For the staff at the Jefferson Hotel, they say their encounters with the paranormal happen weekly — even daily — throughout the year and without any such assurances.
They say the hotel is haunted.
"I was a pretty big skeptic when I first came along," manager Alicia Montgomery said, adding she has changed her opinion in the four years she has worked at the hotel. "I know there are things that are unexplainable that happen in the hotel. I've been the only one at the hotel, with no employees and no guests, and the front switchboards on the front desk light up like rooms are talking to each other.
"Dishes have been moving; I haven't seen them, but you hear them clinging. Our pay phone in the hall rings. Televisions are turned on and off. I've seen things fall with no one around them. Things happen all the time."
Woman in white
The tales told about the Jefferson Hotel are the stuff of typical ghost stories: the jilted bride, playful but mysterious children and even a mysterious man that lingers about the hotel hallways.
"The main story is of Elizabeth," Montgomery said. "She was a guest that hung herself in the hotel in the 1870s. She was a bride that was stood up on her wedding day. She hung herself from the bed that is currently in Room 19. We were told that the groom never showed up. She felt she couldn't go on with her life. I'm told local historians think that she probably was pregnant. Back in the 1800s, no one could help you out. That might explain it."
Housekeeper Denise Garza said she gave up being a skeptic after working at the hotel.
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