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We arrived in Paso Robles rather late at night on a Friday. We were scheduled to stay at the Paso Robles Inn in the famous room 1007. Yes, yet another reputed haunted hotel and room.
As you probably figured out by now if you have been following my column, Dad and I are determined to see a ghost. Mom on the other hand opted to stay at home again. (Seeing ghosts is not one of the highest things on her list. In fact it is probably one of the lowest.)
Early history relates that Paso Robles was known by native Indians and Mission Fathers as the “Hot Springs” during the Mission Period. Annual pilgrimages were made from the missions of San Luis Obispo, Santa Ynez and San Antonio. People who were sick were brought to be healed by drinking and bathing in the thermal waters.
The Paso Robles region became known for its mineral hot springs in the 1800’s. Travelers on the Camino Real trail indulged the healthful, therapeutic springs.
The first Paso Robles Springs Hotel was built in 1864, next to the natural artesian Hot Springs well. In 1891, the hotel was replaced with a magnificent new all brick hotel. The new hotel was constructed of over one million bricks and took over two years to build. The Inn became known worldwide as a health resort. (http://pasoroblesinn1.reachlocal.net/ )
The Story: In 1940, night clerk J. H. Emsley found a fire in the hotel. He rang the alarm and then died of a heart attack. Thanks to his quick action, the hotel was evacuated and no one else died, but Emsley didn’t live to find that out.
The Haunting: It is suspected that Emsley is behind the odd occurrences in Room 1007 and the other rooms. The front desk often receives calls from the phone in that room when no one is staying there. The head of maintenance once went up to inspect the phone, and saw the line light up as it called the front desk. He picked up the phone to call himself, but his call was disconnected and the second line called the front desk. Once, the phone in the room dialed 911, perhaps to report a ghostly fire.
So that is the story but when we got there, the desk clerk and night guard started talking to us about the room. The night guard said that room 1007 got all the press, but that he had been there about 3 years now and he had never seen anything weird there. He said there were way more haunted places on the property and offered to take us there if we would like. We said great and to just let us get settled in and get something to eat and we would take him up on his offer.
So we went up to our room and got settled. Our first impression was that it didn’t have any bad vibes, just a little strange feeling in the bathroom.
And yeaaaa! The internet worked. That made my Dad happy.
We were hungry and it was getting late so we went down to the local bar and grill inside the Paso Robles Inn. And it was so cute. There was a band playing and all these old people dancing.
It was fun. It was a really good band. I didn’t want to leave but it was closing time (11 p.m.) so we left and went back to see the security guard who took us to the most haunted place on the property (according to him) which was the ballroom.
He would not tell us much at this time. (He would tell us much more later.) But he did say he would no longer take the elevator next to the ballroom. When he needed to go up the upper floors, he would only take the stairs
So the security guard opened up the ballroom for us. He told us not to go into the kitchen. (He made us give him our solemn promise we wouldn’t.)
So after a few minutes we turned the lights real low and then the security guard left and showed us how to lock the door after we left.
It was definitely spooky and really scary in there alone. We walked around and took pictures, but we kept our word and didn’t go into the kitchen. There were some really eerie feelings coming from the back kitchen door and some side closet-type rooms, but other than that we didn’t really see or hear much more than the usual creaks and groans. It was just the feeling in there that was really creepy. We stayed in there about a half an hour then decided to leave.
We went upstairs and yes we took the haunted elevator and nothing happened on the way up, but I felt like there was something in there with us.
After walking around the top floor (which was occupied by guests) we decided to come back down. And on the trip down the elevator seemed to take a lot longer than it was supposed to, to go down one floor. I felt like there was something else controlling it. We road it up and down one more time but oddly enough the numbers didn’t change inside the elevator, even though we opened the door and were on the second floor.
It was weird. I did not like the elevator and I understand why he doesn’t go in it.
We checked out the bathrooms on the first floor next to the ballroom and the men’s bathroom had a very definite creepy feeling to it. Even more creepy than the ballroom. (We did not know it then but were to find out why later.)
We decided to leave the ballroom building and went to the next most haunted spot (according to this security guard) which was the garden areas around the pool. He said there were frequent reports of seeing ghostly apparitions in this area.
Again we spent 15 or 20 minutes out around the pool but we saw and heard nothing. So we decided to go back to the hotel lobby. We bumped into the security guard again.
We told him what happened and he now seemed to open up a little. He said none of the security guards like the ballroom. He said he just checks it once then locks it up for the rest of the night. He said one time some drunk got locked in there after closing and called 911 screaming about ghosts and things late at night.
Another security guard died in the bathroom next to the ballroom from a heart attack. (Yeah, the same one we had the creepy feeling in.) Apparently he was always afraid of the place and hated going in there, and one night he just had a heart attack and died next to the ballroom.
After much prying we finally got him to tell us what happened to him in the elevator. One night he got in the elevator and then everything got totally disoriented. He couldn’t tell which way was up or down and the whole experienced took him an eternity to reach the second floor. Another security guard got stuck in the elevator and he won’t go in it anymore either.
Then he told us about the tunnels under the hotel that Jesse James apparently used when he was hiding out. I did not know whether to believe that or not, so I went and looked it up on the internet before I wrote this and by golly it was true. Check out the Paso Robles/ Jess James connection here: http://studioclub.com/Travel/Paso%20Robles/jesse_james.htm .
Anyway he said the basement of the hotel was really creepy and the tunnels had been closed off. No one ever wants to go down there.
So after all the stories we went back to what the security guards called the overrated room 1007. My Dad and I stayed up for awhile in the dark and we both heard a couple of like human coughs coming from right next to our bed. It was pretty weird. Not really scary just sort of weird. I went to sleep after a while, but my Dad said he heard it a couple of more times throughout the night.
Then in the morning I found a towel that I had put securely on the bathroom counter on the floor. Neither my Dad nor I had been near the counter during the night, so it is not like we could have accidentally knocked it down or something.
Weird!