This light anomaly was captured on the second floor. We were unable to recreate it. This is the only picture we took during the hunt that had anything out of the ordinary in it.
We are in the doll room. Right after Debi laughs you will hear a child's voice. It's sounds like 'Mama' to us. A light anomaly then comes around to the back of Becky
Just after our investigator says 'that's my stomach' there's a voice that says 'OK'. We thought it was the male investigator with us but it was not. As a side note - it wouldn't make sense for our investigator to say OK in response to Deb tagging her stomach. It's more appropriate that it's a response to Deb asking the spirit if he can 'do that again''.
The History: The historic Rhoads Hotel (sometimes known as the Roads Hotel) was built in 1893. Newton Roads bought the property and his wife Clara ran the hotel with their daughter Hazel and son Everett until 1927. Everett was diagnosed with tuberculosis at age 19, and he was confined to isolation in the hotel until he died. Clara, Newton and his stepmother Catherine also died in the hotel.
The hotel was a layover stop for the railroad, which is just one block away, so it saw a wide variety of guests, supposedly including famous criminals John Dillinger and Al Capone although we have been unable to verify that. It was converted into a brothel and a speakeasy during Prohibition.
The Claims: Former owners of the hotel have claimed that just about every paranormal activity known has occurred in the hotel. Shadow figures, full body apparitions, footsteps, doors opening, closing and slamming, people touched, creepers, and the sound of children laughing. The current owner told the Boo team that he has heard voices coming from upstairs but that was pretty much the extent of the activity he has observed.
Our Findings: It was a chilly February night when we investigated the Rhoads Hotel. The temperature fell to 27 °, winds were NNE at 9mph and there was no precipitation. The hotel consists of two floors and an attic. The first floor has three parlors, a dining room, kitchen and bath plus a two-room apartment for the owner hidden behind a false wall (very haunted house like!). The second floor was originally 10 bedrooms and a front sitting area. Two of the bedrooms have been converted to bathrooms.
The building has settled which has made the floors very uneven and sloping. All of the interior doors that we checked either could not close all the way due to uneven frames or would not stay open due to the sloping floors. It is very easy to see how someone could open one of the doors and a moment later it ‘closes’ on its own. The same is true in reverse. Since the doors can’t latch they can freely swing open. We noticed that headlights from passing traffic travels from the bottom of the wall to the ceiling – perhaps giving the appearance of ‘creepers’. We also heard very faint ‘conversations’. This turned out to be the owners television even though he had the volume turned down very low. It wasn’t heard through-out the building just in a few spots on both the first and second floors.
We did have some personal experiences. Three of our investigators felt intense emotions of loss and as one put it ‘teary gratitude’. One investigator was touched and several others felt extreme cold spots. We cannot say for sure that the extreme cold spots weren’t due to lack of heat. The building is heated with individual room heaters. Since it was not cold in the building we only turned on a couple of the heaters. However, three investigators felt that the cold surrounded them and then disappeared.
The Rhoads Hotel is now owned by the Lost Limbs Foundation. The owner was very gracious and it was a great experience. Is it haunted? All we can say is that someone spoke who wasn’t one of us….we’ll be going back!
Note: The money collected from ghost hunts and tours - both public and private - are donated to the Lost Limbs Foundation. Private investors maintain the hotel. It's a great cause so stop by!