Saturday, March 7, 2009

The Princess Awaits Your Arrival by James Paradie - Bretton Woods, NH


The Princess Awaits Your Arrival
3rd Edition: Mount Washington Hotel-Twin Mountain, New Hampshire
Written by: James Paradie

(Published in another newspaper on March 5th, 2009)

When you think of hotels, you mostly think of suites, a hotel breakfast, maybe even an indoor pool. Not necessarily. When it comes to the Mount Washington Hotel, at least. This hotel, which was designed by architect Charles Alling Gifford, was designed to look like a “Spanish Renaissance Revival”, has some guests that do check out, but SOME have decided to make this five story hotel their eternal home.

Our story takes place in the beautiful scenery of Twin Mountain where in 1902, Jack Stickney, a highly wealthy man who made his money off of investments such as coal mining and the Pennsylvania Railroad, decided to show off his wealth some more. So, he built the glorious hotel at, in that time, a whopping 1.7 million dollars. The hotel played host to many famous individuals, such as suspense and psychological thriller film maker, Alfred Hitchcock(best known for the 1960 thriller, Psycho). Inventor and businessman, Thomas Edison. And, Major League Baseball legend, Babe Ruth.

His wife, Carolyn Foster Stickney, loved the hotel as much as she did her husband, but a year later, her love was about to be lost. In December 1903, Jack died of heart failure and left Carolyn wandering the hotel, alone, and grieving over her late husband’s passing. Eventually Carolyn got remarried to Prince Clarigny de Lucinge, a French nobleman who owned hotels in Switzerland and France and would continue to help Carolyn operate the hotel as they spent their time there in the summers, and in Paris in the winters. Until bad luck struck again and the Prince died in the Battle of Verdun in World War I. Carolyn moved back to the place she loved most, her prized possession, the Mt. Washington Hotel where she resided for the rest of her life. She lived many more years before passing away, but owned the hotel until the day she died in the early 1930‘s. However, she did not leave entirely.

It is being said that Carolyn, now simply dubbed as “the Princess”, still resides in her former lover’s hotel watching over the many new faces who inhabit her former hotel every year, but she is now of the invisible kind. Some eye witnesses who have stayed at the hotel say you can see a woman that’s description strikingly resembles Carolyn watching over everyone from the balcony. Some have reported hearing a romantic, but ghostly melody from the depths of the hotel. In the “Tower Suites”, television channels will switch and tubs run by themselves. Now, that’s what I call service. She’s your remote control and your maid! But, also, scents of perfumes and strange lights can be seen. Carolyn can be seen in Room 314(room is nicknamed “The Princess Room“), sitting on the edge of the bed that she shared with her husband, brushing her hair. Other ghostly happenings are: a baby can be heard crying in the ballroom(Mt. Madison Room). Photographs get mysteriously slashed by unseen fingernails. A woman can be seen walking threw walls. And, if you’re not of the ghostly kind and don’t like to be spooked, guests have said to watch out for rooms: 206, 217, 237, 425, and of course “The Princess Room”(Room 314). All of this has lead the higher ups of the Mt. Washington Hotel telling their workers not to tell ghost stories, but they do hint that some strange activity does go on to guests.

Question is, who can be haunting the hotel when neither Jack Stickey nor “The Princess” died even remotely close to the hotel? But, records show that some other guests have checked in, but they never checked out. Such as: Daniel Willis James, a highly wealthy metal merchant from New York, had his last stay at the hotel, dying at the age of 75 on September 13th, 1907 of a heart attack. Almost ten years, right on date, a guest by the name of Alfred N. Beadleston died at the age of 69 due to intestinal hemorrhages. Maybe, just maybe, the Princess was destined to stay there for all of eternity.

On February 6th, 2008 the popular Sci-Fi Network show, Ghost Hunters, visited the hotel for a paranormal investigation. The results were astounding to say the least. When the team went up to Room 314 to set up an Electronic Voice Phenomena(in the ghost world this is called an “EVP”)they asked this simple question, “Princess…Are you here?” What they got was this simple question back, “Of course I’m in here. Where are you?” Now, I saw this episode and all the things that happened THAT was the neatest. So, the Princess is at least friendly, course, if it was the Princess.

So, for those of you who want to stay in one of New Hampshire’s most beautiful hotels, then yes, the Mount Washington hotel is a great destination for you But if your looking for a “surprise” or two around the corner in the “Tower Suites” or Room 314, then this is definitely the place for you. The Princess of Mount Washington Hotel, will be eagerly awaiting for your arrival.

2017 update: The Mount Washington Hotel is no more. It's still there. Just a new name. Now it's the Omni Mount Washington Resort.

Some of the information for this column was taken from Cow Hampshire columnist, Janice Brown on her article "The Ghost of Mount Washington Hotel, Bretton Woods NH". Great article and very informative. Click the link to read the article. http://cowhampshire.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2008/4/14/3635704.html
*Insert photo is courtesy of directski.com

If you would like to send feedback, or even a story of your own ghostly experience that MAY even be used in a future edition of Scared Sheetless, then feel free to email me at jparadie(at)hotmail(dot)com or if you’d like to redistribute this story on your publication or your website, etc. then please email me at the same email address. Thanks for reading!

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