentleman who liked to sit in an armchair on the second floor and a woman in a period dress was seen by a customer and she assumed she was dressed up since this was an antique shop, so she went up to her to ask about a price and the woman disappeared. Also during the antique store days there was a doll kept in the main store room that was not for sale. That was because the porcelain doll belonged to the current owners mother, and she once witnessed it levitate between two shelves of its own accord. A psychic told Jeanette that there were thirty spirits in the hotel. 

The LaFaves had experiences right from the beginning that continue. They decided to share the building with other paranormal enthusiasts. Part of the reason we have hauntings going on here is that Dan has brought in a lot of haunted objects, including dolls, and some of the wood they used for renovating came from the ghost town of Runnels. Location is also involved as the hotel is right across from the courthouse where criminals were hanged back in the day. That first night that Dan and Connie stayed in the hotel, they slept in the downstairs owner's suite. Dan was awakened by something caressing his scalp. He at first thought it was Connie, but when he opened his eyes he saw another woman. He jumped out of bed and the woman disappeared. She had been wearing a dress from the 1800s that was black with white and red on the sleeves. She had long black, curly hair. And she was completely solid. If she hadn't disappeared, he would have thought she was fully human. Dan thinks she was one of the working girls from the brothel days. That was the beginning of hearing disembodied footsteps and seeing a variety of ghosts that included children, a cowboy and other painted ladies. Cold spots are felt and disembodied voices are heard. There are nose pictures involving perfume and cigar smoke. People claim to be touched, pushed and scratched.

The couple decided to create a toy room for the child ghosts. Activity increased after that. They also set up a doll room, which features dolls from all over. Dan purchased a porcelain doll he named Ginny. This is the doll that is in the Green Room, which is also called the Honeysuckle Suite. The doll apparently moves around in this room and is found in different places. The first-floor hallway has a workshop at the end and women always feel uneasy in there. A male ghost haunts the workshop and Connie describes him as being a grumpy old fart. Although he is worse than just yelling "Get off my lawn." He can be violent. Dan was leading a tour with seven women and when he took them in the workshop, the spirit got angry. A woman suddenly said that she saw something peek out of a room and then pull back. Everybody looked in that direction and watched to see if whatever it was would appear again. And sure enough it did. A small, shadowy child specter walked between two rooms. This spirit was followed by a taller spirit dressed like a cowboy. This figure was so big it blocked out the whole hallway. The light was out in the workshop, so Dan flipped it on and the workshop ghost hurled an object that crashed across the room. One of the women fainted dead out. Several of the women ran from the workshop and exited the hotel. They were done with the tour.

Dan says upstairs in the back is the most haunted area of the hotel. Psychics have claimed that a room in that area has given them visions of a man attacking a woman. He grabs her by the throat and pushed her up against the wall. No one knows if he actually ended up killing the woman, but the energy in that room is quite dark. Nick Groff investigated the hotel over two nights for his Death Walker series during Season 2. He mostly ran around with what he called his Puckwudgie, which is a glorified spirit box, and tried interacting with the spirits of this man and this woman. Groff repeatedly asked for the man to touch him or try to attack him and nothing ever happened. Nick did claim to feel nauseous a couple of times and got some interesting stuff to come across the Geo Port, but nothing earth shattering. A Para Lyte went off during the night while he was sleeping and he heard disembodied footsteps in the hall and then a Paranormal Music Box went off.

Other spirits that might be here include a couple of the infamous outlaws. In March 1887, Emmanuel Clements was shot and killed in a bar in Ballinger by a man named Joseph Townshend. Townshend was ambushed by Jim Miller who was known as The Deacon and assassinated. Jim Miller was later hanged by a mob of people in 1909 after he killed a deputy marshal. The Deacon is said to haunt the hotel now and possibly Clements. We will say that the name Emmanuel came up multiple times on Groff's spirit box. Could the shadowy cowboy figure seen near the stairs be one of these outlaws? People have taken to calling him Slim. He apparently likes to whistle. There is another huge shadow cowboy that acts like a marshal in the place, policing the other ghosts. He is seen everywhere in the hotel. 

A lady of the evening named Annie hangs out on the second floor in the Traveler's Suite. She likes to talk on EVPs and has identified herself by name. There is a spirit that likes to stand by the downstairs bathroom and people call him Glenn. An unidentified old woman wanders the hallways. Several of the child ghosts have been identified as Dennis, who has blonde hair, Benjamin, who is 9-years-old and loves to talk and play in the play room, and an unnamed 5-year-old boy, who loves trains and the play room. Several previous owners are thought to be here. Kay Seacrest is one of them and she generally appears in a dress from the 1800s. One group staying overnight had Dan investigating with them and Dan asked the spirits to demonstrate the walking of cowboy boots and sure enough, there were the sounds of boots walking across the floor.

