THE STORY
Reported Haunting
The 1927 Lake Lure Inn & Spa is one of western North Carolina's best-known haunted hotels. Guests and employees have reported apparitions, mysterious footsteps, flickering lights, and encounters with spirits believed to date back to the inn's earliest years.
The historic inn has been visited by such celebrities as novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald and presidents Calvin Coolidge and Franklin Roosevelt. In the 1940s it was used as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers. It is now rumored to be the home of many haunts. Staff members report hearing a man’s gravelly voice call their names and seeing a shadowy shape. The apparition of a woman who was murdered in the 1930s in Room 217 has been seen by guests, and a woman’s scream has been recorded there by ghost hunters. An apparition believed to be Dr. Lucius Morse has been seen in the dining room. A photo taken of an ice sculpture at an event showed a ghostly figure of a man standing behind it.