The Ghost and Getaways Blog investigated and they reported, "We investigated the 1st floor but we spent most of our time on the 2nd floor.  One team member reported a creepy feeling and having unexplained noises on their audio recorder near and in the LaFave’s Master Suite, however we were not able to get enough data to establish validity of the recordings or who it might be.  Other than that, there wasn’t much to report for the 1st floor.  We just seemed to gravitate to the second floor. In the Pruiett Wildflower Room, team members reported activity on the Rempod and a creepy feeling. Twice they spent the night in that room and reported activity throughout the night. Nothing was significant or frightening enough to drive them out of the room but they did NOT have a quiet night. We spent much of our time in the upstairs hallway and going towards the back. We had erratic EMF activity and could not find a reason or the source for it.  Using a laser grid, we may have seen shadows down towards the end.  I say that we may have seen shadows because, after a  while, the lights kind of play tricks with your eyes.  At least it does with me.  While we were not able to document shadows with a camera, a few of us are pretty certain we saw something. We also had some hits on the Parascope but they were erratic and did not seem to be in direct response to questions.  We used a Ghostbox as well but didn’t get any responses that seem to coincide with a direct question.  Most of our activity seemed to be with the Parascope and K2 meters."

Stephanie Hendricks wrote in September 2024, "I recently visited here August 24th 2024 for an overnight investigation and I must say this place is definitely haunted. Before we even began our investigation or even setting up our equipment , we heard weird sounds, footsteps, knocks and just an overall feeling of being watched and followed. Dan gave us the rundown on what all was accessible to us and then the tour and history of the place. After we did the tour we went about our way picking our rooms and deciding where we wanted to set up certain equipment and which items like motion activated lights or motion activated sound items to put in the areas we knew it would definitely trigger the most. I sat on my own adventure while the other two did the things they needed to do and I must say, even before it got dark I caught footsteps following me, breathing down my neck, deep heavy feeling of not being wanted, a deep growling sound and tugged from behind on my shirt. 

As it got dark, Dan was nice enough to do a spirit box session with us that most definitely brought all the spirits out to play. The voices that came through was insane, the answers we got when would we ask questions were so accurately answered it definitely made the hairs on my entire body stand up. He also was amazing enough to do a seance session with us and our EMFs were going crazy. The Para Light was going so high we all had a very eerie feeling, we felt heaviness in the room, footsteps outside the room, a scream, our motion triggered balls were lighting up like crazy in the doorway and the hallway. A dark shadow appeared in the doorway that one of the people I came with was so terrified he said he felt as if he was being held down in his chair. There were crying sounds that sounded so clear it’s as if the woman was standing right next to us. Dan went about his was and headed into his room and us 3 started our investigation. Dan has a room called “The Box” which is a mixture of the Estes method and his own where you put on blacked out googles with light flashing and headphones you put on that are totally noise canceling and a spirit box in a small dark room. No one but me would do it first. This has got to be the most disturbing part of my investigation. Not only was I in total darkness in a room, I was all alone on the 2nd floor as the other 2 were downstairs watching everything. I began my session and not even 3 minutes later there was loud footsteps, banging on the door and mind you I’m wearing noise cancelling headphone and I was grabbed on my right arm so tightly as if someone was telling me to get up or get out that I threw off my equipment and ran the heck out so fast and did not look back. Another encounter in the doll room I had was I had told Jolita one of the haunted dolls who is in a glass case to let me know she knew I was there in some way that when I came back I would know either something was off or changed and that I was going to come later to investigate the room more in depth. I came back about 20-30 minutes later and her head was turned a different direction. Trust me I had so many more experiences like knocking on my door, seeing movement outside my door, part of a leg/foot running away as I opened my door to my room BUT a hard shove out of a room that clearly didn’t want me there. From door opening and voices telling me to leave now, I would definitely recommend you visit this place and experience what we did. Like I said so much more happened that was totally insane I will definitely be back." 

The Olde Park Hotel has seen over a hundred years of history and some of it hasn't been pleasant. On top of that, many haunted objects have been brought into the hotel. And it runs as a haunted attraction during the Halloween season. Have all of these things led to paranormal activity? Is the Olde Park Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide!